Chapter 60

They were members of the college soccer team at Arizona State, and they were out at Lake Powell for an impromptu reunion. Half of them had recently graduated from the program - they hadn’t done particularly well, but they were ‘brothers!’ and were looking to party.

So were the girls, so it was a match made in heaven. Maybe.

The guys tied up next to the singles boat and soon they were all up top. Sherry and Ginnie were clearly the most interested in hard flirting, but they definitely weren’t the only ones. Leia and Zenya were in the hot tub on the Singles top deck with two of the guys, while Heels was flirting with one of the guys in her ‘too cool for it’ way of being. I couldn’t tell if it was sexual tension building, or if she found him mildly disgusting in an amusing sort of way.

Heather was also having a field day, strutting around in a bikini that probably fit her before she got her boobjob and any of the other work she’d had done. The guys all let their eyes drift to her when she walked by, and she was doing that a lot as she did her bartender routine again.

Cassidy and I had staked out our spot on the Couples Boat in our deck chair, and she was making it very obvious that she was taken by lounging in my lap. Cattie had joined us - she’d thrown on a loose tank top over her bikini top, and had dragged another chair close to ours and was sitting slouched down so she could prop her feet up on our armrest.

My head was on a swivel as the alcohol flowed.

“Someone looks stressed,” Wanda said, walking over and standing behind me. She’d put on a pair of baggy athletic shorts, but was still sporting her red bikini top and big sunglasses. She leaned forward over the back of the chair and put her hands on my shoulders. “You OK there, big guy?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said.

Cassidy snorted and patted Wanda’s hands. “Robbie has Big Brother tendencies born from having a cute sister one year younger than him.” I didn’t miss the fact that Cassidy shifted Wanda’s hands from my shoulders to my chest, and Wanda went with it.

“Oh, that’s cute,” Wanda laughed.

“Not for him,” Cattie laughed. “I think I could take his pulse just from watching the vein in his neck. Seriously, Robbie. Chill out, it doesn’t look like anything is gonna happen, and if it does we’ve got you and JC. Not to mention Terra could probably kick some ass, and Heather does some kickboxing.”

“It’s not that big a deal,” I said. “I just-”

“Want to make sure everyone is OK,” Cassidy finished for me.

“It’s sweet,” Wanda said, rubbing her hands along my chest. “I wish I’d had someone like Robbie looking out back in my college days. Instead, I was that girl for my friends. It was exhausting.”

“Right?” I confirmed. “Now imagine this one being an instigator.” I jostled Cass in my lap a bit.

“Still is, isn’t she,” Cattie grinned, poking Cass in the side with a toe.

“OK, when did this become Pick on Cassidy day?” Cass laughed.

I lifted Cassidy in my arms, bringing her stomach up so that I could blow a raspberry on her tummy. This got her and the others laughing.

“Well, I don’t have to worry about one group,” Becca said, coming over to join us.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” I asked her.

“That it’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye or gets slipped a roofie?” Becca asked.

“I wasn’t thinking that far, but I guess I’m not head honcho. JC looks like he’s getting a decent feel for them though,” I said, gesturing over to the other boat where JC was talking with three of the guys, two of them the ones in the hot tub. His sports knowledge and fandom probably served him a lot better in that crowd - all I could connect with the guys over was being a student-athlete, and I’d been out of that racket for several years now.