Gordon groaned. "Just kiss her already," he said.
"Yeah, like you and Penelope just swooped into kissing," Scott countered with a grin.
"Hey – we got there! But John and Kayo – I'm not sure I can take much more of the looks and their hedging around each other. I mean – look at them. It's sickening."
"I repeat – pot. Kettle. Black." Scott drank from his beer and sighed happily as the cold liquid went down his throat. "Sometimes I bless enforced down time," he muttered.
"Yeah, well you're lucky Virgil didn't pull you off mid-mission," Gordon remarked. "You were a danger to everybody there."
"Well, somebody has to be available. You're out for another week Brains said. You were lucky."
"Tell me about it. Though Brains is being overcautious. My ribs're pretty much fully healed now. I did a bout with Kayo this morning without pain. I think that Brains' decision has a lot to do with pressure from my lovely wifey."
Scott grinned. Penelope had certainly made her wishes clear. More than clear. And at eight months pregnant with twins, nobody was going to deny her anything she wanted – including keeping Gordon by her side until the babies were born!
He looked again to the other end of the pool where John and Kayo were sitting in the small cabana. The night was warm, even balmy and the air was heavily scented with the tropical flowers of an island spring.
Absolutely a night for romance.
John and Kayo had their heads close as they sat, bodies touching from the shoulders down. And still… nothing.
Gordon did have a point. It had been four years since John and Kayo had admitted mutual attraction. And four years of them hedging around each other. John spending more time on earth, Kayo more on the Island. Both usually together. And yet…
Nothing.
Scott drank the rest of his beer and then looked up to see John and Kayo gazing into each other's eyes, only a breath away from each other. Lips moving.
"Why don't they just kiss already?" This time it was Scott, but he misjudged how sound carried and was overheard by the couple.
Kayo jumped up and Gordon started to chuckle. "I hope you're ready to pay for that remark," he said, raising his hands in protest as she came over. "Hey – that wasn't me. Blame big brother there."
They were his last words before he found himself yanked off the deck chair and sailing into the pool.
Another splash scant seconds later told him Scott had joined him and he grinned as Scott emerged; spluttering and coughing.
"What did you do that for?"
"We heard you both. Discretion isn't something that Tracy's seem to understand." Kayo's accent was more clipped than usual and she stood, legs braced and hands on her hips. Her face mirrored her ire with them, but that softened remarkably when John came up and slid his arm around her waist.
"Well, some of them," he said before pulling her around and kissing her with evident passion. "Evidently though observation is also singularly lacking."
Gordon hooted with laughter and pushed off from the side, doing a backflip in the water before coming up and hauling himself out of the pool. "Go Johnny! Who woulda thought it!"
"Don't call me Johnny," John said automatically. "Are you satisfied now? Will you stop making comments and just leave us alone? It's hard enough to get some private time around here normally without having you to stalking us as well."
Scott hauled himself out of the pool. "Well, it is about time. You didn't have to be such a drama queen about you and Kayo's first kiss though."
"First…" John raised his hand to his eyes in a manner more Scott-like. "Please lord, what did I do to deserve brothers like this." Kayo just reached out and pushed him back in the pool.
"Wha… KAYO!"
"Don't let Grandma catch you tracking water through the house," she said. "We're going to bed." Kayo smiled sweetly, a smile that all five brothers knew all too well. "Tomorrow morning, you and I are going to have a little observational situation training, Scott."
She and John turned, hand in hand, heading into the house. "Virgil worked it out a year ago. He owes me a lot of money," was John's final word as they disappeared.
"Virgil!" Scott was incredulous and he slumped on the side of the pool. "I can't believe it. Virgil… Virgil didn't tell me!"
"Or me," Gordon responded. "How does that happen?" The two brothers looked at each other and turned towards the house. A joint yell of "Virgil" echoed through the night.
Out of the darkness two figures emerged. "I couldn't believe it when you told me. I thought it was obvious."
"Gordon has some excuse, but not Scott. Why didn't you tell either of them?"
Virgil grinned broadly. "Because this way, they will take my money and not quibble about it. Or rather, Kayo will have to let me pay for her wedding dress. Idiot girl. She pretended that she didn't care. But Alan found the magazines. She wants the full cupcake dress."
"And Kayo doesn't like to accept handouts."
"Nope. So I trust that you will be able to pull off the assignment?"
"Absolutely, Virgil. You can rely on me." A sharp intake of breath. "But now… I think it will have to wait a little." Penelope grasped his arm. "We have a situation."