Chapter 14
14
T he entire clan gathered on the beach for Nana’s parasailing.
The waves were bigger now than during Dean and Greer’s sojourn in the water. Dean refused to let it bother him. Once the boat motored farther out into the ocean, the waves wouldn’t be a problem.
Four helpers secured his mother into the harness, the parachute in reds, blues, yellows, oranges, and greens spread out behind her. They searched for a smaller helmet, finally going with a child’s size.
Bernice mused, “Do you think your head shrinks as well your height when you get older?”
Fabiola laughed. “Maybe it’s her brain that’s shrunk. Imagine this at her age.” She raised an eyebrow. “But this is what she wants to do.”
“She’ll be fine,” Sylvia said.
“And she’s wearing a life preserver, just in case,” Ralph added.
Bernice snorted. “So it’s not a problem that she might actually need a life preserver?” Arms folded across her chest, she breathed hard, like a bull in the ring facing down the matador.
Dean held his worries in check, though he kept asking himself why he’d even agreed.
As if she sensed his turmoil, Greer leaned against his arm. “She’ll be fine, like Sylvia said. And she’ll have the time of her life.”
“And I’ll hold her to her promise. When she’s ninety, no more hijinks,” he muttered.
Greer’s voice and her gentle weight against his arm soothed him. “Nothing will go wrong.”
He drank in her words, letting them trickle down through his body. Then he pushed them back out to the universe. His mother would be fine. She’d have the time of her life, an experience she could talk about for years to come.
With the parachute attached, the speedboat pulled into deeper water, and Nana’s team helped her to run. Not that his mother could actually run. But he would not imagine her falling on her face and being dragged through the water.
Greer’s warmth and her skin caressing his arm tethered him to the real world, the world where everything was fine for his mother.
Then, miraculously, Nana was airborne, squealing with delight and joy as the boat increased speed and the parachute ballooned behind her in bright multicolored stripes. The faster they flew across the water, the higher she rose into the air.
Ian videoed it all on his phone. Dean hadn’t even thought of it. His mother’s shrieks carried all the way back to shore. Far from fright, they were cries of rapture, the most jubilant sounds he’d ever heard. He actually wanted to cry at her ecstatic squeals raining down on him.
“She’s delirious with happiness up there.”
He reached for Greer’s hand and said softly, only for her, “Thank you.”
She tipped her head back, meeting his eyes. “What for?”
“Because this has made her so happy. And I wouldn’t have allowed her to do it if you hadn’t been here to tell me she needed to.”
“I don’t think I said anything at all.” Her smile made him ache.
“You didn’t have to say it. I heard it anyway.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close, leaning his face into her hair, breathing in her sweetness. “Sometimes we’re too careful with her.” He laughed softly. “She often says I’m a fun sponge, sucking all the fun out of her day.”
Greer hip-bumped him. “You’re just looking out for her. All of you are. And I’d bet she needs to be reined in a lot.” She turned her head against his shoulder, looking up at him through her lush lashes. “But today, she gets to be free. She gets to be young again.”
“She gets to be crazy,” he muttered.
The boat powered down the coast until the parachute was nothing more than a rainbow-colored dot on the horizon. Turning in a wide circle, it headed back. “You’re getting all this, right?” he asked Ian.
“Oh yeah.” Ian laughed. “And I got all your panicked faces too.”
His entire family laughed, and the laughter brought down his blood pressure to something less than a pounding in his ears. The speedboat passed in front of the crowd with Nana screaming and waving furiously. The grandkids whooped and hollered, cheering her on.
Greer pumped her fist in the air. “You go, Nana.”
Dean joined in, cupping his hands around his mouth and shouting, “Woo-hoo, go, girl!”
His mother had never looked so happy, so young. It might have been an illusion of the distance, but she looked like the young woman in her old photo albums.
Finally, the boat turned at the end of the inlet and headed back to shore. His mother’s team ran out into the waves as her parachute descended. Grabbing the lines, they pulled her in, and she landed with a plop in two feet of water, the parachute settling behind her. After detaching her harness, the team helped her walk out of the water while a couple of guys grabbed the chute and pulled it in. When she was safely back on the shore, Juanita and another girl unhooked her harness and took off her helmet.
Hands flying to her head, his mother cried out, “Oh my God, I have helmet hair.” She fluffed immediately, which didn’t do much. But that was his mother.
Then she was laughing, running to them, at least as much as she could run. The grandkids surrounded her. Lucas hugged her right off her feet, whirling her around amid Nana’s shrieks of laughter. Cynthia threw her arms around her grandmother and kissed her, Lisa joining in for a group hug.
Thank God Ian was still videoing.
With all the attention on his mother, Dean strode the couple of paces to Juanita, took her hand in both of his. “Thank you for keeping her safe, just like you promised.”
The young woman smiled. “She is the best we have ever had.” Then she joined her compatriots and began setting up for the next parachutist.
Beside Dean, Greer whispered, “See? It’s all good, and Nana is brimming with exhilaration.”
She was so right. His mom’s grin stretched ear to ear, and she regaled her rapt audience with the tale. “I was so scared at the beginning I thought I’d pee my pants.” She hadn’t been afraid at all. She’d loved every minute. But she loved telling the story. “The view was amazing. We went round and round. And they were videoing me from the boat.” She snorted. “Probably because I’m the oldest person they’ve ever had up on a parachute. And they were all yelling at me and calling encouragement and it was wonderful and fabulous and I loved it. I want to do it again right now.” She stamped her foot.
Bernice toed a line in the sand right in front of her, growling, “ Mother ,” and nothing else.
His mother giggled like a child. “You’re such a fuddy-duddy. I was just kidding. I won’t tempt the fates. What if it didn’t work out so well the next time and I broke my hip?” she teased, her eyes sparkling.
Greer pushed him lightly. “Go give her a hug,” she urged.
Dean did one better, lifting his mom in his arms and whirling with her like Lucas had done. Until she beat on his shoulders. “Let me down, you oaf. You’ll drop me and I’ll break something I didn’t break when I was on the parachute.”
He let her down slowly, laughing. She loved to grouse. It was part of what kept her young, all the good-natured grousing at her children.
She reached up to poke him in the chest. “Will you do it now, fraidy-cat?”
His laughter boomed. “And steal your thunder? No way.”
He thought of all the birthdays to come when they would rewatch his mother’s video, and he shook his finger at her. “But you are not parasailing or zip-lining for your hundredth birthday.”
“If I even make it that far,” she snapped.
“You better,” Cora piped up. “Because I’m writing the president to have him sign your hundredth birthday card.”
“You mean you’ll have her sign the card,” Jenny shot back.
Now that relief had flooded his body with endorphins, it was all fun. In fact, it was fabulous. Giddy with good cheer, he turned to Greer. “All right. Now I’m ready for the waterslide. It’s a bit more tame than the parasailing, but are you game?” He held out his hand.
She took it.
Joy welled up inside him, and he called out, “We’re off to the waterslide. Who’s coming?” He would have pointed a finger at his mother and told her she couldn’t put herself in danger on the waterslide, but if he did, it would only make her want to go.
But it seemed she’d had enough, because as he marched back to the lounge chairs, trailed by kids and adults alike as if he were the pied piper, his mother stayed right where she was, glorying in the marvelous feat she’d accomplished.
The Aztec temple split into two waterslides, one heading straight down into the lagoon, the other curling round and round before spitting its occupants out on the lagoon’s left side where the wave pool sent gentle ripples onto the manmade beach.
Greer hadn’t counted the number of steps they climbed, but the slide stood high in the air, palm trees and foliage surrounding it. The kids bumped each other out of the way, and the attendant staggered them, letting one child go at a time, only after the previous one landed in the water and swam away.
When it was her turn, Dean said, “We’ll go together.”
He helped her climb onto the straight slide, then settled in behind her, his legs flanking hers as he pulled her tight against his body. “Now this is what I’ve been dreaming about,” he whispered against her ear.
She shivered. And it wasn’t with fright.
The attendant pushed them off, and she squealed like Nana on the parachute, the slide slippery with water as they shot down. Hands high in the air, she laughed and shouted her joy. Just like Nana.
Dean’s laughter vibrated against her back. Then they hit the lagoon with a smack that got her a nose full of water.
Laughing, Dean pushed her to the side of lagoon and out of the way. “It’s a good idea if you plug your nose before you hit the water.”
She elbowed him. “But I had way more fun with my hands in the air.”
The only thing that would have made it better was if Dean’s daughters had joined the fun, but they’d stayed behind with Nana. Then again, Dean probably wouldn’t have draped himself around her if his girls could see.
Moments later, shrieks echoed from above along with the bump and thump of a body down the chute. They were wading to shore when Dean’s great-niece Cora landed with a tremendous splash and came up spluttering and laughing. Throwing herself through the water, she caught up with them as they reached the manmade beach.
Her words came out with a giggle. “That was amazing. Too bad the baby’s too young.”
Dean belted out a laugh. “You’d probably drown her. It’s better to take her into the kiddie pool.”
“Hubby’s doing that.” She grinned. “And I want another ride down the slide. Beat ya back.” She raced across the beach and up on the pool deck that led back to the pyramid’s stairs.
Dean wrapped his arm around Greer’s waist. “You up for another?”
“Does this make us big kids?”
She loved the way he laughed. “Just like my mother. That’s where I get it from.”
They took the curved slide this time, and as much as she loved Dean’s laugh, she loved the feel of him against her even more, his legs bracketing hers, the crinkly hair against her skin, his bare chest against her back, his arms tight around her waist. As they flew down the chute, she felt him everywhere. It was sensual. Sexual. Highly erotic.
But this time when she landed, she plugged her nose.
She could have played like that all afternoon, but after five more rides down the slide, Dean looked at his waterproof watch. “If we hurry, we can make it in time for the raging waters instead of the lazy river.”
Cora and the other kids overheard him, and everyone raced to the lazy river that wound its way around the five pools. Grabbing the inner tubes, they all threw themselves into the water.
With the rush, Dean and Greer ending up being the last to get in. Linking their hands, Dean turned their tubes backward and starting kicking in the water.
“I thought we’re just supposed to float.”
He grinned. “We won’t make it in time if we don’t kick. I know exactly where the waves start, and I’ll get us right in front of the outlet.”
She’d never have had so much fun in her life, the walk, the body surfing, Nana’s parasailing, the waterslide, a lazy river that would soon turn into a raging torrent. And especially Dean’s hand around hers as they kicked through the water.
When she didn’t have another ounce of energy, he stopped kicking, saying, “Here it is.”
People who obviously knew where the waves started crowded the outlet. Most of the kids had already staked out their spot in the waterway.
Dean floated them farther down than everyone else and grabbed the edge to stop their movement. The canal was at least six feet wide and six feet deep with tiled walls, the sounds of laughter and splashing in the pools drifting through the surrounding foliage.
Then she heard the motors in the outlet powering up. Dean gripped her hand tighter. “It’s coming. Hold on.”
The waves were small at first, then growing in intensity. Dean let go of the tiled wall just as a wave hit them, spewing them down the waterway.
“Don’t let go,” she called to him, afraid of losing him in the torrent.
Tubers trapped in the outlet by the waves’ backwash had to pull themselves along the wall to get out. But Dean had found the perfect spot. “How did you know?”
“Last time the girls and I did this over and over until my skin was wrinkled like an old man.”
Greer stretched out her palm. “I’m already wrinkled.”
Holding tight to her, Dean swung her around, bouncing her inner tube against the wall. “Keep to the right, or you’ll go straight under the waterfall.”
Sure enough, squeals and shouts floated back to them, and they rounded a curve to see several teenage girls beneath the waterfall, screaming about their ruined hair even as their boyfriends pulled them out. And yet she knew they loved it.
“I bet the guys pushed them in.” Then she looked at Dean sternly. “Don’t even think about it.”
He put a who-me hand to his chest. “Hey, I was the one who warned you.” Then, with a sly smile, he asked, “What do I get if I don’t shove your under?” His voice was as steamy as an Amazon jungle.
“What do you want?” She shot him a seductive smile.
His eyes turned into fiery flames. “A kiss.”
She flirted outrageously. “Just one?”
He gave her a smile that melted her insides. “I’ll take as many as I can get.”
Once they were past the waterfalls, he pulled her in, leaning over to wrap his hand around her nape. And he kissed her. Greer didn’t care who saw. She wanted the taste of him, the feel of him, his lips parting hers, his tongue slipping inside.
It was glorious.
Until the current pushed them under the second waterfall she hadn’t even seen coming. Drenched and laughing as they floated out from beneath the water’s spray, Greer loved every moment. Even so, she shook her finger at him. “What’s up with that? You were supposed to keep us out of the waterfalls.”
Water streaming down his face, he didn’t let go of her hand, and his gaze was a burning flame on her skin. “It was worth it.”
Even with her hair plastered to her head and looking a fright, she smiled. “Oh yeah. Totally worth it.”