Page 167 of The Vacation Mix-Up
“What’s the point?”
She contemplates my answer. “True.”
After throwing on my robe, I grab our clothes and shoes and secure her hand, dragging her out of the room and along a corridor, passing staff members as they move aside.
“Thank you,” Riles calls out, waving at them as she shuffles behind me.
I try to wave too but drop her bra, so I bend over when she crashes into me, both of us tumbling onto the floor.
“Shit! Are you okay?” I ask, rolling her giggling body onto her back before hovering over her.
“Yes. Are you?”
The lapel of her robe falls aside just slightly, so I run my finger along the seam.
A woman clears her throat.
We both look up.
“Is everything okay here?”
Riles scrambles beneath me, her knee plowing my balls into my gut. “Yes,” she blurts, kicking me off her. “Sorry, we fell.”
“Jesus,” I cough out, cupping my nuggets while slumping onto my side.
She gives me an “oops”face.
“It was her fault we fell,” I say, voice strained.
“It was not.” She gets to her feet and begrudgingly helps me up before collecting her bra. “We were just leaving.”
“I see,” the woman bites out, then presses her lips together and steps aside, so we hurry past her, me hobbling like an old-timer, Riles’s head downcast.
“Did I break your balls?” she whispers.
“Almost.”
“Sorry, but they were in my way.” She picks up her pace and calls out, “Hold the door!” as the elevator begins to close.
We bundle into the death box, both of us staring straight ahead, Riles nibbling her lip in an attempt to chew back her amusement.
“I’m glad you found that funny,” I murmur.
“It was.”
I clench my jaw, beyond ready to get back to the cabin to finish what we started, to get her naked and?—
“Mummy, why are they in pajamas?” a little girl with the cutest Australian accent standing behind us asks her mother.
“They’re not, sweetie.”
I glance over my shoulder while Riles stifles a giggle.
“He has hair on his face like Uncle Will.”
I rub my beard, and Riles bursts into laughter.
“Shhh, little Minty,” the mother says, lifting her daughter and settling her on her hip. “I’m so sorry. She takes after me and blurts out whatever she’s thinking.”
