Stormwatch – The Love Boat

An adult stories – Stormwatch – The Love Boat by Duleigh,Duleigh © 2023 Duleigh Lawrence-Townshend. All rights reserved. The author asserts the right to be identified as the author of this story for all portions. This story or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the expressed written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a review or commentary.

Josh and Veronica finally go on their Honeymoon! This story is something I’ve wanted to write for a long time and it took a while for the logistics to line up and an even longer time for it to work its way into my writing schedule. For those of you who have read We’re a Wonderful Wife all the way through, thank you, and you may have an idea of what is coming from the title of this tale, which is the same title of Chapter 13 of We’re a Wonderful Wife. This story was written for the Summer Lovin’ Story Contest 2023. Please read and give me some feedback, good bad or otherwise.

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STORMWATCH

The Love Boat

It’s not guaranteed that you will get snow in a Buffalo winter, some winters are relatively snowless, but if you do get snow, the snow isn’t the worst part of the winter. The worst part of winter in the Buffalo area is the rain that will follow the snow. Picture yourself shoveling wet heavy snow off the driveway and it starts to rain. Your coat becomes a sponge and starts soaking up all that rain and you’re a quarter of the way done with the driveway, your coat feels like it weighs 50 pounds, or 23 Kilos if you’re so inclined, and your pants are soaked to the knees. Buffalo winters are wet, cold, slushy, and then at night all that wet slush will freeze over. It’s no wonder that during the winter places like Florida are inundated by people with strange accents hailing from locations with weird, mysterious names like Cheektowaga, Tonawanda, or Lackawanna. They recline in the sun where they drink tall drinks with the very ice that they escaped from and listen to WECK radio on the internet and rock to the 50’s and 60’s music. As they roast in the sun they dream of staying in Florida year-round and tremble knowing they have to go back to the wet and cold, their departure growing closer with every tick of the clock.

“Hey baby,” said the sexy woman’s voice in Josh Gravley’s earphone. That voice! That voice is the creator of a thousand erections and that’s just in Josh, he chose to ignore the millions she’s launched in men around the world when she was modeling. “What ‘cha doin?” came that breathy voice, he could almost feel her tongue tickling his ear.

“Well, since you couldn’t be with me for a night of debauchery spent in Anthony’s office, I invited a few of the girls from software development over to test out Ant’s new couch in his office,” he lied as he verified a purchase order against a huge spreadsheet. “I wore them out so I’m giving them a rest break before I go back in for round four. What are you doing?”

“Well, Audry and I got caught in the rain so we’re sitting naked in front of the fireplace sipping wine and comparing our sex toy collection as we warm up and dry off,” lied Veronica as she changed Mike Junior, her baby brother, while Mike Junior’s mom, Audry, folded laundry. “I think daddy is going to come claim his sexy bride and I’m going to be stuck here watching while they make wild passionate love,” her lie continued. Her dad was helping Audry with the laundry.

Getting the “I’m having more fun than you” lies out of the way Veronica and Josh chattered about their friends at work. Josh is currently on Stormwatch, so he’s sitting alone in an empty office building. His task is to keep an eye on the data center in case the promised storm hits, which in Western New York is a real worry. When the storm is expected to hit on the weekend a member of the data center team stays behind to keep an eye on the system and keep the emergency exits clear of snow.

For some reason all the really bad storms have been happening on the weekend and Josh’s data center team was stressed to the maximum. The newly hired techs were coming on strong, but they were not ready to work in this big system alone and Josh didn’t trust just anyone with a badge that will open every office in the building, so the same few people get tasked with Stormwatch duty over and over. This storm was weird, the weather changed back and forth between snow and rain and the local weather services were just as befuddled as the people of Western New York.

“Can’t you come home?” asked Josh’s sexy wife. Being one of the officers in the company she knew better, but she wanted her new husband, she wanted to lock her dad and his new bride and their baby in their in-law suite and lounge with Josh in bathrobes sipping coffee and make love the way they used to; Loud and passionate and anywhere in the house they wanted.

“I have a desk full of actual work to do, and I’m terrified that the rain will freeze, and everything will be covered in ice.” That’s what Commander Tom with the weather outside was saying; freezing rain for the rest of the weekend then next week the high temperatures are expected to be 20°, Commander Tom even threw in the -7°C for the Canadian viewers.

Veronica sighed, “you know that now you said it, it’s going to happen.”

“I’m not superstitious,” insisted Josh, “it’s bad luck to be superstitious.”

“Just make sure you’re home by five tomorrow night, Andi and Paul invited us over for dinner, Andi said that Paul has a proposition for us.”

Josh looked at the window and saw that the rain had changed to snow, for once Commander Tom was right. “I’ll try my best.”

A few minutes later Josh’s phone rang again, it was Terri McCarthy, one of the best technicians in the company, a goofy twenty something girl from Canada, Terri wants to be emo but she’s too bubbly to pull it off properly. “Hey bossman, is your dad’s cabin available?”

Years ago, Josh had purchased an old rundown scout camp as an investment. Several cabins have been restored and one of the nicest ones was used by Veronica’s dad Mike and his young wife Audrey. “Not sure, why do you ask?”

“Well…”

Josh could hear the embarrassment in her voice. “Let me guess, Mateo is back?”

“Well…”

Mateo Buran was a programmer in the same company that Josh and Veronica work in, he and Terri were an on again, off again couple that made everyone dizzy trying to keep up with their status. Terri was a bona fide city girl until she started visiting Josh’s camp and now she’s begging to borrow any cabin available since her parents won’t let her use their RV anymore as a romantic hideaway. “Let me get with Mike and see if he and Audry have any plans. I’ll let you know Monday. Tuesday at the latest.”

Josh signed off of the network and stepped outside and sure enough, the rain and snow were freezing to everything. Happy Stormwatch, he groaned as he took an old blanket out of his truck and threw it over the windshield so when his Stormwatch was over scraping the ice off the windshield wasn’t too difficult. Then he headed for the maintenance room to get the sack of ice melt, it was going to be a long night.

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Josh was able to get out of the office on Sunday evening when the regularly scheduled night crew came in and since it wasn’t raining or snowing in Springville, he and Veronica chose to walk the two blocks to Paul and Andi’s house. Their house is a beautiful 3-bedroom Victorian house with in-law suite on 14th Street and just two blocks away on Howard Ave sits the huge Victorian home of Paul and Adrianna Jarecki. In the winter they can see each other’s houses diagonally across the park that sits across the street from their houses. In the summer bands play at the band stand and an old fashion dancing pavilion sits in the park where, if the right band is playing, Josh and Veronica will dance the night away while Paul and Andi aren’t far away at the swings and slides with their children. The village has ice cream socials in the park, and the volunteer fire hall has competitions with other fire companies which are incredible fun to watch.

But there’s not much going on here in winter, there’s no hills in the park for sledding, but there is a skating rink and Veronica convinces Josh to skate occasionally. A year ago, when Josh and Veronica summoned up their courage and admitted their feelings for each other they had a lot of fun during the winter, they even got engaged at the company’s winter holiday party and they skied and tobogganed the winter away. This year Josh got a big promotion, Veronica’s dad moved in, married his young nurse, and they had a baby. With the big promotion getting time off from work was a rare treat, and with the in-laws living in the same house the best they could do was hide in Josh’s cabin and cuddle by the fire on the occasional Saturday night.

The snow that makes Springville a winter wonderland was now filthy, the snow captures dirt and dust from the air as it falls, then as it melts all that dirt ends up on top of the snow, a black tinge that resembles mold. At the same time the melted snow in the street creates a slushy mud that is splashed up on the snowbanks on the side of the street by passing cars making it worse. The winter this year has been hell, it started with a thundersnow on Christmas Eve which wore Josh out, and now it’s been a constant cycle of rain then snow, rain then snow.

And then the baby! Veronica’s dad is getting stronger as he deals with his heart condition, but there’s so much that needs to be done for a newborn. Josh won’t say it out loud but his home life as a child was horrible, so he’s secretly happy to be part of a loving family and even though his in-laws are taking one facet of joy out of his relationship with Veronica, it’s added others. He never thought he would enjoy bottle feeding a newborn as much as he does. However, he wants what Veronica wants, he wants their freedom.

They turned up Paul and Andi Jarecki’s driveway, still sad that they were so busy that they missed the holiday season. The beautiful Christmas decorations on Paul and Andi’s house cause people from all over Springville and beyond to flock to the neighborhood and gaze at their house were gone and have given way to tiny white lights lining the wrought iron fence around their corner lot and lining the edge of the canopy over the front porch. The white lights are pretty but are nothing compared to the Christmas splendor that wrapped the house in light for the holidays.

Entering the rear door, they were greeted by the Jarecki’s executive chef and governess Yi Jin Carlson, the Korean American daughter of the couple that captains Paul and Andi’s yacht for most of the year, and her boyfriend Kenny Johnson, manager of the local feed store. They were preparing dinner and Andi’s twins Sandy and Madeline were at the kitchen table, both little blonds had a bowl of dough in front of them and were trying to fashion blobs of dough. “What are we making girls?” asked Veronica.

“Bikkits,” said one of the girls, Josh has never figured out how to tell which one is Madeline and which one is Sandy.

Josh looked at Yi who translated, “Biscuits. They wanted biscuits for some reason, so we are practicing portion control.” The twins had a biscuit on a tray between them that Yi made, and they were trying to make their biscuits the same size as the “momma biscuit.”

“Y’all want some help?” asked Josh. That only elicited giggles from the twins, they picture Josh as an outdoorsman who uses a chainsaw to cut his steak, not a someone who could bake. Josh went over to the kitchen sink, washed his hands then dried them off and got a little bit of flour on his hands. “Y’all ready for this?” he dipped some biscuit dough out of Sandy’s bowl and fashioned a biscuit almost exactly the same as the momma biscuit, then he repeated the feat using dough from Madeline’s bowl.

“Woah,” gasped Madeline as the twins looked at the exact clones of the momma biscuit.

“The boy has biscuits in his blood,” said Veronica as Josh washed his hands again.

“I’m from South Georgia, girls. Biscuits is part of our heritage, it’s what us good ol’ boys do best.”

Andi appeared from the side door to the kitchen and said, “Please come join us before you start teaching the girls to make jambalaya.”

“Mah cookin’ lessins usually head t’ward red beans ‘n rice next,” said Josh, giving his southern drawl free reign.

“Oh no,” gasped Andi as the twins and Yi broke out into song.

Beans, beans the musical fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot.

The more you toot the better you feel, so eat your beans at every meal!

Chuckling they followed Andi through the house, and Veronica said, “We sang it differently, it went “Beans, beans, they’re good for your heart…”

“Yes, thank you dear,” said Josh pulling Veronica closer. “You can join the girls if you want, you can start a “Sweet Ads” quartet if you’d like.” When he mentioned Sweet Ads he was referring to the Sweet Adelines, an all-female a cappella singing organization.

They ended up in Paul’s mother’s living room, a room that he furnished to look exactly like the living room that Paul’s parents had in their apartment in Cheektowaga NY decades ago. According to twenty first century sensibilities the furniture was horribly ugly, but it made Paul, his brother John, and their mother Marjorie happy. Paul even had a floor council television reproduced with a modern HD screen and the twins are learning how to watch TV laying on the floor like their grandparents did.

In the “Cheektowaga Room” as Andi called it, was Andi Jarecki, a four-foot eight inch highly successful pulmonologist, dark blond hair large breasts, narrow waist, round hips, like Veronica she has a small nose and round chin. As for their height, Veronica is a full foot taller than Andi. Also was Paul Jarecki, six foot two, slim, thinning blond hair, hawk nose, narrow face, large adams apple. Joining them is Paul’s younger brother John, five foot eight, thick black hair but other than that a carbon copy of his brother. It’s said that Paul got his dad’s hair, John got his mom’s hair, and they both got the milkman’s nose.

“What’s a milk man?” asked Andi, who had heard the term before but didn’t know what it meant.

“Our grandfather,” said John.

“I don’t get it,” which got the biggest laugh, but Andi never figured out why.

Also with them is John’s wife Macy, or as she was once known as Marie-Claude Solange Dagenais, tall, black, slim, and beautiful with a glowing smile and long, wavy ebony hair. She was a fashion model like Veronica, in fact having similar body types they were both in a shoot together for Black Velvet whiskey although neither remembers much about meeting each other in the shoot, just that they met. That was early in Veronica’s career and Macy was very close to quitting the modeling business at that point in time.

They sat and chatted until Kenny came in and said, “Dinner is ready.”

“This is really fancy,” Veronica whispered to Josh. “We should do dinner like this.”

“I don’t think we can afford Yi and Kenny,” Josh replied.

Dinner was incredible, everyone was served a huge, seared sea scallop on a bed of baby spinach with a pomegranate glaze for the first course, and the main course was lamb chops with blackberry chutney served with balsamic glazed tri-color carrots and a homemade “bikkit.”

“Oh! This is heaven,” sighed Veronica, “that was way too much, but it was so good I couldn’t stop!”

“Oh oui,” said Macy, and she put her hands on her stomach, “très bien.”

“Pull-eeeze,” laughed Andi, “You’re both models, you could get filled up on a carrot.”

“They could split a sardine and a cracker for lunch and claim that they were bloated,” said Josh.

“Ain’t that the truth,” said John as he fist bumped with Josh.

“We complain because we were trained to complain,” said Veronica as Kenny set out dishes of lemon ice for dessert.

“Oui. It took me years of seminary to learn to give thanks rather than pretend it was a burden,” said Macy who had a doctorate in theology along with psychology.

“How would you like to eat like this for a week?” Andi asked Veronica and Josh.

“Oh, hell yeah!” Josh was close to yelling with his exclamation. “I mean, I could get used to it,” he added more sedately.

“That would be nice,” said Veronica. “Do you need a house sitter?”

“More like a yacht sitter,” said Paul. “We are going to take a nice cruise to a friend’s island near the Bahamas when John and Macy bailed out on us.”

“Yes,” said John. “We gave up an early summer in the Bahamas for Quebec in the late winter.” His face was a mask of false bravado.

“Family reunion,” said Macy. “My family demands to see Katarina.”

“She’s a darling! She’s going to break hearts!” gushed Veronica.

“So, to replace them we invited a couple from Minnesota,” continued Paul.

“No one needs the Bahamas more than a couple from Buffalo, except a couple from Minne-snowta,” agreed Josh.

“Right,” agreed Andi, “except our captain and mate bailed out too.”

“My folks are on vacation too,” called Yi from the kitchen.

“What is with people trading the Caribbean for Canada this winter?” asked Josh.

“Andi and I can man the boat, we got our licenses now,” said Paul, “but we have an open cabin. Do you know anyone that can get time off in about…”

“DIBS!” called Josh.

“You haven’t checked to see if we can get the time off.” Veronica glared at Josh. He’s not the type to do something like this.

“Darling, I love you and I love the job, but this winter has really got under my skin.”

Veronica understood perfectly, it wasn’t just the weather, it was the gloom, they haven’t seen the sun since before Christmas, it was dim and dark and it was getting to her too. “I’ll check with Mister Friedman to see if we can take the time off.” She turned sweetly to Andi and asked, “Will Yi be cooking on this little voyage?”

“Yes she will, the kids will be staying with my mom.”

That was all Veronica needed to hear, after this masterpiece of a dinner she’ll risk the Wrath of Friedman. “Then I’m not sure if I know what Anthony will say about time off, but I think between Josh and I, we can come up with a grandmother’s funeral we need to go to.”

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Tuesday morning dawned cold and snowy, they had to take Josh’s Jeep Gladiator pick-up to work because with a half dozen sandbags in the bed of the truck over the rear axle it was better in the snow than Veronica’s Lincoln Navigator. Arriving at the Andalon building they parked in Veronica’s reserved spot out front and walked hand in hand across the parking lot. It was supposed to be raining today, instead they got twenty degrees (-7°C) and snow. They entered the building still holding hands and the receptionist greeted them with a big smile. Mindy handed them their access badges as they took their coats off. “I’ll probably have to give this badge back at about twelve thirty this afternoon,” said Josh.

“Why?” asked Mindy, the receptionist.

“I’m going to ask Mr. Friedman for a short notice vacation.”

Mindy, sighed, “It was nice working with you while it lasted Mr. Gravely.”

“Oh, stop it you two,” scolded Veronica. “Anthony is not that bad,” and with a quick kiss from Josh she headed to her executive office and Josh headed to his office in the server farm. Veronica was the executive assistant to Anthony “Ant” Friedman founder and CEO of Andalon Data Systems and Josh was in charge of the hardware in the data center and field maintenance. They decided to ask Ant for time off during his lunch hour that he took every day at noon.

As executive assistant to Mr. Friedman, Veronica was the face of Andalon Data Systems (the new corporate name), she gave the sales pitches to big clients and to the news, but she was also the genius that Ant relied on to review problems with existing contracts and the potential of new customers. To say that she was the heart and soul of Andalon Data Systems was understating her importance to Ant and the three vice presidents that ran the company.

As always, she was “dressed to kill” and looked like Miss Ohio (which she was for a year) and damn near Miss America (which she was in 10th place from becoming), but the years between then and now were extremely kind. Only the lack of a child kept her from the unofficial title of Andalon MILF of the Year. (Which she would have severely injured people for if she heard about it). She was in her office with her “Granny” reading glasses going over a contract that the sales department were planning to adopt as their sales model for the next year when Mr. Friedman called out, “Mrs. Gravely, could you step into my office?”

Having only been Mrs. Gravely for a few months, Veronica didn’t respond right away. At first she thought it was Ant’s way of kidding Josh, then she remembered her 2.5 karat diamond ring and that other ring on her finger. “I will be right there sir!” She laid out the documents she was working on in the specific order she needed to be able to pick up her work when she returned, then set paperweights on each pile, grabbed her clipboard and pen and walked into Ant’s connected office to find that Josh was in there. She poured herself a cup of coffee as she tried to guess what was going on.

“Ah, Mrs. Gravely, have a seat.” When Veronica seated herself on the new couch in his office next to Josh and Anthony started with, “Mister Gravely had Stormwatch this past weekend, did my new couch meet your needs?” Josh almost spewed coffee out his nose laughing when Anthony said that.

Veronica blushed furiously, last year she and Josh were trapped in the building by a snowstorm and made love on the couch in Anthony’s office every chance they could. His old couch is now the centerpiece of their cabin at Josh’s camp.

“I was doing the audit you requested,” said Josh as he wiped the coffee off his lap.

“I was at home helping Audry with the baby all weekend,” was all Veronica was finally able to say.

Ant knew full well that Audrey, more than ten years Veronica’s junior, was now Veronica’s stepmother and the baby was her little brother. “Shame, I was hoping that you two would be able to take some time together, you haven’t been able to take a honeymoon yet.”

“We’re hoping for another trip to Amelia Island.”

“I might have some bad news for you… are you familiar with Justice Nicoleta Atherton?”

Josh and Veronica looked at each other and shook their heads, Josh was utterly stumped. Veronica wrote the judges name down on her notepad as she said, “Just by reputation, thirty years on the bench, ten years on the New York State Supreme court, she’s doing something with children now. Why do you ask?”

“She seems to know you; she has an interest in our services for her husband’s air cargo company and if we meet their needs, she hinted at a long term contract.” Veronica looked genuinely surprised, but Ant continued. “I just got off the phone with her, she mentioned the two of you by name, she wants you two to spend some time with her at her estate to talk shop and eat lobster or whatever rich people do.” He stepped around his desk and handed Veronica a note with the days and times the justice mentioned, they were exactly the same as the days that she and Josh were going to request for time off.

Veronica looked at the note and her eyes filled with tears, but she and Josh both have one rule when it comes to business; when the boss asks, the answer is always yes. It never matters what the request is, the answer is always the same; “Yes sir, no problem.”

That evening they drove home in silence, they both agreed that they’d press Paul and Andi for a longer notification if there ever is a chance to ride their yacht again. Both have seen pictures of the yacht, especially the pictures of Andi standing at the stern of the yacht with the name “Andi’s Dream” painted in blue script and Andi’s smile of happiness outshining the majesty of the yacht. “What did Andi say?”

Veronica sighed. She had called Andi and asked if they had time to talk and Andi asked them to meet at Worzil’s Bar and Grille, a pub just up the street from Andi’s house. Worzil’s was quite often a life saver, when Veronica and Josh get off work late and there’s no time to cook, Worzil’s kitchen was always open for regular customers. “Andi said they’re eating at Worzil’s. She said to stop by.”

“I haven’t had one of Ayato’s “I Hate You” Bloody Mary’s in ages,” said Josh. The owner/bartender at Worzil’s, Ayato Tanaka is renowned for making a Bloody Mary so hot it makes the Buffalo style Chicken Wings seem mild in comparison.

As they entered the neighborhood pub, Ayato’s wife, Julissa Tanaka, met Josh and Veronica at the door. “What’s with you two, you look like your dog died.”

“No, we got news that we aren’t happy with. Are Andi and Paul here?” asked Veronica.

“They’re in the back, they have the whole clan.”

“Thanks,” and they made their way to the back where Paul and Andi were seated at a long table with the twins Sandy and Madeline, and their little boy Daniel, with them was John and Macy with their daughter Katrina. Everyone was finished with dinner and the little blond moppets were coloring their placemats.

“Hey strangers!” called Andi after reviewing her daughters work of art. “Move over,” she whispered to the twins, “let Mister and Missus Gravely sit down.” The twins moved over because there were plenty of chairs on the long table so Veronica and Josh could sit down close to Andi and Paul so they could talk. As the adults began to speak, little Danny spit up his dinner and Andi and Paul responded to the minor emergency.

The twin’s generosity only lasted a few minutes because when Andi and Paul looked up after cleaning up their year old son Danny, the girls were sitting on Veronica and Josh’s laps. “He’s messy,” said Sandy to Veronica.

“He probably doesn’t know how to hold a spoon,” said Veronica.

“He doesn’t know how to eat… how can someone not know how to eat?” Madeline was shocked at the concept.

“I just don’t know,” said Josh. “Should we throw him back and try for a better one?”

“Girls!”

“Ooops!” the girls slid off of Veronica and Josh’s lap, but Madeline told Josh, “We’ll talk later,” causing Josh to break up laughing.

“What was that about?” Andi asked.

“I’m not quite sure,” said Josh, “I think I instigated a monster.” Madeline had returned to coloring but kept looking over at Josh. When she saw him looking at her, she held her finger to her lips and said “Shhh.”

“What’s up?” said Andi as she settled Danny in her lap and began to feed him pureed carrots from a small jar.

“Well, we have to…” started Josh.

“Wait,” said Paul as he looked at his phone. He showed it to Andi who smiled, nodded, and went back to feed Danny. “Sorry,” said Paul, “I just got a text from Nicky, she said she called your boss and cleared time for our trip with him.”

“Nicky?” Veronica looked confused, something she rarely does.

“Nicky as in Nicoletta? Justice Nicoletta Atherton?” asked Josh.

“Uh huh. She can’t wait until we get there. And she says she’ll only talk business enough to make the trip deductible,” said Paul.

“I don’t understand,” said Veronica as Sandy climbed back up on her lap. “What does Justice Atherton have to do with our trip?”

“I did mention that we’re going to a private island, right?” asked Andi.

“Yes…”

“It’s her island.”

Josh and Veronica looked at each other with a grin of relief. Finally! A vacation together as husband and wife! Every time it looked like they could get some time off together, some emergency arose at Andalon Data Systems, or with Mike and Audrey, and of course they couldn’t leave while Audrey was having the baby. “We need to run into town, I need to get something to wear,” gasped Veronica.

But Andi had to inform her about the reality of Nisi Arcadia, “this island is VERY informal, I usually need a couple of bikinis and a couple sarongs, after that just something to get you from the airplane to the boat, maybe an outfit or two for the marina.”

Paul agreed, “couple of t-shirts, shorts, maybe 2 polo shirts and a bathing suit. But you probably won’t be wearing much of that.”

“And don’t worry about privacy, there’s cabanas on the island or you can stay on the boat,” said Andi. “There’s several small private beaches too where you can just get away, or you can join the group on one of the big beaches.”

“There’s a very nice beach just for the girls so they can talk about us,” said Paul, “and we go fishing or sailing or hang out at the bar and have a cigar or two.” He handed Josh an envelope, “Here’s your boarding passes, you’ll fly from Buffalo to Atlanta then from Atlanta to Jupiter via a regional carrier called Space A.”

Josh laughed at that, Space A in the military means Space Available. You can fly anywhere in the world on a military cargo plane if they have space available for you on the plane. “Yeah, a couple of military fliers named their company that,” said Paul. “Yi’s folks, Stan and Sung-mi Carlson will pick you up at the airport and take you to our house in Jupiter and we’ll tie up sometime later that evening and we’ll be ready to go after topping Andi’s Dream up with gas and groceries.”

“Don’t worry about anything,” said Andi. “This trip is about unwinding. Oh! We just want to give you a heads up, the other couple, they’ve had some really bad luck, Don is a disabled vet and his wife got hit by a car on Christmas Eve. They need to unwind and heal, that’s what this trip is about.”

“Don was a patient of Andi’s back at CU,” said Paul referring to her practice at Colorado University Hospital.

“They really helped me with the twins in Colorado,” sighed Andi. She looked a bit sad, then she sat up and smiled. “We’re going to fix ’em up. Right?”

“We’re going to do everything we can do to help,” Paul as he took Andi’s hand in his and gave her a kiss.

“They’re getting mushy again,” said Madeline in a sing-song voice. The tiny moppet appeared on Josh’s lap, crayons in hand to color his paper placemat before his dinner arrived.

“Mushy, mushy, mushy,” agreed Sandy from Veronica’s lap.

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Mike and Audrey seemed excited that Veronica and Josh were going on vacation, they depend quite a bit on Veronica and Josh’s help, but when Veronica said, “Dad, Josh and I have a business trip coming up so we’re going to be away for a couple of weeks and use it for a honeymoon.”

“Good! You kids go have that honeymoon,” Mike said as he hugged his daughter.

“Are you going to be alright?” Veronica was worried about her dad, ever since his heart attack she’s been treating him like a fragile crystal doll.

“I’m fine! I’m eating better, I’m getting my exercise, doc gave me a glowing report, and best of all, I’m getting my pension again.” Several years ago, his ex-wife was able to scam his pension fund and diverted the money from Mike to her.

“Well, I worry about you, this is going to be a cell free trip and if you reach out to me I may not be able to respond for days.”

“Go. Have. Fun. That’s an order little lady.”

“Oh daddy,” Veronica hugged Mike realizing that something bigger than vacation was happening, he just hasn’t said what.

Later, snuggling in bed with her husband Veronica was giddy, a real vacation with her lover! They went to Amelia island last year but that was such a painful exploration into Josh’s past that it felt more like a root canal than a vacation. “Are you going to be ok with flying?”

“Of course, I’m totally good with it. No problems,” Josh put his arm around Veronica as they spooned.

“You’re lying to me, aren’t ya?” Veronica wiggled her ass back at Josh and caressed his hand.

“Yep, lying through my teeth.” Josh kissed her neck and continued, “I’m going to see Helen tomorrow, maybe she can give me something to calm me.”

Veronica rolled onto her back and smiled, “That’s what you said about Pittsburgh.”

“Yeah, but was Pittsburgh, who wouldn’t freak out about flying to Pittsburgh?”

“Apparently a lot of people would not freak out,” she whispered as their lips drew closer. Just as their lips touched the sound of Mike Jr crying drifted up from Mike and Audrey’s suite.

“He’s got to be our kid, his timing is too perfect,” groused Josh. “We need blood tests or something to verify he really is Mike and…”

“Come here you,” said Veronica laughing as she pulled Josh on her and between her legs. Josh smiled at her and began to kiss around her collarbone and started to work his way downward, kissing… kiss after gentle kiss tracking down between her perfect breasts, still teenage firm. “No, not tonight,” said Veronica and she trapped Josh’s hips between her incredibly strong legs and she rolled him over on his back. “We’ll have time to play games on the island; I want you now.” She reached between them, rose up and lined his cock up with her cunt.

For his part Josh just grinned, stunned with a combination of desire and joy. Josh has been making love to this beautiful woman for over a year and every time is just as wonderful as their first time on that cold and snowy night in Anthony’s office. She lowered her hips a little bit and they both felt the head of his cock penetrate her delicious vagina. Lower and lower her hips sank taking more of his cock into her incredibly warm, unbelievably wet pussy until her clit pressed against his pubes.

Sitting straight up the head of his cock sunk even deeper into her body then she sat motionless and smiled down on Josh her thick hair framing her face. He tried to thrust up into her but he couldn’t move, she held him pinned to the mattress, motionless. He tried thrusting up into her but she held him still, squeezing him with her inner muscles. He couldn’t move his hips, he felt her squeezing his cock, keeping him hard and anxious but he could get no friction that he was needing more friction… she was driving him crazy just pinning him like that and smiling down on him. “What do you want?” he finally asked.

“Are you going to behave on the flight?”

“Yes, of course.” He tried to get up on his elbows but she pushed him back down.

“No, I mean really behave, not like Pittsburgh, because I’m not going downtown to the bus terminal at two o’clock in the morning to pick you up again.” She started moving her hips back and forth which generated a nice friction between her clit and his pubic hair, she knew it wasn’t doing much for him, but it was slowly driving her out of her mind.

“I have an appointment with Helen tomorrow, I’ll go, I promise.”

“And you’ll do what she says?” Veronica grabbed Josh’s wrists and leaned forward putting her weight on them so he couldn’t move his arms.

“Yes I’ll do it.”

“Ok, I just ask that you try… you don’t have to succeed but you… no, we need to try. Ok?”

There was iron in her words, there was no hint that she was kidding. “Ok, I will try. I will do whatever she says and take whatever she give me.”

Veronica smiled and said, “that’s all I ask.” She lifted her hips up giving him room to move.

Josh began to lift his hips, fucking her from below. He began fucking hard, her body shuddering from each thrust, her breasts wobbling, her eyes closed and her mouth hung open as she concentrated on the sensations that were overwhelming her body. Soon she was whimpering and gasping from the sensations that were coursing through her body. “Why do I have to blackmail you to get you to fuck like this?”

“It lets me know how much you love me,” he whispered. Falling forward she suckled his neck as he fucked her from below, the sound of their bodies slapping together filled the air. “Cum for me baby,” Josh whispered as he drove his cock up into her as hard and as fast as he could.

“I’m cumming baby,” she gasped, her orgasm was almost on her and she was panting now.

“Do it, cum for me Nica,” he said. He planted his feet and fucked into her as hard as he could. “Tell me when you cum, I love to hear it.”

“I’m cumming Effi,” she whispered hoarsely then she bit down on his shoulder as her body shook and trembled… “I’m cumming for you…”

֎

“…so, I cuddled with her until she fell asleep, then I went up in the attic and talked to Ellie.”

“That’s it? You didn’t have an orgasm?” Dr. Helen Lennox, Josh’s psychiatrist listened with rapt attention and occasionally writing a note or two. “How did you feel about that?”

“No, I…” Josh thought about what his feelings were at that moment in time, “I didn’t feel like I deserved one. I’ve caused her so much pain… I should be doing something to repay her for everything she’s done for me.”

“Doesn’t the fact that she loves you count for anything?”

“It counts for everything doc; I don’t feel whole without her.”

“If she felt the same way about you don’t you think she would feel broken if you took the “easy way out?”

“Not this time Doc, I’m worried about the flight because I still have problems keeping my shit together.” Josh was a gunner on an AC-130 gunship in the USAF and his last mission went bad, they were hit, men under his command were injured, his best friend killed, another friend was sucked out the hole that a shoulder fired missile opened in the side of the plane. She was on a safety strap but couldn’t get back in, and Josh fell out when he tried to pull her back in.

“What did you do to get on flights before you met Veronica?” the doctor tried not to look concerned but she worried about Josh and all of “her boys” who served.

“Normally I’d get so drunk I could barely get on the plane and I’d pass out before they got the engines started.”

She looked at him with what he called her Mr. Spock look meaning that there was more information that she wanted. “And now you don’t get that drunk in front of Veronica?”

“No ma’am, I do not.”

“And why not exactly?”

Nick scoffed then said, “I’m a civilian now, I don’t have to.” While she tried to penetrate the bullshit he finally said, “While I was on duty couldn’t avoid flying. I would tell them that I can’t fly anymore and they would shame and say, “Sucks to be you,” and send me to Korea. You know, you can’t drive to Korea.”

“Ok Mister Gravely, I’m going to write you a prescription for Xanax, it’s a tranquilizer that many people take for anxiety attacks. Some people need it for taking an MRI, they don’t like the closed space.” She looked at Josh hoping to see what reaction he would have when she mentioned MRI, but he just shrugged.

“I fall asleep in those big ol’ mechanical sleeping bags.”

“Many people have a reaction to an MRI like you do on an airplane.”

Josh looked at his ‘shrink’ and said, “Does anyone tear the MRI machine up looking for a parachute?”

“Ah yes, but we’ve discussed Pittsburgh.” She smiled and softly said, “I think you’re going to do fine Ephraim.” Josh smiled, she’s the only one besides Veronica that can pronounce his real first name correctly. It’s not Ef-rum like most people say, it’s e’Frame. “That prescription is for two Xanax pills, use them as directed but only as needed. And I challenge you to bring one of those pills back to me.”

֎

The sun still hadn’t risen when they gathered for breakfast at the 279 Diner for breakfast over on the east side of the village of Springville. Veronica and Josh sat down with Veronica’s dad Mike and his wife Audrey and newborn son Mike Junior, and they were joined by the owners Worzils Bar and Grille Ayato and Julissa Tanaka. When they were all seated the manager of the 279 diner, Janet, rushed over with a pot of coffee.

The coffee drinkers (everyone but Mike Jr.) turned over their cups and Janet began to pour. As she doled out coffee to the early morning patrons Audrey allowed Josh to hold his new brother-in-law. “Smile for me!” called Veronica and she lifted her phone and took a photograph of Josh holding the baby.

Mike Jr. was sleepy, and he snoozed in Josh’s arms as the friends talked about the fun ahead of Veronica and Josh, and when their meals arrived the waitress Janet took Mike Jr. from Josh and began walking around the restaurant topping off coffee cups and showing off the baby.

“Josh!” snarled Audrey. “Why does Janet have my baby?” Audrey may have been a bit of an airhead when she was a young teeny bopper who hung around the Andalon offices while her father was VP, but she has a lioness when it came to big and little Michael. Thanks to her parents, Audrey learned all the wrong ways to care for a child, she sees Mike junior as her way of purging the sins of her childhood by raising him the way she should have been raised, and Mike, Veronica and Josh were there to help her with that goal.

“I figured it was time he got out to see the world, learn a new skill, maybe pick up a few tips for Janet…”

“Get. My. Baby. Back.” Audrey’s demand could not be more absolute, or more threatening.

Grumbling over the abuse of “mom-power” Josh got up and walked up to where Janet was showing off Mike Jr. to a couple of regulars. “Excuse me ma’am, New York State Board of Child Labor, it has come to our attention that this child is not certified on dispensing caffeinated beverages, we need to take him back to his training officer to get his training updated.”

“By all means officer,” said Janet with a chuckle as Josh tenderly took Mike Junior out of her arms, which made the little guy cry. Josh slowly walked back to Audry singing an old song he learned with his barbershop quartet, “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Your Face,” which calmed the little guy down, it usually puts him to sleep.

“Oh, did that big mean guy scare you?” asked Audrey as Josh returned little Mike to his mother. “That big mean guy, he’s the brother-in-law that everybody warns you about.”

They had a great breakfast together, friends, relatives, lovers swapping stories and laughing at punchlines they’ve all heard a hundred times before “What’s wrong?” asked Julissa. She’s known Josh for almost a decade and has seen him through some tough times in his life. That’s what small town bartenders do.

“Why do you think something’s wrong?” asked Veronica.

“He’s smiling.” Julissa shrugged her shoulders, “Something must be up.

“I just like hanging with the little guy.” Josh had a rough upbringing too, he and Audrey keep an eye on each other when little Mike is concerned and for a three-month-old child, he’s doing a great job healing old wounds. “I can’t wait for swimming lessons to start in June.” Josh has been teaching Paul and Andi’s girls to swim and he wants to teach their one-year-old to swim also, along with John and Macy’s one year old daughter. He wants to give them enough skill to handle falling in the pond or a swimming pool.

Veronica looked at Josh and realized it was more than that, this was a determined smile, he really is going to try for her. She leaned over and kissed his cheek, “Are you ready to go?”

“Let’s do it,” and Josh finished his coffee. Standing and saying goodbye to their friends they headed out into the cold, wet, Western New York morning in Veronica’s Lincoln Navigator SUV. The sun was starting to rise in the east, a frosty fog was starting to fill the air and the sun illuminated the fog making the winter morning a glowing, icy, cloud. As they headed down old US219 they were surrounded by glowing fog, but when the road rose up a hill, they came up out of the fog. It was odd to see the road ahead dip into a cloud then rise back up out of the cloud ahead.

Veronica was driving and sipping her to-go cup of coffee as was Josh. “You look awful comfortable holding that baby,” she said. “Would you want one of our own?”

Josh was caught mid-sip. For almost a year they prepared themselves for marriage and they never mentioned a baby, Josh never thought about it until Audrey and Mike announced that Veronica would soon be getting a baby brother. From that point on, any thought Josh had about babies was centered around Audrey and Mike, not around Veronica and himself.

Veronica looked over at Josh and laughed. “What’s so funny he asked.

“You looked so shocked, like you never thought about having a baby.”

“I guess I didn’t. I guess it’s because I’m so old.”

“You’re not that old!” said Veronica laughing. “You’re the same age as I am. Are you saying that I’m too old to have a baby?”

“I guess I’ve been avoiding the idea,” Josh sighed.

“Why?”

“Eyes on the road,” said Josh “Watch out for black ice, and yes I have been avoiding the subject. On our first real day together, I found you crying in this vehicle because your sister Magda is having another baby with Jameson, the fiancé she stole from you. You were left standing at the altar because he knocked her up and they ran off after your rehearsal dinner the night before.”

“Way to rub it in,” Veronica growled.

“Later that same night you step into my office, and I almost pop you in the face with a nerf dart when I was shooting at a picture of Yesenia the bitch who tried to get me to pay child support for some other jerk’s kid. Then Audrey and Mike and little Mike.” Josh went silent after his outburst.

“What are you saying?” Veronica demanded as they pulled into the parking garage.

Josh grabbed their bags, and they climbed onto the bus to the airport, and he answered, “I’m saying that everyone around us is having or just recently had babies, Audrey, Magda, Yesenia, Andi, Macy, all our friends… our boss has seven children! The only ones not having a baby is Terri and Mataeo, and Yi and Kenny. And Yi and Kenny won’t have any because they’re too busy taking care for Andi and Paul’s babies.”

“So, if Terri or Yi has a baby, you’d consider having a baby?”

“How I feel about our baby is not determined by Yi or Terri or anyone else or by anything anyone else does. It’s about you and me.”

When they got off the bus from the parking garage the skycap took a quick look at their boarding passes and whisked their baggage away then inside the terminal they walked up to the end station where a familiar looking woman in a gold blazer stood waiting. She looked like she had just won the PGA tour with that blazer.

“Miss von Köster! So good to see you again, where are we heading today?”

“Melony!” Veronica flashed her rings and said, “It’s Mrs. Gravely now.” She pulled Josh close and hugged his arm tight, “I got him to say yes.”

“Heading to Florida I see?”

“Bahamas. Our neighbors have a yacht, we’re going to head out from Jupiter tomorrow morning,”

“Sounds like fun! Have a good day!”

“She was so much nicer than last time,” whispered Josh as they headed up to the club.

“She probably heard about Pittsburgh.”

“Yer killin’ me girl.”

After a quick check at security, they headed to the gate area and up the escalator to the business class lounge. Josh started to remember the first time he flew first class and asked, “We’re paying for this flight with points, right?”

“No, not this time,” said Veronica. Then she saw Josh go pale and the cold sweat started to break out. His hand that clasped the escalator guide rail started shuddering.

“Is the client paying?” he said quietly, his eyes closed dreading the wrong answer. Last time he was here and discovered they were flying first class he panicked. It took Veronica ages to talk him in off the ledge.

“Yes, Justice Atherton is footing the bill for our flight, for the other couple’s flight, and for the diesel on Andi’s boat.” Veronica watched the relief flow through him. He pulled her close and she could feel him shuddering. “Are you ok?”

“No,” he whispered. “I’m fucked in the head, you know that” he pulled her closer and gave her a sweet kiss and said, “but you’re helping. Thank God I met you.” Now their kiss was long and loving, their tongues touching lightly. His fingers tangled in her thick, luxurious hair and held her to his kiss. As their kiss grew more passionate they heard the sound of a disgruntled voice below them on the escalator.

“Newlyweds!”

Josh took a quick glance at the source of the voice, a truly unpleasant looking older woman in a business suit. The makeup that she was wearing probably weighed more than the wheeled laptop case she was hauling. She clutched a bundle of folders to her chest, and standing next to her was a much younger man who was either her son, employee, or was blackmailed into accompanying her. He was as unhappy looking as she was unpleasant looking. It was obvious they wanted to climb past on the escalator and normally Josh would move to the side, but the remark sealed the deal, they were going to have to wait the extra seven seconds they would have gained by being polite.

Josh kissed Veronica again, this time gently squeezing her sweet, athletic ass. “Stop,” she said breathlessly in his ear, “We have an audience.”

“Our fan club,” he said and tried to kiss her again, but she was laughing now. In the lounge they stopped to get a drink and the “odd couple” was still behind them in line. As they waited for their drinks the sad looking man cheered up.

“Aren’t you a model?”

Before Veronica could answer Josh said, “I’ll handle this dear, I get this all the time,” and he extended his hand to the little man, “Hi, I’m Agostino Lanzoni, you’re probably confusing me with my older brother Fabio, since he got a haircut, it happens all the time…”

“Would you stop!” said Veronica trying unsuccessfully not to laugh. She elbowed Josh and said, “yes, I’ve done some modeling.”

The woman started a pitch Veronica has heard a thousand times before, “We represent the McCall and Dershowitz Agency and…”

“Stop!” The only thing that kept Veronica from putting an upraised hand in the woman’s face was the fact that Josh had just handed her a glass of wine. “I left the game years ago. I’m done. I have a very successful business career and I will not discuss business on my honeymoon.”

“But Miss von Köster, we will guar…”

“ENOUGH!” Josh has only heard Veronica use that tone of voice once, and the target of the previous outburst went to prison. “One more word that even smells like business talk and I’m calling security,” as the man reached into his pocket she snapped, “That includes business cards. Have a good day.” With that she turned and led Josh away.

“What was that all about?” asked Josh as they seated themselves in a love seat where they could snuggle.

“I’m not sure but I get a feeling they represent a start-up ad agency who are looking to poach accounts from long-time agencies. I don’t want to deal with the headaches.”

“Headaches? You’re posing for pictures.”

Veronica sighed, “Modeling is a world unto itself. It’s really easy to get a reputation and I don’t want a reputation of being the model who poached an account from a respected agency. I’d rather have a reputation of the model who retired.”

“So, no more modeling ever?” Josh was thinking of nude photos on the beach for their private collection.

“Wellll,” Veronica rolled her eyes and smiled, “Anthony and the boys asked me to do a test video for a pod cast explaining to businesses how Andalon Data Systems can save them money yadda yadda yadda.” By yadda yadda yadda she meant “Josh and his team will create a detailed IT network for a business that barely understands computers and make a buttload of miracles happen.”

“The Boys made this idea up all by themselves?” asked Josh. By “the boys” he meant Jared Connely, VP of Marketing, Stanislaus “Stan” Dombrowski, VP of Finance, and Vincent Saia, VP of Legal. When they got rid of Audrey’s dad Brandon Mitchell it was amazing how well the company got along, it was almost as if he placed a bet in Vegas that Andalon would collapse (which he tried to do) and he worked within sewing discord and suspicion. Now the executive committee of Ant, Jared, Stan and Vinnie are getting along fine, golfing at Fox Run on weekends, now planning a family camp out on Josh and Ronnie’s campground over the Fourth of July weekend.

“Yes, they want me to talk about the financial advantages of a contract with Andalon Data Services and Terri to talk about the hardware involved.”

“Terri!?” Josh nearly spit his virgin Beam and Ginger Ale all over the lounge. “She talks like she’s trying to break the world land speed record for most words uttered in one minute but fifty percent of everything she says is the word “like.”

“She knows the job, she knows the equipment, she knows the set up…”

“I love Terri, she’s like the daughter I never wanted to have, but communicating a complex idea succinctly to a customer? I don’t think she has the chops.”

“I know,” said Veronica sadly, “but we knew you would never do it so we had to choose someone that you trained and Terri was…”

“Who said I wouldn’t do it? I’ve communicated system requirements to every contract we service.”

“If you would do it, it’s not too late to change Terri for you,” said Veronica hopefully.

“For you, I’ll do it,” and he was rewarded with the warmest, sexiest kiss in weeks. “I think you just talked me into the mile high club,” he gasped.

“I was hoping to talk you into getting me another glass of wine,” as she held up her empty wine glass. As Josh got up to order another red wine with a “Ginger and Lime on Rye,” Veronica pulled out her phone and sent a text message to the CEO of Andalon, Anthony Friedman, “Re: New customer video. Josh is in.”

֎

The flight went well, Josh had become accustomed to first class seating and luckily the plane only made one steep left-hand turn. He could feel it coming up, his gunship training told him that the left-hand turn is when the guns start firing and suddenly everyone on the ground knows where you are. The bright muzzle flashes of the 30mm Bushmaster and the 105mm Howitzer almost shout “I’m up here! Shoot me!” You’re the lowest, slowest target in the sky and everybody on the ground has a stinger missile with your name on it.

But the turn was quick, wings leveled out and the blessed sound of landing gear extending was heard. Landing gear is like a victory shout, we made it, we’re home! As the plane touched down and the reverse thrust slowed the 757 Veronica felt Josh’s tense body relax like an overinflated pool toy when the air valve is opened. He simply melted into the comfortable first-class seat, with a look of relief on his face.

“You did so good!” Veronica gushed as the plane turned off the runway. “That Xanax worked wonderfully.”

“Yeah, and it didn’t affect my ability to work either.” Josh and Ronnie worked together on an outline of their podcast video during the flight, it was the first time they ever actually worked on a project together as their jobs kept them on opposite sides of the building and on the corporate structure. Both were convinced that if they ever attempted a project together they would end up having sex and they were right, the desire to slip off to the toilet and join the Mile High Club was overwhelming but they found they truly liked working together on a business task.

Soon they were able to get up and Josh pulled their bags out of the overhead. He handed the laptop bag to Veronica then pulled down his messenger bag and began putting his laptop in the bag when he noticed the pill bottle he picked up at the pharmacy two days before still had two pills in it. “Didn’t you give me a Xanax at the lounge in Buffalo?”

“No, you said your back was hurting so I gave you a Tylenol.”

Walking up the jetway Josh handed her the pill bottle and she couldn’t believe at first what she saw, then the realization dawned on her. “You made it? No alcohol? No pills?”

“Well, I did have one whiskey and ginger at Buffalo, the other two were just ginger ale.”

With a cry of joy Veronica threw her arms around peppered his face with kisses, “You did it!”

“Ok lovers, mind starting the honeymoon somewhere else?”

Josh was going to look and tear into the unpleasant sounding woman behind him, but he was in too good of a mood, he just took an airplane flight without getting blind drunk. “Karen is right honey, she has something terribly important to go to, we should be more considerate of her and her needs, she’s a very important person.”

“You’re so awful,” gasped Veronica as they continued up the jetway, slowly.

Their next flight was on Space A commuter airline, and their plane was an Avro RJ85, a high wing aircraft with a T-tail and four engines hanging from the wings on pylons. To Josh it looked like a tiny version of a USAF C-5 or C-17 military cargo airplane. “It’s so cute!” he said as they got off the small bus and walked up to the entry ladder. He wanted to give it a quick pre-flight inspection, but Veronica pulled him back in line.

“I’m sure the flight crew did the inspection for you,” she growled. Josh was sure that her tone of voice was a warning.

Eying up the bomber jacket that Veronica had given Josh for Christmas, the jacket had his callsign Bounce 27 embroidered on it along with the Specter of Death, one of the crew members asked, “Did you fly in the service?”

“Yeah, I was gun crew on several models of AC-130.”

The crew member extended his hand, “I was right hand seat on MC-130s, we may have punched holes in the same clouds.”

“Possibly,” said Josh as Veronica pulled him away. “We’ll talk.” A flight steward led them to their seats and the interior of this plane was luxurious, all first-class seating. The plane was full of people that were obviously wealthy, many in suits but without a tie, but most were dressed like they were ready for a game of golf. If Josh felt out of place in his threadbare cargo pants and faded Comp USA Tech Lead polo shirt that he received years ago when he was hired by the failed company, he didn’t show it.

“Welcome aboard Space A flight 207 to Jupiter Florida with continuing service on to South Bay…” Josh didn’t listen to the rest of the announcement; it was no different than on a larger commercial airline. He had the bottle containing two Xanax pills and considered taking one but in the end he handed the bottle to Veronica and said, “Keep track of these please.”

“You’re not going to take one?”

“No, these RJ-85s are supposed to be smooth riding.”

And Josh’s prediction was correct, it was an incredibly smooth and very quiet aircraft, and the seat was the most comfortable he’s ever experienced. By the time they reached altitude and were able to unbuckle and get out the laptops, Josh was asleep. The next thing he remembered was Veronica nudging him to wake him up. “What do you want?” he mumbled.

“Put your seat in the full upright position, we’re landing.”

“What?”

“You made it honey; you slept the whole way.”

“Holy shit!” He raised the back of his seat and said, “I want a chair in our living room just like this.”

“Well, you were up all night last night texting Ellie, weren’t you.” Ellie was a crew member on Josh’s last flight. She was sucked out of the aircraft when they were hit by a missile but she was on a safety strap. He fell out of the airplane while he was trying to pull her back in and he ended up dangling from the strap himself. Quite often they’ll call or text each other when they have flashbacks, and the one thing that sets Josh’s PTSD off is having to fly somewhere.

“It was Ellie texting me; she was worried about me which set her off.”

“Well now you can tell her that you flew all the way to Jupiter without a problem,” said Veronica as they climbed off the airplane and walked across the ramp. She whirled and threw her arms around him and squealed as they hugged, “I’m so happy for you!” then peppered his face with kisses.

“I just texted her,” he said with a grin as he pocketed his phone. “Oh, this is NICE! I miss t-shirt weather!”

“See? This is one of the things you miss from turning down every business trip Ant offers you.”

“We do this video and Anthony will have to send us together, we’ll be a team, like Bogie and Becall.”

“Tracy and Hepburn,” added Veronica and she realized that she just unleashed a monster.

“J-Lo and Batman! Spidey and MJ!”

“J-Lo and Batman?” laughed Veronica as they found their bags at the little utility trailer. “Jennifer Lawrence and Ben Affleck? They don’t make any movies together… that we know of.”

“Nobody works together with anyone else anymore,” said Josh. “There’s no electricity in the movies, in fact they don’t make movies, they make comic books. There’s no loving couples in the movies anymore.”

“Like who?

“Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, Humphery Bogart and Lauren Becall, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard,” insisted Josh. “When she died, he joined the Army Air Corps as a gunner hoping to be shot down so he could join her. There’s no one like that anywhere anymore.”

“There’s us, we’ll set an example with our podcast.”

Josh snapped his fingers, “I got it! we’ll set up our shots in all the places in the data center where we made love.”

Luckily Veronica found a middle-aged couple holding up a sign that said “Effi and Nica” which is Josh and Veronica’s private nicknames for each other, causing Veronica to wonder what was going on, only Paul and Andi know of those nicknames. The couple was a white middle-aged man in business casual, and a middle-aged Asian woman wearing hospital scrubs and behind them hid a young girl. “Hey Josh!” the Asian woman in the couple said.

“Ronnie, this is Stan and Sung-mi Carlson. Stan, Sunny, this is the woman that stole my heart.”

“He finally let you land him,” Sunny said with a huge smile as she shook hands with Veronica.

“That’s an interesting way of putting it,” said Ronnie. “How do you guys know each other?”

“Stan and Sunny usually come up and stay with Paul and Andi or over at my place during the summer. We haven’t seen much of them since Andi hired their daughter, Ye-Jin,” said Josh.

“What about the little girl?” asked Veronica.

“What little girl? There’s no little girl,” said Josh which brought out giggles from behind Stan. “There’s no little girl here, Stan’s little girl works for Paul and Andi…Ow!” A little Asian girl popped out from behind Stan and swatted Josh’s butt as he lifted a suitcase into the back of a waiting SUV. He whirled around and caught the giggling girl and scooped her up saying, “Sunny! You bought a pet monkey!”

“Not a monkey!” pouted the girl and she looked incredibly angry until Josh started tickling her tummy.

“Ronnie, this is Nit-noi, Ye’s little sister.”

“I’m Bit-NA!” she replied in that shriek that only young girls can create. Then she hugged Josh around the neck and sighed. “I wish I could come camping.”

“I wish you could come too, Little Bit. You could come play with Paul’s twin girls.”

Veronica watched on in wonder as her new husband hugged the little girl. He’s so good with kids, all summer long he played with their bosses’ kids, he taught Andi and Paul’s twin girls to swim, and he’s even giving their one-year-old lessons. The thought got her mind spinning, they’re going to have to talk about kids pretty soon.

As they left the airport and they soon drove along streets lined with beautiful houses, Stan said “here’s the plan for tonight. They’re running just a bit late. While they’re having dinner, Sunny and I will help Yi and Kenny prep the boat, load it up with fuel and potable water, food, drink, clear the bilges, do the linen, and update the nav equipment. All the fun part of owning a boat. Bitty is going to help her big sister, you guys get one night alone in Paul’s Jupiter house, and we are going to finally meet this Kenny guy.”

“You haven’t met Kenny yet?” said Veronica. “Those two are so perfect together, it’s like they can read each other’s minds!”

“I swear that they can,” said Josh. He turned around to Bitty who was sitting in the third-row seating of the big SUV and said, “You ask your sister if she can read Kenny’s mind, ok?”

“K!”

As they pulled into a beautiful house on a street where the houses meet a canal Stan said, “you guys get some rest, Paul and Andi will be ready to go before sunrise.”

“This is the “little” house that Paul has been talking about?” gasped Veronica. It was a sprawling single-story house at the end of a canal facing cul-de-sac.

“There’s a car in the garage,” said Sunny, “You can use it if you want to go out to get something to eat, but if you get lost they’re leaving without you at sunrise.”

“There’s a list of restaurants that deliver on the table,” added Stan.

“Where do we get on the boat?” asked Veronica.

“I’ll show you,” groaned Bit-na as if this was so obvious and grown-ups were so oblivious. She led them through the house with all the skill a world weary seven-year-old can muster, “There’s the tv, down there is the bedrooms, don’t use mine! Here’s the kitchen, you go out back, there’s the pool, rinse your feet off before you jump in, NO RUNNING!, and there’s the dock.”

The back yard was simple yet elegant, like the rest of the house, the pool was a freeform design with natural rock and a garden at one end, the dock was quite big with a sailboat tied to one side and the end of the dock had a four piece garden furniture set around a central table covered by a pavilion. “This is awesome bitty! Do you play out here?” asked Josh.

“I think we lost our tour guide,” said Veronica, and she was right, Bit-na was nowhere to be seen. Returning to the kitchen they saw that Stan and Sunny were loading back up in the SUV and Bit-na was already buckling herself in. Sunny came back to the house and handed Veronica a large bottle of sunscreen.

“The Florida tourism commission should hand this out at every airport,” said Sunny. “Use it generously.”

“Thank you so much!” said Veronica, “I completely forgot about this.”

“Everyone does,” said Sunny as she shook hands with the couple. “If you have never been to a place like Nisi Arcadia and you’re uncomfortable, let Justice Atherton know. Otherwise, just relax and have fun.”

As they waved goodbye both Ronnie and Josh wondered what Sunny meant by that.

֎

“Oh four hundred, rise and shine,” said Carl as he tapped on Josh and Veronica’s bedroom door.

“We’re already up,” said Josh as he opened the door. They had already stripped the bed and their suitcase was ready to go. “Where do we put the linen?”

“Leave it on the bed, we’ll get it later. Sunny, Bitty, and I are taking a little vacation ourselves and we will be staying here until you get back.” Then as an afterthought he said, “You can leave any jacket or hoodie you brought with you here. You won’t be needing them.”

“I like the sound of that!” said Veronica and she hung her jacket up in the closet. She nearly had to wrestle the leather bomber jacket out of Josh’s hands.

“That’s my prized possession!” Josh saw Bit-na peeking through the doorway, “If it’s not here when I get back, there won’t be any camping this summer.” Hearing that, Bitty gasped and ran off, the sound of her bare feet slapping the tile floor caused the three adults to laugh.

As they passed through the kitchen, they saw Sunny standing at the kitchen counter, coffee in one hand, sweet roll in the other, and as always she was wearing her scrubs, she’s got a full day ahead of her at the local pediatric hospital. “Thank you for everything,” Josh said.

“You’re welcome,” Sunny gestured to the door with her coffee cup. “Now git going, they want to get underway.”

“Yes ma’am!”

“I love this house,” sighed Veronica. “We need one like it.”

“I like that boat!” said Josh as he finally saw Andi’s Dream through the pre-dawn gloom. “What a beauty!” Andi’s Dream was a gorgeous Australian made Riviera 72 Sports Motor yacht. Three decks high with a large stern area for fishing and entertaining, it even had a swimming deck that extended from the stern. Kenny Johnson met them at the stern, and they stepped onto the deck of Andi’s Dream.

“Welcome aboard!” whispered Paul Jarecki as he stepped down the small staircase from the mezzanine to the rear deck. That’s when Veronica noticed Andi peering at them from the upper most deck. She smiled and waved at their friends as they stepped aboard, then Paul closed the gunnel door that they stepped through onto the aft deck and he and Kenny released the two lines that were holding Andi’s Dream secure to the dock.

Paul patted Josh on the shoulder and said, “I’m going to go upstairs to the flying bridge to give Andi a hand moving through these waters, the canals can be a bit tight. Kenny will be your guide, we just ask that you be quiet, Don, Lanh, and Kim-ly are asleep.”

“Who is Don, Lanh, and Kim something?” asked Josh as Paul dashed upstairs.

“They’re the folks from Minnesota, Don was Andi’s patient and they helped each other through some tough times before she moved to New York,” said Kenny. “This whole section down here is called the cockpit; this is where we do our fishing and swimming. There are some reclining deck chairs if you want to lay out in the sun, we don’t use the foredeck when we’re under way, it’s way too windy.”

Just then the powerful MAN diesels revved up and the boat began to gently move sideways away from the dock then slowly it edged forward into the narrow canal. Once into the center of the canal the seventy-two-foot-long boat blocked the canal completely, but it began to rotate counterclockwise in the canal until it was pointing in the right direction and began to edge forward.

“We’re doing most of our movements using thrusters because we have manatees in the canal. He led them up the stairway to an open-air dining area, a table with bench seats on either side of the central walkway. “This is the mezzanine; a lot of passengers love to rest here when underway on a warm day.” Through an open doorway they found Yi in the galley cleaning shrimp.

“Shrimp and grits?” asked Josh hopefully.

“Yes sir,” answered Yi as she continued to dehead and shell the prawns.

“Can I get a copy of your recipe?”

“No sir,” she said without looking up.

“You’re never going to give me that recipe, are you?”

“Not in this lifetime.”

“Leave Yi alone,” said Veronica as she tugged Josh away from the neat and orderly galley.

“Oh, hi Ronnie!” gushed Yi happily looking up from her work, “I’m so happy you’re on board!”

“Oh, she’s happy you’re on board,” grumbled Josh. “Me she doesn’t even say hi.”

“I’m just nicer than you,” Veronica stuck her tongue out at Josh who put his open mouth over her tongue starting one of the silliest passionate kisses they ever shared.

“Go, before your tour guide gets bored,” said Yi who returned to preparing the huge shrimp.

“This area forward of the galley is called the saloon by the Aussies, we call it the salon.” It was like a large living room with sectional seating around the perimeter. There were tables in front of the couches where dinners could be served, and lowering the tables down and pulling the cushions onto the table tops the couches could become a bed. The salon was surrounded by large, tinted windows so the passage of the narrow canals could be observed.

Kenny turned to Yi and they looked at each other seeming to bathe in each other’s eyes, then Yi went back to work and Kenny said, “Leave your bags here, we have folks sleeping below. Let’s go up to the flying bridge.”

Kenny led them up a stairway that was behind the galley and they found themselves up high on the most elegant bridge one could imagine. Like the rest of the boat the flying bridge was surrounded by large, tinted windows. The woodwork was all highly polished walnut trimmed with chrome metalwork. They came up behind the captain’s seat, which was now empty, but the three seventeen-inch monitors built into the dashboard showed all kinds of information. There were two chairs at the helm, the captain’s chair which was centerline of the boat, and a seat just to the left of that. The right side of the bridge was lined with cushioned bench seats which could be converted to beds. The aft third of the bridge was open to the elements. On the port side was a small captain’s helm with wheel, throttles, and thruster joy sticks.

Andi was standing at the Captain’s position driving the boat while Paul acted as Pilot and gave Andi instructions on navigating through the canals. “Last turn honey, ninety degrees to the right coming up in two boat lengths.

“I’m going to bring her to a full stop,” said Andi. They were talking to each other on cellphone and earbud so that Paul could move around the boat checking clearance. He dashed down the stairs to go out on the side decks and watch and make sure they don’t tap a boat or dock. Andi stopped the boat in the canal intersection then slowly rotated the boat 90° starboard then brought the screws online and slowly headed out to sea.

“That was beyond cool!” said Josh.

“It took me forever to learn that” grinned the little doctor. Andi is Veronica’s “mini me,” they currently have the same hair color and hair style, and the same bust line, the main difference is their height. Andi is four foot eleven inches (1.5 meters) tall, and Veronica stands five foot ten inches (1.8 meters) tall with a slim build despite her breast size. Andi was blessed with a perfect hourglass figure with narrow waist and rounded hips and most of the clothes she wears hides that fact, but here on Andi’s dream she shows it off as much as possible. The woman that Josh has known since Paul found her stuck in a snowdrift was standing at the standup helm wearing a bikini top and sarong that rode quite low.

“Take a look to our left,” Andi said as they headed toward the Jupiter Inlet. There to the left of them as they slowly drifted by was the 108 foot tall (33 meters) brick red Jupiter light house. It was beautiful but in this dim pre-dawn sunlight it was a startling sight. Veronica and Josh took picture after picture as they drifted past the lighthouse. “Ok, let’s head inside and sit down, this part gets rough,” said Andi.

They stepped inside the enclosed portion of the flying bridge and Paul was in the captain’s chair. “You want to try it? You’re doing pretty well this morning.”

Andi looked like she was struggling with the answer, then finally said, “Yeah, I’ll do it.”

“Ok, mister Jarecki, the helm is yours.” Paul stood up and Andi slipped into the captain’s seat.

“Everybody take a seat, this is where the fun begins,” and she checked all of her screens and picked up the microphone from the control panel, keyed the mike and said, “Prepare for rough seas.”

A moment later they heard Yi’s voice saying, “Galley is ready!” followed by “Engineering is ready!” from Kenny. Andi lined Andi’s Dream up with the Jupiter Inlet – 1500 feet long (460 M) 400 feet wide (122 M) of nothing but rough seas and gripped the wheel tight. Andi’s dream rose and fell like a ping pong ball in a mason jar, but Andi’s Dream was made to haul crazy Ozzie’s from one adventure to another and shot through the Jupiter Inlet like a hot knife through warm butter.

Andi looked totally shook but her husband was congratulating her. “You did it perfectly!” said Paul, “You hit those brakers dead on and let the bow slice through them. You didn’t fight, you did it perfectly. You’re going to pass that test for sure.”

“Test?” asked Josh.

“She wants to upgrade her license, right now she’s licensed for 50 tons,” said Paul.

“This monster is under 50 tons?” asked Josh, what he’s seen of it is very impressive, he thought it would be heavier than that.

“Dry weight is 60 tons. The license is to haul paying customers. When we take fishers and others out Yi’s folks master the boat for us. I’ve got my 100-ton ticket, Andi needs quite a few more hours to get 100 tons and we can do the tourist hauling ourselves.”

“Let’s do that!” said Josh. “Then we don’t have to make that video for Ant.”

“Video?” Andi was intrigued. “What is this all about?”

Josh pulled Veronica close and said “Ant wants a video made so we’re going to do it. We were putting the script together on the plane ride down here.”

“What kind of video is it?” asked Andi.

“We’re still working on the script but I was thinking she could be the business owner looking for a data storage solution and I could be the pizza delivery guy and…OW!”

Paul was laughing so hard he could barely stand. “You had me going with that, I didn’t see that coming.”

“Neither did I,” groaned Josh clutching his crotch.

“I think I need coffee,” said Andi. “Care to join me?”

“I think I will,” said Veronica, “Are you coming Guido?”

“Not for a very long time,” groaned Josh. He’s got to keep an eye out for that left hand. She’s catching on to his raunchy jokes and is getting quicker. He slowly righted himself and followed Andi and Veronica down the stairs as Paul sat down and opened up the throttle and Andi’s Dream leapt forward on a calm ocean.

As they turned the corner they saw Kenny and Yi working together in the gally and beyond them was a couple in their early to mid-thirties. He was a short, sandy brown haired young man and she was a tiny porcelain doll, a heart breaking cute Asian who, like her man, was wearing thick glasses. “Looks like team Minnesota is up,” said Andi. “Good morning sleepyheads!”

“She said yes doc! We’re going to get married!” Looking up the Asian girl saw Josh and Veronica and immediately closed up. She blushed bright read and curled up like a dying leaf.

“Don and Lanh Campbell, this is Josh and Veronica Gravely. Josh and Veronica are my neighbors and they got married a few months ago,”

“We got married on Halloween,” said Veronica as she extended her hand to shake.

“Don and Lanh have been married a bit longer,” said Andi.

“We got married three days after we graduated high school,” said Lanh as she shook hands with the statuesque fashion model. “This ride is like our second honeymoon.”

“This is our first chance to get away,” said Veronica, “so this makes it our honeymoon.”

“Don is an Air Force veteran like you Josh,” said Andi.

“What was your AFSC?” asked Josh.

“Two Alpha Three, fighter comm/nav,” said Don, “but I tended to do a lot of off the wall things.”

“Same here,” said Josh. “Two whiskey one, aircraft weapons, but I spent a lot of time on gunships.”

Don suddenly looked sad, and he muttered, “Royce was a gunner.” Lanh heard him and she put her arms around her man who looked like he needed somebody to lean on.

“Royce…” said Josh who searched his memory. “Do you mean Royce Brown?”

“Yeah, Chief Brown, did you know him?” asked Don. “He was my maintenance supervisor at Spangdahlem.”

“I knew of him only by reputation,” said Josh, “much of what we did on gunships was developed by Royce. He’s a legend.”

“He passed away a few weeks ago,” muttered Don sadly. “He was my mentor when I was an ay-one-see.” Then he looked at Josh and said, “You look familiar, were you ever at Spangdahlem?”

“No, were you at Minot?” asked Josh.

“Nope, I was at El Forko Grande.”

Josh chuckled at the disparaging nickname for Grand Forks. “Egland?” he asked but he knew the answer was probably no, Egland was special forces, not a lot of people went there.

“No,” said Don. “Canon?”

“No…” Then both men looked at each other and a look of recognition came over them and they both said, “The Kun.”

“Yes! You were Juvat!” said Don. The Juvats were the 80th Fighter Squadron. “You’re the weapons guy, master sergeant that got the brutal washdown!”

“Yeah, that was me,” grinned Josh.

“What happened?” asked a grinning Lanh. Being an Air Force wife, she knew all about washdowns. On an airman’s last day before heading off to a new duty assignment or retirement, the airman is “washed down” with whatever water source is available. It’s a tradition that goes back to the Vietnam War.

Don grinned for the first time in a long time. “My man here pissed off some needle dick looie on his last day, he had the entire weapons flight laughing at this guy, in formation. Leftennant Loser turned around and stomped off… did he cry? It looked like he was going to cry.”

Josh sipped his coffee and said, “Anything said between Lieutenant Needle Dick and myself was a privileged conversation, I cannot answer that question, you know that.” As Josh said that he nodded his head “Yes,” causing Lanh to laugh and bury her face in Don’s shoulder.

“I knew it…” laughed Don, “I’m sorry, I mean that would be a total shame if he did, a total break in etiquette, anyhow Josh got washed down just massively! Holy crap! I thought you were going to drown!”

“That sounds like my southern gentleman,” said Veronica as she gave Josh a kiss and squeezed his ass.

“I almost did drown, holy shit that was cold. You were expediting the Com/nav folks, right?” asked Josh.

“Yeah, I was there about a month or two when they turned the fire hose on you. I remember thinking, “if this is how they treat you when they love you, I need to piss these guys off,” laughed Don. Then he said quietly, “I also worked at the MARS station, I remember patching your call home before you left… sorry man.” MARS is the Military Affiliate Radio System. In areas where it’s impossible for a military member to phone home, MARS will “patch” a call over high frequency radio. It’s scratchy and full of static and you have to say “over” before your caller can talk next, but it’s a call home and it helps.

“What happened?” asked Veronica, but Don just looked down at his coffee cup.

“He’s not going to say,” said Lanh, “MARS operators don’t discuss details of their calls.”

Veronica looked surprised but Josh shook Don’s shoulder with a quiet, “Thanks man.” Josh then said, “It was to my sister, and she was…” he looked at Veronica and said, “you know my sister.”

“Yes I do,” sighed Veronica. Josh’s sister is an alcoholic crack addict who passionately hates her younger brother and blamed him for their parents alcohol related deaths. She may be dead herself, it’s hard to tell.

“I told her I was coming home; they were retiring me and she said,” Josh pitched his voice up to a near perfect approximation of his sister’s voice. “Don’t you bring yo sorry ass here, ah’ll kick yo ass back out. Wha don’ choo jus drap dead an’ do us all a favor you sum bitch,” and she hung up.”

Lanh and Veronica looked at Josh in shock as Don nodded and said, “That was my worst call ever, and I had just started in MARS. I almost quit MARS over that.” MARS operators have an affinity with their callers and if the call goes bad they feel partially responsible for the outcome of the call, even though all they did was patch it through the radio.

Josh sipped his coffee and sighed, “You can’t pick your relatives.”

“Your sister…” sighed Veronica. “I try not to hate people but your sister makes it really difficult.”

Just then an incredibly beautiful Asian woman eased her perfect ass into the open seat next to Don and said, “Is your sister anything like me?” Then Kim-ly gave Don the kind of kiss that married men never get in front of their wives.

Veronica and Josh tried to hide their shocked looks as two Asian beauties snuggled up to Don, and that didn’t go unnoticed. “Speaking of sisters, this is my sister Kim-ly,” said Lanh softly. “We have a unique relationship.” She didn’t sound angry that her sister just kissed her husband, she sounded kind of happy.

“Y’all did that just to see if youse guys could shock a sadly sober ol’ country boy, didn’t ya,” asked Josh.

“Wait a minute, you used y’all and youse guys in the same sentence and you think we’re being weird?” said Don with a smile that faded, as did the smiles on Kim-ly and Lanh. “We’ve had some rough times and…”

“STOP!” snapped Josh. “Stop right there. I think we’ve all had some rough times. Screw the rough times and screw the ones that look down on us. We found partners to love and who love us in return, let’s save talk about the bad times for the right time.” He raised his coffee cup in a toast.

“When’s the right time?” asked Kim-ly.

“‘Round a campfire passing ’round an open bottle that we intend to drain,” Josh said with a country boy grin.

“I will drink to that,” said Don and he raised his coffee cup to Josh’s, and with a cheer the girls joined in.

Kenny said in that special way he communicates with Yi, “Looks like Doctor Andi’s plan is working.”

“Doctor Andi’s plans always work,” she replied silently and with a tender kiss they got back to work and carried steaming hot bowls of shrimp & grits to the five seated at the table while Andi carried two bowls upstairs for her and her co-conspirator Paul.

֎

Their introduction to summer while winter raged back home was glorious, back home a cold front settled in that covered the entire US and even into Florida, record low temperatures were set as far south as Daytona Beach, but here in the open ocean the sun was warm and embracing, the breeze was cool and refreshing and the ocean was so inviting.

Soon Kenny and Yi came up from below deck with several fishing poles and set two poles out each as the boat cruised slowly. Paul was up on the flying bridge and Don and Josh joined him to “talk shit” about the places they’ve been and the people they’ve seen in the Air Force. Below them on the mezzanine, Andi, Veronica, Lanh, and Kim-ly sipped wine and talked about babies. Lanh was really hoping she would be pregnant with the help of a specialist when they return to Minnesota. She’s been incapable of conception, and their specialist believes that taking an ovum from Kim-ly and fertilizing it in virto then placing it in Lanh will allow her to experience the miracle of motherhood. “We’ve been talking about having a baby since we were sixteen,” said Lanh.

“Since sixteen?” Veronica took that as a little hard to believe.

“Kim-ly and I come from a big family, our mother was seventeen when she was pregnant with our oldest sister Tam.”

“The pretty one,” groaned Kim-ly.

“She’s the pretty one?” asked Veronica.

“I never met Tam,” said Andi who like Veronica couldn’t believe that there was someone the two Asian girls would consider more beautiful than each other.

“Here’s our picture,” said Lanh and she handed her phone to Veronica.

Veronica looked at a photo of all three women which included Tam who was incredibly beautiful. She fit in with her sisters, Tam was a classic beauty in a Katherine Hepburn kind of way, serious and unobtainable except for the right man, Kim-ly was heartbreakingly sexy, a siren calling sailors to their doom, and Lanh was completely and utterly cute in a sexy way. “The three of you… wow, your brothers probably spent their lives beating up anyone that got near you.”

“Sometimes I wish they had…” said Kim-ly softly as past regrets piled up on her. For a long time, she adored her twin brother and the affection was returned but he wasn’t the type to keep trouble away. Her two oldest brothers almost ignored the rest of the family, their professional ambitions were first and foremost.

“I was an only child, it was just me and mom, my dad died in Iraq,” said Andi. “I think my mom finally got over that recently.”

“And you?” asked Kim-ly, “did you get over it?”

“Let me put it this way, my dad’s name is Daniel Roberts, my son’s name is Daniel Robert Jarecki.”

“That’s sweet,” sighed Kim-ly who already had a name if they have a girl, Sue Lyn.

“It was just me and my older sister Magda,” said Veronica. “Mom ran off and left us with dad. Then, as soon as Magda could roll a joint by herself, she took off leaving me and dad. After dad retired those two took most of his retirement.”

“What happened to your dad?” asked Lanh.

“When we found out how bad he was treated, Josh said, “I don’t care what you say, we’re taking him in,” and we made a suite for him in our house and a cabin just for him on our lake.”

“So is your dad happy?” asked Kim-ly.

Andi started laughing and almost spewed wine out her nose. “I would guess so,” said Veronica. “His twenty-one-year-old wife just had a baby.”

“WHAT? Oh my god!” laughed Kim-ly. “The ol’ fucker still has it.”

Above the laughing women Don, Paul and Josh sat in the aft openair section of the flying bridge as Paul manned the helm and were trading stories of life in the USAF, and Josh finally asked Don “What was Royce like? From the gunners that knew him, all said he was a party hard, fly hard, and when you can’t do it by the book, fix the book kind of guy.”

“I don’t know about party,” said Don, “but he demanded a lot from us…” Don looked back at his time with Royce and laughed, “like me he was married to a Viet, and she saved us. Lanh couldn’t handle the shock of our first assignment, and she freaked out. I didn’t have any money to send her home, so I was considering the guaranteed way…”

“What’s the guaranteed way?” asked Paul as he kept an eye on Yi and Kenny while they fished off the cockpit. Eventually Lanh joined them as they tried to catch dinner.

“You were an officer with a paycheck to write home about, you wouldn’t know the guaranteed way,” said Josh. Josh was Paul’s best friend and could get away with hacking on him because of his superior rank (Lieutenant Colonel) “Of the three of us, who is actually retired?”

“Ok, stop,” said Paul looking at the two raised hands. “I apologize for quitting, now what’s the guaranteed way?”

Before Don could say another painful word Josh said, “Your family gets a free ride home if they’re accompanying a flag draped coffin.”

“Oh, shit… sorry,” apologized Paul, who once did fly home with a flag draped coffin.

“It was the only way I could think that would get Lanh home to her family, we were broke and the German economy was roaring so the American dollar barely covered rent,” explained Don. “Then Royce had his wife Annie explain to Lanh the facts of life in a military family. She and Lanh have been very close ever since.”

“Did it work?” asked Paul.

“Well…” Don thought then a huge grin spread across his face. “I was TDY with the 480th to Aviano and Annie drove Lanh from our home in Germany down to Aviano Italy. That night I was having dinner with the weapons guys,” he gave Josh a sly look.

“The best stories include the weapons guys,” grinned weapons guy Josh as he cracked open another beer.

“Just a nice night at a local hotel, swapping stories and havin’ a good time when Lanh comes out of the kitchen dressed as a French maid serving dinner. She gives all the weapons guys their meals, but me… she gives me a glass of water and a lap dance.”

The guys roared with laughter until Yi shouted from down in the cockpit, “You’re scaring the fish away!”

֎

It was a nice, relaxed day in the sun. The weather was warm and clear, a slight breeze blowing from the south and the automatic station keeping system of Andi’s Dream had no problem holding steady with tiny burps from the thrusters on occasion. They were clear of the shipping lanes and decided to take some time and relax in mid ocean. They decided to open up the foredeck and first the Zodiac needed to be moved. A Zodiac is a small three to four person boat with sides and pointed bow are made from inflatable tubes, this one has a small rechargeable outboard motor and is used for ferrying people to and from shore. The Zodiac was lowered into the water with a davit, a small crane that was folded up and stowed. Paul showed Don and Josh how to erect the canopy over the fore deck and set up the table and couches creating a triangular lounging zone surrounded by couches with a triangular central table pointing to the bow. It made a wonderful gathering spot to revel in the warm ocean breezes and celebrate Summer in February. “Are you going to tell the girls the fore deck is ready?” asked Josh as he arranged the dishes of snacks on the central table.

“Nah,” said Paul shaking his head, “If you build it they will come.”

Paul peeled off his t-shirt and relaxed in the shade of the canopy which felt delicious, the touch of a refreshing ocean breeze on slightly sweat dampened skin was perfect. Soon the boat’s PA system rang with Yacht Rock (easy rock from the 70’s and 80’s) and Andi made her way along the side decks to the fore deck, a bag of plastic wine glasses in one hand, two bottles of wine in the other, followed Kim-ly, Lanh, and Veronica each carrying a wine bottle. They were wearing light weight swim robes with bikinis underneath.

“Did somebody say there was a party out here?” Kim-ly held up a blue wine bottle indicating she had her favorite beverage.

As the girls sat down with their husbands it soon became apparent that they neglected to bring the most important tool needed. Don was about to get up and get it because Lanh AND Kim-ly were both giving him that look, when Kenny appeared around the front salon window, “I know what you forgot!” he grinned and held up a corkscrew. The girls breathed a sigh of relief, but it stopped quickly because behind him on the side walkway was Yi and she was topless. She was almost bottomless too, her bikini bottom was a tiny thong, while Kenny was only wearing a speedo.

Kenny and Yi were both tall and slender, Kenny’s muscles were well defined from hoisting fifty-pound sacks of feed, seed, and fertilizer all day long, day after day.

“Thank you, Yi,” said Andi, “for the corkscrew and for breaking the ice,” as she took her bikini top off revealing her round breasts. “Anyone else? It’s ok.”

“Wha?” gasped Lanh, she looked like she was going to cry. Don put his arm around his cute wife reassuring her that no one is going to judge her for taking her top off or for not taking her top off.

They spent the afternoon sipping wine, munching on snacks, and chatting and enjoying the warmth they all missed so much. “We’ll remain here tonight then head into Nisi Arcadia tomorrow,” said Paul. “So, if you want to go swimming in the deep water, now’s your chance.”

Andi, Lanh, and Kim-ly began to talk around what happened to Lanh and their friend Karole, never explaining what actually happened. “What happened?” asked Veronica. She felt left out because they all knew the big story and were talking about recovery.

“Lanh, her mom, and her best friend were run over by a car,” said Andi softly. “It happened Christmas Eve, they were just finishing last minute Christmas shopping and stopped for a drink, then coming out of the restaurant some drunk plowed right into them. Karole showed up at the nick of time and shoved Lanh and her mother out of the way.”

“Mostly out of the way,” said Kim-ly. “Mom banged her head, Lanh’s leg got fractured and Karole, she was all fucked up.” Which earned Kim-ly an elbow in the ribs from Lanh.

“I still have steel plates in my leg,” said Lanh and she showed off the surgery scars on her hand and leg.

“I wondered why you were limping,” said Veronica sadly. “What a horrible Christmas.”

“Karole and I were out of it,” said Lanh sadly. “Karole was dying and I was in surgery… Don and I consider Christmas our real anniversary, our first Christmas we were trapped by a snowstorm and my brother taught Don to say “Lanh a em yêu chi” when he handed me his mother’s lefsa roller. He thought it means “I give you this with great respect” but it means “Lanh I love you.”

“Poor Don,” sniffed Kim-ly. “He was a zombie at the hospital… he had Karole’s daughter and he was going back and forth, from Lanh’s room to Karole in the ICU, back and forth, begging and pleading with them to live. So lost… so shattered… and I was right there for him! He just walked past me. They wheeled Lanh into surgery totally by surprise, a surgeon accepted the opportunity to cut and away she went. But Don! he was down at the ICU with Karole and they never told him, when he got back, he flipped out and went looking for Lanh… he wasn’t Don anymore. I finally found him in a hall in shock, and we just sat on the floor together.” Now Kim-ly was holding the tears back but she was fighting a losing battle and next they knew Kim-ly and Lanh were both holding each other rocking back and forth.

“That’s why they’re here,” Andi whispered to Veronica. “Nisi Arcadia has a wonderful healing atmosphere.”

Out on the Mezzanine the guys were drinking beer and watching Yi prepare the grouper she caught earlier and telling war stories. Don told about how a fighter plane on the arm-up ramp in Saudi Arabia turned too soon and blew the truck he was in into a deep ditch and blew another truck on top of him. “I woke up in Wiesbaden hospital in Germany with Lanh next to me, the squadron flew her out and she got there while I was in surgery. Worst Christmas ever.”

“Damn,” groaned Josh.

Don shook his head, “it gets worse. That morning I had my doctorate approved, I was given a line number for Master Sergeant, and I was getting on the freedom bird the next day rotating back home. We were supposed to be adopting a baby when I got back, and we lost that chance, and since I missed the appointment it put a black mark on our records with every adoption agency.”

“Fuck,” muttered Josh. “You just have the worst luck.”

“Yeah, but we always get through it together. It took us years to realize how important Kim-ly was to us and how important we were to her.” Don began to look depressed, but Josh knew how to cheer him up.

“Here, check this out,” Josh pulled up his t-shirt showing the huge ugly scar that ran up the left side of his body.

“Damn!” cried Don, “What did you do?”

“I was in an AC-130 gunship that ran into a stinger missile. Blew the main gun off its mounts and opened a big ass hole on the right side, sucked the load master out, killed my best friend, injured the rest of my crew. Thank God the load master had her safety strap on, we kidded her about it but I found her dangling in the slip stream. I gashed myself up pulling her back in.”

Nothing cheers a military man like a good war story, no matter how horrible it is, just getting it off your chest and sharing it with a sympathetic ear helps so much. And if you do it right, one good story leads to another. “The most scared I was, was in Korea in Kunsan after you left and little rocket man decided to charge at the south,” said Don. “Gawd what a cluster fuck, we flew 20, turned 12, turned six, turned six. Day after day, the only thing we simulated was weapons, they did those half load things, we’re trying to troubleshoot IFF problems with guys carrying missiles back and forth, what a mess. We were sleeping in the aircraft shelters and I had Lanh up in my room!”

“You took Lanh to Kunsan?” roared Josh with laughter. Kunsan was an isolated remote assignment, family wasn’t allowed.

“I didn’t take her, she just showed up one day. She conned my suite mate into letting her in my room and she fell asleep on my bed. The maid came in and thought I had a hooker in there.” The laughter soothed the pain and carried into the salon which brought the girls out to see what was going on. “I was just telling them about your trip to Korea.”

“I wonder how Xuan Pham is doing,” said Lanh.

“Who is that?” asked Kim-ly.

“You met her, she came up to visit us at Osan, she’s the Ajima that thought I was a prostitute.”

“We were talking about Gallant Eagle, when we thought we were going to war,” said Don. “When Rocketman decided to back off the whole base went silent, all planes were down, all flights cancelled, we and we just waited then about eleven hundred hours they called “SECURE FROM MOPP CONDITION” and played Lee Greenwood “God Bless the USA” over the loudspeakers and security started launching slap rockets. The sky was full of flares on parachutes while we sang our lungs out.”

“Everyone on base was singing at the top of their lungs and waving flashlights and lighters,” said Lanh, “then all the exterior lights came on for the first time in two weeks. It was wild!”

“I remember a few exercises that were pretty tough,” said Josh, “That felt so good to hear that song and watch the lights come back on. It was our victory song.” When he lost gunships, an assignment that he loved, he ended up at Kunsan Air Base in Korea, another assignment he loved. Unfortunately for Josh, it was only one year, but being unmarried and unattached he would have happily done three years there.

“Honey, could you come here and tell us what this is?” asked Lanh.

“Where is this what-is-it?” asked Don as he got up. “I don’t know anything about this boat.”

“You own a boat,” insisted Kim-ly.

“I own a rowboat.” The girls led him down the stairs across the cockpit to the aft gunnel and opened the rear door and they stepped out on the swimming ramp.

“That down there, look closer.”

Don crouched down and as Kim-ly stepped up to push him in, he spun and wrapped an arm around her knees and pulled her in with him. With a startled squawk from Kim-ly they hit the water with a splash.

“She didn’t expect that?” Andi asked Lanh.

“Nope.”

“Did you expect that?”

“Yeah, he’s pretty tough to trick… besides, I told him.”

Josh and Veronica watched as Don came up quickly but Kim-ly was still underwater. Don began to struggle and yell “No you don’t!” and suddenly Kim-ly popped up and threw Don’s swim trunks up onto the swimming deck. Don decided to just go with it and handed his glasses to Lanh and he was soon to taking easy strokes, first in a long time, while Lanh watched and remembered better days long, long ago …

֎

Josh and Veronica’s stateroom was triangular, it was in the bow of the boat with the head of the bed at the point. She and Josh were snuggling enjoying a gentle encounter. Sometimes after a busy day they enjoy a relaxing encounter of manual stimulation, mutual masturbation, especially if she finishes first (it happens) and then gently sucks his balls to encourage him but tonight she said, “Come on,” a look of excitement crossed her face, and she climbed up out of the bed.

“Where, what?” said Josh as he followed her.

Veronica threw a towel over her shoulder and said, “Let’s go for a walk,” then she left the room naked carrying a towel.

Josh scrambled to catch up with her, trying to be quiet as he made his way past the master suite with Lanh, Kim-ly and the third suite with Yi and Kenny. Don then followed Veronica through the salon, then the mezzanine and out on deck. The generator purred quietly as the couple stood on the swimming platform, Veronica scanning the stars, she’s never seen the stars so bright, and Josh scanning the water looking for sharks. The boat sat steady in the water, its deck lighting dim, like an aisle in a theater, but the underwater lights were lit up, changing colors and it fascinated Josh.

“It’s hot out here,” whispered Josh.

Spotting something moving across the sky Veronica said, “Look at that! What is that?” and she turned to look for Josh but he was gone. “Effi?”

“Shhh!” came his voice from below.

Veronica stepped out on the swimming deck that was lowered to water level. “Oh Effi, you need to tell me when you do something like that!”

“Nica, who is the swimmer on this boat?” said Josh as he lowered Veronica into the warm, embracing ocean.

“Don is. Lanh told me he held the state record for two-hundred-meter freestyle.”

At the sound of Don’s name, Kim-ly woke up. Don and Lanh had asked for a few moments of alone time and Kim-ly graciously got up and stepped outside. She understands; she’s not competing with Lanh for Don, she’s in love with both of them. Besides, she needed a little alone time too, in Minnesota you don’t go outside to look at the stars naked, ever. It’s either too cold or the mosquitoes will eat you alive. The warm air and the rocking of the boat took its toll and she fell asleep on a lounge chair in the cockpit and was aroused a half hour later when Veronica mentioned Don.

“We’re not in Minnesota,” said Josh and their lips met, their tongues intertwined as their hands slipped over each other’s body. Playing like otters they swam around each other, kissing and caressing, hands sliding over wet bodies, eyes locked. This one perfect moment under the stars with the woman he loves so dearly was worth the hype and hassle it took to get down here.

“I am so proud of you,” she whispered in his ear.

“Proud? Me?”

“Mmmmm.” She smiled as her fingertips circled his nipples. “You have so many reasons to never get on an airplane ever again, but you overcame your fear to bring me down here, you begged me to take in my dad, you are so loving to his baby and all the children in our life. You earned every promotion Ant gave you, and more! We still hold hands at lunch, that still makes me happy. Where were you when I was eighteen?”

“Holloman New Mexico.” He pulled her close and brushed her wet hair from her face. “I am so thankful to you, you love me more than I deserve, and I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with you. We are going to have such wonderful children.”

Children? This is the first time either of them said anything about children. With a squeak of delight Veronica threw her arms around his neck and kissed him so hard it hurt his teeth. Her tongue shot into his mouth, and they clung to each other, lost in their kiss. Finally, when they broke the kiss Josh started to nudge Veronica toward the boat and she had a million questions and she stumbled over them in her excitement. “When do you want to start?”

“Any time you feel ready.”

“Can we start now?”

“I want to get back on the boat first.”

“How many do you want?”

“Nine, but I’ll settle for fewer.”

“I’m being serious, how many do you want?”

“Let’s figure that out one at a time.

Veronica climbed up onto the yacht and pulled Josh onto the deck with her. “Let’s start now,” she groaned. Their lovemaking was eager and aggressive, their hands roaming and probing, everything was new and exciting, and Veronica found Josh feasting on her vagina, driving her to climax faster than any man had ever been able to excite her. She tried to pull him up to kiss him but he was insatiable and soon Veronica’s choked cries of her orgasm were heard, waking their friends and neighbors up on the flying bridge.

When her mind returned from wherever Josh sent it, Veronica pulled him up and demanded “Fuck me Effi. Give me our child.”

Kim-ly could not move, she didn’t want to disturb them, and they were so beautiful together in the starlight. She knew she should have left earlier but their talk about children reminded her of Don and Lanh 15 years ago as they made excited plans for a family that never materialized. And now the beautiful love making of these two people kept her entranced, and her fingers busy. Kim-ly tried to remain silent as she watched Josh and Veronica celebrate their mutual passion, but occasionally a little gasp would escape as she joined them in their desire.

Josh never felt Veronica so hot and excited before, and she was insatiable, her juices covered them as they fucked. It was no longer a romantic tryst in the starlight, this was raw fucking, the sound of their groins slapping echoed across the surface of the calm ocean.

“Cum in me Effi,” she gasped over and over.

“I’m going to cum Nica!” Josh gasped as he fucked her to yet another climax. As she gasped in the throes of another mind bending orgasm, Josh came, filling her with his seed, grunting with every spurt. Veronica wrapped her long legs around Josh’s waist and her arms around his back squeezed with all her might as her orgasm took control and rattled her mind, and the squeezing made it nearly impossible for him to breath.

Veronica’s orgasm finally subsided and as aftershocks teased her, she released Josh and weakly kissed him. “Are you ok?” Josh asked. “That was really a big one.”

“Oh my God did I cum,” gasped Veronica, her head still spinning from the fucking she received.

“Me too,” sighed Kim-ly to herself as she quietly headed back to her suite unnoticed.

֎

The next afternoon Josh watched in amazement as Paul eased the boat toward the pier on the lovely island laid out before them. When Andi signaled that the zodiac was secured to the swimming ramp, Paul brought the throttles to a stop and allowed the big boat to drift towards the pier. Then with a few twists of the control joystick the boat turned 180 degrees with burst from the thrusters and was drifting backwards gently using momentum from the last turns of the screws.

Yi and Kenny set fenders out on the port side of Andi’s dream and Josh hastened down the stairs and headed out to the foredeck where he, Don and Kim-ly put up the overhead tarp and set up the benches and tables. In the galley Lanh and Veronica carried the snack trays that Yi made last night up to the foredeck as the yacht eased up to the dock. Once Andi’s Dream was secured to the doc, Kenny connected a heavy electric line to the yacht and threw a switch providing power to the big boat and Don killed the engines, then shut down the generator and for the first time in two days the boat was silent.

“Do we have to get dressed?” asked Kim-ly. They were told that a VIP was coming aboard and she was worried about having to dress. Veronica agreed with the sentiment, now that she summoned up the courage to remove her bikini top, she was ready to take it off, but she didn’t want to offend a potential client. Just then Andi stepped onto the bow from the port side deck followed by a woman clearly in her later years. She had long silver hair combed out straight like Lanh’s ebony locks and like Andi she was wearing only a sarong, her firm breasts were either superbly modified or timeless in their shape and size, her breasts appeared to be as firm as a woman in her twenties.

“Folks, this is our hostess, Justice Nicoletta Atherton, she and her husband Donald own this island and are happy to have us come visit.”

“Justice Atherton? From the New York State Supreme Court?” asked Veronica.

“That’s me,” said the silver haired beauty, “and please call me Nikki. And am I correct in assuming that you are Veronica von Köster from the Miss America pageant a few years ago?”

“Quite a few years ago,” chuckled Veronica, “and it’s Victoria Gravely now,” as she rose to shake hands.

One by one Justice Atherton walked around the bow patio shaking hands and welcoming her guests, and when she got to Kim-ly, the Asian hottie introduced herself as Kim-ly Campbell. “Interesting! I cannot wait to hear your story.” She seated herself at the apex of the triangular lounge and said “Ok, I would love to do some ice breakers and get to know you then we’ll go ashore where my husband is preparing dinner. What a group, all you guys are veterans, and all you women are beautiful. I was told we have newlyweds, who is that? Ronnie and Josh, you’re our newlyweds? how did you meet?”

“I got a new job and a tech company in Orchard Park,” started Josh, “and this beauty queen gave me the HR briefing as I in-processed.”

“We kind of hit it off right there but we played by the rules for a couple of years,” said Ronnie.

“Very wise, however Anthony tells me that there’s a little bit more to your story… something called StormWatch?”

Veronica sighed, there’s no getting out of it, and she wouldn’t be surprised if Nikki knew the whole story anyhow. “Our business requires the servers stay on and connected to the network 24/7 and during one storm we had a power glitch that knocked everything off like until someone came in to fix it. Josh suggested having a qualified person remain in the building during storms to fireguard and keep an eye on the servers. Josh and I got snowed in one weekend and we took our relationship to another level.”

Yi welcome back and Kenny it’s good to meet you. Andi tells me you two snuck off to the courthouse to get married a while ago, how did you meet?” asked Nikki.

Yi started with, “I was sitting at the bar mourning the fact that fifty percent of my friends in this town were under seven years old this guy came up to me and said, “Hi, I’m Kenny, I have yellow fever and I’ll be your stalker for the evening.”

“A guy after my own heart!” cried Kim-ly, and she gave Kenny a fist bump. “Did you really say that?”

Kenny was a naturally quiet guy and he looked like he was going to blush, then he said, “I did say all of those things at one time or another, but that night I introduced myself and said I was interested in her, and we talked about our visits to Korea, mine in the army, hers to visit her grandmother.”

“And you hit it off right there,” sighed Lanh.

“Oh, Hell No!” said Kenny, Yi, Andi, Paul, Veronica, and Paul.

“They were on again off again for months!” said Andi, “then on Halloween they clicked.”

“We actually had a scoreboard at Worzel’s Bar and were making bets if they would enter angry with each other or all lovey-dovey,” said Josh.

“You people are brutal! I’ve got to come to Springville,” said Nikki laughing. “Ok, who’s next?”

“That’s us,” said Andi, “you know our story.”

“I might,” said Nikki with a wicked smile, the kind of smile she used when daring a felon to lie his way out of her courtroom. “I don’t think everybody here has heard it; I want to hear Paul’s version.”

“I was in my cabin, I had been watching a movie with Josh and the weather started to set in, I decided to ride out the storm so Josh headed back over to his cabin locked it up, then got in his truck and went home. About an hour later I got a call from Josh, he said the snow had gotten so bad he almost got lost heading back. Then not long later I got another call, this time from the Town of Concord police dispatch asking me if I could find a stranded traveler with children somewhere near Hirsh’s farm. I hopped on the tractor and went looking for them. I had chains on the tractor, and a half a load of hay on the trailer, and I went up the road to check them out and found them in a ditch. I loaded Andi and the twins on my wagon and gave them a hayride back to my cabin.”

“Was she happy to see you?” asked Nikki knowing what the answer was going to be.

“Hell no! She refused to get in the wagon until the Town of Concord verified my ID, then when we got to the cabin, she told me to go sleep in the barn.”

“You what?” shrieked Veronica and Kim-ly.

Andi buried her face in her hands and blushing furiously said, “I was scared for my twins! And I didn’t know him from Adam.”

Paul finished the story with, “while we were snowed in we figured things out and came out engaged.”

“Fast movers,” said Kim-ly with a grin, “I love it.”

“That brings us to the Campbells, by the way, Dr. Campbell, I love your book, it was sweet and very moving.”

Don looked shocked, “There’s really nothing sweet or moving about emphasizing basic skills in elementary school…”

“No, the new one, I believe the working title is “Sue Lynn,” if I’m not mistaken,” said Judge Atherton.

“That is an outline of the first three quarters of the book, and Lanh is the author, we haven’t…”

“We have the same publisher; I am an advocate for streamlining the adoption process and my publisher shares manuscripts with me. I want to pick your brain a bit for that but first, how long have you been married?”

“It will be fifteen years this June, we’ll be renewing our vows on our farm and anyone here that wants to come up is invited,” said Don.

“And how did you meet?”

“It was at a high school dance,” said Lanh.

“That’s it?”

“Yeah,” said Don. “Sophomore year.”

“Nothing else?” Nikki was starting to smell a rat.

Lanh and Don looked at each other and shrugged, “That’s a about it.”

“OH, YOU TWO LIE!” cried Kim-ly.

“Well now that you mention it,” said Don rubbing his chin, “There was a prank, or something. It was a long time ago.”

“They were the class nerds, picked on by everybody,” huffed Kim-ly. “They were set up to dance to this romantic song and they were expected to freak out so everyone could laugh at them but they danced and they didn’t freak out. Then they danced the couple more songs, and everyone was disappointed.”

“I think that was the general idea,” said Don as Lanh nodded in agreement.

Kim-ly fumed and fussed but Justice Atherton asked her, “You’re part of this group, how did you meet Don?”

“I’m the one that took Lanh to the dance and was ready to snap his neck if he did anything to make her cry. But I didn’t get to meet him until Monday when she dragged him into our restaurant. Those bastards… they beat the crap out of him after Lanh and I left. He couldn’t eat solid food for a week.”

“Why?” gasped Veronica.

“Some cheerleaders wanted to pick on Lanh as they were leaving and I got between her and them and they didn’t like it so their boyfriends hit me. A lot.” Lanh, Kim-ly and Don snuggled close at the memories, and it was clear that they were not going to speak about it again.

“Ok, newlyweds, when did you know they were the one?” Nikki leaned back waiting for this.

“Day one!” said Veronica. “Don’t look so surprised!” and she started laughing at Josh’s look of shock. “My, I mean, our boss came to me and told me that Marcy from HR had something come up and asked me to do the initial HR briefing on a new hire. I was buried but agreed and in walked Josh. He was the perfect southern gentleman, everything was yes ma’am and no ma’am, and he really meant it, he wasn’t being sarcastic, it was natural. Every time I looked up from the outline his eyes were right there on my eyes. Our thirty-minute HR briefing took several hours and extended through lunch.”

“It was a fix-up, said Josh softly.

“Interesting, why do you think that?” asked Nikki.

“Because right after our boss introduced me to Miss von Köster he took the HR girl Marcy out to lunch.”

“Don’t laugh!” said Veronica to the laughing couples. “Our boss always brags that his superpower is hiring the right person for the right job, and at our wedding he told me he hired Josh as a project for me.”

“Josh, when did you know Veronica was the one?” asked their hostess.

“We were friends from the “git-go” but you should see her at work! She still looks like a fashion model. I look like I should be wearing a blue shirt with the name Cletus above the pocket and an oily rag in the back pocket, so… OW!”

“He looks very nice at work. Sorry Effi,” she kissed his arm where she hit him, “You shouldn’t put yourself down.”

“I look nice now that you’re dressing me, back then I looked like I was pumping gas. But I knew before you did. I started on Monday, but the previous Saturday was the winter holiday party and Anthony invited me to the party, so I showed up, and I saw this blond vision in a white formal gown with sequins dancing with an officer and everyone was watching, and really, she took my breath away. When the song ended, they stepped apart and as everybody got up to dance, she walked right up to me and she said, “Hi! Are you Ephrem?” and she pronounced it right! Most Americans pronounce it Efrum, it’s e’Frame. Then she asked, “Did anyone ever call you Effie?” I said that my grandmother did. She said, “My Grandmother called me Nica.” And I knew, I knew right at that minute.”