Did you just call him Daddy, Liv?
I looked up at his cheesy smile that confirmed I had yet again embarrassed my ass in broad fucking daylight.
Just be smooth about it, Liv. Like play it off like a slip of the tongue.
Yeah. Yeah, that might work.
“In my captain’s room?” Highland peered down at me as he dipped an eyebrow and squinted. Now more than ever I was confused.
I relaxed from him purposely trying to change the situation by picking the least important factor out of my whole statement.
“Yeah, ya know, the place you drive the boat from. I mean, since you’re suited and booted, I assumed you would be driving the boat. Are you not?”
“I am. Trust me, I’m not in full uniform for no reason. But the room you’re referring to is called a bridge or wheelhouse. Aboard any of my vessels, we call them the bridge. The captain’s room is literally a bedroom. I would love to show you but I don’t think—good morning!” I turned to see who had Highland changing his tone and sentence so quickly. The camp counselors approaching were officially within earshot with a couple of lines of kids and the other chaperones right behind us.
“Good morning, Captain Floyd, thank you again for having us. Okay, kids get those tickets out,” the director called out and had even the smallest camper digging into their pockets to produce their ticket. The sight made me chuckle as I remembered I had my own mini who I’d left in the care of my security guard.
“I’ma go check on the kids. I’m sure Jo-Jo is driving Tunk crazy with questions like he always does.” I went to step away when Highland pulled me back.
“Offer stands on the private tour.” One more kiss to the back of my hand had me steady with the red tint on my cheeks and a loud call out of oohs from the kids. I dropped my head and nodded.
I sworethe ferry seemed to take longer today than any other that I remembered. It had to be the couple dozen rowdy kids inattendance for the field trip and everything going wrong there. Or the fact that since the second Highland left my side, all I wanted to do was be back near him. I had no shame when it came to letting it be known that I had to be next to him either.
From the moment we docked and my feet hit solid ground, I was like a magnet to this man and our kids made it easy for me to fulfill my new obsession. We were now counting off by fives to see who would be on teams for a scavenger hunt the camp had set up for the kids.
The moment I said three, Highland, who was now wearing a casual white T-shirt and nautical beach shorts, began to move down a couple people so he could match my number. I snorted when he even had Tunk moving the kids down the line accordingly.
Once we were all grouped together, we huddled around to collect the pail and shovel kits. I wasn’t sure when the flip happened between us, but Highland didn’t even try to hide his lingering hand on my waist while we listened for the instructions.
“Okay, so the first team to find all the items on the list wins!” That was the only thing I had managed to make sense of since I was currently floating, lost in the soft caresses of my love handles.
Highland leaned down and whispered in my ear, “I have a better idea. How about our crew ditch this lame ass group and make our own?” His cool breath tickled me, causing a sudden burst of electricity to travel through my body.
“Uht uhn,” I panted lowly before I caught it and reminded myself about my surroundings. Highland had me forgetting my home training today on this beach. I cleared my throat before I shook my head. “We can’t. The kids will be mad if we don’t participate with the other kids. We’re going to be together tomorrow anyway, remember Splash Mountain,” I said as Iregrettably pulled away and made my way over to round up the kids.
Twenty minutes later, I didn’t realize my forward approach would have even the grown people looking at me for answers.
We had moved on to building a sandcastle with the group after losing to another team in the scavenger hunt.
“Hey Ms. Liv, is this right?” another parent asked as they tapped on the top of the pail to loosen the sand from its hold.
I shrugged before I shook my head frantically. I had no idea how to build a sandcastle and wasn’t sure who told these people to call on me.
“You have to hit the sides not the top, then slowly remove it.” That was Highland, who was deep into his activity as he dug a moat around our masterpiece.
I didn’t even know he was paying attention to me and the other dad who asked until I caught his heavy ass gaze on me. When I felt his eyes lowering down my body, I quickly placed a hand over my burgeoning titties that were doing far too much on Friday in the daytime. I tried to pick out a less revealing swimsuit for today’s festivities, especially since I knew the kiddos would be around.
“Oh, sorry,” I apologized, which had him smirking at me as he smiled.
“No worries, mamas. Even though you are gorgeous, you and the ladies are not on my menu. Besides, I don’t think your boyfriend is the sharing type,” he said as he tossed his head toward Highland, making me chuckle lowly. I went to correct him on theboyfriendtitle but felt Highland still staring at me which had me looking over and blushing at him before I put my attention back on the task at hand.
“I just want to know how we got tricked into doing all the work yet this is their little project. Like damn, I wanna be splashing around all smiles and giggles too,” I said as I dumpedthe bucket of sand and added it to the sculpture Highland had us building. I needed a strong topic to try to lighten my cheeks as I changed the subject. I glanced over at Tunk who had the kids in the group completely occupied near the shoreline running through the water yelling out old pirate sayings.
A couple of the other parents chuckled while mumbling their agreement with me.
“Girl, I’m already a step ahead of you. Right after the camp dismisses these kids, we’re hitting The Hut. I’m getting their biggest margarita with an extra shot. Y’all should come along.” That was another chaperone who had had four kids at the camp, two sets of twins the same ages as Cece and Neela.
“As good as that sounds, I still have to drive back to the mainland after this and I’m already doing more labor than I’m used to. Adding any amount of alcohol at this point would have me renting a room at the hotel, telling Jo-Jo we’re on vacation. Oh, but what I wouldn’t do for one of those fruity drinks with a little cute umbrella straw.” I tossed my head back and let out an overly dramatic sigh as the sun soaked into my pores.
