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“What’s wrong with that?”
I laugh. My phone pings. I check my inbox and see Devina's response. “Great. Thank you, Hazel. I knew I could count on you. Jack, I’ll pull this one off your task list… so just enjoy that beach. I’m sure it’s fabulous.”
I frown as I return the phone to my pocket.
“Is this work issue a big deal?” Brett asks.
“Nah. It’s the day-to-day stuff. Some clients aren’t happy, and the manager wants me and this woman, Hazel, to make it right. Hazel cut me out of it. She probably thinks this will be another gold star to make her look good. I think she’s going for the same promotion I am.”
“Whew. She doesn’t know who she’s dealing with. You’ve been competing since before you could walk. You could look a bull in the face. He’d be pawing the ground and stuff, snorting steam out of his nose, and you’d say, ‘let’s rumble.’”
“Ha. I’ve never been toe-to-toe with a bull, man. And Hazel’s far from intimidating. I’m pretty sure she’s in her sixties, librarian type.”
“You’ve never met her? Never seen her?”
“Nope. And that’s fine with me. I’ve got a feel for her from the emails. Real condescending, sort of snobbish and prim, and she always tries to come off nice. Older generation. She’s got a fax number in her email signature, right there with her landline.”
“Oof.” Brett chuckles, then glances at the ladies’ room off the lobby. “Fax, hunh? That’s old-school. But she could still give you a run for your money. So, she cornered you out of the work thing?”
“Yeah, but whatever. It’s probably good I don’t have to meet up with her—more time to spend hanging with you, Corinne, and the kiddos. Oh, and I’m going to squeeze in some day naps on the beach, too. While you and Corinne are busy fielding fatigue meltdowns and helping the girls with confusing math assignments.”
“How about you help with the math assignments, and I take the nap?”
“No way. That’s not in my Fun Uncle job description. Homework help is all you.”
Corinne and the girls emerge from the ladies’ room. Ophelia races back across the terracotta tile floor and slides to a stop just as her mother joins us. Her sliding stop almost causes her to lose her balance, and she flaps her arms to steady herself.
I think the girl likes to give her mom panic attacks.
“Ophelia, honey, walk, don’t run!” Corinne chides. “We are indoors. This is a tile floor. Those sandals are slippery!”
Ophelia grins mischievously. “I already wiped out once. Daddy was too busy talking to notice.”
Corinne shoots Brett a withering look.
He shrugs. “Jack’s life is interesting. He’s got work drama. What can I say?”
Corinne hitches her brow at me. “Work drama, on vacation?”
Brett chuckles. “He’s going toe-to-toe with a librarian lady over a promotion. She just boxed him out of an extra-credit assignment.”
“Is this true?” Corinne hugs Ophelia while she talks to me.
Ophelia’s eyes sparkle. “Uncle Jack, you have homework to do here in Hawaii, too?”
“Ha, well, I did, but an overachiever stole the assignment from me.”
Ophelia twists around in her mother’s arm. “Mom, what’s an overachiever?”
“Never mind,” Corinne answers. “That’s a discussion for another time, like five or ten years from now, and we’ll let Uncle Jack explain it to you.”
Ophelia tents her brows. “Am I an overachiever if I do my homework?”
Now, it’s my turn to receive one of Corinne’s withering looks.
I chuckle. “Nah, do your homework, Lia. It’s the right thing to do. I guess my answer is that I don’t have to do work this week because someone else is doing it. So, I get to play.”
“With the dolphins?”
