Page 56 of Hearts Aweigh

E MILY MARCHED INTO THE LIbrARY . She passed the towering walnut cases filled with books and found Gerry at her favorite table by the window.

The cover of the woman’s latest novel featured a man in a trench coat embracing a woman wearing a fedora.

The heroine’s coy expression was mirrored on Gerry’s face.

“How can you read at a time like this?” Emily slapped the table.

Gerry jumped. “Why? What’s happened?”

“What hasn’t happened? Daisy’s son is spending a dangerous amount of time with his shrewish ex-wife. Poor Abby’s walking around with a drooping mouth that rivals a hound dog’s. And a blackmailer is persecuting our poor friend.”

Gerry thumbed the pages of her novel absentmindedly. “Sounds like things are the same. We haven’t any leads, and worrying won’t do a bit of good.”

“Doesn’t it bother you that someone thinks you’re a murderer and is trying to make you pay through the nose?”

Gerry’s lips twitched. “That’s my favorite part. I’ve never sounded so interesting in my entire well-behaved life.”

Emily flopped into the chair across from Gerry. “I’d love to see the humorous side, but there’s a criminal on the loose, and he must be stopped. Or she. We don’t even know that much.” She tapped her shoe against the carpeted floor.

“Fancy running into you two ladies.” An Irish accent intruded. Seamus stood at the end of the bookcase row, dressed in a white shirt, plaid vest, and dark jeans. Though his words included both of them, his twinkly green eyes pointed at Gerry.

She answered with a stiff, “Good evening.”

“Hello, Seamus.” Emily indicated an empty chair. “Care to join us?”

“Don’t mind if I do.” His grin grew broader as he sat and scooted his chair closer to Gerry.

She barricaded herself behind her novel. Undeterred, Seamus propped his chin in his hands. With a good-natured flash of his brows at Emily, he focused on the former librarian.

Emily kicked her friend under the table. Gerry winced but made no comment. For a professional matchmaker, she was surprisingly resistant to any romance in her own life.

“You must forgive her,” Emily told him. “She forgets her manners when there’s a good book around.”

“Don’t we all,” Seamus said. “Me own dear mother, God rest her soul, used to call me to dinner twenty times before I’d answer. I was that lost in the words of Robert Louis Stevenson.”

“Oh?” Emily cut her eyes to Gerry. “You’re fond of reading?”

“Can’t get enough. The only thing better than a good book is a beautiful woman holding a book.”

Gerry deigned to twitch one eyebrow. She turned the page with a slow, deliberate motion and lifted the novel to hide her face from view.

Emily sighed. The poor man tried so hard. “You must spend a lot of time in the library.”

“A well-stocked library is as close as we get to heaven on earth.”

“Funny,” Gerry murmured from behind her paperback shield. “I don’t recall seeing you in here. Ever.”

The second kick Emily delivered swished through the air. Gerry had anticipated her. The woman uttered a triumphant “hmmph” as she turned another page.

“If I’da known you were looking for me, I’da come sooner.” He chuckled. “I packed a whole duffel bag of books. I’m halfway through my to-be-read pile.”

Gerry lowered her novel. “You have a Tbr pile?”

“Sometimes I think it grows while I’m sleeping.”

Emily’s head tilted. “If you own that many books, what brought you to the library?”

Seamus coughed. “Well, paint me scarlet. You caught me.” He peeked at Gerry. “Truth be told, I popped by the security room for a chat with Adrian.”

“Adrian?” Emily struggled to recall a cruise employee with that name. “Is he new?”

“Adrian Everson?”

“Oh, you meant Everson. I thought he was born with a Mr. in front of his name and a scowl on his face. I’m surprised he let you in off-limits territory.”

“Adrian’s tough, but he and I get on well. We were chewin’ the fat in the security room. They’ve got that big bank of camera feeds in there, and I beheld a captivating woman sitting alone in the library.” His eyes sparkled Gerry’s direction. “Would you be wanting any company?”

Gerry flipped her novel shut. “If you’re a true reader, Mr. O’Malley, you should already know. A good book is all the company I need.”

“Geraldine,” Emily hissed.

“Oh.” His reddening cheeks bunched. “Uh, yes. So sorry to disturb you.” Seamus stood from the table and tugged on his vest. “I’d better crack on.

It’s my first time trying my new trick for the adults in the big theater tonight.

Maybe I won’t even need an assistant. I’m embarrassed enough to climb in me own disappearing box. ”

He scuttled past the bookcases, and a loud thump of the main door told them he’d gone.

Emily glared at her friend. “Honestly, Gerry”—she thrust her wrist through her purse straps and stood—“I love you, but I can’t ignore stupid. It makes no sense why you treat the poor man with such contempt. He’s delightful.”

“I disagree. And I’d appreciate if we didn’t discuss it further.”

“I’m not asking you to marry Seamus. Just be civil.”

“Is surveilling someone on the CCTV considered good manners?” Gerry sniffed. “In some states, it might qualify as stalking. Who knows how many times he’s peered at me? A person assumes she’s alone with her book, and all the time there was a pair of eyes drilling into her back.”

“Don’t be ridic—” Emily’s head snapped up.

She stared at the dark, glass half globe sitting in subtle, unobtrusive silence on the ceiling.

Striding across the aisle, she found another one near the door.

A third stuck high in the rafters near the balcony.

Cameras abounded. Except for private cabins, almost every inch of the MS Buckingham was visible if someone sat in the right place.

The security room.

“Hooo-hooo-hooo.” A jubilant sound escaped Emily’s lips. She swiped her friend’s novel.

“Hey”—Gerry grabbed for the book—“I only have sixty pages left.”

Emily held the novel out of reach. “They can wait. You have something more important to do.”

Gerry settled in her chair with a suspicious glower. “What?”

“You, my dear friend, are going to confess to murder.”