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“What’s the matter with you?” Baker asks.
I realize I’m not doing a great job of concealing my irritation.
“Nothing,” I say, a little too abruptly.
Baker laughs and says, “Buddy, don’t bother. You’re not her type. She’s a wild one.”
He shows me his phone screen, which plays a video of Jax and her friend dancing, nearly naked, definitely drunk at the Mumbling Ahab. At one point in the video, her bikini top falls, exposing a nipple. Howling with laughter, she quickly covers up again and keeps dancing.
There’s nothing that shocking about this scene; resort guests do this sort of thing all the time. There’s even a bar somewhere on the islands that offers free drinks to women who lift their tops. What’s curious to me is why Baker filmed it.
My blood now boiling, I seethe, “Delete that video.”
“Come on, man. I’m sure her followers would love to see what she gets up to on vacation.”
All I can think of is what she told me about her family, how they don’t know where she is. A video posted like that will give her away and put her in real danger.
“You know as well as I do that one of the rules is we don’t take embarrassing videos of guests.”
“Dude, I’m not going to post it. But I’m sure one of her rival TikTokers would pay good money to embarrass her.”
Without thinking twice, I rip the phone out of his hands and delete the video myself.
“What the fuck are you doing, Eagle Scout?!”
I stuff his phone in my pocket and hold out my hand. “And now you’re going to give me the keys to the speedboat if you want your phone back.” For the record, I do not recognize this man I’ve turned into this morning. Everything I feel for Jax has turned me into a different person. I’ve never stood up to guys like Baker before. But taking his phone and telling him what he’s going to do feels as automatic as breathing.
“What? Why?”
“Because I don’t want you going out alone with any female guests today. Maybe not ever again.”
Baker laughs. “You’re not my supervisor, friend.”
“No, but I do outclass your trashy ass.”
He’s not going to back down. His face is on the verge of laughter. “Why don’t you run along to the nature center and wait for the geriatrics? That’s the only way a snake is getting petted in your world, Barrow.”
I step closer to him, not knowing what exactly I plan to do if this conversation devolves into fisticuffs. “If I feel like you are a danger to the guests, I can report you. So I’m giving you the option.”
He sneers. “You’re going to report me if I don’t let you do my job today?”
Shaking my head, I reply, “No. First, I’ll punch your lights out. Then I’ll report you.”
His attitude changes now that I’m more or less speaking a language he understands. His palms up in surrender, Baker replies, “All right, tough guy. If you want to get physical over it, then let’s arm wrestle for it. Like gentlemen.”
I don’t know if it’s the newfound beast within me, but somehow, this works.
Twenty minutes later, I’m on the dock with a probably sprained elbow and the keys to the speedboat.
I find Jax and her friend sitting side by side on the dock, Jax’s tanned little foot flexed and her big toe pointed down and circling in the water. The way she looks so relaxed —the slow, circling motion in the water, her easy laughter with her friend—has me pitching a tent pole in my drawers so big and hard I could house a three-ring circus in here.
When Jax turns to me, her pleasant surprise is better than anything in this world.
“Hey!”
If this is her first gut reaction to seeing me, then I know I’m doing something right. I m
ake it my goal in life to make her smile like that every day.
