Her First Vacation (11 page)

Claire was standing outside the entrance to the ship’s spa
and salon when the doors opened. She’d forced herself to leave her room and get
there early because she’d been afraid that if she let herself hesitate at all,
she’d lose her nerve. She was tired of being a pitiful shadow. It was time for
a change, and she was convinced that if she didn’t do everything at once she
might never do anything at all. So she made the decision that for herself and
no one else, she was going to take the ultimate risk.

The woman behind the reception desk gave her a perfectly neutral
smile as she walked into the salon. When she asked how she could help, Claire
found herself uncertain how to respond. She finally blurted out the first thing
that popped into her head, which was the truth, if not a particularly eloquent
version of it.

“I want a makeover.”

The woman didn’t even blink. She just nodded and opened up
the little book in front of her.
“Hair and makeup?”

Claire nodded.
“Everything.
The works from head to toe.”

The woman’s gaze lingered on her for a moment, and Claire
found herself chattering to fill the silence. “I’ve looked like this for more
than twelve years and I’m ready for a change.”

The woman didn’t say anything for a moment, then she
dropped her gaze and scribbled in her little book some more. She finished the
rest of the registration without once looking up. When she was done she finally
lifted her gaze to Claire again, and this time Claire saw genuine emotion in
the other woman’s face. Her smile was warm and her voice soothing as she spoke.

“Okay, let’s get you started.”

She led Claire into the salon and introduced her to a young
man named Tom who assessed her from head to toe, then took charge. From that
moment on, Claire was caught up in a whirlwind unlike anything she’d ever
experienced before. They started her off with a full body massage that pretty
much put her in a frame of mind to allow them to do anything they liked with
the rest of her. She suspected that had been the idea, but didn’t care if it
was. She’d never felt so relaxed in her life. They went to work on her hair
next, which did cause her to tense up a bit. Fifteen years of growth was a lot
to surrender without some measure of uncertainty. Tom insisted that she could
trust him, though, so she did. She gave him free rein to do whatever he thought
was best. He started by cutting somewhere in the neighborhood of eighteen
inches off her hair. An hour later she was wondering if she’d made a mistake.
They’d colored her hair once all over and now there were two people putting
enough foil in her hair to make her feel like some kind of monster from a
1950’s horror film. Tom kept reassuring her that she’d love the final result.
She prayed that he was right.

She had her nails and a pedicure done while the highlights
set. When they finally pulled all the foil out of her hair and rinsed it, she
was shocked at the results. Her hair was still brown, but now it gleamed with
golden and copper highlights that she could see even before it dried. Tom
started cutting again and she wondered how far he planned to go. When he announced
that he was finished her hair hung a couple of inches below her shoulders with
long layers that lifted much of the heaviness and allowed her natural body to
come to life. Her head felt like it was immeasurably lighter. He’d explained as
he cut that he was thinning it out to take away some of the weight and bulk,
but she didn’t care what he’d done once she saw the final result. He dried it
just so she’d get a good look at the color and cut. She was too stunned to do
more than stare.

It didn’t look anything like the unruly tangle she was
accustomed to seeing in the mirror. It was lustrous and smooth, falling around
her face and shoulders like a soft cloud. The layers he’d put in framed her
face and the soft edges did wonders for the sharpness of her features. She
didn’t look nearly as severe as she had before. Tom gave her shoulder a pat as
he told her it was just the beginning.

As the day wore on Claire realized she was becoming a sort
of salon-wide project. Word had spread among all the workers that she was
making drastic changes, and they all wanted to be a part of it, even if they
just offered verbal encouragement. After they finished with her hair, they led
her into a small boutique that she’d passed by but never entered. The clothes
were hardly the sort she typically wore, while the price tags were enough to
make her heart stop. However, she’d vowed to go all the way, and she was going
to stick with that promise to herself. A personal shopper had already gathered
up a number of outfits for her to try on. She threw herself into the usually
unpleasant act of trying on clothes with as much enthusiasm as she could
muster. It didn’t take long for her to truly become excited, though.

She went through so many different outfits that she lost
count. Almost every one of them looked completely wrong for her when she saw it
on the hanger, yet they each worked incredibly well once she got them on. By
the time two hours had passed, she’d purchased half a dozen new outfits, none
of which were anything she’d ever even dreamed of trying before. She was
starting to feel a little shell-shocked by the time they sat her down in the
chair to do her makeup. The woman who did it took the time to explain
everything she was doing and to teach Claire how to repeat it herself. She
talked about the colors that would work best for her and the various techniques
that would give her any effect she desired. When she finished and turned Claire
around, the woman in the mirror was a complete stranger.

She had a thick cascade of rich mahogany hair and smoky,
blue-gray eyes. Her mouth was full with a hint of a pout she felt certain
wasn’t
natural. She stared at herself for a long while,
trying to reconcile the woman in front of her with the one she’d known for so
long. It didn’t seem possible that the two could be the same. She was finally
led back to Tom and he started working on her final style. The cut was
finished, but he was giving her something special for tonight, he said. He
curled and teased and sprayed for so long that she wondered if he would ever
finish. Then he stepped back and gave her a warm smile.

“Stunning, if I do say so myself.”

He spun her around, and she was forced to agree, even
though it sounded insane for her to admit such a thing. He’d pulled her hair up
and piled it on top of her head. She had no idea how he’d made it all stay
there, but it was a mass of curls that moved when she did without collapsing.
Wispy tendrils trailed around her face, artfully placed to be perfect without
appearing planned. Claire didn’t know how to express what she was feeling. She
was a teacher, but she couldn’t even begin to find the words. They ushered her
into a dressing room where she put on one of her new outfits, stuffing her old
clothes into the sack the new ones had come out of. When she stepped out of the
dressing room she found half the workers in the spa waiting for her. There were
indrawn breaths and sighs followed by applause. Claire felt herself blush and
struggled to hold back the tears that leapt into her eyes. She didn’t dare mess
up everything they’d worked so hard to accomplish.

She spent several minutes thanking everyone for all they’d
done,
then
she finally gathered all her belongings and
headed for the exit. She paused in the reception area though, suddenly afraid
to leave. What was going to happen when everyone saw what she’d done? She had a
horrible flash of them laughing at her. It almost made her drop the bags she carried.
Then she jumped when she felt a hand touch her arm. She turned around to meet
the gaze of the receptionist who’d signed her in. There was understanding in
her eyes as she smiled up at Claire.

“You’ve got the look. All you need is the attitude. Just
hold your head high and walk like nothing in the world can touch you.”

Claire almost started crying again. She blinked several
times,
then
smiled as she thanked the woman. A moment
later she squared her shoulders and walked out the door. Whatever happened
next, she would take it in stride. She was never going to let anyone make her
feel inferior again, including herself.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Colin was starting to really worry about Claire. He’d been
watching for her all day, but he hadn’t caught so much as a glimpse of her.
Granted, it was a big ship and accidentally bumping into someone wasn’t
something had really happened with any frequency. But he’d been looking for
Claire. Not to talk to her, or to even let her know he was looking, just to
make sure she was okay. Trouble was
,
she was nowhere
to be found.
Which meant she was probably still locked in her
room.
Now it was dinnertime and she still hadn’t shown up. It wasn’t
like her to be late. She always got to the table first. Was she going to spend
the rest of the cruise hiding in her room?

He cursed himself as he accepted that she might do exactly
that. He’d wanted to make sure she decided he wasn’t the man she wanted, but
maybe he’d gone too far. He knew she was insecure, that’s why he’d tried to get
rid of her by being offensive. But what if she’d only felt it as a rejection?
What if she couldn’t get past that fact? He glanced around the table as Garret
drew a laugh from everyone. Not one of the others who’d shared the table with
Claire for eleven nights even seemed to notice that she was missing. It ticked
him off to know they could all ignore her so easily. She deserved better.

Claire was shaking as she walked down the hall toward the
dining room. She’d sat in her room for an hour, watching the minutes tick by as
she tried to convince herself that she’d be just fine going to dinner. They’d
all be shocked. They’d certainly say something, but there was no reason at all
to think they’d laugh at her. Most likely they’d be just as stunned as she was.
She still barely recognized herself in the mirror. The outfit she was wearing
was hardly skintight, though it hugged her more closely than anything she’d
worn in well over a decade. The dress was a dark shade of pink, which should
have clashed with the auburn highlights in her hair but somehow didn’t. It had
a fringe of beadwork along the lower hem, which
fell
a
couple of inches above her knees. She had a pair of open-toed sandals that
sported a beaded flower across the top, which coincided with the beading in the
dress. The dress had a deep enough V in the front to show off a little
cleavage, a fact that was still giving Claire fits. It had spaghetti straps
that went over her shoulders and crossed in the back. She had a pair of beaded
earrings in her ears and a bracelet that matched them on her wrist. There was a
necklace as well, though they’d suggested she not wear it since she was wearing
her hair up. They said the focus was supposed to be on the elegant line of her
neck, and the necklace would break up that line. She deferred to their judgment
because she didn’t know anything about it.

As she walked down the hallway, she could feel herself
wobbling occasionally on the heels. She wasn’t used to wearing heels. She
figured she was tall enough without adding any additional height. But they’d
insisted she wear the heels to show off her legs. In the mirror it had looked
like they went on forever. So far she was managing well enough, but she knew
she’d have to be careful if she didn’t want to break her ankle. She was getting
close to the dining room when she started passing other people. It took her a
few minutes to realize that their gazes were following her as she passed. She
hesitated just outside the dining room entrance as she wondered if something
was wrong. She started to lift a self-conscious hand to her hair,
then
stopped. She wasn’t sure how it was secured and she
didn’t want to risk messing it up now. She caught a man watching her out of the
corner of her eye, and she turned to find him smiling at her. Not laughing.
Smiling.
In invitation.
She
blinked,
then
smiled back before turning away. She was
late. Everyone was going to already be at the table. At least she’d get it over
with all at once. She squared her shoulders and kept her head high as she
walked into the room.

Colin was pretending to listen to Janine as she talked
about something that had happened to her on a vacation a few years back, but
his attention was on the door. The waiter had already made his rounds, taking
drink orders, and Claire still wasn’t there. He took his eyes off the door to
focus on Janine for a moment, giving her enough attention to make her believe
he was listening to her. Then he swung his gaze back to the door and caught
sight of a woman he’d never seen before as she walked into the room. And his
wasn’t the only head turning. She was attracting the attention of just about
every man around. His gaze traveled over her, starting at her endless legs and
rising until it finally reached her face. Then her eyes met his, and he felt
the air rush out of his lungs as if he’d been kicked in the gut. Claire.

The shock on Colin’s face was unmistakable. She didn’t
smile at him as she slowly approached the table, but she couldn’t seem to take
her eyes off his, either. She couldn’t help wondering what he thought about her
transformation. Immediately on the heels of that internal question came a
reprimand for even caring. She’d done this for herself, not for him.

Colin knew the moment one of the others saw her. It was
Tate Savard. Colin heard his sharp intake of breath and the stunned oath that
followed. It drew the attention of everyone else at the table, which in turn
brought all their focus to Claire. The silence lasted until she reached the
table and moved to her chair. She finally dropped her gaze from Colin as she
swung it in an arc to include everyone else.