Chapter 45

I refilled my glass and went to stand at the back of the boat. I stood there for quite a while, staring at the water, occasionally locking on a bit of it. It was interesting, the water was more or less staying in one place while I was moving, but the effect was the same as the moving water back in the cavern. The movement made it harder to get a lock, but the water, as it had before, seemed eager to oblige. The effort needed to focus on it left me free to disengage myself from the foul mood the questions on the deck had put me in. I had surprised myself with how much anger and bitterness surfaced.

"Cooper?" Kelli's voice called me back from my reverie and out of my focus. I looked up and she was standing beside me, biting her lower lip pensively. "Are you okay?"

"Sure," I said, reaching out for her with a hand. She stepped in and put her head in the crook of my neck, the rest of her clinging to me. "I hadn't really talked about these things to anyone yet, so the emotions it brought up kind of caught me by surprise."

"We're all so sorry," she said, looking up into my eyes. "It was thoughtless of us to even bring it up."

"No," I gave her a squeeze. "You guys asked about me. I'm the one who took us to where I didn't want to go. The problem was I didn't know I would react that way."

"We won't mention it again, okay?"

"No its fine. I'll need to talk a little more I think. You and Darius in particular are the two closest friends I have here. If I can't talk to you about this, then who can I talk to?"

"Okay, well whatever you need, we want to be there for you."

"Thank you," I said, and then leaned down and kissed her.

I leaned down and kissed her, and this time, finally this time it was a long, lingering kiss with more than a little sincere like behind it. Way beyond sincere like!

"Whoo!" Kelli said when we broke apart.

"Uh huh!" I agreed, trying to figure out how to adjust myself without pulling away or being obvious. I wasn't sure if it would embarrass Kelli if she became aware of my erection, but I knew it would embarrass me if she became aware. Fortunately for my modesty, at that moment the boat engines revved for a second and then dropped down to idle.

"We must have made it to the main part of the lake," I guessed. I watched the ski boat slowly come closer as it continued to coast towards us on its own momentum, but it slowed to a stop still some ways behind us. There was a drag line in the water behind it to discourage it from coasting up into the ass end of the houseboat. Nice to see it working so smoothly.

"We're at the wrong end of the boat to see. We should go back upstairs." Kelli pulled away as she said this and I nodded, taking her hand and heading back to the ladder.

"Ah, good!" Darius called as my head popped up through the deck. "We were just thinking of coming to get you guys."

"What's the situation?" I asked as I waited for Kelli, taking her hand again once we were both on deck.

"We've got a couple of hours before lunch and no where in particular to go in the houseboat now that we've reached the big water. I was thinking we'd just park in one of the small inlets near here and get the water skiing under way. What do you guys think?"

"Sounds good to me," I said looking at Kelli.

"Me too," she nodded looking back at me. "Who's skiing first?

"I thought we'd let Tina go first so she has as much time as she needs for lunch. Anyone else going to need time?"

"The potato salad isn't going to take any fixing," Gloria said. "Just open the container and spoon it up, but I'd like to go a little early so I can help Tina if she needs it."

"Mine's just open and serve too," I added. "Kelli's got topping, but I don't think there's any prep involved, is there?"

"No. Not unless someone wanted theirs hot."

"Oh, this is for the dessert Tina said you were bringing?" Gloria asked and Kelli and I nodded in confirmation. "What is it?"

"Cherry sherbet," I told them.

"Mmm, sounds good!" Ken patted his tummy. "Gourmet? Where'd you get it?"

"Homemade," I laughed. "From Cooper's kitchen. I bought the cherries in Hacienda of all places, but I bought too many for me to eat before they started to go bad, so this was a good way to use them up."

While we were talking about my dessert, Darius had slowly brought us back up to speed and brought the boat around to a small inlet nearby. Darius went scrambling out a front access hatch to get to the bow and drop the bow anchor. I followed Ken back down the ladder to get the stern anchor dropped and the ski boat pulled up alongside.

Things progressed very quickly from there. Water skiing was a three person operation on the small but powerful boat. The skier, the driver and a spotter were the required number. There was room for a nother person on the boat, but the initial load was Darius driving, Ken as the spotter, and of course Tina was the first skier. Once they looked to be ready to go, I headed into the master bathroom to change into my ski apparel. Someone was already in the small bathroom just off the living room.