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week,” she said, turning a little wistful.
    Mom raised her eyebrows as she looked at me.
That price sounded right to me, and my eyebrows stayed relaxed in
place.
    Mom wasn’t done digging.
    “Do you mind telling me what kind of person
bought it?”
    She leaned in, happy to dish.
    “It was a man buying it as an engagement
ring for his girlfriend. I bet she’ll say yes,” she said and
laughed at her joke.
    It didn’t seem funny to me, though. I felt a
prick of jealousy.
    “No doubt,” Mom agreed.
    “Can I show you ladies something else?” she
asked hopefully.
    “No that’s all right. Mystery solved. Thanks
for your help,” Mom concluded smoothly as we exited the store.
    Hoyt was standing across the hall at the
display window of a golf shop, daydreaming, along with several
other men, about a new set of clubs. He snapped back to reality
when we approached.
    “Do we still have time for the cruise?” Mom
asked, suddenly remembering we were supposed to be on a
schedule.
    “Sure. It will be close, but I called while
you were in the jewelry store and they’re not sold out. We’ll be
fine on time, if we leave right now,” Hoyt assured her.
    “Is that what you’d like to do, then?” she
asked me, though I had already agreed.
    “Sure,” I confirmed as she took one of my
hands and one of Hoyt’s, so that she could walk between us on our
way back to the car.
    In my free hand I carried a doggy bag, which
held two completely untouched halves of a slice of White Chocolate
Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake—but not my purse.
    The riverboat cruise was nice. We rode on
the famous ‘Belle of Louisville’, the height of luxury and comfort
in river travel in the early 1900’s. No other river steamboat in
American history has lasted as long, been to as many places, or
traveled as many miles as the Belle. I hoped I looked as good when
I was in my nineties. She was even still racing her old nemesis,
the Delta Queen, in The Great Steamboat Race, held every year since
the sixties on the Wednesday before Derby Day. We got to see the
‘Golden Antlers” on display in the Captain’s office. It was the
trophy that resided with the winner each year. Belle had beaten
Queen twenty-two versus nineteen times up to this year. Hoyt seemed
to believe the rumors that the winner has always been
predetermined, but I clung to the notion that the race’s winner was
determined by steam and good old fashion girl-power gumption, not
sterile coin flipping. They had the calliope going while we sailed,
and I particularly enjoyed that. As it turns out, Belle has a
beautiful voice, too.
    It was a warm night, but not too hot, and
the breeze coming off the water felt wonderful on my face. The sun
was low on the horizon, but it didn’t get dark until close to nine
o’clock, so I could see fairly well. I’d been planning to wear my
sunglasses, thinking that this would help disguise my staring at
people, but the dusky lighting made it too dark to get away with
it. So I just had to be surreptitious about my snooping. I tried to
look carefully at each face, particularly the eyes. This was
trickier than I’d thought it would be because once we were moving,
most people were standing with their backs to me, facing out toward
the river to see the water and the scenery floating by.
    I counted thirty-eight passengers on the top
deck. A handful of people were inside, below, but it didn’t seem
likely that someone watching me would spend the whole time out of
sight hitting the bar. I did what I could to observe the people
around me but there were no suspicious or familiar looking
characters, so eventually I switched to enjoying the scenery
myself. There was a gorgeous glowing sunset, the orange and pink
and purple kind, and it made the occasion all the more
pleasant.
    The cruise lasted for an hour, returning to
the dock around nine. We were making our way to the stairs to
disembark, when, in a moment of stupid forgetfulness, I had an
involuntary turn around