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but we got serious over the summer.”
    “That should be easy enough to remember,” she said drily.
    “Obviously there are some issues we’re working through in our relationship. We both have different religions for one and that’s hard on us and our families.”
    “That would be an understatement on the part of your family, at least.”
    “Exactly. The key to a successful cover story is weaving just enough fact in there to make it believable and to help you keep it straight. I had Mark register us as Cindy Prescott and Jeremiah Goldsmith. We keep our own first names.”
    “Well, one of us does at least,” she said, alluding to the fact that Jeremiah was already a false name.
    He ignored her comment and continued. “We’re from northern California, Castro Valley in the Bay Area. It’s small enough that not all southern Californians have heard of it. We’re coming down here because we wanted to get away from family, friends, jobs, everything so we could just focus on us.”
    “And why are we focusing on just us? Why do we need a couples’ retreat?”
    “Obviously there’s been a lot of stress, pressure, cultural differences. We’re needing a retreat so we can figure out if this is going to work between us.”
    Again she felt her breath catch in her throat. Was that part of the cover story or the truth? Then again, as he had told her, good cover stories had as much of the truth in them as possible.
    “Sounds reasonable,” she forced herself to say. She hesitated a moment then continued on. “Just how physical are we as a couple? I mean, that’s bound to come up.”
    He frowned as though thinking. “Not very. I mean we hold hands and kiss, but not a whole lot and certainly nothing more.”
    “Why?”
    “Because you’re religious, obviously.”
    “And you’re not?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
    “Well, of course, but it’s usually more realistic for the girl to dictate the level of intimacy in these things.”
    “Is it?” she asked.
    “Yes, of course. Why?”
    “Oh, just asking. I wouldn’t know, you see. I’ve never had a serious relationship before.”
    “That’s good. We’ll leave that in. It can help with some of the conflicted emotions we’ll be there to work through.”
    Cindy stared at him wondering if he was an idiot or just pretending to be an idiot. As no answer seemed forthcoming she asked a new question. “What are we planning on naming our kids if things go that way? Most serious couples talk about things like that. At least, I assume they do.”
    “We don’t talk about that.”
    “Then maybe one of us is less serious than the other and having commitment issues.”
    “Let’s try not to get too complicated with our cover stories. We need things that are easy to remember. The more we bog down with details the more likely one of us is to slip up.”
    And from the tone of his voice and the look in his eyes she was pretty sure she knew which one of them he was worried was going to slip up.
    “Okay, keeping it simple,” she said.
    “Excellent.”
    “Now that we’ve got that sorted out, do we have a plan for finding this missing friend of the captain’s?”
    “We’ll have to keep our eyes and ears open, obviously, for anything suspicious. When we have a chance to slip away unobserved we can do some snooping around, maybe even break into the office and check for any records on him or his stay. Hopefully we can get a member of the staff to talk as well, start with a casual name dropping, and see where that leads us.
    Casual. Cindy had a feeling that there was going to be absolutely nothing casual about this trip, including the “casual” daywear Dave had helped her pick out.
    As if reading her mind he suddenly asked, “What were you shopping for?”
    “Oh, you know, toiletries and such. A few things for the trip,” she said quickly, not wanting to give away the surprise. Fortunately, she’d left her bags in the trunk.
    “Okay. Are you sure you’re up to this?