“What do you need from us?” Brock asks.
“If you and Grant can carry him back, that would be great.” I smile at him. “Just watch your step.”
Both men move around us girls carefully and lift Dominic up out of the water.
“There you go, buddy,” Grant says as he wraps his arm around Dom’s waist.
Once Dominic is balanced between the two, he hobbles between them on one foot.
Slowly but surely, our little group makes it back to the cruise ship. One of the attendants spots us and grabs a wheelchair.
“Here, you can use this.”
“Thank you.” I smile at the attendant, making him blush.
“Hey, get your own. She’s mine.” Dominic snaps his fingers at the guy.
I roll my eyes at him while everyone else laughs.
“Shut up. Let’s get you taken care of.”
“Do you want us to come with?” Nessa asks.
“Nah, I got this. You guys go have fun. I’ll check in later.”
“Okay, keep us updated,” Grant says at me before looking down at Dom. “Be good, buddy. If you need someone to pee on you and Katie won’t do it, just call me, okay?”
“Oh for Christ’s sake, you don’t pee on a starfish sting.”
Dominic grunts. “How do you know? Have you ever been stung by a starfish?”
“Can’t say that I have,” I tell him as I push him toward the medbay.
“Well, if this is what a starfish does when you poke it, I don’t think I want to poke your starfish anymore,” he mumbles.
I look down at Dominic and see him looking at me, his eyes glassy with pain. “Almost there, just hold on a few minutes, okay?”
“You’re so pretty.”
“Thank you,” I say as I look up. “Here we are.”
“Can he walk?” the employee asks.
I shake my head. “He stepped on a starfish. It looks to be his left foot. With help, he can probably hop.”
I warily look at the platform going from the pier to the boat. The ocean is calm at least, making it sway only slightly.
The man nods, calling for another employee. Together, they help get him onto the ship and into another wheelchair.
Turning, I startle when I see a security guard behind me.
He gives me a kind smile. “I’ll take this back for you. Have a good rest of your trip. I hope he feels better.”
I nod my thanks before hurrying on the ship behind Dominic. I feed our items through the x-ray machine before walking through the metal detector. As I’m doing this, the employee is using a wand to check Dominic. Once done, I hand them our cards to check us back on board.
“I’ll take you over to the medbay,” the man who helped us board tells me.
I follow him down some halls until we are outside a room labeled Medbay.