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She laughed softly. “All right, fine. You were asleep when I got up here and I let you go for half an hour or so while I made Jackson some lunch.”
I scrubbed my hands over my scratchy eyes. “Shit. Lunch? You should have woken me up.”
She shrugged in reply.
“Is Jackson all right?”
“Yup, he’s getting changed into his swim trunks. We found a couple of water guns. Well, technically they found us…”
I arched a brow.
“Let’s just say the cupboards have been reorganized and it wasn’t by choice.”
I laughed. “Aha. I wonder why Matt had water guns. Then again, maybe I don’t wanna know…” I chuckled to myself. Matt was usually so straight laced and proper. It was hard to imagine him entertaining anyone on the boat. He’d bought it for fishing and to take on weekend getaways, which I think he’d done twice since he bought it three years ago. Most of the time it sat in the harbor.
Melissa smiled. “I don’t want to know either. In any case, I promised Jackson we could have a war. He needs to burn off some steam after spending all day and night in the bedroom.”
I nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”
She stood and set her hand back on my shoulder. “You should go put on the noise-canceling headphones and try to get some sleep.”
“And miss all the fun?” I grabbed her hand and she tugged me up from my seat. “Not a chance, babe.”
Melissa smiled up at me, her eyes alive with a light I hadn’t seen since the night we drank on the patio outside our hotel room in Cabo. “Somehow I knew you’d say that.”
Jackson bolted up the stairs and slid in his flip flops across the slick deck. “Woah! Careful buddy! You don’t want to go running right now,” I said, realizing that it was maybe not the best time for a water gun fight. The water was calm and almost eerily silent in comparison to the raging, rolling waves that had plagued us for the last I don’t know how many hours. If someone went overboard, it wouldn’t be a disaster, but I would prefer to avoid it anyways. “In fact, let’s put some life vests on before we start.”
“That’s a good idea,” Melissa said, starting off toward the stairs. She stopped at the doorway and turned back to Jackson. “Sweetheart, stay with Chase. I’m going to go change. He’s going to get you hooked into a vest, okay?”
Jackson nodded. “Don’t forget to fill up the guns, Mom!”
“I won’t. I’ll be right back up.”
By the time she reappeared on deck, I’d strapped Jackson into a life vest and stripped my shirt off. Melissa walked across the deck, wearing a black bikini that stole my breath away, and made it impossible to tear my eyes off her sweet body and soft curves, even when she caught me gawking. I couldn’t help it and didn’t care if she knew it.
There was no way she’d put that bikini on without thinking of my reaction to it. And that thought excited me. I adored Jackson, but I suddenly wished he was back downstairs in the noise-canceling headphones. I needed a few minutes alone with his mother. Hell, I needed all night.
God, when did I turn into such a dick? This wasn’t about me, I reminded myself.
“Choose your weapons, boys,” she purred, holding out the two guns.
Fuck, she was sexy.
Jackson jumped at the gun in her right hand and she smiled as she passed the remaining gun over to me. “What about you, Mom?” Jackson asked.
“I think I’ll get some sun now that it’s back. You two go ahead.”
She flipped on a pair of sunglasses and pulled her hair back into a high ponytail, securing it with the elastic band she’d had wrapped around her wrist. “I’ll tag in and play when one of you gets tired.”
I chuckled. There was no doubt it would be me. Jackson could likely go all day. “All right, mama, stay ready.” I winked at her before Jackson sprayed me in the side, giggling like a mad hatter, before darting off to hide behind the bridge. I let my eyes linger on Melissa for another long moment as she unfolded and then situated herself in one of the deck chairs we’d stowed away hours before.
“Good luck, sailor,” she called over, before reclining back with a contented sigh.
Thanks to a day of afternoon sun and over an hour long water gun shootout, Jackson was ready to crash out early, leaving Melissa and me to restart our nightcap routine after dinner. I brought a new bottle of wine and a couple of glasses to our normal chairs and waited for her to get back up topside after tucking Jackson into bed. She came up and beamed at the sight of me and a wave of anticipation washed over me, easing the fatigue that plagued me even after an hour long nap in the shade after the water war.
