Royals

Chapter 22

Instead of being cuddled against Joey, I woke up alone with nothing aside from the plush frog that Joey won the previous night. I shrugged off his disappearance when I found a note taped to the headboard above me.

DON'T GO ANYWHERE. Breakfast in bed is way more fun than breakfast at a table.

With a smile on my face, I plopped my suitcase onto my bed and picked out my clothing for the day. I pulled on a bathing suit top and dropped my pajama shorts to the ground when I heard the door to the hotel suite close.

Standing in only a bikini top and my underwear, I hastily scanned the bedroom in search for something to cover myself up with, but it wasn't any use. Seconds later, Joey appeared at my door with a playful smirk on his lips.

"Cute bum, babycakes," he greeted, sending me a wink.

"Just turn around," I ordered with a groan.

To my surprise, Joey let out a dramatic sigh before complying with my request and turning around.

As I finished slipping my bikini bottoms on, Joey turned around and peered at me through this fingers. "Are you done yet?"

"You're lucky I wasn't naked," I answered, throwing a pillow at him.

"Yep, lucky me," he sarcastically replied.

I rolled my eyes before slipping on a tank top and shorts. "What food did you get?"

Joey's eyes filled with excitement as he emptied out the contents of a brown bag. He displayed a buffet of pancakes, eggs, bacon, toast, sausage, hash browns, and three orange juices.

"Three?"

"For Lillia," Joey mumbled. "We wouldn't want her to starve...or hate us any more than she already does."

Deciding to take advantage of the warm Florida weather, Joey and I migrated to the balcony. We placed the Styrofoam carry-out boxes on a small table between us and dug in. When our stomachs couldn't handle anymore food, we dumped the remaining contents into a single box. I used a sharpie to write Lillia's name on the box in big letters before placing her food in the fridge.

After Joey changed, we gathered our things and walked down to the beach. Without much preparation, Penelope, Eddie, Joey, and I climbed onto our rental Jet Skis and sped out into the ocean.

The water was breathtaking. Despite the large distance between the ground and us, the water was so clear that we could see the bright green seaweed budding from the bottom and the cotton ball looking sand that rested beneath it.

After about an hour of racing and skidding across the ocean, we turned off the motors and gathered our snorkeling equipment.

When we were all suited up and ready, we simply stared at each other, wondering who was dauntless enough to go first. Taking a deep breath, I dug my teeth into my snorkel and jumped into the crystal-clear water.

As soon as my head bobbed back up to the surface, I felt a splash beside me. Penelope. Seconds later, Eddie and Joey hopped in beside us, soaking in the warm water.

About fifteen minutes in, we decided to ditch the snorkels, considering we kept accidentally going down too far and swallowing the water.

We used Penelope's iPhone--secured by a lifeproof case--to snap pictures of us underwater. We even got a few of us with a few random fish.

We stayed out in the water for a good hour and a half before finally deciding to move on to the next thing on our agenda. After returning our Jet Ski's, we walked to the "swimming with dolphins" exhibit a few blocks down.