“Okay, now we’re…” Solana stopped short seeing none of her gang at the beach towels where she had left them only moments before. “Where in the he-…oh.” Tossing the bottle of sun screen on the towel, she walked towards the shrill screech of her daughter and Jack.

“Faster, Ben! Faster!”

“Come on, man…they’re whoopin’ us!”

They had obviously decided not to wait on her. Nick and Ben were running along the surf pulling Jack and Rosalie behind them on small body boards. Not quite what they were for, but definitely a good use.

Ben made the grave mistake of looking back to see how close Nick and Jack were, and tripped, rolling along the wet sand, making Rosalie a virtual water propelled torpedo. “Ahhhhhh! Ben…come get me!”

There was no danger and Ben wasn’t hurt, but he was laughing too hard to be of any use. Fortunately for Solana, so was Nick. So, she did what any self-respecting woman would do.

She took advantage of the situation.

Kicking off her sandals and whipping off her t-shirt, she ran to catch up with Rosalie’s runaway body board. She scooped up the string and continued jogging, catching back up with Nick and Jack.

“Is there a finish line to this race?”

“Nope…should stop in Jax though.”

“Cute…put it in first gear, Gringo…I’m takin’ this one.” And she did…taking full advantage of the fact that Nick had been running for a few minutes longer and was tiring out.

“Yay Mami! Go! Go!” Rosalie obviously had glue on her ass because when Nick kicked it in gear to catch up, he lost his traveling partner. In a pile on the surf.

“Nick!”

“Oh man…” Nick stopped and picked up his board, jogging back to make sure Jack was fine.

And he was. And Solana was scooping up her running companion and spinning her around in a mother/daughter victory dance. Sore winners.

Solana jogged back to the boys, this time carrying the body board and letting Rosalie kick her feet in the water. “You know,” she smacked Nick’s backside again with the board, “if you used these how you were supposed to…”

“I didn’t see a rule book with ‘em. You beat us anyway.”

“Yes, we did. How good are you in the water with these?”

Hearing her challenge, he winked and took off for the waves. “Get on out here and we’ll see!”

“Oh here comes one, Ben…ready?”

“Oooh, yeah…this looks awesome.”

The two blondes turned their back to the oncoming wave and hopped on their body boards, kicking just ahead of it, hoping it’d turn and carry them all the way in. Or, at least a good bit in.

“Go, go, go!” Ben caught it at just the right time and he was coasting in whooping and hollering all the way.

Nick missed and fizzled out after just a few feet. Not to mind, there were plenty more where that came from. “Nice job, dawg…that was a good one.”

“Yeah, god it feels so good.”

“Yep, better than flying.”

“I still wanna do that one day.”

“One day…you will. Come on back, I’m gonna beat you this time.”

“Nick! Ben! Watch the chairs, guys!” Solana was busy tending to the more fearful ones of the group, building a sand mansion. Castles weren’t quite good enough for Rosalie.

“Kings and queens live in castles. I want mansion!” So a mansion it was.

“Oh shit, Mom’s callin’…we gotta head back this way.” Trudging against the current, Nick and Ben evened themselves back up with their chairs and towels and started the process all over again.

After a few more decent rides, Nick stumbled his way to the others, admiring their work, dripping water into their mote. “Oooh…which room’s mine?”

“With Mami. Right…” leaning over to the tallest column of the mansion, Rosalie showed him, “…here. Jack here. Ben here and Rosalie here…by Mami and Nick room.”

Eyeballing Solana, she shrugged, trying not to react. Rosalie hadn’t done room assignments yet. It was a shock to her as well.

“I see. Jack, you wanna come out?”

“I dunno…what if a wave takes me under?”

“You can hang on to my neck…we’ll take it easy. Come on…”

“Go, Jack. Ride waves!” Rosalie patted her bucketful of sand with her chubby fingers and quickly flopped it over. Sliding the pale from the formed mound, she announced, “Kitty room.”

“Nothin’ left but the decorating, Jack. Come on.”

From out in the water, Jack heard the final, and mind-changing plea. “Come on, pussy…you can do it.”

Frowning at his brother’s warped form of encouragement, he got up and wiped his hands on his trunks. “Okay…no big ones though.”

“Nope, no big ones.”

They walked out into the water together until it got chest high for Jack…which wasn’t too terribly far. Nick squatted down and invited him to hang onto his neck. “I dunno, Nick…it’s wavy out here.”

“It’s the ocean, Jack. It’s supposed to be wavy.”

“But…”

Nick stopped moving through the water and turned Jack to his front, letting the body board pull against his wrist as it floated beside them. “Wrap your legs around me.”

“Okay…but, we can’t ride this way.”

“Nope. I need you to look at me.”

Jack brought his eyes away from the treacherous water and looked into Nick’s eyes. He seemed almost angry. “What?”

“Would I do anything to put you in danger?”

“No.”

“Have I ever done anything to put you or your family in danger?”

“No.”

“Then Jack, buddy…you gotta trust me.”

“I don’t trust the water.”

“I do. It’s powerful and strong and wonderful. We’re fine.”

With one more look of assurance, Jack wiggled around to hang on from behind again. “Okay. Just once.”

“Just once.” With Jack hanging on tight, Nick leaned onto the board and swam/walked deeper into the water, just hanging out there for a bit, letting Jack get used to the feel, waiting for a good wave to ride in.

“You okay back there?”

“Yeah…it’s peaceful out here.”

“Yep. And we’re far enough out that we don’t have to ride anything. We can just bob along.”

“Okay…”

And that’s what they did. No words. Nothing worth saying. It was damned peaceful and Ben was giving enough entertainment yelping and screaming as he rode the waves in alone.

“Could we just stay here forever?”

“It’d be nice, huh?”

“Yeah…better than home.”

“That’s what vacation should be…better than home.”

“Then any time I’m with you it’s vacation.”

“Hey now…I thought things were better.”

“Yeah, they are. I guess. I just…”

Seeing Ben approach, he went a bit more shallow so he could join their conversation. This could get interesting.

“I just want my own room.”

“Ah, yeah, well…that would bug me too.”

Laying along his own board, Ben did join in, enjoying the relaxing water as well. “Hell, I’ll take a room. I’ll even share it with you, twit.”

“Gee, thanks.” Not wanting the seriousness to continue, Jack looked back and saw a decent sized wave coming. “Okay, Nick…I think I’m ready.”

“Let go with your legs and just lay on me when I start kickin’, okay?”

“Yup…Ben…we’ll see you on the other side!”

“One…two…three…let go and kick!”

“Woooooohooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Nick and Ben both caught the wave just right and Jack held on for dear life, screaming out of fear, joy, anything. He just screamed. Tumbling into the shallow surf, Nick scooped up Jack and swung him around.

“You did it!”

“I did it!”

Seeing Solana heading into the water, Nick put Jack down so he could get a hug from her too. A hug for the little one was on her mind, but more importantly, she had another agenda.

“Ben, can I use your board?”

Unwrapping the Velcro from his wrist, he handed it over. “Yeah, sure…you ride?”

“Yup. You got an eye on Rosalie?”

“Yeah…we’re good. Go kick his butt.”

Walking out a little further, Solana turned back to the group on land, still playing in Rosalie’s sand mansion. “Hey, Gigglebuns!”

Not missing a beat, Nick stood, pulling his board up under his arms. “Yes, Gizzardhiney?”

“Even up the score?”

“Oh…we’re keeping score?” He started toward the water, straight to Solana. She backed up, he took a step forward. Never did their eyes part from each other. Never did their hearts settle back into a regular rhythm.

“Um, yeah…thought you uh…” Step. Step. “…might wanna make good on, uh…” Step. Wave. Step. Step. “…losing Jack.”

“Mmm…you think you can beat me again, huh?”

“I know I can.”

Raising an eyebrow and looking behind her as a wave approached, he said nothing, laughing as she squealed when the cold water crashed against her back. “Sure about that now?”

Trying to appear immoveable, she quickly ducked underwater and resurfaced wiping her eyes to focus on him again. “Yep. Totally sure.”

“You’re on.”