The Inside Passage (Ted Higuera Series Book 1) by Pendelton Wallace Page B

tossed a fry in the sky and half-dozen birds fought to grab it in mid-air.
    “Shit, man,” Chris
scolded. “Don’t give them food. They’ll never leave us alone.”
    “Let it go, dude.”
Ted dug into his burger.
    Chris sullenly
picked the pickles off his. “I hate dill pickles.”
    “If you’d told me,
I’d have told them to hold ‘em.” Candace glanced at her fingernails.
     “Whatever.” Chris
finally nibbled at his burger.
    Candace stared at
Chris for a minute.
    Ted could feel the
tension. He looked at Chris, sending him a silent message. You’re gonna
havta make nice with Candace, dude.
    Candace finally
spoke. “Your father and I are thinking about taking a cruise.” She neatly
folded the wax paper around half of her Boca burger. “We’re talking about
having the wedding on a cruise ship, on the way up to Alaska.”
    “That’s kinda
unusual, isn’t it?” Ted asked.
    “Not really. The
captain’s authorized to perform weddings. We’ll have a small ceremony in the
chapel on the ship. Sarah’s thinking about going. She’ll be my maid of honor.
My parents are coming over from Idaho to go with us. You boys are going to be
gone, so you’ll miss it, but maybe we could meet with you somewhere along the
way.”
     “That can’t be
Dad’s idea.” Chris stood up from the table and turned to leave. “He never
wanted to go on a cruise.”
    “It was my idea.
But he liked it.” Candace picked up the remaining wrappers from lunch and
carefully wiped the table with a paper napkin. “He thinks it’ll be romantic. It
was the only way I could get him away from work for long enough to get
married.”
    “Don’t worry about
us. We wouldn’t be there anyway.” Chris stepped onto the first rung of the companionway
ladder. “It’s sure convenient that Dad’s sending us on a cruise right when
you’re going to get married.”
    Ted stared into
Chris’ eyes and thought as hard as he could. Lighten up dude, this is your
future step-mom. He had always thought that Chris could read his mind. He
sure needed to now.
    “Well, your father
has ulterior motives.” Candace folded up the cockpit table.
    “Yeah, what’s
that?” Chris asked, frozen on the stairs.
    “This is the first
cruise of a new kind of cruise ship. The Star of the Northwest . It was
built specifically for the Alaska cruise by Scandinavian Cruise Lines. This
cruise is going to be a big deal, Hollywood stars, politicians, big business
leaders. Your Dad thinks it’ll be good for his business to spend a week with
these people.”
    Without another
word, Chris descended to the cabin.
    Candace sat for a
minute in silence. Ted watched her seethe.
    “You have a good
afternoon, Ted. I think I’m done for today.” She climbed off the boat walked up
the dock without a backwards look.
     
    ****
     
    Seattle, Washington
    Chris and Ted
spent the rest of the week getting Defiant ready for the trip. Ted
wasn’t surprised that Candace didn’t show up for the remainder of the
preparations. It also didn’t surprise him that Meagan didn’t show up to help.
    Their last task
was to get the rubber dinghy ready. Chris spliced a new painter while Ted
changed the oil on its nine horsepower Honda outboard motor. They were almost
ready for their journey.
    “What do you think
about your Dad’s wedding, dude?” Ted asked as he lowered the outboard to Chris
in the dinghy. “You haven’t said a word about it since the last time we saw
Candace.”
    “The bitch is a
gold-digger. She doesn’t love him. How can she? She’s a hot chick and he’s an
old guy.”
    “I don’t know,
dude. She’s always acting all lovey with him every time I see ‘em.”  
    “Yeah, she loves
his money and power.” Chris clamped the outboard onto the dinghy.
    “So you’re sure
about this? You’re really not going to your own Dad’s wedding? We could
postpone the trip, or maybe meet them somewhere before the wedding.”
    Chris didn’t
reply.
    “I’ve been
thinking about