Chapter 27

Monday, December 31, 2001

Randy, Nicole, and the Flagstaff contingent, including Duane and Michelle, headed back to Randy and Nicole's house after the wedding. Trey and Myleigh had been there and left and as far as Randy knew were on their way to Camden, a motel, and an airport in the morning. The eight of them still there had a relaxing evening, which included a soak in the hot tub of course. However, they knocked it off early; Duane and Michelle headed back out to the trailer at Run-8 Kennels, while the Flagstaff bunch got to bed early. They had an early plane to Florida the next morning, and a week or more of lying around on the beach, surfing, and shooting the bull with Buddha and Giselle.

Early the next morning, Randy and Nicole watched Al, Karin, Crystal and Preach get into the rental car and head for parts southward. It was a cold morning. Scraping frost off the rental car and warming it up had taken a while, and it still left a cloud of vapor behind as it departed up Lakeshore Drive.

"Don't you wish you were going with them?" Nicole asked as she and Randy stood watching their friends drive off.

"Of course I do," Randy snorted. "Hell, as cold as it is out there, Florida really sounds nice. But there are such things as priorities, and the realist side of me says going to Florida has a lower priority than the other things I have to get done this week. They ought to have a good time, and I wish them well. But I have my own fish to fry."

There was no doubt in Nicole's mind that Randy was still touchy about the whole thing, and she decided she'd better not go any further in that direction. "So, what do you have in mind for today?" she asked.

"What I want to do and what I have to do are two different things," he shrugged. "What I have to do is get work made up that I lost time for being sociable with everyone the last few days. I've got some serious homework to do so as to not get hosed in that meeting with the Three Cherries people later this week. It'll be quiet out at the office today with no one around and no phones ringing, so I might be able to get something done."

"I suppose," Nicole sighed. She'd had other things in mind, but she understood that sometimes work had to come first to Randy. "Would you like me to pack you a lunch?"

"No," Randy shrugged. "If I hit a good break point around noon I'll just come home and grab something."

"Why don't you give me a call just before you leave? I'll throw something together."

So, Randy went off to work on Sunday, leaving Nicole home doing odds and ends. After having company around for so long, there was a lot of cleaning to do, and a lot of laundry to get done. The house full of friends they didn't see often enough was fun, but it got old after a while, too.

Noon came, then one, then two, and there was no call from Randy. Nicole thought about calling him, but decided against it and put together a sandwich for her own lunch. He finally showed up about 4:30. "Sorry I didn't make it home for lunch," he said. "But I got buried in figures and didn't want to break my concentration."

"I understand," she said. "At least you're home a little early. Why don't you go soak in the hot tub while I get started on an early dinner?"

"I've got a better idea," he smirked. "Why don't we both go soak in the hot tub and then go out for dinner? I think the cafe is open."

"Well, all right," she smiled. "Maybe we can get some quality time in afterwards."

"Sounds good to me."

Randy was up early again on Monday morning. With New Year's Eve falling between the weekend and New Year's, many people took it off. But, Randy still faced an appalling pile of work on his desk to prepare for that meeting, and he still wanted to at least think about what he would have an assistant, presumably Carlos, doing for him. This time, he managed to make it home for lunch, although it was clear that, when his mind wasn't on the Three Cherries ski lodge, it was on surfing in Florida, where he would have been if it hadn't been for the lodge. He was so distracted that Nicole was glad to see him heading back to work. This afternoon, there wasn't much for her to do but to find a good book and curl up in front of the fireplace; the house seemed empty after having guests around for so long.

Randy was not unaware of the fact that the next day was both New Year's Day and his second anniversary. He also noticed that Nicole had been getting restive, so he more or less had plans to knock off early, get some hot tub time in, then take Nicole out to the Spearfish Lake Inn. There was supposed to be a band out there that evening; maybe they could have a few drinks and double-dip the holidays. Tomorrow, he could take the day off; he and Nicole could watch a couple parades on TV, and generally screw around. It was pretty clear to him that they both needed a day off from anything but themselves.

He worked a little later in the afternoon than he had planned, but his idea was to dig the pile on his desk down enough so that he wouldn't have to feel guilty about taking New Year's Day off. He got home about 4:30 again, to find Nicole just starting a movie on videotape. He hadn't seen it before, but it looked pretty good, so he sat down in the living room to watch it with her. During a slow spot, he raised the thought of going out to the Inn for the evening. Nicole said it was a good idea, but that she was getting into the movie and would like to finish it before they left. Randy didn't object; it turned out he didn't much care for the movie, and wound up falling asleep in his easy chair.

He woke up after dark; the movie was just ending, and he decided he hadn't missed much. "Are you about ready to head out to the Inn?" he asked as the credits began to roll.

"Another few minutes," she said. "I've got a few things to do to get around."

"Fine with me, I'm in no rush," he replied. "Dress up, do you think? Or can we get by with what we have on?"

"I don't know about you," she told him, "But I'm going to get out of this sweat shirt and get on a nice sweater."

Randy was starting to think sarcastic thoughts about women taking so long to get ready for anything when he saw lights pulling into the driveway. Now what, he wondered. He got up to see, and Nicole joined him from the kitchen.

They opened the door to see several cars sitting in the driveway and people coming toward them, carrying things. "Now what?" he wondered again, this time saying it softly to Nicole. As their visitors got closer, Randy could see that it was Duane and Michelle, Josh and Tiffany, Danny and Debbie, with Blake and Jennifer bringing up the rear. "Hi, folks," he said. "What's up?"

"Surprise!" Everyone yelled – Nicole, too.

"Surprise?" he said. "What the heck?"

No one answered him until all were inside, when Nicole told him. "We knew you were disappointed to not be able to go to Florida," she smiled. "I was talking about it with Jennifer at the wedding, and we decided that since you couldn't go to a beach party there, we'd have one here for our anniversary and New Years."

"Beach party?" he smiled. "Nicole, I hate to tell you, but it's a little cold to sit out on the beach tonight."

"Who said anything about sitting out on the beach here?" she smirked. "We've got most of the makings right here in the house. We've got friends, we've got a fire, we've got hot dogs and marshmallows, we've got beer, we've got warm water, and if you want to go out to the garage and bring them in we've even got a couple surfboards for decorations. We've even got guitars. What more do you need?"

The gas fireplace didn't have exactly the ambiance of a wood fire on a beach somewhere, but with the gas turned up high it made an adequate substitute. It was possible to roast hot dogs on skewers over the fire for those who wanted to, but for most Nicole put the microwave to work. To help with the feeling of a beach party, Blake and Duane shoved the furniture back so there would be more room to sit on the floor, which despite the lack of sand served nicely as a beach substitute.

This was the first time most of them had seen one another since Myleigh and Trey's wedding a couple days before – in fact, some of the food Blake and Jennifer brought looked suspiciously like leftovers. Naturally, rehashing some of the events of the wedding was a good place to start conversation. "That was an absolutely perfect gag you guys pulled on Myleigh with the handcuffs," Jennifer grinned. "The look of wistful frustration on her face when she realized that she wouldn't be able to play that harp was absolutely priceless."

"I'm glad it worked out," Nicole said. "You have no idea how much time Randy and I spent trying to come up with something. We had lots of good ideas but nothing that seemed to fit."

"When I found out about the harp it really fell into place," Randy laughed. "She really seemed complacent about the handcuffs until she saw that harp, and that really made it work. I'm just glad I found out about it."

"I wonder what they're doing right now," Michelle giggled.

"Considering that it's their honeymoon, I'd be willing to guess that they don't have much on in the way of clothes," Debbie snickered. "After all, it's only around eight, that's plenty late for them to be staying up. Do you have any idea where they were going?"

"I guess I can say it now," Randy said. "Trey was trying to surprise her, so he was trying to keep it quiet, but he told me when we drove out to see if the ski hill was open. He said he wanted to go someplace warm, on a beach, and where there weren't a bunch of little kids hanging around. They're going to Mexico, some place on the Yucatan, the Maya Riviera, I think he said. Someplace called the Tiburon Bahia Resort that he found through a travel agent in Kansas City."

"Yep," Danny laughed. "They're going to have a memorable honeymoon, all right."

"You know this place?" Josh asked.

"Yeah, I went there with my ex once upon a time," Danny said. "Very comfortable, very personal, a nice beach, and clothing optional, too."

"Clothing optional?" Randy frowned.

"Oh, yeah," Danny smiled. "I wonder if Trey knew that. There was no way I could ever get my ex to go anyplace where she couldn't hang her bare ass out in the sun."

"Oh, my God!" Nicole laughed, almost howling. "What if he didn't know it?"

The room erupted in laughter at the thought of the two of them not knowing it and discovering it the hard way.

"God, that'd be embarrassing," Michelle giggled.

"Yeah," Randy laughed. "But you know what? I'll bet that Myleigh took it in stride while Trey was the one dithering about it. God, that would have been fun to see!"

"So the magic question becomes if they got down to the buff," Tiffany giggled. "I wouldn't have had any problem with it, and I know that most of us here probably wouldn't either. But Myleigh, well, you never know quite what to think. She comes across as so straight most of the time, but you learn pretty quickly that she hears a different drummer out there somewhere."

"No fooling," Randy grinned. "Sometimes I think she hears a lot of different drummers."

"It wouldn't surprise me if she went bare-assed," Michelle grinned. "If she wants to, she won't be shy about it. Look at those times during the recording sessions."

"What's this?" Blake asked. "Nude recording sessions? I never heard about that!"

"Oh, yeah," Michelle giggled. "She didn't tell you about that? Well, only Trey and I were there." She went on to relate the story of the occasions when Myleigh felt more comfortable playing her harp in the nude, while being driven by her unseen muse. "All she ever said about it was she could feel that was the way it had to be done to get the music she wanted," she concluded.

"She's not body shy if she doesn't want to be," Nicole agreed, and told the story of the two of them wearing their alleged swimsuits a few nights before.

"Oh, God," Michelle giggled. "A one-piece made out of T-shirt material and fishing line? God, that sounds like a scream. I've got to get me one of those!"

"Michelle," Duane snorted. "I don't know about you sometimes, though I'd love to see you wearing something like that."

"Oh, don't be silly," she smiled. "It's for a tease, nothing more, nothing less. Hell, all of us are probably going to wind up nude in the hot tub tonight, and with ten of us it's going to be cozy. It won't mean a thing. But a suit like that is playing peek-a-boo; it's bound to be sexier. You like sexier, don't you?"