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Instead, she felt sick.
Her anger was justified. Everything she’d said had needed saying.
But had she needed to say it in such a public venue? Would it have killed her to wait until they had moved someplace a little less conspicuous?
And why did so much of the coverage have to claim Jayna had pushed Sid into the fountain? He had fallen in on his own, and she had tried to catch him. Yet most of the videos making their way through the Myst sure made it look like he had been pushed.
Jayna returned the phone to Rani just as the bus began pulling away.
“What are you going to do now?” Rani asked.
Unless she wanted to go back to the hotel, her options were limited. “I guess I’m going to the SAPP house and hope there’s a room I can use for the night.”
“I have an extra bed in my room. And we’re about the same size. I can let you wear something that’s a little less showy.” Rani grinned.
Relieved she wouldn’t have to go crawling back to the hotel and risk running into Sid, Jayna gave Rani a hug. “Thank you.”
Chapter 34
Sid climbed from the fountain, mindful of the eyes and lenses all focused on him. Embarrassment warred with anger and frustration. It should have been so obvious that getting involved with Jayna would be a mistake. Why hadn’t he learned his lesson about gold-digging climbers from Crystal? But no, he allowed himself to be stupid yet again because of a pretty face.
And now, for the second time, Sid was soaking wet because of Jayna.
He walked purposefully to the exit. He didn’t want any more of a scene than what he’d already endured, but the puddles trailing behind him through the lobby made that virtually impossible.
Once outside and away from the crowd, Sid broke into a run. The warm night air blowing over his soaked tuxedo felt good, but his soggy leather shoes were not made for running.
How had he let himself get in this mess?
As he reached the edge of the resort, he spied a rack of rental bikes. That’s what I need.
Sid pressed his thumb on the biometric reader, and the rack released one of the bikes with a click. He hopped on and began pedaling away from the ball, the resort, and the biggest mistake of his life.
The battery was fully charged, but no matter how hard he pedaled, the bike held stubbornly at twenty kilometers per hour. Sid groaned in frustration. He needed to go fast. But first he’d have to disable the variable speed governor.
If he’d had the right cable, he could have connected his tablet to the bike and, at the very least, set the top speed to a reasonable number.
Without the interface cable, he’d have to use a low-tech solution.
Sid pulled over to the side of the road and leaned the bicycle against a short palm tree. He removed his shoe and swung it over his head, bringing the thick heel down onto the bike’s control housing with a satisfying crack. He hammered again and again until the entire assembly clattered to the ground.
Sid replaced his shoe, kicked the bike’s ruined control unit into some nearby bushes, and swung himself back into the saddle.
The bike was much harder to pedal without the electric assist, but he didn’t care. As long as the bike wasn’t working against him, he’d get the necessary speed under his own power.
Sid pedaled hard, up and over the arched bridges linking the wamos to each other. He sped beyond the tourist area and into a residential district dotted with garden plots and swirling white homes. The smell of flowers and tropical fruits filled the air, and the aromas of cooked meals and the sounds of residential life eased Sid’s frustration enough that his mind began to process the things Jayna had said.
She had accused him of being a creepy stalker with a mermaid fetish—a mervert! How ridiculous. He hadn’t given mermaids a second thought before Emmaline had proposed the idea of buying Realms of Neptune, and he hadn’t noticed Jayna personally until she’d drenched him the night he had purchased the park.
What was it with Jayna soaking him? She seemed to be the one with the fetish. And a temper.
And why had she been so surprised he had run a compatibility ’gator? Maybe it had been a little presumptuous of him to have had it run after knowing her for less than a week, but it wasn’t out of line.
Yet Jayna claimed he had purchased Realms of Neptune because the aggregator told him to.
He hadn’t run the compatibility ’gator until long after he had bought the park. Buying the park wasn’t even his idea. It had been Emmaline’s. Emmaline was the one who had offered Jayna the ride to Manutai, too. In fact, this entire trip had been Emmaline’s idea.
Maybe Emmaline was the one with a mermaid fetish.
