Chapter 16

Jill blushed as she watched Jack depart. He wasn't really that affectionate with her normally and she wasn't quite sure how to take it. As she turned back to her friends and saw Staci's quizzical glance, Jill became even more uncomfortable. Putting a brave smile on her face, she calmly walked over to the other two girls.

Renee had just picked out some burger buns and tossed them into the cart as she rejoined them. Staci gave Jill an odd look then wandered down the aisle looking for hot dog buns. Jill stared at her as she walked a short distance away.

"You know what else we need," said Renee abruptly, "some wine coolers for the beach. I saw some a few aisles back. Do you have a cooler at the house?"

"Huh... yeah I think so," replied a distracted Jill turning to face Renee.

"Great," beamed Renee, "I'll be right back with them. Any preferences on flavor or type?"

"Uhh... no I don't think so. We'll drink just about anything."

"Cool, I'll see what's on sale."

Jill watched Renee leave and turned back to find Staci standing behind her with a curious look on her face.

"What," asked Jill bitingly.

"You," retorted Staci, "my god don't you realize the affect you have on people?"

"What are you talking about," queried Jill sounding exasperated.

"Jill, sweetie," said Staci calmly as she grasped the brunette's forearms, "you just engender such trust with people not to mention that you're incredibly attractive, and then you seem so shocked when they're actually nice to you. Look at you, Jack gives you an affectionate kiss on the cheek and you stand there looking like someone told you that you've won millions of dollars and you have no idea what to make of it."

"Geez... is it that obvious? I mean, I like the guy and all, but it's not like he's ever been that... well, that friendly with me before. Even after that one evening he's never gone out of his way to be anything but somewhat restrained around me. He surprised me is all that happened."

Staci gave a quick glance around to determine that they were indeed alone before leaning over and giving Jill a quick buss on the lips. "Just remember who you're going home with ok?"

Jill blushed lightly and squeezed Staci's hand just as Renee returned holding two silver six packs. She thrust them into the cart with a grin.

"They're on sale today! I know they aren't wine coolers, but I think there pretty good."

"What are they," asked Staci as she pulled a bottle out to look at it.

"Well, actually they're more like beer than a wine cooler. Kind of like Zima's but with actual flavoring."

"Ok," nodded Staci as she returned the bottle to the holder. "So are we about done here?"

"Let's see," said Jill, "We've got buns, potato salad, beans, chips, more booze... how about some dessert?"

"Something sweet, like ice cream," offered Renee.

"Nah, how about some cookies," answered Staci, "the ice cream would melt all over the place."

"Do we really need dessert," asked Jill contemplatively, "I mean people are going to be stuffed as it is."

Staci placed her hands on her hips and regarded her lover with an arched eyebrow, "You were the one who brought it up."

"I know, but that was just off the top of my head. I think there will be plenty of food since it will just be... what seven or eight of us, right?"

Staci and Renee nodded. "Yeah," said Staci, "just seven or eight of us unless you're planning to find a whole bunch of new friends on the beach."

"Well, I was going to see if any of the neighbors were around," grinned Jill, "the Thompson's are friends of my aunt's and have two boys who I think are 19 and 21. They only live about a mile down the beach, maybe they'd like to come."

"In more ways than one I'm sure," retorted Renee brightly.

Jill and Staci laughed as they turned their buggy towards the check out lanes at the front of the store.

Jack, Denise and John arrived back at the house shortly and let themselves back in. Jack went under the deck to find the trash can while Denise stashed the liqueurs in the freezer. John went out back to help Jack carry the heavy steel trashcan into the large kitchen as Denise returned to the truck to bring in the ice. Jack and John set the can down with a loud bang on the linoleum floor than began opening the bags of ice Denise had brought them. After dumping the first two in the can and shaking the can to make sure that the ice was spread along the bottom, Jack and John returned to the truck to pull out the keg. Fifteen minutes and much cursing later, the two men had the keg settled into the heavy steel can and were pouring the remaining ice around it.

"Ummm... guys," asked Denise cautiously, "Are we planning to leave the keg here all night? It's kinda in the way."

Jack looked at John, the exasperation clear on his face, "I think," he said tersely, "that we are going to leave it here for the time being. We'll move it later to the deck, when we can get more help."

"Oh you mean you big strong men can't move that itty bitty thing by yourselves? Are you too tired or just too weak," teased Denise.

"That's it," snapped Jack as he reached out to grab Denise. Wrapping his left arm around her waist, Jack managed to trap Denise's left arm against her side while grabbing her right wrist. With his right hand Jack grabbed a handful of ice cubes from the top of the keg and shoved them down the front of Denise's tee shirt. Denise squealed and tried to break free as John grabbed a handful of ice as well. Jack pulled the neck of the shirt out while John dropped the ice cubes down.

"Dammit, that's cold," yelled Denise as she continued to squirm and the two men continued to shove ice down her white shirt, "I'm sorry ok, god I'm sorry... let me go. Damn it Jack, you're going to get it later if you don't let me go now!"

Jack spun her around while grabbing one last handful of cubes. As Denise turned to face him, he shoved them down the back of her shirt. Denise let out a howl as she tried to avoid contact by arching her back. Fortunately, her shirt had come untucked in the back during her struggle with Jack and the cubes quickly slid out onto the floor. Jack bent down to pick them up while Denise retreated to the sink and shook the cubes out of the front of her shirt. John stood by watching, as he was laughing too hard to help either one of them.

After the ice was in the sink and Denise had wandered upstairs to get a replacement shirt, Jack turned to John.

"She's right you know," said Jack conversationally, "We will need to move this at some point."

John shrugged, "Yes we will. There are two large handles on either side though. If you and I take one and two of the girls - like Jill and Denise for instance - take the other, we should be able to move it no problem. Meantime, I think we need something to cover it with. Try to keep as much of the cold in as possible or we're going to have to make a run for more ice before this evening."

"No problem. I've got an old gray blanket in my trunk that will do just fine. Let me go get it."

Jack returned to the kitchen with the blanket just as Denise came back down the stairs. Giving Jack a frosty look, she wandered into the living room to find her beach towel. Jack grinned at her and tossed the blanket over the keg. He and John were making small talk when Renee, Jill and Staci came into the kitchen carrying the groceries. By noon, the groceries were put away and the three couples were all walking out the back door to the beach.

"Ok, so who's up for some all over tanning," quipped Jill loudly, as they walked by the hot tub.

"Me, me," answered a blue bikini clad Renee as she clutched John's hand possessively.

"Staci you in?"

The blonde shrugged, "Sure if that's what you want. Did you bring high SPF lotion? I wouldn't want to get burned on some of my white areas."

"Yeah, I've got some 24 in my bag. Denise, Jack you coming?"

Denise blushed and looked at Jack. He contemplated for a moment before replying. "Nah, I think we'll just stay here for the time being," he said, much to Denise's obvious relief.

"Ok," smiled Jill "We'll be back around four thirty or so then. Have fun you two."

The three girls pulled a somewhat resistant John to the west as Denise and Jack wandered closer to the water. Finding a nice place to set their towels down, Denise plopped down and opened her backpack. She fished out a large bottle of sunscreen then yanked off her tee shirt and shorts, exposing her lavender suit to Jack for the first time. Handing him the sunscreen she lay down on her stomach.

"Stop gaping and rub some of this on my back I don't want to get burned," she ordered.

Jack shook himself out of his reverie, opened the bottle and drizzled lotion on the back of Denise's muscular legs. He gently massaged it into her calves and the back of her thighs before starting on her lower back. Denise moaned contently, then untied the bikini top allowing Jack to rub the lotion into her upper back. When he was done she gave him a smile and closed her eyes. Jack shook his head at her and began lotioning up his chest.

They lay on the beach for a while working on their tans, turning over every so often for the next couple hours. Feeling hot and sweaty, Denise finally got up and began walking down towards the surf. Jack followed a moment later, noting that there were very few people nearby. Denise was in water about two feet deep when Jack caught up with her. Grinning she turned towards him, reaching up as though to kiss him. When Jack bent down to meet her, Denise swept his legs out from underneath and shoved him into the water.

Jack sat up sputtering as the remnants of a wave crashed over them, than stood up while Denise laughed at him. "That was for the ice earlier," she crowed triumphantly.

Shaking his head, Jack moved towards her, "I guess I deserved that," he said contritely.

Denise smiled and leaned forward to help him up, getting unbalanced just enough that it was easy for Jack to pull her into the water beside him. Denise exploded up from the water and shoved the now standing Jack deeper into the waves where the splash fight began in earnest. The couple horsed around and splashed in the waves for several minutes until Denise put a stop to it by wrapping her arms and legs around Jack.

"So," he said as his arms slipped around her waist, "I guess you're conceding defeat."

"More or less. Actually," Denise whispered in his ear, "I was thinking that with everyone up the beach we have the whole house, in particular the hot tub, to ourselves"

"Denise," snorted Jack, "it's like ninety five degrees out, why in the world would you want to get in the hot tub?"

Further along up the beach, Renee, Staci, Jill and John were laying on their towels under the beating sun. Unlike the girls, John lay on his stomach and was trying hard to ignore the three nubile bodies next to him. Renee had taken pity on her boyfriend and had only removed her top. Staci in a sudden fit of modesty had done the same, while Jill had calmly whipped off both her top and bottom and was now lying nude on her back in the sun. Although there had been much joking about it as they had walked up the beach, the girls had applied their own sunscreen while Renee had spread lotion on John's back.

They had been sunbathing for quite some time when Staci rolled over and heard soft giggles off to her left. Once on her stomach she spotted the two young boys spying on them from behind a nearby sand dune. Staci lay on her stomach and tried to think of an easy way to tell Renee and Jill that they might want to flip over when she realized exactly what the boys were staring at. As she lay on her back, Jill's legs had naturally spread open, affording the two youngsters a full view of her crotch. Staci giggled softly causing Jill to say, "What's so funny?"

"Well, don't look now, but just over that dune to the east there are two little boys staring at your pussy."

A slight red flush came over Jill's face before she turned over onto her stomach.

"I don't think that helped," whispered Staci as she fought to control her giggles, "maybe you should turn around so you're facing them."

Renee started to cackle loudly as Jill lay contemplating her situation. Suddenly Jill stood up and began walking towards the breaking surf.

"Jill, what in the heck are you doing," Staci asked.

"Hell, Staci, let 'em look. We're clearly on the clothing optional part of the beach. Although I think their parents would be mortified, there is no law against looking."

A moment later Renee hopped up and peeling off her tiny black bikini bottom, she followed Jill down into the water. Staci laughed softly as she watched the two young kids start squirming around watching the older girls. John hadn't moved a muscle during the whole exchange, and now Staci was curious about why.

"John," she called softly, "are you awake?"

"Yes," came the muffled reply.

"John look at me," she commanded a bit louder, "what's your deal?"

John turned his head and fixed his almond shaped brown eyes on Staci's dark sunglasses. "What do you mean," he asked.

"Well, you've said less than two words since we got here, you won't look at any of us and I'm just wondering if we're that unattractive to you or if you just are embarrassed to be here?"

John sighed and let his gaze wander down to the edge of the surf where Jill and Renee were playfully splashing each other. "A little of both, I guess," he replied softly a few moments later. "I'm not really comfortable with casual nudity, and it's not that you're all unattractive, it's just that I'm kind of committed to Renee and I... I guess I just don't quite know where I can get away with looking so as to avoid embarrassing anyone."

Staci arched an eyebrow at him before responding. "Kind of committed to Renee? John from what she's told me, you come and go as you please and if you're around you two are together and if you aren't she isn't really sure what her status is. Renee hinted to me that y'all have a fairly open relationship and are both in it for the sex, which is fine, but I don't see that as being a 'committed relationship'. As for the second half of your problem, I see it as a complement if a guy gets a hard on around me. You can look at my boobs, that's not going to embarrass me in any way."

"I know our relationship seems odd," said John as he pulled his hands up under his chin, spreading his elbows out to either side, "but Renee and I both felt - at least when we first met - that getting into a fully committed relationship would be too much strain with our school responsibilities. As things have gone on, we've managed to become very close, but I'm afraid of starting a long-term commitment. It's hard to explain."