To the Beach and Back

Chapter 9

I've forgotten how delicious beach naps can be.

I wake to the sounds of a Jimmy Buffet song drifting over us from the pool house bar, my sight blurred and shaded from my hat's large brim. I scoot up in my lounge chair, adjusting my bikini bottoms and tipping up the brim to take in my surroundings, feeling cozy and content. The crowd has slimmed, thanks to parents hauling their small children home for baths before dinner. Two twenty-something gals sit at the shallow end of the pool, each of them sucking in their stomachs when a cute lifeguard hops in the deep end to retrieve a wayward pair of eye goggles. A woman in a one-piece pink terry cloth jumpsuit dozes two lounge chairs down, her pale skin looking dangerously pink from the sun.

Thank goodness Allyse was able to find two chairs under wide beach umbrellas in the sand. I look down to check my own legs, which haven't been this exposed to the sun in years.

So far so good.

"Sleep well?" Allyse asks with a yawn, stretching on the chair beside me.

"Oh my gosh, yes. How long have I been out?"

She sits up, twisting her torso in order to raise the back of her chair. "Long enough for me to run back to Ryan's house to let Sadie out to pee." Allyse glances at her phone screen. "Wow, it's four-thirty already! Want to get another drink here or head out to happy hour now? Cabanas & Coconuts is only a few streets away and it's always fun there."

Happy hour?

We've already had three cocktails, which is the cause of my deep and delicious nap. And even if I could muster the energy, I'd have to shower and change first, seeing as how I'm not wearing any makeup and my hair is a mess from Allyse convincing me to jump into the pool earlier. Maybe twenty years ago I could pull off looking somewhat decent after a day in the sun, but not now. Allyse doesn't understand that being fifty-plus requires a lot of time, effort, and beauty products.

Lots of beauty products.

And Nick and I have gone to Cabanas & Coconuts a long time ago, a favorite for the younger crowd due to two-for-one drink specials, beach volleyball, and multiple outdoor bars all decorated like a Caribbean resort. I didn't fit in then and I surely won't fit in now.

"Uh ... maybe we can just relax here and then head back to Ryan's?"

Allyse drops her mouth in dramatic horror. "Uh, no! If the mold test comes back negative in a few days," she pauses long enough to cross her fingers for good luck, "then we're going to be too busy at Haven to have any fun. Let's enjoy our free time while we can! Besides, there's someone there I want you to meet. You'll love him."

Him?

Who is this 'Him' and why does she want to introduce me?

Before I can ask, a young waitress wearing black shorts and a black Beach Club tank top approaches, handing us each a delightfully pink and yellow cocktail. "Compliments of the gentlemen at the bar ladies," she says with a smile before leaving.

Allyse and I turn toward the bar, tipping down our sunglasses to see who she's talking about.

Four men in their mid to late forties each raise their own drinks to us. Well, to Allyse, that is, who raises hers in return and says, "Raise your drink, Marcie."

I shake my head. "No, they only bought them because of you, not me."

She flashes me a dumbfounded look before turning back to the group of men. "Seriously, Marcie? Raise your fucking drink," she says through gritted teeth. "They are for us."

I raise my drink to them before taking a sip.

Wow, that's tasty.

But now what do we do? Walk to the bar and thank them, is that what's customary nowadays? And who is this 'him' Allyse is talking about?