Page 31 of The Grumpy Doc's Surprise Delivery

We get in the elevator together and descend to the first floor. We’re on the earlier side of the breakfast opening, so there aren’ttoo many people around. That’s the way I like it. This way we can get first pick of the buffet.

Emma, as usual, gets a selection of fruits and toast with jelly. I have a bowl of plain, bland cereal. Hotel cereal is always the same. They never have brand stuff, so it’s always whatever the closest wholesale brand is. But it’s reliable. It’s always the same type of terrible.

“What do you feel like doing today?” Emma says as we settle.

“Who knows? It’s your plan to go out.”

“Yes, and I’m asking what you think.”

I hum thoughtfully, perhaps hamming it up a little too much. “Well, your ankle is looking a lot better. Why don’t we go out on an excursion?”

“An excursion?” she asks, intrigued. “What sort of excursion?”

I shrug. I don’t really know why I’m agreeing to this again. I would have thought that by now I should be tired of her. I shouldn’t want to spend more than two minutes looking at her, let alone go for a whole day trip with her.

But then my mouth opens again, and I say, “Let’s head into the forest. Let’s do it properly this time. We can find one of those walking trails and see everything that we missed last time.”

“Great idea,” she says with a smile. “I like that.”

“Good.”

We agree to meet again in the hotel lobby after breakfast, both of us having changed into more sensible shoes and longer pants. I’m not going to let the forest get the best of me this time. Therewill be no falling over, no bug bites, no getting lost. We’re doing this by the book.

I arrive in the lobby first and head to the desk.

“Hello, sir,” says the young woman at reception.

“Hi. Are the buses to the trails running this morning?”

She nods. “Do you want a day ticket?”

“Can I get two?”

“No problem, sir. Can I interest you in any of our guided tours?” She gestures to a tableau of leaflets on the desk, and I let my eyes dance over them for a second. They’re all bright colors and bold fonts, shouting about boat trips and scuba diving and tiny little turtles.

They all look like tourist traps to me, and though I think some of them might be kind of fun and I definitely think Emma would enjoy some of them, I shake my head. This is about us time.

Us time does not include hundreds of tourists talking too loudly and disrupting everything as we’re trying to enjoy ourselves.

“It’s fine,” I say. “Just two bus tickets.” Then I really know that Emma’s rubbing off on me because I add a belated and slightly forcedpleaseto the end of my sentence.

“Liam,” comes her voice from behind me. I turn around to see her in a hat and sunglasses, and my heart jumps inside my chest.

Why is just the sight of her making me feel like this? What power is she holding over me?

I hold up the two bus tickets. “I got us tickets,” I say.

“Tickets?” she asks. “I thought the trails were free.”

“They are, but I think we should go to one of the fun ones. And the fun ones are a bus trip away.”

Emma makes a face, scrunching up her nose, but then her mouth twitches into a smile. “I think I should hold the map this time, don’t you?”

I raise an unimpressed eyebrow. “We won’t need a map this time because we’re going to stay on the trail.”

“Ah, see! You do learn from your mistakes.” She grins, and I can’t help but let a little smile out too. The power she has over me is making me see comments like that as a joke rather than a challenge.

It’s starting to get disturbing.

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