Author's Note: Sorry for long delay for this chapter. I was traveling with fourteen of my students for the last two weeks!

As always I do not own MIOBI.


Over the years of traveling with either her family or a gymnastics team, Payson had stayed in more hotels than she could count. Most had been nothing fancy, basically somewhere to get rest between days of competition. She had been so focused on giving her best in the gymnastics arenas that she remembered very little of each one individually. Even memories of the dormitory-style rooms of the Olympic housing blurred at times, popping back into clarity when she flipped through photos from those busy days. Granted those rooms had not been very distinctive: single beds with minimal furnishings, the brightest colors coming from the bedspreads.

As soon as she stepped inside the door, Payson realized that these rooms in the Old Key West resort were going to stick out for awhile. She stood in a two-story sitting room with windows on both levels streaming sunshine and French doors that opened onto a small balcony. Couches and armchairs invited lounging although right now only Jake was staked out, his fingers flying over a laptop on the coffee table in front of him.

"Hey, Payson!" The former wrestler flashed her a smile even as he kept typing. "Great to see you!"

"Good to see you too, Jake." She smiled back. "Still trying to get your work done?"

Jake rolled his eyes. "A half hour ago, I thought I was good to go and then another member of the committee texted me some changed data."

"Which means you have to go in and change your information."

"Exactly. If I didn't love numbers so much," Jake laughed, a mix of being comfortable in what he did and acceptance that getting annoyed over the extra work would not get it done any faster.

Lauren unfortunately did not seem to share the same philosophy as she slid into the conversation. "You've been working non-stop since we got here. Can't you e-mail the group back and tell them you're on vacation?"

"Barbie," Jake grinned at his girlfriend. "They know I'm on vacation, a vacation that originally I wasn't supposed to start until tomorrow."

Lauren's lips pursed. Payson could sense that the woman could tell where Jake was headed but was still not happy about it.

"I promised them I'd take care of this bit of work. Once it's done, I'm a free man for the rest of the trip."

"But we haven't even gotten to really look around this place," Lauren replied, a little pout forming on her face. "We were supposed to take a walk before the others got here and all the walking you've done is to drop your bag in one of the bedrooms."

"Speaking of which," Jake murmured and then raised his voice, "Austin, I don't know what you were thinking for rooming so Lauren and I just put our bags in one of the rooms, so they were out of the main area. Just let us know where you want to move us."

"Thanks," Austin replied. Payson noticed that he didn't automatically say that where Jake and Lauren had settled was ok.

"Good," she thought to herself. "You might be one of Kaylie's closest friends, but Austin hasn't forgotten that you tend to focus more on your own needs than those of the group."

However, as soon as the thought finished forming in her mind, Payson felt a twinge of guilt and doubt. She had dealt with the anger towards Lauren a long time ago, but now her she was judging her without allowing the other woman a chance to show if she had matured in the last year.

Emily grabbing her arm pulled Payson away from her inner musings.

"Coffee maker, Pay!"

"You really weren't kidding about your coffee addiction, were you?"

Emily shook her head. "I know that most decent places have coffee machines in the room now especially somewhere like this but it makes me feel so much better to know I can get my cup of magic right here in the morning."

"I don't remember you being such a huge coffee fan," Kaylie spoke up.

Emily swallowed as she looked over at the most petite member of the group. "I liked it when I was training with you but it wasn't until I had Colin that I really got attached to my coffee wake-me-up. Being a single mom means running on not a lot of sleep, so my energy comes from caffeine."

"Oh, I see," Kaylie faltered after an awkward pause.

Emily's eyes flashed, "Oh you do? You see that being completely responsible for a child is more than just being a bit addicted to coffee?"

Kaylie's eyes widened at the edge in Emily's voice, and Payson also turned to look at her more closely.

"Em?"

"What is so exciting here in the kitchen?" Lauren chirped, her ponytail bouncing behind as she slid into the trio. "Don't you want to check out the bedrooms? Figure out where everyone is going to sleep?"

"Sure, that sounds good," Payson said quickly, hoping to divert the blonde's attention from the tense looks on their faces. However, Lauren had always been able to hone into any disagreement.

"Oh, I'm interrupting something, aren't I?" she asked, her expression concerned although Payson swore she could see a hint of calculation deep in Lauren's eyes.

"If you call debating who gets the coffee maker first in the morning something to interrupt, then I guess so," Emily replied, her eyes still focused on Kaylie.

"All yours," the Hispanic woman said, her voice subdued but close enough to normal that Lauren dropped that line of conversation.

"Then let's go figure the beds out!" Lauren smiled broadly and wrapped an arm around Kaylie's waist. The simple intimacy of the gesture caught at Payson, and she unexpectedly found herself reminded of those early gym days when the three of them had been each other's complete support system. Lauren and Kaylie had always been more open with their emotions, but there had never been a question that each girl had the others' back. She held back a sigh as she thought about how much she disliked scrutinizing every move Lauren made along with trying to anticipate and defuse Emily's anger towards Kaylie. She shoved the emotions aside as the women entered the bedroom on the main floor.

"Ok, here we have room for two people, most likely a couple would like this space best," Lauren said, taking on the role of hostess, a position really more Kaylie's but by arriving earlier, the blonde had a familiarity with the villa the others did not.

"Right," Kaylie agreed. Payson glanced around the room with its large bed and small sitting area. Her eyes fell on Lauren and Jake's bags, a flowery one open on the chair with several belongings spilling out.

"And upstairs are the other bedrooms," Lauren said, leading them back out into the living room where the three guys were lounging, Jake still on his laptop, the other two relaxing.

Kaylie looked over to her boyfriend, "Austin, do you want to come look at the bedrooms? We're trying to figure out where everyone will be sleeping."

Austin gave her a mischievous grin. "I trust you in picking out somewhere for us to sleep. As long as there's room for both of us, that's all I care about."

Kaylie's face looked as if she had spent the afternoon outside in the Florida sun rather than inside a plane. Payson suppressed a grin at her friend's quick coloring. They were all adults now, but Kaylie was still a little sensitive about discussing her sex life so openly.

"Let's go see the rooms," Payson walked towards the stairs, and Kaylie hurried after her. The stairs opened onto a small loft space that looked down over the living room area. To the right and to the left a bedroom with its own bathroom flanked the loft.

"Each bedroom has two queen beds, so room for four people," Kaylie said as the four regrouped in the loft.

"And don't forget that this couch actually folds out into a bed," Austin called up from his comfortable spot.

"Well, with only nine of us I don't think we need to worry about using that," Kaylie yelled back.

"Unless people want more of their own space!" was Austin's loud response.

"Maybe we should go downstairs to continue this discussion?" Payson suggested, wincing inwardly at their echoes.

Kaylie smiled, "Good idea."

Kaylie had just reached the main floor, the other three still on the stairs, when someone knocked at the door. Kaylie's smile turned puzzled.

"Kelly and Nicky aren't scheduled to arrive for several more hours," Austin said, getting up from the couch.

"Wonder who it is then?" Kaylie asked, reaching for the door handle.

Payson wanted to tell her friend to hold on just a moment, to take a glance through the peephole, but she had already opened the door.

The petite woman's jaw dropped.

"Who is it, Kay?" Lauren asked impatiently, her view of the entrance blocked from where she stood on the stairs.

"I don't believe it!"