She definitely got the message though because she immediately stopped goofing around and it was just then that I noticed that my step-daughter had come over to join us and give her friend a little pep talk. Hearing the sharp retort that I had given Riley, she said “whoa…what’s that Dad?”
I couldn’t really think of an explanation other than the truth but was not about to say that so I simply said that we were working on some issues to help her out. She didn’t ask anything more but I’m not sure that she bought the explanation. A few more tweaks and then I told her to stay exactly like she was and I inserted the magazine into her rifle with more ammo and then reached around to chamber the first round.
“Remember everything that we just went over,” I told her and then stood right next to her to watch closely everything that she did. This time each round landed on the target and they were spread about an area of a dollar bill. Although not great shooting, it was a drastic improvement from the last magazine that she had fired. Another magazine full had her improve slightly but most importantly she was beginning to have more fun with it.
I gave the two girls another box of ammunition each and then went to go get a rifle for me to shoot. I returned to the line in the lane next to them and the three of us sent some lead down range. I had the girls shooting with targets at the 25 meter line but the other advantage to being down at the end of the range was that these lanes went out to 500 meters. I immediately ran my target out to the 100 line for a warm up and quickly ran through two 15 round magazines. Riley couldn’t believe when I got the target back and all thirty rounds were in a group a little bit larger than a quarter. I made a couple of minor adjustments to the sights and sent a fresh target out to 250 meters. Two magazines later and it returned with a grouping that was still smaller than a half dollar.
“My God,” Riley started; “you really keep it tight, don’t you.”
My step-daughter quickly answered “oh yeah, he really likes it tight; don’t you Dad?”
“He’s great at getting things into a really small hole over and over again,” she continued without pause. The innuendo was extremely thick but I felt it best to simply ignore it.
In one word I replied “practice.”
Both girls giggled and we resumed our shooting until we were out of ammo. Riley had actually gotten good enough that she saved one of her targets to show off and told us that she wanted to do this again sometime. We linked back up with the others and once the cleanup was done decided to head back home. When we arrived at the cabin it was only a little after two o’clock and we still had plenty of day left to go do something else if we wanted to.
There was way too much day left to call it a wrap so the discussion quickly turned to what we would like to do with the rest of the afternoon. A consensus was finally reached that no one really wanted to just sit around the cabin but also no one really felt like doing anything terribly active. Leave it to my step-daughter, who would probably choose to spend every waking moment under the sun’s rays if she could get away with it, to suggest heading off to the island to bask the afternoon away.
Oddly enough, since he never liked to agree with his sister, the older of the two boys jumped at the chance. We all looked around the room at each other and seeing that there were neither any arguments against the idea nor did anyone have a better idea, it was decided that we would pack up and head out there.
Once the decision had been made, Riley asked if we were allowed to make a fire out there and when I gave her an affirmative response she suggested that since it was a late start that we should stay later. We could build a fire, have dinner, and generally stay as late as we felt like. That idea, as well, seemed to appeal to the group so we quickly packed some things up and headed out to the boat.
Once we got into open water I took the opportunity to let the boys take the helm for a little while, teaching them how to handle the boat. They did pretty well except once when they nearly threw my wife out of the boat after hitting a swell at a bad angle causing the boat to suddenly lurch toward the port side that she was sitting on. Luckily she caught her balance quickly enough and didn’t end up in the water. I made them slow down a little bit after that but to be honest I think that the event itself had already taught them the lesson. We made it to the island without further ado and had actually made pretty good time; arriving about 3:30. Before we left I had made sure to check the tides and knew that we were going into a flood tide so I brought the boat nice and close to the shoreline to make it easier to offload everyone and the items that we had brought with us. Once I had made sure that the anchor was secure, I turned off the boat and headed in myself joining the rest of the family who were already setting up a little “camp.”
My wife, Riley, and the younger of the two boys stayed on the beach to set up while the other three of us headed into the woods to collect some wood to build a fire with later and by 4:00 we had enough to cover us through the evening and decided that it was time to relax. Riley, the boys and I began to throw a Frisbee around the beach a little and were having fun but after about twenty minutes the boys asked to see where we had been getting the clams from. Shrugging my shoulders, I announced to the group that we were heading over to the cove and asked if anyone wanted to come. My wife and step-daughter simply waved for us to go on and Riley stated that she was going to catch some rays with them so it was just going to be the guys.
Remembering the route that I had been shown the day before, I led the group over there and upon our arrival we got straight to work collecting the tasty shellfish. With all three of us going at it, it wasn’t long before we had plenty and decided to bring them back to the cooler and put them on ice. About halfway back we got to a split in the trail and the younger of the boys stated that he wanted to do a little beachcombing and his brother readily agreed after asking if I would bring the clams back for them. I stated that I would, ensured that they knew how to get back to where we had set up, and told them to ensure that they were with us before the sun dropped too low.
When I got back to the ladies, I figured that I had been gone for about an hour and didn’t really pay them much mind as I made some room in the cooler for the clams. Once they were safely on ice though, I received a huge shock…all three of them were lying on their backs with their breasts completely exposed and seemed to have no care in the world about it. Obviously, I knew from the day before that the two girls had no problem sunbathing topless but seeing them do so in my wife’s presence, not to mention her participation, was a bit shocking. Honestly, I was not sure what to do or say; should I simply ignore it or would that seem odd in and of itself?