“You looking for the big D?” asked Brayden, making them jump. He’d come out of the water with a Navy SEAL level of stealth.
“Have you seen him?” asked Valerie. Nico hated himself for watching to see if she would check out Brayden, who stood posing in a pair of tight black Euro-briefs.
“He went out in a kayak about an hour ago. You want some protein toast?”
“What’s in it?” asked Nico.
Brayden slicked his hair back in a way Nico suspected was primarily to flex his lats. “Protein. Toast. That’s all you need to know. I can’t give you my secrets, man.”
“It sounds delicious but I ate,” Valerie said.
“Did you reach your prot-min?”
“My what?”
“Prot-min. Minimum amount of protein per day. Theprotis for protein.”
“Is theminfor minimum?” she asked.
Brayden looked impressed. “Nice. I was worried people wouldn’t get it. It’s a calculation I created based on your body measurements and fitness goals. I’m going to patent it. Come by my boathouse and I’ll do you for free.”
“Thanks?”
“I know this stuff because I’m top of the bell curve. Protein is the building block of muscle, you know? Without muscle, we’d be bone.” Brayden said the last reverently, as if he’d been privy to some secret universal truth before he left for the boathouse.
“Prot-min. I like it. Zingy,” said Valerie, looking after him thoughtfully. “Apropos of nothing, did you know Australians call Speedos budgie-smugglers?”
Her tone ate up any residual jealousy. “I did.”
She squinted at the water. “Looks like Brayden was right. There’s David coming in. Keep an eye on him and I’ll be right back. Let’s show him the photo we found yesterday to see how he reacts.”
“Roger might want to be here for that,” Nico reminded her.
“You said he was stuck in meetings all day. We can report back.”
She ran up to the house, leaving Nico to wait for David, who started complaining the second he got within yelling distance of the dock.
“You would not believe the nerve of some of these summer people,” he said, glaring at his paddle as if it had failed him. “I nearly got swamped by some weekender jackass in a knockoff Sea-Doo.”
David was still telling Nico about how he’d brilliantly outmaneuvered the guy’s wake when Valerie returned with an exquisite snack tray and a cooler of drinks, the perfect lure for a man who had come in from an hour on a gorgeous lake on a spectacular day and, somehow, remained cranky.
“Roger said you were the best paddler in the family,” Valerie said as she put the tray down. “I heard you bet about who could canoe around the lake fastest and you were almost done before he got halfway.”
Nico had wondered why Valerie had been pressing Roger for old family stories. David nodded contently at this reminder of his previous glory. “Roger hated that.”
She handed him a cold can of sparkling water, which David accepted without thanks. It was like watching an expert craftsperson at a forge as she slowly led David, through various rants, on a conversational journey that finally landed on the Lakeview. She passed him a bowl of cut fruit with whipped cream-cheese dip, and he took a strawberry.
“The Lakeview doesn’t have to try,” he said, talking around a mouthful as he dipped it again. “It has a captive audience. Have you heard that term before?Captive audience.”
“It must have been the big hangout when you were younger,” she said. “We found a photo of all of you there.”
He barely glanced at the photo from the album. “That place used to have character. Now it has no ambiance. You know that word,ambiance?”
Nico wondered how Valerie was going to get this on track asking about Yvette, but he shouldn’t have worried. “Oh my goodness,” she said as if just noticing. “Is that Yvette?”
David didn’t look until she shoved the photo back under his nose. “It might be. She wasn’t my type, so I didn’t bother with her. I remember that day. There were two boats about to collide in the marina and I was the only one who noticed.” He pointed to a spot at the back of the photo, near Yvette’s position, sounding aggrieved. “Roger was too busy talking to Penny.”
“What a party!” Penny strolled up, adjusting her hat. “What are we all doing?”
