Chapter 55: We Look Forward to a Weekend with Troy and His Family.

I had time to unpack my bag, put my laundry into the clothes hampers and then go into my office. I had started on the in depth review of the computer logs from the week and was working my way through them when I heard Kay come in. Everything else could wait.

"Rob, Rob, where are you?"

I stepped into the hallway to where Kay could see me. "Peek-a-boo."

She set down the box she was carrying and hurried over to me. She came into my arms, wrapped hers around me and put her head on my chest. "Gosh, but I've missed you." She squeezed me and I returned the squeeze.

"I've missed you, too. It's good to be home and have you in my arms again. It's where you belong."

"I agree." She wriggled and snuggled into my embrace.

"There is an advantage to my traveling."

"Eh, what's that?"

"The homecoming."

"Yeah, I like those. When are you going out again?"

"I'm not sure but I am going to be home for the next week. In any case, how did your internship finish?"

"I think I did well. I turned in my project Thursday as the last thing I did for the day. This morning Troy talked with me about it unofficially. He told me the official evaluation of my project was going to be done by Ben and that information along with everything else from the whole internship would be evaluated by the board. The evaluation information will be sent to the school. At the same time they'll inform the school of who their choice is for the yearlong internship, if they do one. They don't always."

"How do you think you did?"

"Based on the things Troy said this week and this morning, I'm finishing first of the three of us that completed the internship."

"Did you get any indication of what the company is going to do or say about Wayne?"

"What I understand is that he is a non-entity as far as the company is concerned. He will never be hired by the company or any of its subsidiaries. If he applies he'll just be wasting his time. Marcus made that very clear when he canned him. Lyndsi spoke with me and said the company made a report to the school of what transpired and Wayne's status with the company, or non-status. After that, they were through with Wayne; he won't even be mentioned in the final report."

"It should make for an interesting time when classes resume. That's next week isn't it? Please make sure you stay as clear of him as you can."

"The school restarts Tuesday morning. I'll be running around getting everything set up and going for the year."

"You know, you have something else to do, if you haven't already and just not told me about it."

"What's that?"

"Are you going to change your name on your driver's license, school records, and everything else?"

"I won't say I forgot about doing that but it hasn't been at the top of my priority list."

"What name are you going to use at school?"

"Lister, of course, I never considered anything else."

"Then you better add that at the top of your list of things to do, Tuesday. You don't want to confuse things at the school. If you have the time Tuesday, you need to go to the DMV and change your license, too."

"Uh, I've got to get a license."

"What? I know you gave me a copy of your license way back when you started in my house."

"Yeah, but that was a Kansas license since I was only a temporary resident of California while I was in school here. Now that we're married, I think I ought to change my residence to California permanently, don't you, or are you going to move to Kansas?" She smiled.

"I wasn't planning on it but if you really wanted us to move back there when you were finished with school we could. I can do everything I have to for my business with a high speed internet connection."

"As much as I love my family, I don't plan on moving back there. I'll visit with or without you, as the case may be, but I have no intention of staying there long term. If you're happy here, I see no reason to move anywhere else."

"That's what I thought but I wanted to make sure you knew you had an option and, if you really wanted to, I'd move if it would make you happy."

"I'm very happy living right here with you. Can we move to the bedroom so I can change while we talk?"

"Sure, what are you going to change into?"

"I just want to get into comfortable clothes."

"Put on something that we can go to our restaurant in. I feel like a tiramisu tonight."

"That sounds good; I didn't want to cook tonight anyway."

We moved into the bedroom and I started caressing and tickling the sections of skin she was exposing and I could reach. I tried to distract her while I did that by asking her, "What's in the box you left by the door?"

"Stop that!" She batted my hands away but I tried again.

"Stop what?" I ran the fingers of one hand up her ribs under her arm to cop a feel and at the same time I caressed a butt cheek with my other hand.

"The box has everything I had on my desk and in my locker at the company. As much as I'd like to play with you, I'd rather go get dinner first, so we can play later and not be in a rush. Now keep your hands to yourself." She batted my hands away again.

"Spoil sport."

"Wasn't it you that said something about delayed gratification sometime in the not too distant past?"

"No fair throwing my own words back in my face."

She stuck her tongue out at me. "I'm ready to go when you are. Do you want to take the linens down to the boat tonight or just bring everything in one trip tomorrow?"

"Let's take the linens tonight. It will give me a chance to make sure nothing changed on the boat and it's still good to go."

"Who's driving tonight, me or you?"

"I'll drive; I want to run the truck."

"Okay, help me with the linens." She picked up a pile and held it out to me. When I took it, she picked up the rest of the things we were taking to the boat.

I went out the door first and she followed, locking it behind us. I opened the back of my truck and put my load of things in. Kay came up to me and put her load in. I took the opportunity to pinch her bottom as she bent over.

"Ow! Brute."

"Be thankful I only pinched you. I wanted to take a bite."

"You wouldn't dare!" She was outraged.

"I won't, at least not right now, but I'll make no promises about later." I gave her my very best lecherous leer and waggled my eyebrows at her.

"Beast!"

"Make that 'Hungry Beast' and I won't say what I'm hungry for."

I was still chuckling as we got in the truck.

"What time did you tell them to come down to the boat and do they know where it is?"

"I told them to be at the boat by nine. I gave Troy the name of the marina, which pier the boat is on and which slip it's in."

"Does he know where the marina is located?"

"No, but when I asked him about it he told me he'd use his GPS to find it."

"I'd like to be able to get going as soon as they're aboard, so we'll need to be there around eight to bring all the food and everything else to the boat. We'll also get the sail covers off and have the engine warmed up."

"I bought enough food for a small army. I know kids can eat like horses if they're active and having a good time. I wanted to make sure we had enough."

"What are we having and what am I cooking?"

"Before we go to bed tonight I want to make up a large salad for the weekend. That along with the potato salad and macaroni salad I bought will be the main meals when you cook the strip steaks, chicken breasts, hamburgers and hot dogs. I also have chips for snacking. As a surprise for you, I have a whole French apple pie along with a cherry one. Do you think that will be enough for the weekend?"

"Do we have cereal, cheeses, fruit and milk to have in the mornings and what about marshmallows?"

"I bought cereals I thought the kids would like, a fresh loaf of rye bread and four large bags of marshmallows. Since it's a holiday weekend we might have company in the cove. If we have a campfire I want there to be enough marshmallows."

We were in the restaurant and while we were eating our dinner we talked about the week coming up.

"I thought of something, Kay. If we get some Hershey's milk chocolate bars and graham crackers, we can do s'mores, too."

"I didn't think of that. We'll have to pick them up tonight or in the morning."

"Let's do it tonight. We're already going to have to get up early in the morning."

"Kay, since it's a holiday weekend with good weather and the unofficial end of the summer there will probably be a lot of people on the water, power and sail. I'm expecting the harbor to be busy all weekend. We may also have company in the cove."

"Right, we'll need to pick up more hotdogs, hamburgers and marshmallows and soft drinks when we get the chocolate bars, just in case. Hey, maybe Betty, Sally and their crowd will be there; I liked them. If they're there, Troy's kids will have others their age to hang around with."

"I seem to remember that the husbands just sat around drinking beer. If we're thinking they'll be there, we better bring some beer, even if we don't drink it. It'll be us being sociable and that's a good thing."

"Okay, beer, too, anything else, Rob?"

"I'll have to bring the grill with us. Maybe you should call Troy and suggest the kids bring their sleeping bags. I have a small tent I can bring and if the other kids are there, they can all have a little camping party, if all the parents agree."

"That's a good idea; I'll call him when we leave here."

"I know you have to be on the campus Tuesday for all the administrative things that have to be done. What time are you planning to be there?"

"I'm going to get up early. Everything will open at eight and I want to be there when things do. The first thing I have to do is change my name, otherwise I'll have to go back and visit everything again to change the records for this year."

"Is there anything you want me to do?"

"I don't think so. They already have the transcripts from before and I'll have a copy of our marriage certificate with me to give to the school. That should be all I need there. Can you think of anything else?"

"If you're also going to the DMV, you better bring a copy for them along with a copy of your birth certificate. That and your Kindle. I don't know about Kansas but here in California the wait in DMV can be interminable. Take a bottle of water with you, too."

"That bad?"

"That bad and then some."

The meal was as good as we'd come to expect and the tiramisu was outstanding. It was too bad that they didn't have it on the take out menu; it was an in-house item only. I'd asked about it before and the manager said it was too difficult to make for takeout. They'd tried it before and people would just get the tiramisu instead of a full meal.

As we drove out of the parking lot, Kay was on her phone. "Hi, Alice, it's Kay, are you guys looking forward to the weekend? Hold on a minute, I'm going to put my phone on speaker so Rob can get in on this with us."

She hit the button to put it on speaker. "Alice, are you still there?"

"I am and yes we're looking forward to going out with you and Rob."

"Good, Rob and I were talking and since it's a holiday weekend, there will probably be a lot of boat traffic in the harbor. You guys will have lots of boats to look at as we go out."

"That'll be good; the kids haven't seen many boats other than on television and in the movies."

"Speaking of the kids, there may be other kids in the cove. We've been there when other boaters were there and they had kids with them. There is one group in particular we were thinking of, they may be there because it's a holiday weekend and the end of summer. From what they said the one time we ran into them, we think they'll probably be there this weekend. They go there once a month or so."

"I take it they're friendly?"

"They were the one time we met them. We had them aboard the boat with us for juice and coffee in the morning before we left. Their husbands weren't as friendly as the women and children were but they weren't exactly anti-social or anything. They just sort of did their own thing, mostly drinking beer. There are two girls and three boys in their group. The girls are Holly's age and the boys are a little younger than Gary."

"That shouldn't be a problem."

"We didn't think so. As a matter of fact, if your two have sleeping bags with them they can have a camping party, as long as it's okay with you and Troy."

"I don't see why not, they'll enjoy it."

"Good, Rob will bring a small tent for them."

"This is getting to be a bigger deal then a simple little boating trip."

"It may seem that way but it isn't really."

"If you say so. Are you sure you don't need us to bring anything?"

"We've got it all covered other than the swim suits, pool toys and sleeping bags."

"Okay, we'll see you in the morning, then."

"See you then." Kay ended the call.

We got to the store and went in to pick up all the things we'd thought of, including a lot more marshmallows, chocolate bars and graham crackers. We were taking a lot of junk food with us on this little trip. We rolled the cart out to the truck and put the plunder in the back. At home we unloaded everything that had to be kept refrigerated. I had the big cooler ready to load in the morning.

It was early enough for us to enjoy some time in the hot-tub before we closed the house for the night. We went to the bedroom long enough to drop our clothes before we headed out to the hot-tub, picking up towels along the way. Once the tub was ready we got in and settled opposite of each other. As we let the heat soak into our bodies and relax our muscles, we talked more about what we had to do in the coming week.

"Besides the learning and practical experience, there was another benefit of working for the company this summer."

"What's that, Kay?"

"I didn't develop the bad habit of sleeping in every day. Having to be at work every morning by eight made sure of that."

"Do you feel cheated?"

"Yes, no, maybe a little, I don't know."

"Do you think you would have been better off not doing the internship? I mean, I did kind of push you into it."

"I know I wouldn't have been better off without it. I learned so much. Troy was a big help and he did it without leading me around by the nose."

"What'd you mean?"

"Working with him was a lot like being around you when we first got together. When he gave me the project folder, he told me what I had to do and let me go. He asked me questions to figure out what I was doing and to make sure I was going along the right path but he let me do the work and make my own decisions. Do you remember when I first told you I lost my roommate and needed help because I didn't know what to do? You gave me advice and made suggestions but you let me figure out what I was going to do."

"I wasn't your parent or your guardian. I had no responsibility for you and I didn't want to assume responsibility for you. I was being a friend, nothing more. I would have done the same for any friend. You were an adult, even if you were only a young adult and you needed to be responsible for yourself, to make your own decisions."

"Troy was the same with me. Once he gave me the initial instructions and was sure I understood them, he let me run with it as long as I explained my thought processes and decisions. The few times I went to him hung up on a problem, he didn't solve it for me. He made suggestions and let me solve it myself. The way he acted gave me confidence in myself."

"To my way of thinking, those are signs of a really good trainer or mentor and one who wants to see the person they're helping really grow and succeed."

"I can see that. I was lucky to get assigned to him."

"Yeah, you were and I can see that his doctorate wasn't just theoretical. If there wasn't some real practical experience behind it, he wouldn't have been able to be as helpful to you in that way."

"That's behind me, at least for now. I have the rest of my schooling to concentrate on and I want to do well this year. I'm going to have a busy week, starting Tuesday morning."

"You mean with registration and all that?"

"Exactly, I told you I was going to start with admin to change my name. I've changed my mind; I think I'm going to start with Bert Symes. I'll ask him about changing my name on everything before I change it on anything, at least on campus. He knew I was getting married but I don't think he knows we went ahead and did. I'll figure out what to do after I talk with him. Then I have to register for the semester, check in with the Aerospace program offices, get my books, and I'm not sure of what else on campus. Then there's the DMV."

"Is there anything I can do for you?"

"I don't think so. If something comes up, I'll give you a call. What are you going to be doing?"

"I've been gone effectively for two weeks, so I have to review all the logs from this past week and evaluate them along with those from the week before. I have to do a trend analysis. I also have to call all of my long term clients. I don't want them to think I've forgotten about them or that I'm taking them for granted."

"Do you think you'll have to travel?"

"I don't think so, at least nothing outside of the local area and nothing more than a day trip. At some point I'm going to have to go to Colorado to meet with Ian and Hank to put together a work plan and I still have a few of their properties in Colorado to evaluate. I'm not planning on going there this week though, for a few reasons. First, I need to spend some time on my other clients, second, this is going to be a short work week and last, I don't want to be away from you for another week after being gone most of these past two weeks."

"I'm glad. I wasn't enjoying having an absentee husband. It was rare on the farm when Dad had to be gone more than over a night or two. Being gone for a whole week was just about unheard of."

"I can assure you, I'm not gone from you any more than is absolutely necessary."

"I know, but you can do something to make it up to me." She had a gleam in her eyes.