Lakeside

Three Legged Race

The four of them had settled into the shade, sipping water and watching the ebb and flow of the crowd milling around the open space. It was a perfectly just-this-side-of-sticky-hot day, though that's no reason to bake in the midday sun. As soon as Ryan had excused herself, disappearing in the direction of The Breakwater to use the facilities, Tom and Tori huddled shoulder to shoulder and began whispering furiously at each other.

Tom gives his head a quick shake in the negative before inclining his head in the direction of his sister again to make sure he doesn't miss a syllable, seeing as she's speaking just loud enough for him to hear her over everything else. Tori crosses her arms, her water bottle dangling precariously down from beneath the crook of her left elbow. It's only her fingertips that have a grip of the bottlecap. "Oh just be happy she's still here."

He can't help but to glance towards the building, the last place Ryan left his sight. How can he explain the problem to his sister and not have her make it ten thousand times worse? How has she not guessed? "I am happy that she's still here, Tor."

"Really? Cause you're being a damn stick in the mud."

Tom bites back everything that immediately calls to be voiced in response to her use of their grandfather's favorite phrase. He can't stop the way his mouth twitches, can't quite catch and still the action, and a grin lights up Tori's face. It was the very reason she had used the phrase. To get a rise out of him. He refuses to be baited, though. He just folds his arms and leans away from her a bit, moving around on his feet so that the shade provided by the branches overhead dance over his features. She ends up shifting on her feet too. Always has annoyed her when he refuses to tell her something. Said it makes her itchy.

Not quite getting satisfaction, Tori refuses to let that be the end of it. She unfolds her arms, swinging her almost empty water bottle so that it knocks into the side of his arm and emits a hollow – THUNK. "This is my point. Stick in the mud. You talked up the event! Hardly a surprise she stayed."

"That's not it. Besides..." He moves in place again, only just altering his stance. Trying to draw himself out of range of her reach would just end with the pair of them circling the tree like a pair of squirrels. "You're the one that told her about it at the weekender last month. She said so. I just..."

He'd just opened his big mouth when it was just the pair of them out enjoying on Daisy Mae. Ryan had gone from being loosely aware of future events at the lake to saying that from his description of the festival/ fundraiser she definitely wanted to stick around so she could attend.

Course that wasn't all of it. Never was a problem before when their clients enjoyed themselves. Ok it was a problem before but for other reasons. It was the whole point of the business, even if he never really wanted to admit it. Get the Summer People to enjoy themselves enough to spend money here. Bolster the local economy for another season.

The problem this time around is that he didn't keep his distance. He didn't limit his interactions with the strangers coming to siphon off bits of the community to take home with them, back to their fast-paced lives. The problem that is that Ryan Culler is no longer a stranger to him – that while she's come to enjoy herself and her stay at the lake, he's come to enjoy her presence here. The problem is that when he looks at her he gets this feeling that she could fit in here... Not just here, at the lake ... but here, in his life.

He opens his mouth, knowing that the moment he admits it aloud Fate will turn her head towards him again. He is saved from words by a flying bit of foil. A strangled ooof erupts from his mouth when he jerks in reaction, barely catch the foil-wrapped hotdog that had been lobbed at his torso.

Gordon, reappearing with food, for the save. "Heads up! Water's next!"

Tori turns on her husband, half annoyed at his interference, but also clearly hungry. She holds her free hand out to accept her own meal from him. "And where have you been?"