Chapter 11
The sliding door to the back patio opened and Frenzy stepped outside, wearing a pair of pink and orange floral printed swim trunks that reached from his hips almost to his knees.
They were baggy, they were flashy, and they perfectly matched the bright pink sun hat he wore on top of his flame colored hair and orange sun glasses.
“Boys and girls, Uncle Frenzy has arrived. I am here to challenge each and every one of you to a water gun war!” he announced, holding a super soaker in each hand as he squirted them both up into the air over his head.
“Come one, come all, children of all ages, I dare you!” he invited, laughing maniacally like some horror movie villain of old.
The kids ran toward him, some of them with water guns of different sizes in their hands, others holding a water balloon in each hand. The assault had begun.
Frenzy dutifully dodged and wove, hiding behind everything from the grills to the structures on the splash pad, and even other adults.
The kids shrieked with joy as they attacked him and even got him on the run to the pool itself.
He abandoned his super soaker water guns and dove into the pool, swimming under water to the midway point before he popped up shouting.
“Time out! Time out!” he yelled, holding up his hands and making a time out signal.
“You win! Y’all are too good! I just can’t fight back like y’all can! ”
The kids laughed and high-fived each other, confiscated his water guns, then wandered back to the splash pad to reenact the water gun battle amongst themselves over and over.
Frenzy snagged a large inner tube as it floated by and climbed up onto it, floating his way around the pool.
As his inner tube made its way up to the front of the pool, nearer the shallow end, he noticed Titus standing off to the side, near the corner of the house. He held his hands up. “Titus, my man!”
“Hey, Frenzy. You doing good?”
“Always!” Frenzy answered with a grin.
“You look absolutely ridiculous.”
“Ain’t it great, though?” Frenzy asked.
“It must be. Nobody looks as happy as you and those kids,” Titus said.
“Happy is as happy does,” Frenzy said.
“I thought that was stupid is as stupid does,” Titus said.
“Interchangeable. Basically I interpret it as just do it and let the pieces fall where they may.”
“It’s not a bad way to approach most things,” Titus said.
Frenzy blew him a kiss, and paddled his way back toward the deep end.
He laid his head back and allowed the breeze to gently push him around the pool at will.
It wasn’t long before a familiar voice had him lifting his head to grin at its owner.
“You do know you look like a lalaloopsy doll, don’t you?” Hail asked.
“I don’t know what a lalaloopsy doll is, but I am sure it must be stunning,” Frenzy said, waggling his eyebrows.
Hail laughed. “You meet my friend yet?” she asked pointing her thumb at Alison.
“I’ve seen her, she’s the one that thought of the soldering irons, but I have not had the pleasure of an introduction,” Frenzy said.
“Frenzy, Variant warrior extraordinaire, this is Alison, Lion shifter and friend extraordinaire,” Hail said. “Alison, my friend, this is the one and only Frenzy.”
“I am delighted to meet you milady,” Frenzy said, tipping his bright pink sun hat at her with a goofy grin.
Alison laughed. “And you, Frenzy, warrior extraordinaire.”
“I’m seeing something wrong with this picture here,” Frenzy said, swirling his hand in their general direction.
“And that would be?” Hail asked.
“No glasses. No plates. No fried chicken crumbs on those perfectly delectable bikinis. Didn’t y’all eat?”
“Not yet. We were waiting for the line to die down,” Hail said.
“And just kind of not wanting to disturb our practically meditation-worthy state of mind over here,” Alison added.
Frenzy narrowed his eyes as he considered them, then he paddled the rest of the way over to them and spun the inner tube around to look out in the direction they were looking.
He lifted his upper body off the inner tube and made an exaggerated effort to scan left and right a few times.
“What could you possibly see that is meditation worthy?” he teased.
“I see people over here,” he said, pointing to his left, “and people over there,” he said pointing to his right.
“And people all around this place. It’s a popular place to be at the moment,” he said, looking over his shoulder to nod at the females.
“But meditation worthy? I don’t see it.”
“You shouldn’t see it,” Hail said.
“Unnnleeeesssss, you mean that huge ass male over there, that appears to be getting relieved from his security post by one of his many Pride mates. If you were somebody that happens to like huge ass males, not to be confused with males with a huge ass, because he does seem proportionate… anyway, you might find that particular view meditation worthy. Would that be what you are appreciating the view of?” Frenzy asked, grinning smugly at them over his shoulder.
“Hey, that’s all her. Titus is pretty and all, but we’re just friends,” Alison said.
“Good. Because I wouldn’t want anything to happen to him. He’s a friend of mine, too,” Frenzy said.
“Huh? What does that mean?” Alison asked.
“You know Titus?” Hail asked.
“I do. Hung out with him a little last time we were here with Law. You were here,” Frenzy said, ignoring Alison’s question.
“Yeah, but I didn’t actually meet him,” Hail said.
“Because Law was here and was all about being professional and shit so you and Storm pretended you were still in the military because you hadn’t been allowed out before that and were afraid he’d put y’all back in a closet.”
Hail looked at Alison. “He’s not wrong. Once we got Brinnley back here, though we stayed and swam for a while, we didn’t really relax much.”
“Well, you’re here to relax now.”
“I am indeed” Hail said.
“As am I. I’m going to float some more,” Frenzy said, laying his head back again and moving his sun hat to cover his face as he pushed off from the edge of the pool he was bobbing in.
Titus walked toward the food that was set up in the outdoor kitchen, his gaze flicking toward Hail and Alison a few times at almost the same time Feral and Jack walked out onto the patio deep in discussion about something that had them completely engrossed.
They spoke for a couple of more minutes, then shook hands.
Jack slapped Feral on the back, and Feral grinned and shook Jack’s hand again, then walked away, his attention also on the outside kitchen and smell of the food that was offered there.
Just before he moved into the outdoor kitchen, he hesitated, gave the general area the once over, his gaze lingering for just the briefest moment on Alison, then stepped into the outdoor kitchen area.
Titus rushed to get ahead of him, and in no time had three plates lined up in front of him as he loaded them up.
“Security works up an appetite,” Feral said.
Titus laughed. “It does, but this isn’t all for me.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“My first chance to eat today, and I noticed the direction I’m going in at the other end of the pool, the ladies there don’t appear to have eaten either, so I thought I’d take them both a meal.”
Feral nodded. “Let me ask you something.”
“Shoot,” Titus said.
“Alison available?”
Titus stopped spooning dirty rice onto the three plates he’d already put two or three pieces of fried chicken and an ear of corn on. “Alison, huh?”
Feral nodded, looking him in the eye.
Titus grinned at him. “Alison is a sweet girl, but never paid much mind to anybody else. She kind of keeps to herself. I’m surprised to see her hanging out with Hail today.”
“You know Hail?” Feral asked.
“Saw her briefly when she and Storm brought Findley’s sister to us, but didn’t get much chance to speak to her.”
“Yeah, they were on duty. Trying to impress Law with their professionalism I would guess.”
“So, you like Alison?” Titus asked.
“I do. A lot,” Feral said.
“Then here, I was making this for her,” Titus said, nudging one of the plates he had set out on the counter top toward Feral. “She’s not mated, nor is she seeing anybody. She’s real quiet, a background kind of girl. Might refuse you, but might not.”
Feral nodded as he pulled the plate closer to his end of the counter top, grabbed his own plate and started filling it for himself.
Titus finished filling the two plates he was still working on, stuck a plastic fork into the rice on each, then grabbed two bottles of water, tucked them under his arm and picked up the two plates. He waited until Feral looked up at him. “What about Hail?”
“What about Hail?” Feral asked.
“She got a male back home?”
Feral grinned. “Nope. She’s a lot to handle, though. Does not like being told what to do or being kept on a short leash. Don’t know how she never got kicked out of the military before the Variant doctors got a hold of her.”
Titus laughed. “My kind of woman.”
“Good luck with that,” Feral said. He watched Titus as he walked away, making his way toward where Alison and Hail sat whispering to each other and laughing.
He looked down at the chicken on the plate Titus had made for Alison, then at the large aluminum pans piled high with fried chicken.
Those Titus had put on her plate were just as good as any other, but there were some that looked better.
He returned the pieces Titus had chosen to the pans, and chose the most appetizing, completely batter covered, fried to golden perfection, best pieces for Alison.
His female deserved no less than perfect.
He tore several paper towels off the roll, wrapped them around two bottles of water and tucked them under his arm just as Titus had done, then added forks to the plates and followed Titus’ path toward the only female that had captured his attention since he’d been freed.
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