The sensually rolling blue-green expanse beckoned irresistibly to the trio on the cliff's edge..
Well, to two of them, anyway.
"I can't stand it-I'm going back up to the room to change. I've got to get in there." Laura was striding back across the concrete sundeck as she spoke, practically skipping in her eagerness to don her swimsuit and dive into the crystal-clear water.
Bill watched her cross the yard separating the pool area from the cliff access to the ocean.
"What about you? Gonna share a beer with me while she plays in the water?" He gave Saul a hopeful look, nodding at the lounge chairs next to the self-serve rustic bar; a slab of wood over some blocks and a rust-touched cooler that looked older than they were.
"Nah, I think I'll join her. I'm not so frakking...I dunno...beguiled by the ocean as she is, but it's hot, I'm tired, and I'm ready to float in all that cool." He gave Bill a grin, turned, then reached back his hand.
"C'mon, Bill. Get changed and let's see what we can get up to in the water." He gave him a playful smirk and took his hand.
The smirk faded as Bill gently pulled his hand away. "I'm beat, Saul. You two have fun. I think I'll unpack our stuff, get the room organized." He glanced down at the cliff's edge near his feet and moved back one step, then another, keeping his eyes on the dividing line between rock and open space. "How far down is it, do you think?" he asked, not quite achieving the casual tone he seemed to be shooting for.
Saul stepped to the very edge of the cliff and looked down. "Looks like it's about ten feet to the water from here. I think the guy said the water's around fifteen feet deep in this cove, so-"
"Seems like a lot of space." Bill's eyes raked the horizon, panning east, then west.
"Says the Viper pilot," Saul snorted. "You've been in miles and miles of deep space in a tiny ship, less than an inch of metal between you and a whole lot of nothing. Does this"-Saul swept his hand at the rolling expanse-"bother you?"
Bill turned away. "That was different. And I didn't say this 'bothered' me. I'm here more for the sun and sand, anyway." He finally smiled. "And to see you two have fun."
Saul started to say more, but Laura had slipped out of their pool-side room and was darting towards them, feet light on the sun-baked surface. Neither he nor Bill had ever seen her in her new tropical-print tankini-she had been so focused on getting their house squared away after the wedding there hadn't been much discussion of beachwear-but it was bright and charming...just like their wife.
How'd I get so lucky, finding the two most perfect people in the universe? At least, the two most perfect for me. He still couldn't believe his luck. Or when they said the same kind of thing about him.
The weeks they'd had to wait for a proper honeymoon (Gods, how did even bigger marriages ever coordinate vacation time?) had dragged by until they snagged their time off, but at least it had given them a chance to settle into a domestic routine before their holiday.
Honeymoon, he amended silently. Their honeymoon.
"Make a hole," Laura called, sprinting towards them. Both men stepped back as she hit the cliff's edge, sure-footed like she'd been doing this for years. She gave a springing leap, pushing off hard with one foot. Her body was silhouetted against the sun for a split second, her arms raised over her head. Her toes pointed and body arrow-straight, she sliced through the glittering surface into the depths below.
"Are you sure that's safe? She should've gone down the ladder, made sure of the depth before she-" Bill was still sputtering his worry, face taking on a slight greenish tinge, when Laura broke the surface, auburn hair fanned over her shoulders in water-dark waves. Her smile was big as the tropical sky.
"C'mon, boys! It feels fantastic!" She rolled on her back, lazily kicking her feet while doing a graceful backstroke.
She was still in the water by the time Saul returned in a psychedelic-patterned pair of surfer shorts. His jump was not quite as graceful but he made up for it in speed, moving through the water like the former swim-team captain he'd been in high school.
"You're really good," she complimented him. "I had no idea you were that good a swimmer. I figured on Aerilon, that wouldn't be much of a sport."
"We might have been backwards in some areas, but we did have these big cee-ment pond things called 'pools; you know." They got in a teasing splashing match, dunking each other and twisting weightlessly around each other in the water.
"Having fun?" Bill called, leaning against a huge coral outcropping and holding an ice-cold beer. He was still in shorts and a tee shirt.
"Bill, I thought you were changing, too. C'mon, I want to have fun with both my guys." Laura treaded water next to Saul, motioning Bill to join them.
"Maybe later," he said, taking a long swallow. "Maybe in the pool, after we get something to eat." He moved back from the cliff.
"Saul, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" She gave her husband a solemn look.
He returned it. "Yeah. We never had any reason to talk about it, but…"
"Bill can't swim," they said at the same time, watching him stretch out on a pool-side lounge chair.
By the time they both had scrambled up the ladder, leaving the deep blue ocean behind them, they had formulated their plan.
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"Are you sure you want to go to the beach? I thought the whole point of getting a cliff-side villa was getting away from the crowds and the hawkers," Bill said as Laura presented their next-day plans.
"It'll be fine for a day, Bill. I heard of a little sandy bay about ten klicks from here, doesn't get much traffic. Just a guy renting towels and loungers out of a no-name bar," Saul said.
"It'll be fun," Laura echoed. "And the swimming will be easier," she said, giving Saul a sidelong look.
"Uh, yeah...I think we both got a little over-tired today. This'll give us a rest." Saul blushed, and not only from the unaccustomed tropical sun.
Although they weren't quite still newlyweds, they were still new enough to each other and to unscheduled time that they'd had an energetic evening, ending with sated cuddling and gentle love-whispers in the dark. They'd stayed like that until the fragrance of exotic spices from a dozen roadside grills began wafting through the window.
Laura had taken the initiative to arrange for a driver to pick up three orders of jerk chicken, then joined the other two for an unexpected second round. They'd lost themselves in each other again until a loud knock broke the mood. Bill wrapped a towel around his waist and opened the door, chuckling at the array of take-out containers on a tray set outside, a hastily-scrawled note saying "Enjoy!" on top.
They had devoured the meal, taking the exhortation to heart, while they watched the sunset light up the sky in bright orange and pink against every shade of blue imaginable. It had been one of those days she'd only dreamed about before finding her two men. They were so content with each other...and she didn't want to spend time away from either one.
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Bill looked more interested in the beach plans as they drove closer. When the cabbie dropped them off, he was the first one to strip down to his trunks. Laura laid out towels on the sugary sand, covertly watching him step further and further into the warm shallow waters. She caught Saul's eye as he followed Bill.
Their husband obviously liked the ocean-the blissful smile on his face said that loud and clear as the water rose to his knees, then his thighs. He'd just never had the opportunity to learn to swim, he'd told them over dinner. The local recreation club had been a meeting place for rivals to his uncle's Ha'la'tha gang, and his high school in Little Tauron hadn't had a swim team.
When the water was to his chest, Bill planted his feet firmly in the sand. They had walked several meters from the shore and the water was bathtub warm and about as calm.
"This is fine for me. If you two want to go out further, go ahead," he said, nodding towards the deeper water.
"We're staying with you, hon," Laura answered, flowing into a graceful embrace. Saul was behind Bill, wrapping his arms around his waist. "Got you, babe," he said into Bill's ear.
With touches light as angelfish, Laura and Saul nudged, then lifted Bill's feet off the sandy bottom, murmuring for him to let go, to trust them, they had him...and then he was floating, barely supported by their arms.
He was the most relaxed he'd been since they got here, she reflected. Maybe because the water was so buoyant and warm, maybe because they were in the shallows...but maybe it was also because it was the three of them doing this.
She liked that thought.
She and Saul stepped back, thrilled to see Bill lying fully back in the water now, arms outstretched, trusting that he'd stay afloat. His eyes were closed, and his lips were curved in a dreamy, sleepy smile.
"Yeah, this is nice," he said, not opening his eyes. "You were right."
"So, trust us, okay?" Saul said, guiding him out further.
"Now, this next part is just as easy, just do what I do," Laura joined in, guiding him through the first steps of Swimming 101.
By lunchtime, Bill was treading water. By the time they hit their beach towels for a rest and a rum punch each, he had graduated to dog paddling in water over his head while Saul and Laura showed off more advanced strokes.
When the driver returned to take them back to their hotel, all three were gliding through the water, flipping around and coming together, then apart, legs tangling under the surface.
"Newlyweds." He smirked to the bartender, his comment just loud enough for Laura to hear.
The bartender looked out at the trio. "Seem a little old for that," he said.
Laura cocked an eyebrow at his words, then grinned as the driver caught her eye.
"Nah, man, they're newlyweds. Don't care if they're older than most...they got that look."
The three swimmers moved to shallow waters to share a kiss, arms stroking sun-warmed backs.
The bartender chuckled. "Guess you're right."
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The hotel had declined over the years, the paint not kept up, the foliage allowed to grow a bit wild.
Saul thought about mentioning how things change, but looked at Bill and knew the words weren't needed. He was studying the cliff's edge, frowning.
"Wasn't this further out, the last time we were here?"
Saul thought for a moment. "There was that hurricane that hit here a couple of years ago, tore up this side of the island pretty good." He pointed down the shoreline. "That outcropping wasn't there before, not shaped like that. And there was a bunch of flower bushes over by that walk then. They're gone, too."
Bill shrugged. "Everything changes, I guess."
"Got that right." Saul grimaced as he stood up from low stone wall, absently rubbing his right hip.
"How's it look, boys?" Laura strolled down the walkway from their room, the one they'd shared that first year. Her legs were just as long, her tankini just as bright.
"Kinda chewed up at the edges, but it's still deep and clear as glass...look." He pointed to the ripples in the sand along the bottom of the cove, easily fifteen feet under the surface.
"I can't stand it-I've got to get in there." She gave each of them a slow, sultry smirk, obviously enjoying her call-back to their delayed honeymoon.
Bill caught Saul's eye and grinned. "And some things never change." He nodded at their wife, practically quivering with eagerness to jump into the warm water.
She held out both hands. Saul took one, Bill the other.
"One, two...three!" she counted out, then the three of them ran a few steps and leaped into the welcoming ocean, hands clasped until they hit the surface. In seconds they had all bobbed back up, blinking water from their eyes and swimming in slow circles around each other, laughing like a trio of kids. Bill moved as easily through the water as he'd once flown through space, gathering them in for a hug and an exchange of salty kisses.
Sometimes, things change just enough.