I pour the coffee in the cup and take a long gulp. Turning, I lean on the counter and see that the girls are now all looking at me. “What happened?”
“Nothing,” Jackie says. “We are just wondering how you sleep in the bunk?”
I smile, taking another sip of coffee. Walking over to the couch, I take a seat and stretch out my legs. “It’s tight.”
“No shit,” Jackie says, laughing and getting up to stretch. “It’s naptime,” she says, also going to the back. I look at my watch and see it’s almost ten a.m.
“Did you sleep okay?” Kellie asks from next to me, and I look over at her. From the softness of her face and the sleepiness in her eyes, I know she just got up also.
“Yeah,” I answer her, taking another sip of coffee. Cori gets up, walks to the back of the bus, and shuts the door.
“If it’s too tight for you, we can switch,” Kellie says quietly, reaching for the remote.
“I’ll be fine, baby.” The baby slips out, and her head whips around to look at me. “Did you just get up?” I ask her, hoping we don’t have to discuss the fact I just called her fucking baby.
“Yeah, not too long ago.” She doesn’t make eye contact with me. “We should be at the hotel in four hours.” I don’t answer her. Instead, I look at the television and see she’s turned on Judge Judy. I watch a bit of it, then get up and go to my bunk to grab my laptop and phone. I go back and sit at the table. Opening the laptop, I see that she is moving from one side of the couch to the other, stretching out her legs on the couch and lying down. I go through my emails and then pull up the hotel information to familiarize myself with the layout. We are staying in a separate block from the others staying in the hotel. We have our own cottage. Cori is right next door to us and has the one-bedroom suite while we have a two-bedroom cottage. I send Rachel an email with our first stop to make sure she knows where I’m going to be and to see if she has an update for me. Our own private security team will go in and do a quick sweep before we arrive.
“Okay,” Cori says, coming back to the table, “we have a dinner tonight.” She looks at Kellie, who just looks at her. “I know I said it was a relax day, but we have no choice.”
“Why?” I lean back in my chair, putting my hands on the armchair. “If she doesn’t want to go, she shouldn’t have to go.”
“I get that.” Cori looks at me and then at Kellie. “And you know I wouldn’t ask if I could get you out of it.”
“Who is it with?” Kellie asks, pausing the show.
“Henry.” Cori says the name, and I have no idea who she’s talking about, but when I see Kellie’s eyes go wide, it’s clear she knows.
“Shut up.” She throws her head back and lets out a huge laugh. “He’s the hottest thing out there, and he wants to have dinner with me?” My eyes fly to Cori, but she avoids looking at me.
“I owe his PA a favor, and well, he’s as she puts it madly in love with you, and she wants to set you guys up.”
“Sure,” Kellie says at the same time I say, “Fuck no.” Both of them look at me, Kellie crossing her arms over her chest.
“And why the fuck not?” she goads me, almost glaring.
I look at Cori now, trying to find a good excuse without it being obvious that it bothers me. “Do you know who this guy is? What restaurant? We need to make sure it’s safe.”
“I doubt it will be a problem,” Cori says. “I know Henry travels with at least one bodyguard.” I roll my eyes.
“What time?” Kellie asks, getting up, and I see that she’s wearing tiny booty shorts under her pink shirt, but the shirt covers her shorts. If you didn’t know she was wearing shorts, you would think she was going commando.
“Eight,” Cori says, and then looks at me. “Are you going to come with us?”
“Where she goes, I go,” I tell her, and she just nods her head.
“So I’ll book two tables then.”
“Why two?” I ask her, confused.
“Well, we aren’t going to sit at their table.” Cori laughs. “You can sit at the table with Monica and me.”
“I’m excited,” Kellie says, going to her bedroom and closing the door after her.
“What are the chances you aren’t going to go hulk on all of this?” Cori asks me now, mimicking my posture in her chair.
“No reason for me to go hulk,” I tell her. “I have a job to do, and that just so happens to mean I have to watch her.”
She nods her head. “Well, then we need to discuss what is going to happen if they go home together.” I feel the tension start to fill my body, and I grab the arms of the chair hard. My fingertips are turning white, and I bite down. She observes my actions, so I lock it down.
“She wants to go to his house and fuck,” I tell her, my stomach turning. Just as it did when I picked her up and delivered her to her boyfriend, knowing full well what was going on. “I’ll wait outside. Not the first time.”
“Good,” Cori says and gets up. Closing her laptop, she walks to her bunk, leaving me all alone in the living room. My grip on the chair loosens, and I let out a huge breath. Now would be a great time to go to the gym and smash a punching bag. But instead, I have four hours to lock it down. I close my laptop, then grab the remote. I flip the channels but don’t focus on anything. For the rest of the time, she doesn’t come out of her room, and neither does anyone else.
The driver announces that we will be arriving in fifteen minutes, and slowly they all appear from their bunks. I wait for them to get their things together and then go and get my own stuff. She walks out of the room as soon as the driver puts the bus in park. She is wearing jeans now, regular blue jeans cut in the knees and a Kellie Hudson T-shirt with black and red Gucci flip-flops. Her hair still piled on her head, she walks by me without looking at me, and I follow her off the bus. Cori is waiting at the door for us. “Get in the golf cart,” she tells Kellie, and Kellie walks over to the golf cart, sitting in the passenger seat. She hands me the key card to the cottage. “Here, I have stuff to get settled. Follow the signs.” She points at the pathway with brown and white signs. I grab the card from her and walk over to the golf cart, putting my bag on the back seat.
I don’t say anything to her as I follow the signs to the cottage. I park the golf cart right next to the stairs, then hand her the card to the door. She grabs it while I grab my bag and follow her to the door. Her phone beeps, and she looks down and then back up at me. “They are going to deliver the bags in thirty minutes.”
“I don’t have any bags,” I tell her, holding my only bag in my hand.
“What do you mean?” she asks, opening the door and then holding it for me to walk in.
“I have one bag,” I tell her, walking into the cottage and seeing the plaid couches.
“We are going to be gone for ninety days and you have one bag?” she says, tossing her bag on the couch. Going to the fridge, she opens it and grabs a water.
“Yeah,” I tell her. Looking around, I see the two bedroom doors in front of the living room. From the blueprints, each room has its own private bathroom. I walk to the smaller room and set my bag on the bed. “Three pairs of jeans, five shirts, and three suits.”