“This pirate ship doesn’t have a plank to walk, does it?”
“I don’t know, but that would be a serious hazard. I’ll make a note to ask him.”
“Are you going to leave him a sticky note?”
“Of course not.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “Those are only for you.”
She sighed and turned her head to look at the clock. “I hear people moving around out there. It won’t be long before Johnny comes looking for us.”
“The door’s locked.”
She laughed and pushed him away. “He’s three. Put some pants on and let’s go visit whoever’s already made coffee.”
* * *
The screaming had drawn Laney to the pool. She thought it was playful screaming and not panic, but she felt like she had to check.
She hadn’t expected to find half the men in the pool with the kids, playing what looked like a cross between volleyball and rugby with an inflatable beach ball. After probably fifteen minutes, she still couldn’t figure out the rules of the game and she was starting to suspect the game didn’t actually have any.
“You might not want to watch this.”
Laney turned to see Mary walking toward her. “If I had a whistle, I’d probably be out of air already from blowing it.”
“Your nerves just haven’t had a chance to build up a resistance yet.”
“Resistance to the noise? Or to the potential for drowning?”
“Resistance to doom.” Mary smiled and leaned on the fence to watch the chaos. “Everything’s doom with this bunch. Camping trip of doom. Or, in this case, water ball of doom.”
“I’ve experienced the shopping list of doom.” Laney laughed. “For this one, though, I might need a margarita of doom.”
“Those don’t hurt.” She held up her purple insulated tumbler. “Thismightbe wine. But they swim like fish and, even though it doesn’t look like it, they watch out for each other.”
“You have a wonderful family, Mary. I envy you, really.” She realized that probably sounded weird and felt herself blush. “I mean, I wish my family were more like this. They’re a little stuffy.”
That wasn’t all of it. She knew the odds she’d ever stand by a pool and watch with amused affection as her grandchildren tried to kill each other with a blow-up ball grew slimmer every year. But she wasn’t sure how to explain that without sounding like she’d given up, and then she’d get the obligatory pep talk about how she was still young. And Ben’s name would probably be mentioned.
At least he’d texted her, as promised.I’m home and going to sleep for as long as I can. Just wanted to let you know I’m off the trails.
Laney had wished him sweet dreams, not seeing until a few hours later on the news channel’s Facebook page that there had been a fatal ATV accident late last night. She didn’t know if she should say something to him and, if so, what she should say. But she did know that the best thing she could do until she heard from him was assume he was sleeping and let him be.
“Laney! There you are.”
Usually when a guest was looking for her, a toilet was clogged or they’d just blown a fuse in their camper. But when this family came looking, she was about to have an adventure.
“We’re going for a ride. Just us girls, so let’s go.”
“A ride. You mean on the four-wheelers?”
“My helmet should fit you,” Mary said. “I’m going to stay here, so you can wear it.”
“And you can ride Bobby’s machine. It’s the same as Beth’s, so you already know how to drive it.”
Laney was still trying to wrap her head around it—especially considering the news still fresh in her mind—but Emma was practically dragging her toward the other women, who were gathering their riding gear and putting bottles of water in the machines that had cargo boxes on them.
“I don’t know if I want to do this.”
“You’re going to do fine, I promise,” Emma said, even though Laney wasn’t sure how she could promise that since she’d never seen her ride.
