Chapter 144

We ended up being the last back to the boat, with Becca waiting up on the rock shelf looking just a little concerned. Most of the girls had disappeared down below, but JC was still there waiting to help us get everyone down, so I just went up and gave Becca a side hug. “All good,” I said. “Sorry we’re a little late.”

“It’s fine,” she said, squeezing me back around the waist. “Have a good shoot?”

I glanced at Leia in her white bikini. “Something like that.”

“Really?” she asked, lowering her voice.

I blushed a little. “Sort of?”

Becca rolled her eyes with an incorrigible little smile. “Eat breakfast with me?” she asked.

“Sure,” I said. “Just me?”

“Cassidy can come too,” she said.

“OK,” I said, and took the opportunity of JC being turned around to kiss her on the top of the head, which made her smile a little wider.

Once everyone was down on the deck, Becca asked me to help get the boats out into the bay again since we’d be leaving right after breakfast. That set me to work, and soon she and I had the boats nosing out of our little cove and onto the wider lake. She gave me a wave and I laid anchor, and then she came alongside and anchored next to us and we got the houseboats re-moored together. She immediately went to get breakfast started, so I went below to check on what was going on.

The interior of the boat was quiet, though Heels was snoozing in the lounge area on the couch. She peeked one eye open when I opened the sliding door, but just muttered and turned over to bury her face in the couch cushions away from the light. That put her thong-clad bum facing me, the warm brown cheeks bare, and I just smirked a little and grabbed a blanket from under one of the side tables and spread it out over her.

She muttered her thanks and pulled it tight around her, and I was pretty sure she went right back to sleep.

No one was in the kitchen either, but when I went back into the hallway towards the bedrooms I could hear a discussion going on in Cattie and Heather’s room. Not an argument, at least by the wordless tone of the voices, but definitely a discussion. Wanda’s door was closed and I could hear her voice behind the door as well, so I bypassed and peeked into Terra and JCs room. JC was on the bed playing a game on his phone while Terra was on the floor doing situps.

“Hey,” I said, stepping just inside. “So, I think I still owe you from yesterday so I’ll drive the boat for a bit.”

“Cool, thanks dude,” JC said, flashing me a thumbs-up.

“How’d your shoot go this morning?” I asked Terra.

She sat up fully, wrapping her arms around her knees in the Up position of the sit-up, and looked up at me. “Good,” she said. “I think the pictures will work fine. Mind stepping on my feet here for a sec?”

“Sure,” I said and got in position to hold her feet down with mine.

“I want to do something spicier tomorrow,” she grunted as she started doing sets of five crunches and then five situps in quick succession. “But I feel like I’m getting bloaty from all the junk food we’re eating.”

“Well, a bloaty feeling sucks,” I said. “But just so you know, I still think you look fit as hell.”

She paused in the up-position, smiling up at me genuinely from just in front of me. “Thanks, Tiger,” she grinned. Then she glanced lower down at my crotch and then started doing her fast reps as she met my eye again. “How did the shoot go with you guys? You were working with Leia?”