Chapter 15

“Terra, just give me a sec,” I said. “I need to wet my whistle and give my thumbs a rest.”

“No prob,” the small blonde nodded.

“Babe, you should really get Robbie to massage you,” Cattie said, laying back down on her chair and stretching happily.

“I have a chiropractor and a massage therapist back home,” Heather chuckled. It looked like she had refilled her drink again. “Now, if he was an amazonian Swedish blonde, maybe.”

“Your loss,” Cassidy said from her seat.

I left the conversation, not really caring one way or the other if Heather could be convinced. “How’s it going in here?” I asked JC.

“Oh, she be flyin’ fine in the breeze, Cap’n. Smooth sailin’ all the way down to Barbosa, me thinks,” JC said, putting a ridiculous pirate accent on.

I snorted hard and helped myself to a cup full of the icy whatever-it-was that Heather had mixed up. “Alright, well if I’m the Captain, I guess that makes you the first mate?”

“Aye, Cap’n! First Mate suits me just fine. Just think of it, First is in the title,” he kept up the joke, making me actually laugh this time.

“If you need a break just let me know,” I said.

“Will do, buddy,” he grinned, dropping the accent.

“Hey, are you actually OK with me giving a massage to Lou-Anne?” I asked, using her real name instead of her nickname.

“Yeah, dude,” he shrugged. “It’s all good. Whatever Cassidy is comfortable with you doing, I’m sure I’m fine with.”

You’ve got no idea what Cassidy wants, I thought, but kept it to myself.

“Sounds good,” I said and took a sip of the drink. My eyes shut up and I pulled back coughing. “Dear God, that’s strong.”

“What is it?” JC asked.

“I don’t even know,” I said. “Just smell it.”

He did, leaning in and taking a whiff of the strong alcohol and raising his eyebrows. “Damn. Is she trying to get everyone day drunk?”

“I have no idea,” I said. I took another sip, and then set my three-quarter full glass near the back of the bar for later. Stepping out of the captain’s cabin, I rubbed my hands together quickly. “Alright, Terra. You want to hit the towel, or right where you are?”

“I actually want to try the way you did it with Cassidy,” Terra said, standing up. “That looked comfortable and kinda fun.”

I glanced to Cassidy, “That OK, babe?”

“Yeah, totally fine,” Cassidy said, waving me to go on. I guess I wasn’t really expecting a different answer than that but felt good about asking anyways.

I took a seat and Terra took a moment to figure out how to comfortably get in position, but soon she was sitting with her legs against my sides and under my arms, facing me and smiling as she found her balance. Cassidy quickly fetched the sun lotion spray for me when I realized I’d left it over by the towel, skipping across the deck and happily handing it to me.