Never Say Never by Lena Nelson Dooley Page A

what’s going on.”
    Charlotte had a hard time holding her anger in check. “Nothing’s going on.”
    â€œHow could you forget Daddy like that?” Chelle threw herself down on the bed and sobs tore through her. After a moment, she asked without turning her head, “Don’t you love him anymore?”
    Charlotte sat beside her and reached to touch her, but Chelle moved away. “Of course, I love your father. You’re reading things into the situation that aren’t there.”
    Chelle got up and started undressing. “I don’t want to talk about this. I’m tired. . .I’m going to bed.”
    â€œWhat about the show?”
    â€œYou go if you want to.” Chelle’s petulant tone hurt her mother. “I don’t want to anymore.”
    While Chelle moved around the cabin throwing things down and jerking her pajamas on, Charlotte quietly prepared to retire, too. Long after soft snores came from her daughter, Charlotte lay in her bed thinking. What was she doing? This man did disturb her, but her daughter had not gotten over losing Philip, and neither had she. Time with Gareth was courting danger. Danger to their family and danger to her heart. She was not going to spend any more time with the man.

Four
    When Chelle woke up, Charlotte was thankful her daughter’s mood had lightened. Chelle was so much like her daddy, who ignored problems, thinking they would just go away. Charlotte decided to implement her plan to spend quality time with her daughter. While Chelle carefully applied more makeup than she usually wore, Charlotte perused the list of excursions. She knew she should call her daughter on the excessive makeup, but she didn’t want to ruin the day so early.
    â€œWe’ve waited pretty late to buy our excursion tickets for today. What do you want to do? Maybe they’ll still have a few available.”
    Chelle turned around. “I want to go see the stingrays. Maybe go snorkeling with them.”
    Charlotte picked up the phone and punched the numbers for the purser’s desk. “Do you still have tickets for the Stingray and Snorkeling excursion? . . . You do? We need two of them. I’ll come up and get them before breakfast.”
    â€œLet me run this through the computer.” The voice sounded like the cute young woman Charlotte met when she got their earlier tickets.
    The smile fell off Chelle’s face. “M–o–m! We don’t have to do everything together.”
    Here we go again. Charlotte covered the mouthpiece of the phone, but kept it near her ear. “I thought we’d do something together today.”
    Chelle put down her mascara with more force than necessary. “We can have breakfast and dinner together.” She picked up lip gloss and started unscrewing the thin, shiny tube. “Maybe we can go to the show tonight.”
    She left unsaid the reason they didn’t go last night, and Charlotte didn’t want to bring that subject up either.
    â€œI’m sorry, Mrs. Halloran, but we only have one ticket for that excursion. Would you want to order tickets to something else?”
    Maybe if she gave on this one, the peace would be worth it. “Okay, we’ll take that one. How about another ticket to the Butterfly farm and Nautilus mini-submarine?”
    â€œYes, actually we have two left for that trip. Do you want both of them?”
    Chelle watched her mother, waiting for her to continue, almost as if she heard the other end of the phone conversation.
    â€œWe’ll take one of each.” Charlotte watched her daughter let out the breath she had been holding.
    â€œWe can have them sent to your room. They’ll be there when you return from breakfast.”
    â€œThank you.”
    Chelle’s grin rewarded Charlotte for the decision she made. Charlotte replaced the earpiece of the phone and returned her smile. “So where do you want to have breakfast?” Maybe