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“Where’s Bennett?” I asked.
“He’s dropping off the president, and will be right here after,” she said.
The president?
I must have hit my head worse than I thought. “President of what?” I asked.
“Tabiq. President O’Connor. Now rest. I’ll check on you again shortly.”
She walked away and I heard the door open and close. I felt for my cell phone and realized it was still in my suite at the resort. I was trapped here for the night, but if Bennett arrived soon, I was going to insist he take me back with him. Never spent a night in the hospital before, and not about to.
Until he arrived, I needed to close my eyes and get some sleep. But my head was pounding, and sleep wasn’t coming.
A few minutes later, the door opened again, this time it was Bennett. “What were you saying about not needing a babysitter?” he said as he approached my bed.
“Oh, now you got jokes.” If my head wasn’t hurting, I’d appreciate it more. “But if you’re getting me one, maybe you can see if that nurse Meri is available,” I tried to smile, but even that hurt my head.
Bennett glared at me with his arms crossed. I’d seen that look so often that it didn’t faze me. As expected, he ignored my comment. “Alex wasn’t sure what happened,” he said. “Care to elaborate?”
Not that I wanted anyone to have witnessed it, but I’d rather not be telling the story myself either. It was just a stupid accident, but since I was lying flat on my back in a hospital, I guess it could’ve gone much worse. I could’ve been knocked out while I was in the water.
“Tried my hand at surfing and took on one of the bigger waves. You can see how that turned out,” I said. “I lost my balance. But I blame our parents.”
“Why them?” he asked.
“They should’ve moved to a state by the ocean.” Our mother had been deathly afraid of water. Her father had drowned saving someone even though he was a good swimmer. She did insist that all four of us boys take swimming lessons, but she denied all our requests to vacation at a lake or the ocean when we were young.
“Or maybe you should’ve heeded the signs posted. It was a high surf warning. Hence why no one else was surfing,” he said.
“You know I always like a challenge,” I replied.
“And that’s how you broke your leg snowboarding when you were eight. Oh, and your arm skateboarding when you were ten. Do I need to go through the list?” he asked.
“Rather get hurt having fun, than sitting on my ass doing nothing,” I said. “Besides, I believe you’re the one who suggested I enjoy everything the resort had to offer.”
“Is this what I have to look forward to for the next three weeks?” Bennett sighed.
I chuckled. “You’re the one who said I needed a vacation.”
“And Tabiq was the only place you could think of?”
“Thought you’d like some quality time with your kid brother. I mean, I haven’t seen you in three years. Figured if I didn’t come to you, it might be another three before we crossed paths,” I said honestly.
Bennett nodded. “We both have been busy.”
It was an excuse. Yeah, I’ve been busy. I was at the top of my game in marketing. I had more clients than I could handle. Yet I was still here trying to figure out what was really going on with Bennett. I wasn’t losing any sleep over it, but our parents weren’t getting any younger, and now with them retired, they wanted time with the family. That included Bennett, his wife, and his kids.
“Looks like we have plenty of time now. But what did I hear? You were driving President O’Connor around? Like the president of Tabiq?”
“Yes.”
“Just, yes? No explanation?” I prodded.
“Do you need one?”
“I’d like one,” I stated.
“There are some security issues and me and my team are here to ensure her safety.”
