Chapter 18
After grilling hamburgers at the rental house, Gregory and his companions sat in the ice cream shop, enjoying sundaes after a long hike on the beach.
Gregory glanced out the shop’s window, which had a view of the beach, and saw the love of his life, Sascha, and the other ladies and their bodyguards trudging through the sand, headed in their direction. “Oh, there’s Sascha and her entourage.”
He instantly rose from his seat in a panic.
“Let’s get plastic tops for our ice cream and take them on the run,” Camden said, jumping up from his chair.
They all hurried to the ice cream counter and asked for take-out containers so they could leave the shop without losing their ice cream sundaes.
The kid at the counter looked annoyed and was moving too slowly, but Prescott said, “He’s the groom.” He pointed at Gregory. “And the bride-to-be is coming in with her ladies from the beach. We need to get out of here before they see us.”
The kid worked faster now that he had a really important mission.
“Thanks,” they all said to the kid and gave him a twenty-dollar tip.
Gregory and the others grabbed their sundaes and headed out the front door, where all the shops were, as the ladies entered through the beach entrance, smiling and laughing.
In a hurry, they moved past the large shop windows, though they figured the ladies would be at the ice cream counter, looking at all the selections, concentrating on what they were ordering and not really noticing the customers making a hasty retreat past the shop windows.
“I hope they didn’t see us,” Prescott said.
“I’m sure one of us would have gotten a text,” Gregory said, as they headed back to their house to finish their sundaes. “Since the ladies have been to the beach, we could go to the water and swim and walk along the beach.”
“Sounds like a great idea.” Damon smiled. “It was a good thing you saw them. I’m sure that they would have been surprised though.”
“I would have loved to have seen the expressions on their faces,” Gregory said.
“Yeah, me too,” Uncle Jimmy said.
The guys were trying to keep a low profile and make sure they could be there for the ladies if they needed them, without interfering with their planned activities in any way. Of course, they wanted to have their own fun at the same time.
The bodyguards protecting the ladies knew Gregory and the other men were staying near them, just in case they needed to get in touch for more backup, but Gregory hadn’t kept them informed of their every move.
The guys finally reached their rental house and went inside. Even though most rental homes didn’t provide a cleaning service, they paid extra for it, and the place was tidy when they returned.
Nick and Red checked the place to make sure no one was there with evil intentions.
The place had its own pool and sauna with a beautiful view of the beach, steps leading to a wooden walkway, and then onto the sand.
The house was decorated in a beach style—seashells on the fireplace mantel, blue-and-white striped couches with pillows adorned with seagulls, dolphins, and sea turtles.
Hand-carved fish sat on bookshelves filled with books and games for guests.
Large pictures covered a couple of walls, featuring ocean scenes, seabirds flying overhead, waves crashing on the beach, and clouds crossing a beautiful blue sky.
They finished their sundaes at the dining room table, dumped their trash, and then dressed in swimsuits, ready to go to the beach.
Their rental house was beyond the ice cream parlor, in the opposite direction from the house where Sascha and the ladies were staying.
Uncle Jimmy had casually asked Aunt Meg where they were staying, just in case he needed to know.
Hopefully, she hadn’t been suspicious. But that’s why Gregory had rented this particular place.
They grabbed their towels and sunscreen and put on their flip-flops and sunglasses.
They had chairs and umbrellas reserved for them on the beach, but when they arrived, they discovered someone had torn off the reserved sign and, most likely, the people sitting in their chairs were the culprits.
Since the group of people hadn’t paid for the chairs and umbrellas, they weren’t entitled to them.
The five adults—one woman and four men—all looking college-age, didn’t budge when they arrived.
“Those are reserved for us,” Gregory’s dad said, his dark, deep voice compelling, but still the people just acted like he wasn’t talking to them.
Then finally one, not looking at them, just waved his hand dismissively at them and said, “You’re mistaken. We paid for them.”
Nick and Red stepped in front of them, letting them see the guns holstered under their floral shirts—the shirts courtesy of Gregory.
The people began grabbing their towels and such and leaving the chairs, not as fast as Gregory thought they should, but he was glad they had bodyguards with them to make them move.
Anyone staying at the beach at any of the hotels or houses could pay for the chairs and umbrellas, so it wasn’t like they couldn’t get their own. Or they could bring their own.
“Mafia,” one of the men said when he was farther away from the chairs and the armed bodyguards.
“Shut up,” the woman with them said. “Are you trying to get us killed?”
Gregory and his party smiled as they removed flip-flops and shirts and left their towels, cell phones, and water bottles on their chairs.
Then the guys raced toward the water and ran into it, all but their bodyguards. Red stayed with their chairs and stretched out. Nick went with the guys and watched the beach for any signs of trouble.
They dove into the water and surfaced, having a ball. They swam out to a sandbar where small waves crested, then swam back across the trough of deeper water until they reached the spot where they could stand neck-deep in the Gulf.
“Does everyone want to take a run down the beach?” Gregory asked.
“Yeah, I’m all for it,” Damon said, with Camden and Prescott agreeing.
“I’m walking,” Uncle Jimmy said.
“I’ll walk with you,” Gregory’s dad said.
Then they returned to the shore, and Gregory, Damon, Prescott, and Camden all took off running, with Nick running with them. Uncle Jimmy and Gregory’s dad followed them at a walk, while Red stayed with their beach chairs and umbrellas.
They ran/walked for two miles, then turned around and headed back to the house.
Gregory and the other runners bypassed his dad and Uncle Jimmy, who kept going to the two-mile mark, and the guys finally reached the beach chairs.
They sat on the chairs and waited for his dad and Uncle Jimmy to join them.
Finally, Gregory’s father and Uncle Jimmy arrived, grabbed their things, and headed up to the house. So far, so good as far as not running into the women.
“We planned to go to the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center tomorrow,” Gregory’s dad said.
“Oh, great. They have alligators there, wild ones too, and recovering owls,” Gregory said. “Does that appeal to anyone else?”
“Yeah,” Prescott said. “We’ve been to the beach but never went to the nature reserve. It has a long boardwalk and makes for a nice hike.”
“If anyone doesn’t want to go, you can stay here.” Gregory didn’t want to drag anyone to anything they didn’t want to do.
“Heck, I’m all for it,” Damon said.
Camden agreed. “I want to see the alligators and tortoises.”
“Okay, we’ll get breakfast and head over there in the morning. I want Red to stay here and watch the place.”
That evening, they all got some drinks, chips, cheese, and slices of sausage, carried them into the living room, took their seats, and began a game.
“Okay, why don’t we start with describing an awkward first date,” Camden said.
Everyone laughed.
“The groom goes first,” Prescott said.
“Well, it wasn’t exactly a date, but I wished it had been. I wanted to dance with Sascha in the worst way, but she had danced with Camden instead.”
Camden laughed. “Yeah, at Prescott and Kat’s party.”
“Right. And then I invited her to my place to come to a party and be our fortune teller, and I planned to have that dance.”
“But she ended up in the accident with Raymond,” Gregory’s dad said.
“Yeah. So that was my awkward date—when I really, really wanted to have one with the mysterious woman and the whole thing was messed up.”
“At least things have turned around for you,” Prescott said.
“Yeah, I can’t be happier for that to have happened.”
“Mine was with Katrina, of course,” Prescott said. “Camden danced with her too.”
Camden laughed. “You guys were being too slow about making your interest in each other known.”
Smiling, Prescott shook his head. “She kept telling me I was in danger, but I just wanted to date her.”
Uncle Jimmy sighed. “That’s the trouble with having abilities and no one believing in them.”
“You have them too, don’t you, Jimmy?” Gregory’s dad asked.
“Yeah, I do.”
Damon cleared his throat. Gregory was afraid that he would talk about dating Sascha, but he said, “When I was a teen, I asked a girl to go with me to the prom. She said no.”
“Why?” Gregory asked.
“She was asking another girl.”
Everyone smiled.
“Well, I was dating a woman and then saw Meg,” Uncle Jimmy said.
“I fell for her at once. I never believed in love at first sight, but she was the one for me. Of course, she had seen me with the other woman and was with her girlfriends at the time. So when I was finally able to ditch the other woman and ask Meg out, she said no. When she finally did go out with me, she figured I would ditch her as soon as I saw another woman who appealed even more.”
They all laughed. “And then you married her,” Gregory’s dad said.
“I sure did, but it sure took some time before I could earn her trust.”
“Well, I dated a woman who turned out to be a distant cousin, so that was awkward,” Gregory’s dad said.
Gregory laughed. “You never told us that story.”
“I didn’t tell you kids, but your mom knows about it.”
Camden said, “I guess it’s my turn. I went on a date with a married woman.
I didn’t know it, and she kept it secret from me until her husband showed up.
I was all apologetic, telling him I didn’t know she was married and that I didn’t date married women.
Thankfully, he seemed to believe me. It was true, but he could have thought I wasn’t telling the truth. ”
“You’re lucky he didn’t get physical with you,” Prescott said. “You didn’t tell me about that one.”
Camden smiled. “I was waiting for Gregory’s bachelor party to share the tale.”