Ty drilled him on all the other requirements for the rest of their meal. It was like pulling teeth and she didn't feel like she had gotten half the information she wanted to by the time they had to pack up and leave.

She peppered him with questions as they walked towards the lobby and as they waited for the rest of the Hamilton party to arrive. The group would be meeting Ty and Hudson along with another of Ty's co-workers for their day's excursion.

Ty was trying to learn more about the last-day t-shirts when she caught Nico walking into the lobby out of the corner of her eye. She managed to keep herself from looking directly at him, but it made her lose her train of thought. She stared at Hudson blankly for a moment before her brain whirled into action.

Her interactions with Hudson had not gone unnoticed by Nico and it was a problem. While she hadn't crossed any forbidden employee/passenger lines yet, she could admit that she was dancing pretty close to them. The last thing she wanted was anyone interested in her interactions with Hudson.

Johnny was too caught up in his betting ring to care, Jules was too focused on Hudson's hot friends, and Anders rarely got involved in any of the silly ship games unless it involved game night.

With Nico, she knew she didn't have to worry about him betraying her to the higher powers, but she also knew he wasn't above using information to his advantage. Especially, when it came to helping him win bets against Johnny.

"Earth to Ty," Hudson said, snapping his fingers in front of her face. "Where did you just go?"

"Hudson," she smiled, focusing closely on him while she worked to keep Nico in her peripheral vision.

She could see him leaning against the front desk and could only imagine the smug look on his face as he caught her in the act of the very thing he had just been teasing her about.

"Hudson," she said again.

"Still here."

"I need a favor."

His eyes pulled together at the strange turn in the conversation.

"Okay..." he said hesitantly.

"I need you to pretend to talk to me like you are frustrated about something and then walk to the other side of the lobby like you are really annoyed with me." She tried to keep her face neutral for Nico's sake, hoping Hudson would play along without question.

He looked at her for a moment then shrugged. "You brought me six types of bagels this morning when all I was expecting was coffee," he said.

He kept his voice low so only Ty could hear what he was saying, but began to make large, frustrated gestures with his arms, jabbing them in the air. "I was pleasantly surprised and I want to say thank you for joining me and providing the food. I had fun."

A smile had crept onto his face as he really nailed the dramatic arm movements and while it made him look adorably up to no good, she was grateful he was facing away from Nico.

Next, it was Ty's turn. She dropped her head to the humble and submissive level she had mastered when dealing with upset guests. "I had fun too. And I want to thank you for suggesting it and for showing up in such a classy shirt."

She was glad her head was down because she almost smiled at the annoyed noise Hudson made.

"Watch it, or my annoyed storming off might not be so fake."

"Maybe I'm not sure how good of an actor you are," she taunted.

"You watched me smile through water aerobics class. You know exactly how good I am." He threw his hands up in frustration before he spun and stomped away.

Ty frowned as she watched him go. She let her gaze linger on him for a moment before she shook her head and walked towards the front desk.

"Amy, do you have the details for Hamilton's excursion today?" she asked the woman behind the counter with a sigh. She ignored Nico until he spoke.

"Trouble in paradise?" he teased.

She only gave him a flat look before she accepted the paperwork from Amy and walked away. She couldn't hope that Hudson's and her performance was enough to get Nico completely off their tracks, but she was hoping it was enough to plant doubt in the conclusions he had come to about her and Hudson.

Nico lingered and forced her to keep her distance from Hudson until the rest of the Hamilton party arrived. When the Hamilton party did arrive, she knew she didn't have to worry about Nico's interest in her and Hudson as he took in the group's attire.

Like Hudson, all the men were wearing Hawaiian shirts, but unlike Hudson, they hadn't worried about their patterns being offensive. In fact, it seemed like they had swung to the opposite side and sought out the worst Hawaiian shirts ever created.

As the group neared Ty took in the shirts in all their awful glory. There were shades of color she hadn't known existed. One was a cherry red polo with toucans and golf clubs, that looked like the bastard child of a cruise ship and a golf course.

One had seven different Hawaiian patterns that looked like their mother had recycled their father's old shirts to make them this new one. One had teddy bears all over it, one had Grant and Kate's faces all over it.

Ty hadn't been lying when she told Hudson she was a professional in the field of Hawaiian shirts, and the Hamilton party easily claimed the highest honor of worst shirts. But she wasn't surprised to see the men lapping up all the attention their shirts were gaining.

She glanced over at Hudson and saw his shame had doubled as he took in all the shirts he would be forced to associate with.

Kenny walked up talking, but Ty was so distracted she only caught his last words.

"... Hamilton Party here... Oh!" He stopped dead in his tracks, his mouth a perfect 'O' as he stared at the group.

"They're here," she grinned.

She almost laughed as Kenny stood speechless as his eyes jumped from one shirt to the next.

It was a full minute before he was able to put on something that resembled a professional smile. He leaned in close to Ty and whispered out of the side of his mouth, "You are seeing this too, right? I'm not going crazy?"

Ty looked down at the paperwork in her hand to hide her words. "Oh, I see them and I don't think you have to worry about being the crazy one here."

Kenny allowed himself a short breath of a laugh before he pulled his features back into control. "Okay. Someone needs to alert Johnny. He won't want to miss this." Ty looked to where Nico had been a moment before and wasn't surprised to find he was gone.

"Nico is probably taking care of that. Come on," she motioned Kenny towards the group, "let's get them off the boat before they cause too much of a commotion."

The moment Ty approached the group, Hank jumped out in front of her, putting his Hawaiian shirt covered in Grant and Kate's faces on full display.

"What do you think?" he asked proudly.

"That's a one-of-a-kind."

"It is indeed." Hank smoothed out the front of the shirt. "I had this specially made for today."

"I still can't believe you had that made," Kate said, coming up behind him. She gave the shirt a sour look. "You didn't even choose a good picture of me."

"You didn't give any guidelines to the Hawaiian shirts," he argued. "The only direction was that Hawaiian shirts were required for our horseback riding."

"Hank." Kate shook her head like she couldn't believe he had done it, but the acceptance in her tone told Ty something like this wasn't out of character for Hank.

In fairness, Ty didn't think Kate was in a place to judge. She was dressed head-to-toe in a matching pink Hawaiian print: headband, shirt, shorts, even shoes.

"Speaking of horseback riding," Ty chimed in, "let's get this show on the road."

Ty was only partially successful in avoiding a commotion while trying to get the Hamilton Party off the boat. People stopped and stared as the large group moved as one big, Hawaiian shirt alien. They were halfway to the exit when Ty spotted Johnny heading in their direction, an eager gleam in his eyes.

"Keep them moving," Ty told Kenny as she left the group to cut Johnny off.

There was a small group of employees following behind him, all of them looking as eager as Johnny was to see the phenomenon. Ty had lost too many battles against Johnny to know a hard 'no' wouldn't stop him. She needed to give him an alternative plan that would benefit both of them.

"Johnny. Johnny!" She snapped her fingers in front of his face to get his attention.

"What?" he snapped, giving her an annoyed look.

"We are using Lower Exit Ten," she said quickly. "If you use the employee staircase behind the front desk you can beat us there and use the window on the employee door to track all the shirts."

It only took him a moment to think over her idea before he turned.

"Let's go," he said, waving the group of employees after him.

Ty let out a sigh of relief and returned to Kenny and the Hamilton group.

"If Johnny is taking votes," Hudson said as he came to walk beside Ty, "mine is on Hank."

Ty smiled without looking at him. "I don't know, I think Russell is putting in a good effort."

They both searched for the orange shirt with a cat riding on a shark that was vomiting a rainbow. It was surprisingly hard to find him in the sea of brightly colored shirts.

"And let's not forget the ladies," Ty added.

Where the guys showed up in unique prints, the girls showed up in coordination. Like Kate, many of the girls had chosen full-Hawaiian outfits. One had matching earrings and bracelets, that coordinated.

"Take Ashley for example," Ty said quietly, pointing to the brunette a few steps ahead of them. Ashley's baby blue Hawaiian shirt had T-Rexs in a taco drinking a cocktail. "She can really be seen as a fashion innovator."

"Why is the T-Rex in the taco?" Hudson questioned.

"Why is Russell's shark puking a rainbow?" Ty shrugged. "Sometimes you just have to accept great art for what is it."

"A deep humiliation."

Ty laughed until she heard Kenny's sharp whistle from the front of the group beckoning her. "I gotta go," she said, then leaned in closer to whisper, "Johnny is at the employee door on your left if you want to add your vote."

Ty's real work kicked in as she made sure the group stayed together as she and Kenny got them on board the small boat that would ferry them to the mainland. The Grand Cayman's didn't have a dock big enough for the cruise ship and the added step of taxiing from the cruise ship to land always added a large amount of chaos to something that was already chaotic.

It was only when Ty had accounted for the last member of the Hamilton Group climbing aboard the bus that she let her sparkling customer-service smile fall for a moment.

"Your smile is already gone and we haven't even gotten to the main event," Kenny chided her, poking her cheeks. "Amateur."

Ty smacked his back as he climbed on the bus and she followed him.

"We're ready to go," she told the driver and slipped into the first row of seats next to Kenny.

It was a short ride and before anyone in the Hamilton Party could get in any good amount of flirting, the bus was pulling along the side of a white sandy beach. Everyone's attention went from each other to the bright blue water and the horses waiting for them.

"Welcome to The Seven Mile breach," Ty said. "Who is ready to go horseback riding?"

The group didn't need any more incentive to disembark from the bus and the next moment the bright Hawaiian shirts were invading the scenic setting of the horses on the beach.

The group managed to tamp down their excitement long enough to listen to the horse instructors but once they began to call the first riders forward to help them climb onto their horses, everyone's phones came out and Ty was quickly pulled into the role of photographer until almost everyone had been paired with a horse.

It was only when there were a few people left waiting for their horses that Ty noticed Hudson had removed himself from the group. She joined him at the water's edge, taking a deep breath of the salty air.

"This is the best part of my job," she said.

He looked at her. "The view or the horses?"

"The view, but the horses are a nice added benefit." He let out a less-then-pleased huff and she looked at him more closely. "You don't think the view is beautiful?"

"No, this is amazing." He motioned to the clear water before them.

"So it's the horses you aren't excited about?"

"Riding on a thousand-pound animal that could buck me off at any moment? No, I'm thrilled about that," he said flatly.

Ty looked at him and could see that he was being serious. She bite back a smile, amused to find he had something he was fearful of. He gave her a sideways look and sighed.

"You can laugh," he said.

"No," she said but it came out more as of a laugh and she quickly clamped a hand over her mouth.

"I know it's ridiculous," he admitted, "'The horses are trained. They will only be scared of you if you are scared of them.' Trust me, Kate let me know exactly how unfounded my fear was when I tried to convince her to choose a different excursion. But it seemed everyone else thought it was a great idea."

He looked up the beach to where almost everyone was already on their horse.

"It's really fun," Ty said, starting back towards the group. She looked back to see Hudson regretfully following her. "Come on! You took a leave of absence from your family's business. Riding a horse can't be worse than that."

He scoffed. "I would happily quit my family business if it meant I didn't have to ride a horse."

She nodded. "You can stay on the bus," she offered. Then added with a coy smile, "I'm sure Hank will make a great riding partner."

"Do you really think mentioning Hank is somehow going to convince me to get on a horse?"

She shrugged. "It worked with water aerobics."

"Not this time," he said, but Ty noticed him seriously eyeing Hank as they neared the group.

"Do you think Hank would make a shirt with my face on it if I asked him?" she teased.

Just by chance, Hank looked over at them and Ty waved. A sly, flirty grin slipped onto his face as he directed his horse to where Ty and Hudson were.

"On second thought," Hudson said, stepping in front of Ty to block her view of Hank, "How bad can it be?"

**********************************************************************

आपकी यात्रा सुरक्षित रहे। (Hindi)

If you're in dire need to share your thoughts then share them here! 💭💬🗯🚢🛟

I'm going to keep this author's note simple because sometimes the best things in life are the simple things.

If you had one week of vacation with all the money you need where would you go, what would you do, and who would you take with you?

Me: Easy, I go to Seoul, South Korea, with my sisters Grace and Murph during cherry blossom season and we visit the HYBE museum.

Other simple things in life you can do: vote, comment, follow