Meet Me at Midnight by Gael Morrison

Author:Gael Morrison
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ePublishing Works!
Published: 2014-03-25T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Grams was nowhere to be found. Even Jamie didn't know where his great-grandmother was and Jamie kept track of the old woman at all times. Sam had often seen his anxious gaze glued to Ruby's back, as though he expected her to disappear like his father.

All the books Sam had read on divorce indicated Jamie had been too young to even remember his dad, much less mourn him, but sometimes in his eyes there was a sadness only a father could eradicate.

Like yesterday, when he'd needed a partner for the table tennis match. If Nate hadn't stepped in....

She couldn't think about Nate now. She had to find Grams, had to talk to her or someone before she went crazy. And that someone couldn't be Fay as it was her she had lied to.

Sam smoothed the hem of her shorts and fleetingly wondered as she pushed open the door to the shipboard Casino, if people were allowed inside dressed for a day at the beach.

She needn't have worried. The man working the nearest slot machine showed more sun-burned skin than she could bear to see. She moved further into the darkened room. The sudden chill of the air-conditioning raised goose bumps on her skin. She crossed her arms, tried to make herself warmer. She was wasting her time looking in here. Grams was no doubt ensconced in some cosy nook working away diligently on her latest crossword book.

But if so, why hadn't she been able to find her. It wasn't like Grams to be late, especially as she had promised this morning, when she and Jamie hurried off to an early breakfast, to meet Sam around ten for a cup of herbal tea.

The cards flashing from the croupier's hand to the green velvet of the Blackjack table caught Sam's attention. The players around the table had all settled their features into a mask-like position as they struggled to keep secret the hands they'd been dealt. Except for the blonde woman in a lime green dress. With a pout of disappointment, she laid her cards down.

Sam twisted her lips in sympathy and pushed her way past the crowd gathered around the Roulette table. A tinkling laugh stopped her dead. She turned around and her eyes widened.

With a spot of color showing high on each cheek, Grams pushed a pile of chips towards the number black forty-four. Next to her stood a straight-backed gentleman sporting a handlebar moustache whose age-spotted hand was tucked securely around her grandmother's waist. It was the man who sat next to Grams each mealtime in the dining room.

"Grams?" Sam cried.

Her grandmother glanced up and smiled.

"What are you doing?" Sam stared incredulously at her grandmother's chips and tried not to imagine how much she was going to lose.

"Just having a little flutter," Ruby replied. "Now shush, dear, they're about to spin."

Sam gasped in a shallow breath and watched the Roulette wheel turn. The ball bounced and jumped, and numbers and colors blended with each other until at last the ball halted on the very number Ruby had chosen.

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