took Jack’s place on the bench. As soon as Jack had disappeared down the steps to the lower deck, she spoke. “So I heard that you two are married, right? Did you have any idea that he would be coming along?”
“Technically yes, but we’re actually separated. In the process of getting divorced. We…Jack’s at California U and I’m at Santa Clarita.”
“I had no idea. I hope it won’t be awkward.”
“No, of course not. We’ve worked together before. We get along just fine.” Olivia gave Marilyn what she hoped was a reassuring smile.
“That’s very professional of you,” Marilyn said. “I could never do it. Married seventeen years. Roger is a stay-at-home dad. Fortunately for me because two of our boys are teenagers now. You know how that is.”
“Not really,” Olivia said. She felt the nausea returning. Was it the thought of teenage children that she didn’t have and never would have? The idea of being a stay-at-home parent which she wasn’t and never would be? Or was it simply the boat rocking a little more than usual?
“No children?”
Olivia stood up and raced for the side of the ship. No one had asked her that question for years. If she hadn’t run smack-dab into Jack on his way back she would have made it. Instead she threw up all over his shoes.
“Oh God, I’m sorry,” she said, a hot flush covering her cheeks.
He put his hands on her shoulders. “What happened? I thought you were okay.”
Somebody mentioned children.
“I don’t know. Maybe you’re right. I do have a weak stomach. How much longer before we dock?”
Jack glanced toward the horizon, thinking he might catch a glimpse of the craggy outline of Hermapolis.
“That’s strange,” he muttered as he walked over to the railing.
Olivia followed him. “What is?”
Thank God she was feeling better. He couldn’t stand to see her suffer. It reminded him of the last year they’d been together. She’d tried to bottle up her feelings. But he knew what she was going through. The wall she’d put up between them didn’t make it any easier to help her get through it. She always masked her pain so no one would feel sorry for her. Especially him.
He’d tried to help her. But she had turned her back on him. Finally he gave up and took the job at Cal. He still wondered if he’d done the right thing. If he maybe should have tried harder to make their marriage work. He was determined he was going to give it his best shot this summer. If it didn’t work for them here on this beautiful island, there was no hope.
He cast a curious look at the horizon. “We’re completely out of sight of any land at all. That doesn’t happen very often in the Aegean. No other boats around, either. I need to see a map.”
Suddenly from somewhere below decks there was a severe, loud thump followed by a nasty vibration that threw Olivia headlong into his arms. He only had a moment to reflect how natural and how right it felt to hold her. After all this time, yet it seemed like yesterday. The memories came rushing back. How soft she was. How sweet she smelled.
“What was that?” she asked, jerking out of his arms so fast he wondered if she’d really been there at all, or was it a dream? How many times he’d dreamed she’d come back to him only to wake up and find she was still six hundred miles away. It might have been six thousand. Which was why he’d arranged this dig. To give them one more chance before he gave up and gave her what she wanted.
“Feels like something in the engine room just broke,” he said, grasping the railing with one hand and running the other hand through his hair. “I hope they haven’t thrown a connecting rod. That would be…bad.” But even as he spoke, the ungainly boat was quickly losing its headway, and within a minute it was dead in the water. Not good. Not good at all.
The deck was immediately full of passengers who came running out from inside the cabin. The members of their group clustered around him, everyone talking at once.
“Jack, what happened?”
“What should we do?”
“Why have we stopped?”
“Calm down, everyone,” he said. “I’m going in to speak to the captain. In the meantime, just in case, let’s put on our life jackets.” He wasn’t the head of this expedition, the esteemed scholar Dr. Thaddeus Robbins was, but right now Robbins was standing on the deck, scratching his head and looking worried.
When there was a vacuum, Jack wasn’t averse to stepping in. It was always good form to sound calm and unruffled, but truthfully, he knew it was always best to be prepared.
He threw back the cover of the bench they’d been sitting on, exposing a pile of orange life vests.
“Everyone take one,” he ordered, pulling them out and throwing one to each person in the group. Olivia got hers fastened first and was helping the others.
“Oh my God,” one of the younger female grad students said, “we are going down, aren’t we?”
“Not yet,” Jack said calmly. “But whatever’s happening, my guess is we’re going to be here for a while. That jolt didn’t feel like something you could fix with a screwdriver.” Make light of it. Keep everyone from panicking. That was rule number one.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a Greek passenger try to make a call on her cell phone and apparently give up. Not a good sign if they needed to call for help.
“Worst-case scenario,” he told the group. “They’ll call for a tug and tow us to the island. We might miss dinner tonight, but Greeks eat late. Chances are we’ll make it in time.”
“Then why the life jackets?” Marilyn asked, fumbling with the straps when Olivia reached out and snapped them in place for her. A few minutes ago Olivia had been pale and shaken, but you’d never know it now. She was a rock in a storm. Always able to rise to any occasion, except when their marriage was at stake. That was another matter. She’d never tried to talk him out of leaving.
“Just better to be prepared,” he said. Though nothing had prepared him for their marriage to fail. He thought love was enough. How wrong he was.
The steady rumble of the ferry’s engine that had lulled Jack into a false sense of well-being and security had now disappeared. It was an eerie and unsettling quiet that he hoped the others hadn’t noticed. Except for Olivia. He’d never been able to put anything over on her. Just a glance told him she understood just how serious the situation was.
He looked around. Where’s the crew? he wondered. Gone below maybe. Soon there’d be an announcement telling them what was going on. It would be in Greek, but someone would translate, maybe Olivia. She was amazing with languages. She was amazing at many things. That was another reason he was glad she was along. Fortunately he had no trouble separating his personal and professional life.
No problem for him to draw a line between his emotions and his intellect. Until his marriage failed. He’d never failed at anything before. Until he failed at the most important thing in his life. This was his last chance to salvage it, to make it right. To heal the rift
