Chapter 121

I hung out with the girls, watching them play cards until the dinner bell was metaphorically rung - well, more correctly until I was asked to help bring the food up onto the top deck. Dinner was grilled chicken on big, hearty garden salads with a mess of different toppings that would have made a buffet salad bar proud.

Not my thing, but the ladies loved it.

When Terra saw my plate with a little bit of salad a two full chicken breasts worth of strips she laughed and showed me she’d done the same thing. We finished filling our plates at about the same time, Cassidy right behind me, and the three of us broke off from the main group that was hovering around where Cattie and Heather were sitting.

I hadn’t seen Sherry, but Terra and Cass did let me know that Cattie had come up about five minutes after I’d spoken with her and, while she and Heather had argued quietly for a few minutes, things seemed to have settled down.

So Terra, Cass and I avoided the awkwardness of joining the Heather group and decided to grab seats down on the lower porch area of the Couples Boat, sitting on the edge with our feet dangling in the nice and cool water of the lake.

“Where’s your boy?” Cassidy asked Terra as we set in to eating. “I thought he’d be starving for you and food after the afternoon he had.”

Terra sighed heavily. “You’d think,” she said. “He went to take a nap. Said he didn’t want to pass out at the end of the night if we played another game or something.”

“Well, at least he had fun, right?” I asked.

“Well, yeah,” Terra said. “And I don’t want to hold that against him. I mean, it’s kind of lucky we’ve met these guys because you’re great, Robbie, but you’re definitely not a guy’s guy.”

“To be fair, he’s just not a classic jock’s guy,” Cassidy said. “Robbie gets on with all sorts of guys.”

“You know what I meant,” Terra rolled her eyes and smiled.

“Sports,” I grunted in a silly voice, pumping my fist.

“Exactly,” she said. Then she flung her head back and looked up at the covering of the porch. “Fuck, maybe I’m just horny.”

Cassidy snorted. “Babygirl, if it was just that you know how to handle it.”

“True,” Terra giggled. “I did bring my friend Bruce.”

“Is Bruce a big boy?” Cassidy smirked.

“No- Well, yes, but not that way. Bruce is my magic wand,” Terra said.

“Oooh, nice,” Cassidy said. “I thought about getting one of those, but I’ve got myself a Robbie and he isn’t ever away long enough for me to need it.”

“Lucky,” Terra laughed.

I just shook my head at the banter. Right up until Terra turned to me. “OK, I want the story. How did you end up skinny dipping this afternoon?”

“You didn’t hear?” I asked.

“Well, yeah. But I want the story,” Terra said.

“Fine, fine,” I said and quickly told her about making bets with Leia and how they escalated.

“What was it like?” she asked me.

“Skinny dipping?”

“Yeah, I’ve never actually done it. I mean, I’ve been almost naked on photoshoots, and I’ve changed clothes in front of strangers on a professional level. But I’ve never just, like, gotten naked in a public place,” she said.

“Well, it’s kind of fun in an exhilarating kind of way,” I said. “But, I mean, I was a swimmer all my life so I’ve done it more than a few times.”

“You’ve done it more than once this trip,” Cassidy reminded me.

“True,” I said. “Someone had me skinny dipping during the Marco Polo game.”