“I have those moments quite often, but I promise to share my silly thought if you share yours,” he chuckled. “It can be a contest to see who is more silly.”
“I can go along with that. What does the winner get?” I picked up a seashell. “I should have collected more of these.”
“First, I don’t know how we will determine a winner if it’s just us, but let’s say winner gets the bedroom on the plane to sleep or stretch out during the flight.”
“You’re on.” I grabbed another handful of shells. “You go first.”
“Last night I looked at my drawings for the resort and thought they were awful and decided I would never be taken seriously in the Hawthorne Foundation,” he kicked at the sand, “which is silly, because I was top of my class.”
I thought about his comment. I had a distinct feeling he had never shared that insecurity with anyone else and I was very happy he had with me.
“I was laying on the beach and I kept hearing someone calling my name, but no one was out there.” I paused, deciding if I should go on. “I spooked myself and ran because I thought Yury and his guys had found me and were going to grab me.”
“That explains the jog in sandals.” He continued looking out at the water. “I’m not sure which one of us wins, but yours was way more scary.”
“I don’t know, feeling insecure is scary too.” I tossed down the broken shells. “Maybe it’s a tie.”
“Well, maybe, but a tie doesn’t help us find a winner.” He turned to me. “We need a tiebreaker.”
“A tiebreaker?” I smiled. “What about a staring contest.”
“Holy cow, I haven’t done one of those since grade school.” His forehead crinkled in thought. “I think I’m being hustled, but let’s do it.”
We turned to face each other. We were both grinning like little kids when the staring began. I had been the winner of this particular tiebreaker many times over the years on the compound, but back then it was for extra food. As expected, within minutes he blinked repeatedly. I spun around celebrating the win.
“It is going to feel so good to stretch out on that big, wonderful bed.”
“Like I said, I was hustled.” Cota laughed. “I’ll get you back for that one.”
“Hey, you two, we’re leaving in two hours. You wanna go out on the jet skis to see the dolphins?” Jade called out to us.
We both yelled back “yes” at the same time.
ChapterThirty-Six
COTA
All five of us went out on the jet skis. I had to laugh when Sabrina turned her jet ski the way I’d shown her, sending a giant spray of water on Murphy. To my delight, Murphy squealed. Jade and Sawyer joined in on the laughter until Murphy now did the same thing Sabrina had done, to them. I was the only one still mostly dry.
“You didn’t think you were getting back to the house dry, did you?” Sabrina grinned, then spun her jet ski. “Last one back is a rotten egg.”
She sped off with Murphy right behind her. Sawyer rode up next to me as I wiped water off my face but, instead of a kind word, he just hit the throttle and spit more water on me.
“Very amusing, but I won’t be the rotten egg.” I sped off ahead of him.
The girls went back and were standing on the dock watching as we approached. I was not about to be the last one, but Sawyer had caught up to me. I had no option left but to cheat. I pointed off to the deeper water. When he turned to see what I was pointing at, I hit full throttle.
“Nicely done, husband,” Sabrina clapped.
Sawyer drove up seconds behind me. “That was cheating.”
“What do you mean? All I did was point at that cool boat out there.” I jumped up on the dock.
I tossed her a towel when she took her life vest off, then we all walked to the patio for a late lunch. I watched Sabrina from behind my sunglasses. She still seemed a little rattled. I decided to bring up the security system.
“Hey, Sawyer, what’s the security system like here?” I purposely looked away from Sabrina. “I’m asking because I wanna do the same for the resort.”
“I’ll show you after lunch, but it’s high end.” Sawyer reloaded his plate. “No one can get near this island without me knowing.”