EXCERPT - CHAPTER 1

VIRGIN VOYAGE - A SUNSET DESTINY NOVEL

This is the first time anyone outside of my immediate friends and family have seen any words from my first novel.  I really hope you enjoy it!

   
        Mari Mannon walked across the gang plank onto the luxury cruise liner, The Sunset Destiny. "Oh, this is going to be heaven," she exclaimed breathlessly as she had her first look at the inside of the ship. What a great place to spend the next week. The wood banisters and casings looked like someone spent an entire week shining them. Brass fixtures and moldings were also polished to a high shine without a fingerprint in sight. The lush colorful carpets added to the luxurious, yet completely comfortable atmosphere surrounding her. What a fantastic place to just...be.
Mari felt a familiar ache in her heart. She just knew this would be the best place in the world to spend time with a sexy thirty-one year old firefighter. Days exploring the ship or beautiful ports of call, and nights exploring each other. Hmmm. Yeah, unfortunately the sexy firefighter she had in mind was thousands of miles away and had absolutely no interest in spending time with her. He was her soon to be ex-husband of convenience - quite a mouthful that is - the man she had loved since she was sixteen. A smile actually came to her lips as she was looking through her boarding packet for her room number. Too bad for Graham Blake, he would never know what he'd missed.
"Okay everyone, our rooms are on deck six, " Mari's father Ethan announced. "We should probably head up there, It's almost time to set sail and the safety drill starts soon."  Mari came out of her reverie to join in on the chorus of 'yes dad's' and 'okays' as everyone headed to the elevators. At this very moment, she was just wishing they hadn't gone sightseeing before heading to the ship. Sitting down for a few minutes before being drilled about safety and evacuation would do her a world of good but there just wasn't any time.
The family; Mari's mom and dad Charlotte and Ethan, her sisters Abigail, Olivia and Vanessa, and her only brother Jackson, filled up the entire elevator car making her feel claustrophobic. As soon as the doors began to close, she stepped off.  Oh she could breathe again!  The not so crowded second car was calling her name so she stepped on and turned around to lean her back against the wall. Standing right there, not five feet away, was Graham. Or maybe just someone who looked an awful lot like him? Her heart beat wildly and her legs nearly gave out. When the doors slid shut and she could finally think somewhat rationally again, she told herself that there was no way it could have been him. Everything today was happening so fast, she must have been seeing things, you know, wishful thinking on her part? Or maybe exhaustion was clouding her vision? Graham Blake was safely thousands of miles away at home with his beautiful nine year old daughter Sarah. Mari quietly cursed herself for giving in to her need for the man who broke her heart more than once in her life, and when the four other people in the elevator looked at her funny, she couldn't help but laugh. She would have to be careful with that. Her secret plan for this vacation could never work if everyone thought she was a crazy woman who talked to herself.

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