Over the Line

Chapter Five

The week flew by and before they knew it, it was Saturday afternoon. Linda, Kyle, Thomas, Lauren, and Ruddy all made it with the younger kids in tow.  Kate and Warren were about the same age, so they ran off to do their own thing down by the docks. Unfortunately Yvette's dad, John, lived several hours away and couldn't make it. He had understandably never been close with the other parents, but Remi always made a point to include him.

They planned a pretty chill afternoon of hanging out by the pool, taking the boat out, building a fire, and of course lots of food. No one came empty handed. Kyle made his famous summer hunch punch, Linda made a peanut butter pie, Lauren made pasta salad and an assortment of homemade cookies, Ruddy made her award worthy chili and Buffalo chicken dip, and Thomas brought some meat he'd spent hours smoking. Remi put together a charcuterie board for them to graze on while Sienna and Yvette made a couple extra side dishes. Anyone could tell Southern roots ran deep in this bunch, because they all believed the way to anyone's heart was through their stomach.

"Hey Mitch, good to see you again." Remi gave him a quick one armed hugged as he joined the group by the pool later in the afternoon.

"Two weekends in a row, aren't we lucky?" Sam threw the football straight into Mitch's chest.

"You know Mom. She didn't really make it sound optional." He scanned the crowd to see who all was in attendance. His eyes lingered on Sienna a little longer than anyone else, but it was so quick Remi thought she might have made it up. "Where is everyone anyways?"

"Kyle, Linda, Thomas, Travis, Yvette, and the two young ones took the boat out for some fun. We've been on it all week, so we thought it'd be nice to share." Sienna smiled brightly as she ticked off the absent party members.

After that everyone made themselves at home and went about doing their own thing until dinner. Sam and Mitch ended up taking the jet skis out to meet the others on the boat. Zander hung out with Ruddy and Lauren in the kitchen for a bit talking about life in Florida. Which left Sienna and Remi floating in the pool enjoying a few minutes of calm.

"You've not said anything about the boutique this week. How are they surviving without you?" Remi pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head so she could see Sienna.

"My assistant is a God send. Six months ago I could barely leave without something falling apart. Now I can take a full week and know that she's taking care of it." She explained. Remi was glad to see that things had calmed down. Sienna worked at a boutique all through college, getting promoted several times through management to where she ran the store now.

"Do you think you'll stay now that you've graduated?"

"I'm hoping to find something in the city. I love parts of my job, but I hate the hours. I've been talking to a friend of mine from who has her own boutique. She's great at the operations and business logistics. but doesn't quite have the eye for trends. She's considering hiring a buyer and I thought about applying." Sienna excitedly chatted about the opportunity. Remi was happy to hear she had something to look forward to. Sienna was great at running the store and managing her people, but she could always tell it wasn't something that really excited her.

"That would be incredible! And you'll be near Sam and maybe Yvette too. Maybe you two could get a place together." Remi threw out.

"I never thought about that. That would be so fun. I've never had a roommate I actually like," She laughed.

"Just make sure you have enough room for me to come visit." Remi demanded.

Remi still wasn't sure what she was going to do to keep herself busy until the end of summer when she could start her job. Once she started Challen would be her home base, but she would be traveling a lot. She was going to work with a sports marketing agency that was going through a merger. She knew there was so much she could do as a brand builder with athletes in the off-season, but they wanted her to wait until after the merger to start.