AllFreeNovel
Share Us
KAYLA
Waking up in the house Austin and his friends had rented in the Caymans was one of my favorite parts of the trip so far. My bedroom looked out on the ocean and I could scoot up in bed and look out through floor-to-ceiling glass at the waves as they lapped on the sand. If I wanted, I could slide open the door, step out onto a small porch, down a few steps, and be there in the sand and surf. But for now, I was content to stay in bed. It was the ultimate contrast to my harried mornings getting up and ready for school.
I had a brief pang of longing for Ada and Charles.
They were being well loved. My next-door neighbor doted on them and was probably checking in on them more than the once a day I’d asked of her. Probably because it gave her a reason to get up and move around.
Still. I missed them.
A flash of bright color caught my eye. I shifted so I was sitting up a little more and watched as Austin and Cody, both in bright red swim trunks, made their way down to the water. Cody pushed Austin, who in turn splashed water on Cody.
I couldn’t hear what they were saying, obviously, but their friendship made me smile.
Seeing Austin in swim trunks certainly contributed to that smile as well.
Mmm. And that was enough of that line of thinking.
I tossed the covers back and threw my legs over the side of the bed. If the boys were already outside splashing in the water, there would be coffee and some sort of fresh pastry in the kitchen.
Since this was a co-ed trip, I’d been sleeping in shorts and a T-shirt. I glanced down, shrugged, and started out into the hallway. No one had had a problem with my version of pajamas yet. I didn’t anticipate it becoming one today.
I padded into the kitchen.
“Morning, sleepyhead.” Whitney grinned at me over the top of her coffee cup. “I figured after three full days here you’d be a little more on the raring to go side of things today.”
“That’ll teach you. I only pretend to be a morning person for the sake of my job.” I shot her a grin and moved to the coffee maker. “But if I’m holding people up, I can set an alarm.”
“You know we don’t have set plans.” Whitney tipped her mug and took a long drink. She set it down on the table. “I guess I should go check on Scott and Beckett. They were getting ready to go build another sand castle. I should probably help. Wes said to tell anyone I saw that he’s planning a dive this afternoon and everyone’s welcome. Text him if you want to join.”
I finished doctoring my coffee. “Will do.”
I wasn’t sure about diving. I’d gotten certified with everyone else at Christmas. But what I wanted to do was spend time with Austin, and he didn’t seem super keen on diving. But I’d ask him when he got back from swimming with Cody.
I took Whitney’s deserted spot at the table and unlocked my phone. I spent some time reading the day’s assigned readings for my current through-the-Bible-in-a-year plan and praying. Finished, I switched over to my email. I didn’t have any that seemed pressing, so I got up to get a refill on my coffee before opening up one of the social media apps that I rarely had time to worry about. I frowned at the number of notifications on the top menu. I hit the bell to drop the list down, and my frown deepened.
Why were so many people tagging me on the same article?
Unease churning in my gut, I tapped one of the notices and it took me to the post.
“Oh, no.” I closed the app and opened a browser. After a deep breath, I put Austin’s name in the search bar.
The top six results were all different articles with the same theme: billionaire teacher.
Austin was going to flip.
I clicked off my screen and sipped my coffee. What was I supposed to do? What was the right move?
We were on vacation. Austin wasn’t super plugged in at the best of times. I imagined he’d turned his cell off and stuck it in his bag as soon as he’d gotten on the plane. And I doubted very much he’d bothered turning it back on yet.
Was it better to ignore it now and just deal with it when we got home? I wouldn’t like that myself. I’d want to know now so I could plan. Maybe get over the initial horror of it before I was in a position to have to deal with it. Because he was going to have to deal with it as soon as we got back. Knowing the media in the DC area, that was a given.
I set my phone down and stared into my coffee.
All I could think of was the reminder to treat others the way I would want them to treat me.
No matter how much I didn’t want to tell Austin, I was going to have to.
I drained my coffee and carried the mug over to the dishwasher so I could load it in. For all that the guys had buckets of money—and the house they’d rented reflected that in spades—they didn’t go over the top and hire people to clean up after them on a daily basis. Instead, it was a lot like traveling with a group of college friends—everyone needed to clean their own messes and help out.
