* * *
Wearing the red bathing suit I’d had since high school and with my laptop in the case flung over my shoulder, I shooed the Bonham brats onto the beach. Each had been tasked with carrying their life jackets; Dougie with my beach chair and Katie, the small cooler that held juice boxes. I chose my moments of revenge.
I’d finally decided on a spot when Dougie threw down my chair. “If you want it somewhere else, move it yourself.”
I narrowed my eyes in my best imitation of a prison matron and pointed to the chair. “Open it out and put on your life jacket.”
He opened his mouth to argue, but the call of the water was too strong. He decided to do as I said, but I suspected he’d get back at me sometime later. Katie set the cooler next to the chair as she obediently put on her life jacket.
“Don’t go in above your waist,” I told them both and settled into the sand to set up my laptop and prop myself up into the beach chair. Naturally, Dougie immediately went in the water neck high. I set my laptop into the case to avoid blowing sand and went after him. Having grown up in Florida, I was a pretty fair swimmer and he recognized he was out of his league. I dragged him ashore by the back of his lifejacket and plopped him down onto the hot sand. “Sit there until you can learn to follow orders.”
“You think you’re so smart, don’t you?” he shot back. “Too bad you’re so pathetic that your bathing suit has a hole in the butt.”
I stopped and fought the impulse to run my hand over my bottom, but I knew he was lying.
“Geez, when did you get that? 1960?”
The kid had a talent for making me hate him, I had to give him that. He read me well and went on. “Yeah, right over your asshole. You probably farted too hard and it blew right through.”
I tried to ignore him but he kept his eyes on my butt and it was making me crazy. I opened the cooler and took out a juice box, slowly looking at the back label so the colorful pictures of fresh fruit were in his direction. I poked the little straw through the foil spout and sipped it slowly, watching Katie as she scooped holes at the water’s edge and then watched the waves wash them away.
“I want one of those,” Dougie finally said.
I ignored him.
He stood up and came toward me. “I said, you stupid nanny, I want one!” he shouted. There was no one within hearing. I had almost finished mine and now held it out to him.
“Here you go.”
He slapped it out of my hand and the juice made a red stain as it drained onto the hot sand. “I want my own.”
“You will apologize.”
“For what?”
“For everything you’ve done that was rude, mean or lying since breakfast.”
“What if I don’t?”
“Then I will heave these two remaining juices into the ocean,” I threatened, picking them up and cocking back my arm.
He tilted his head, calculating whether I was mean enough to do just that. He must have decided I was, and I let out a small sigh of relief. He hadn’t called my bluff.
“I’m sorry.” He hung his head with drama.
“Be more specific,” I ordered, still in my matron’s persona.
“I’m sorry for punching Katie in the hallway and for calling you pathetic.”
“That’s it? Haven’t you forgotten another little detail?”
“Like what?” He was being stubborn.
“Like what you said about my bathing suit bottom?”
He shrugged. “I wasn’t lying.”
My hand flew to the back of my suit as I frantically felt for a hole in my bottoms. He grinned and while I was off guard, he ran toward me and grabbed the remaining two juice boxes out of my hand. He ran toward Katie, holding one out to her.
“Dougie!” I shouted, angry with myself for being duped.
“Yes?” he called out in a sing-song as he hurled one of the boxes into the ocean and quickly popped the spout on the other and drank it down. He dropped the empty carton at his feet and, with a smirk, headed toward me.
Katie had stood up as she watched the juice box sail over her head into the waves. She walked toward me now and looked up, shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand. “You really are stupid, aren’t you?” she said in a matter-of-fact tone. I couldn’t argue with her. She peeled off her life jacket, let it fall to the sand and began walking back toward Utopia. Dougie dropped his jacket and followed her.
“You two come back here and carry your life jackets, cooler and chair!” I shouted after them.
Dougie kept walking but held up his middle finger over his head at me. There was nothing left for me to do but run and collect everything, including my laptop, and follow them like a pack mule.
As we came closer to Utopia, I noticed a crowd of people in front of the entrance. They’d gathered around a limousine. The door of the resort opened and Brayden sailed out, motioning to his security detail to hold back the crowd. He personally opened the limousine door and handed out a gorgeous woman in a black dress, her Louis Vuitton shoes making her legs appear like a ballerina’s. I could hear her bell-like laughter at whatever Brayden said as he ushered her inside on his arm.
Dougie stopped long enough to turn and look at me. “I’ll bet she doesn’t have a hole in her ass,” he pronounced and continued inside.
God, I hated my life.