Her Cruise Ship Surprise | ✔

Chapter Two

Now, she and Caleb were 30. Thanks to their birthday at the turn of the Autumn season. Their lives were all changing, except hers. It took her a bit to come to terms with that, but she was finally comfortable in her little rut. If her Grandmother could handle not having a husband for 40 years, then so could she.

"Did you bring anything for us, Auntie," Grace asked, wrapping her arms around Tamara's waist.

Ricky kicked his sister. "My auntie."

Grace slapped his leg, earning her a stern talking to from Maria. Tamara felt it best to leave the two of them be and took the toddler into the kitchen with him bouncing gleefully on her hip.

Her mother looked up from the open oven as she slid the turkey back inside. "Hi dear, I didn't hear you come in."

"Is there anything I can help with?" Tamara asked.

"You look like you have your hands full already," she said, pointing the turkey baster at her grandson, her eyes glowing with love. Betsy put the baster on the counter and reached up to tighten her grey ponytail and then rubbed her low back. "Don't ever get old. It's nasty."

"See, that's why I offered to help."

Her mom waved her off. "It's nothing I can't handle."

Upon hearing footsteps coming down the hallway, she turned and spotted her boss coming towards then. Great, just what she wanted to do. Sit and have dinner with the man who denied her the promotion.

"What's he doing here, Mom?" she hissed between her teeth.

Betsy washed her hands and dried them, refusing to look at Tamara. "Your father invited him."

Tamara's eyes narrowed as she studied her mom. There was a secret lingering in those brown eyes of hers and it created an uneasy feeling in her gut. Betsy slipped past her and went to greet their latest guest.

"Happy you could make it, Dale," she said, kissing him on the cheek.

"Wouldn't miss this for the world," he replied, hugging her back as he gave Tamara a head nod.

"Captain," she greeted, her voice cold as ice.

He was the last man that she wanted to see, let alone have dinner with. Captain Dale Collins should have taken her word for what happened and he didn't. Stupid internal politics had him kissing Abraham's butt. She understood that his family had funded a new division in the office, but when a man was wrong, he was wrong.

"I think I've changed my mind about dinner." She placed her nephew in the playpen and brushed past Dale, clipping his shoulder on the way by. "Excuse me."

"Honey, don't be ridiculous," her mother said sternly, taking her by the arm.

Tamara spun around, fire flaming in her eyes. "How could you even let him into the house after what happened?"

"He's a family friend."

"As if! A friend would have stuck up for me."

When Betsy went to open her mouth again, Dale placed a hand on her shoulder, shaking his head. "You're right, Tammy, but it's not as easy as that."

"Yes it is. Why didn't you fire his ass?"

"You're a cop, a good one," the man said confidently. "So, I think even you know the answer to that."

She did, and she despised it. The law says that one is innocent until proven guilty. And regardless of what she experienced, there was no proof that he did what she said. The only evidence that existed from their evening together was the black eye she'd given him, and the lies another woman told against her.