"Regina, go for a swim too." After having swum to the yacht that was standing far from the beach near a tiny islet surrounded by a reef, Gold hung on the ladder leading to the deck. "The water is just great."
"No." responded the nude Queen lying on the sundeck. "There are jellyfishes. And sea urchins."
"Come on, there are no jellyfishes here." Her husband sighed. "And the sea urchins all sit on the corals. Don't swim near them and that's all."
"There it is, right next to you." Regina rose herself up on her elbow, staring at the water.
"Where?" Gold looked around.
"There, under your arm." She pointed with her finger.
"This?" He caught a tiny transparent clot from the water. "Is that that terrible jellyfish?" He grinned.
"Throw it away." The Queen grimaced. "It can be poisonous."
"Regina, it's not poisonous." He rolled the jellyfish around in his palm. "It doesn't even burn. The poisonous ones are much deeper." He threw the jellyfish away from the yacht. "Get down here already. I will catch all the jellyfishes around you. Why did we even buy a house on St. Barth if you're neglecting the ocean?"
"And why did we buy a house on the lake if the water there is always too cold for you?" Regina retorted.
"I like the view." Gold shrugged.
"So do I." the Queen smiled. "And not just the view. Do you hear?" She pretended to be listening.
"No, I don't hear anything." Her husband shook his head.
"Exactly! It's even quieter here than on the lake.", she concluded. "There aren't even any birds heard here."
"Well, this won't be for long." Gold grinned. "Tomorrow is our turn to walk with the children."
"Tomorrow is ours." the Queen agreed. "But today, while Regina and David are with them, I can fully enjoy the silence, the sun and the smell of the sea. As for swimming I prefer smaller, less densely populated pools. Here you're swimming as if you're in a fish soup. And by the way, about that, you promised me mussel soup. It's time to start implementing this plan. Also I need to be smeared with sunscreen. So get out of there, stop splashing around already."
"You can't smear yourself with sunscreen?" He nevertheless went up to the deck and sat next to his wife.
"No, I can't myself, I'm already too relaxed and I can't do anything." She reached for the sunscreen bottle next to her and handed it to her husband.
He slowly walked his palms over her shoulders and collarbones, gently rubbing sunscreen over her silky skin, barely touched by a tan. Carefully, with light movements, touching only with his fingertips, across her breasts. When he reached the hips, he laid her foot on his shoulder and, kissing her ankle, began to rub the sunscreen, slowly massaging her leg from the ankle to the very top of the thigh. Having done the same with the second leg, he leaned over to his wife and slowly kissed her.
"Turn your back." He whispered in her ear, burying his nose in her thick brown hair.
The Queen reluctantly rolled over.
"The back is a little higher." She noted with a slight grin a moment later.
"Really?" He slid his hands up from her… lower back to her shoulders, rubbing them. "Gather your strength and come inside." He finished, kissing her between the shoulder blades. "Mussels cook very quickly".
"You won't bring it to me?" The Queen was surprised.
"It's harmful laying in the sun for so long." He got up and headed for the cabin, "And with your sunscreen on it's also kind of pointless. Moreover, I would like to have lunch with you and preferably at the table and under air conditioning, not on a red-hot deck on a mattress.
"How picky you are." Regina sighed.
Soon the Queen, dressed in a short golden colored robe of the finest silk, was already clinging to Gold who was standing in a long white shirt by the stove.
"Not too much pepper?" She looked into the cooking pot, hugging her husband from the back, clasping her fingers together under his belly.
"Did you come here to teach me?" Gold squinted at her. "Go sit in the corner, drink some wine."
"I don't want to sit in the corner." She laid her chin on his shoulder. "I want to stay here with you."
"Then be quiet." Gold summed up kindly, kissing her nose.
"But I wouldn't refuse some wine." Quickly kissing her husband on the shoulder, Regina walked around him and sat on the countertop near the stove.
"Hold it." He took a glass from a shelf above the stove and, handing it to his wife, reached for the refrigerator.
Pulling out an open bottle of Chianti, he poured Regina a little more than half of a glass.
"It seems with mussels everyone drinks white." The Queen turned the glass in her hand, looking at the wine in the light. "Or champagne."
"Well, fools." He poured himself, and, clinking glasses with his wife, took a few sips. "Red suits it much better, believe me."
He poured some of the same wine into a pot of mussels and quickly stirred it. Catching one of the already opened shells, he broke it in half and,after scooping up a little broth with the part the clam remained on, handed it over to Regina.
"Try it." Gold nodded.
"Definitely much better." the Queen concluded.
"Not too much pepper?" He asked.
"Just enough." Regina smiled.
"Will you debate with me ever again?" Gold smiled back, pulling her hips closer to him.
"But I didn't debate with you." She wrapped her legs around him.
"That's it." He hugged her waist and trailed kisses all over her neck. "Get down." He looked up his wife and offered her a hand. "And sit at the table. If they get cold, they will no longer be so tasty".
Pouring Regina some more wine, he also poured the steaming soup on the plates and, throwing the triangle cut pieces of garlic bread into the toaster, looked again into the refrigerator.
"We'll have to drop by the store in the evening." He concluded, taking out a container of crab butter. "The fridge is almost empty. It is unlikely that David and Regina will be happy about this tomorrow."
"They won't take the yacht." The Queen drank some wine. "They'll go either diving or surfing- I don't remember."
"Good for them!" Gold admired, buttering the toasts. "We shall do the same."
"Yes, sure." The Queen nodded. "Let's start on Monday".
"Monday of what year?" He specified, sitting down at the table next to her.
"I don't know." Regina shrugged. "We'll see." She broke another shell and chew out a clam out of it.
"Give me a piece." Gold reached for her mouth.
"You seem to have your own plate." The Queen grinned, kissing him.
"Yes." he agreed. "But it tastes better like that."
"Do we have ice?" Regina asked, taking another sip of wine.
"Why, is it already needed?" Gold grinned, running a hand over her thigh.
"Yes." The Queen smiled. "To put an ice cube in my glass."
"What a wacky habit." He grimaced. "Spoiling good wine with ice."
Nevertheless, he took out the ice box from the freezer and, taking out an ice cube from it, put it into his wife's glass.
"Try it yourself." She ran her tongue along the edge of the ice cube, licking the wine from it. "It turns out quite well".
"When you do that," Gold smiled, looking at his wife, "it's hard to debate with you."
"So, shall I put you one?" Regina asked, picking up another cube from the box.
"No." He pushed back his glass. "I'm not ready for that. But drink it however you want. I won't say anything."
"Well, your loss." She shook the glass slightly, dissolving the ice in it.
It was already dark outside, and the bright large stars that generously scattered across the dark sky, were clearly reflected in the water, interspersed with the fluorescent light of jellyfish.
"So, you're saying they are all in the deep." Standing on the deck, Regina leaned on the railing, looking down at the luminous purple stripes creeping around the yacht.
"The poisonous ones are in the deep." Gold put his arm around her waist, leaning her against him. "These are small and harmless. So you still have a chance to plunge into the ocean. Do you know how great it is to swim in the luminous water under the stars?"
"No." The Queen shook her head. "I like them better from here."
"Don't force me to throw you into the water from the deck." He grinned ironically, glancing at his wife.
"You won't do it." Regina recoiled from her husband.
"Not yet." Gold said conciliatorily. "But, you know, this desire gets stronger every day. Okay, as you want." He kissed her shoulder. "But I'll probably swim around the reef again."
"Say hello to the sea urchins." The Queen wrapped herself tightly in a bathrobe.
Their possessions on the island were a small piece of land with overgrown mangroves, a couple of small bungalows and a narrow strip of their own beach, with their yacht moored at the pier of the coast.
Ending up on the shore, they found Regina and David on the beach. David just kindled a fire in the grill, standing on the sand at the very edge of the water, while Regina rubbed several large fishes with spices.
"And here are the hosts, pulling themselves back on the smell of food." Regina grinned, turning to her husband. "I told you, you should have started kindling earlier".
"Did you miss us?" The Queen smiled. "And where are our many children?"
"They're building a tree house." Regina nodded toward the mangroves.
"Seriously?" The Queen was surprised. "By themselves?"
"Well, it's more like a house under a tree." Regina reassured her. "See how a blanket is stretched between the trunks over there? This is their tree house".
"I'll go take a closer look." The Queen smiled, heading for the trees. "Are you coming with me?" She turned to Gold.
"Of course." He nodded.
Soon they returned to the beach along with the children.
"Just in time." David smiled, turning the fish once again on the grill.
"What is this?" Gideon, going to the grill, examined the fish faces.
"A sea devil." (aka: a monkfish) Stern told him conspiratorially. "Of course, it doesn't look very good, but it tastes very good."
"Aunt Regina promised us marshmallows." Charlotte looked at the fish, too. "Can we have marshmallows right away?"
"That's a question for your parents." David shrugged, laying out sliced vegetables on a wire rack around the fish and sprinkling them with herbs and coarse sea salt.
"Can we? Can we?!" All three, Gideon, Charlotte and Rachel, surrounded the Golds.
"You can." The Queen smiled. "It's a vacation."
"Can I?" Tali looked at her father.
"No." David shook his head. "You will eat some fish first."
"Come on, paaap,", the girl said.
"You know…" The Queen squatted next to her. "Perhaps your dad is right. First we'll all eat fish and then marshmallows."
"Come on, mom!" Her children began to get indignant.
"Just a few pieces." she consoled them. "Then we will fry the marshmallows. Where are your older children?" She turned to David.
"They will come soon." Stern assured her. "They went to some kind of fire show on a nearby beach. It should have already ended by now."
In about ten minutes, Henry and Esther actually joined them. After cutting the fish and putting it on the plates with some vegetables, Stern poured sherry into glasses: for himself, Gold and both Reginas.
"And for us?" Esther smiled at him.
"Are you allowed already?" David asked ironically.
"Well, actually I'm already over twenty-one." Esther put a hand on his shoulder. "I think just like Henry is."
"This is terrible." Stern sighed. "How quickly time flies." He poured a glass for both of them. "But only one. You still have to lay your younger sisters and brother down, you promised me."
"I remember." His daughter assured him, taking her glass back.
They sat a little longer by the water after the children went to bed.
"What incredible stars there are here…" Senator Stern, sitting on the sand, gazed up at the sky.
"Even better than the ones in the Enchanted Forest you're telling tell me?" the Queen sitting next to Regina whispered to her.
"Perhaps." Regina agreed.
Stern standing a bit away from them stirred the coals in grill with a poker, pouring some water on them.
"You know, it's not necessary at all to do this.", the Queen addressed him. "There is still nothing to be burned here, there's only sand around."
"I know." David nodded. "But I can't help it, it's a habit. Nonetheless, it seems they have already gone out." He shook the coals with a poker once again.
"Pour us another sherry and let's go to sleep." The Senator yawned.
"I'll go swimming." He poured the rest of the wine to both sisters and handed them their glasses.
"Are you crazy?" Regina raised her eyebrows. "Look at the water. It is all glowing! Our night jellyfish company has already sailed".
"Yeah." The Queen cringed. "It's better not to get into this mess."
"Both of you are boring." Stern sighed, taking off his shorts. "Next time we won't take you with us."
"Do whatever you want." The Senator waved her hand.
He went into the water on chest level and then diving, he swam along the shore.
For a while, the sisters silently, slowly, sipped their wine, admiring the stars.
"Listen, how do you sleep at night?" Regina finally asked.
"What do you mean?" the Queen asked.
"I mean, does he always snore like that?" She nodded at Gold who was dozing off in a deck chair, not far from them.
"I'm used to it." the Queen shrugged. "Now, on the contrary, I can't sleep in silence. He recently left for a couple of days in Washington and I couldn't sleep at all, listening to every rustle. But when he snores nearby, I feel comfortable and calm, I immediately fall asleep. So generally I sleep perfectly." She smiled at her sister.
"Lucky you." Regina nodded.
"Don't be upset, I'll get him inside now." She patted her sister on the shoulder.
"Oh, no, I'm not that ..." Regina was embarrassed.
"It's not because of you." The Queen reassured her.
She went to her husband and, leaning down, carefully kissed his shoulder.
"Rumple." She called softly, kissing him now behind his ear.
"What is it, baby?" Gold answered sleepily.
"Come on, let's put you to bed." She ran a hand through his hair, tucking a strand behind his ear.
"Yeah." He yawned. "In five minutes."
"Let's go." She kissed him on the shoulder again. "It will be impossible to wake you up later."
"Well, okay, I'm fine here too." He wrapped himself in a light blanket, which he had been covered with.
"So far, yes." The Queen pulled off his blanket. "But then, in the morning, your back will hurt. Get up." She lightly pulled his hand.
"Right now?" Gold asked tiredly.
"Let's go." She pulled a little harder. "Tomorrow you'll be grateful to me for this."
"I have no doubt." he sighed, getting up from the deck chair.
In an embrace, they slowly reached their bungalow.
"Isn't it much better?" The Queen leaned toward her husband when he lay down on the bed and kissed his nose.
"Incomparably." He pulled her closer to him and kissed her. "It's just not clear why you are still dressed and not in bed."
"That's easy to fix." She smiled, taking off her light tunic.
"Dad!" Rachel climbed into her parents' bed and shook Gold's shoulder. "Come on, dad!"
"What happened?" He hugged his daughter, laying her down next to him.
"Wake up, it's morning." She sat back on the bed, freeing herself from his embrace.
"Sweetheart, it's still very early." Gold reached for his phone on the bedside table and looked at the time. "It's not even five a.m. yet."
"But it's already light out. Mom!" She switched to the Queen.
"We all need to sleep a couple more hours." she answered sleepily. "Lie down with us."
Instead, the girl jumped to the floor and, going to the window, pushed one of the thick curtains open.
Bright light gushed into the room.
"Rachel." The Queen ducked under the covers. "Don't do this, baby."
"Wake up." The baby-girl frowned. "The sun has already risen."
"The sun rises here at four in the morning." Gold got up, drew the curtain shut and took Rachel in his arms. "Where are Gideon and Charlotte?"
"They're sleeping." Rachel sighed. "And I'm bored."
"Come on, we'll sleep a little longer too." He went to bed again, holding his daughter in his arms.
"I do not want to sleep!" the girl protested.
"Well then, just close your eyes and lie down for a while." He kissed Rachel on the top of her head, rocking her slightly. "Just one minute."
"One minute?" She specified.
"One." Gold nodded, continuing to rock slightly his daughter.
"Has the minute passed already?" She turned to her already dozing father a couple of minutes later.
"Not yet." he answered sleepily.
"I'm tired of lying down already." She twisted out of his arms. "And anyway, I want to eat."
"Okay." Gold sighed, sitting up in bed. "Let's go have breakfast."
"Is that it? Are we getting up already?" The Queen stretched.
"Sleep." He kissed her nose quickly. "We will find something to do without you for now."
Waking up again, the Queen found out that it was almost half-past nine. Having taken a shower and thrown on a light white tunic, she went to the beach, where, as she expected, she found her husband and children. The kids wandered with the fishing nets at hand along the stone pier.
"Look, over there!" Charlotte pointed a finger somewhere between the stones protruding from the water under their feet.
"No, it's not a crab." Gideon looked closely. "This is another stone, just overgrown with algae."
He caught it with the net just in case.
"See?" He showed his sister the catch.
Tali looked at the shrimps caught by the older children, floating in a bucket, small and almost transparent.
"Are they really shrimps, for sure?" She asked doubtfully.
"For sure." Gideon dismissed her without looking back. "Don't touch them, okay?"
"I won't touch them." the girl assured him.
Gold, in shorts and a thin linen shirt, was sitting on the sand at the very edge of the sea, his legs down in the water. Beside him on a beach mat laid Esther in a colorful swimsuit.
"Okay, come on." He thought for a second. "The investor is considering buying a property worth two million seven hundred thousands, while he expects to take two and a half million on credit for 10 years, at fifteen percent per annum." He wrote the numbers with his finger on the sand. "Net operating income from this facility will be five hundred thousand…"
"I see you are having fun here." The Queen grinned, coming up to them.
"You bet." Esther sighed.
"Oh, and here is Aunt Regina." Gold turned to his wife. "Have you slept enough?"
"Yes." She smiled with pleasure. "Unlike the main instigator of the early wake-ups." She glanced at Rachel who was sleeping in a deck chair not far from them.
"It's not so easy getting up at dawn." He also looked at his daughter with a smile. "But I hope she adapts to the local daylight in a couple of days."
"That would be nice." Regina nodded, sitting down on the sand next to her husband and hugging him from the back.
Gold added a few more numbers at the sand.
"Calculate for me the leverage: at the current percentage and at twelve percent per annum, and that's enough for now." He nodded to Esther and then leaned back slightly, leaning against his wife.
"You can sleep a couple more hours as well." The Queen kissed his temple.
"Well, I won't fall asleep anymore." He turned his head slightly, presenting his neck for a kiss. "I'm not two and a half years old, so I won't succeed."
All the same, he closed his eyes, resting his head on Regina's shoulder.
"Where is Henry?" She looked around.
"Apparently, somewhere in San Francisco." Esther looked up from her calculations and, looking around as well, pointed toward the trees at the edge of the beach.
Henry was sitting under one of them, buried in his phone.
"In San Francisco?" Regina asked.
"Yes. Where Nancy spends her vacation." Her niece grinned. "His new girlfriend." she specified under the Queen's questioning look. "They correspond almost round the clock."
"Have you calculated it?" Gold asked without opening his eyes.
"Yes." Esther nodded. "This way and that way. Equity capitalization ratio is twenty eight and thirty one. Respectively, without leverage, nineteen."
"Yeah." He yawned. "That's right."
"Since we've finished, I'll go to the neighboring beach." The girl got up from the mat. "They serve mojitos at the bar."
"Take a glass for us both too." Gold asked. "Money is on the table, in the hallway."
"Okay." Esther nodded and headed toward the house.
"Look!" Gideon's voice came through.
Charlotte screamed, and Gold straightened up immediately, turning to face them.
"Honey, is everything all right?" he called out to his daughter.
"We found a huge crab! Come here, look!" She waved to her parents. "You will miss him like that." She turned to her brother. "Look, now it will crawl under the stone again." The girl bent over the water.
"Do not touch it with your hands!" The Queen got up and went to them.
"We are careful." Gideon dismissed her, raising the stone.
"I'm serious." Regina quickened her pace. "He may break one of your fingers."
"Regina, there are no such crabs here." Gold sighed, following his wife.
"That's it, I got it!" Gideon threw the net on the crab and pressed it to the bottom.
"And how do we catch him now?" Charlotte examined the prey. "If you start flipping the net over, it will run away again."
"Come on." Going up to the children, Gold squatted down next to his son. "Lift a little".
The boy slightly raised the net and he quickly grabbed the crab with two fingers on the shell.
"You see, everything is not so scary." He smiled at the Queen, lowering the crab inside the bucket with the shrimps. "But your mother is right." He turned to the children. "It's better not to touch it."
"But won't it eat the shrimps?" Charlotte asked doubtfully, looking at the large claws.
"Maybe." Gold shrugged.
"Let's transfer it to another bucket." The Queen picked up the crab by the shell and pulled it out of the water.
"And who told us so stubbornly that crabs should not be touched?" Her husband was indignant.
"Well, I can do it." She smiled.
"Dad, you promised me that when mom comes, I will learn how to moor the yacht." Gideon realized. "And mom is already here".
"If I promised, let's go." Gold nodded.
"I want that too." Charlotte said. "Take me with you!"
"Do you think you can reach the levers?" Her brother asked skeptically.
"Well, we'll try." Gold hugged his daughter by her shoulders. "We won't be long." He smiled at the Queen.
"Have fun." Regina nodded and squatted down next to Tali. "What shall we do?" She smiled at the girl.
"We have to make it like the sea there." She pointed at the buckets with the catch. "Otherwise they are sad there."
"You're right." The Queen agreed.
Having poured some sand and stones into the buckets and dropping over them a pair of algae, they looked at their work with satisfaction.
"They are just like at home now." Tali concluded. "But in the evening, we still let them go back in the sea, right?"
"Of course." Regina confirmed. "Let's go look for fingerling." she suggested.
"Let's better build a castle." the girl answered after thinking.
"Great idea." the Queen said.
"Mooom!" Charlotte's voice came through. "Mom, we're floating to the island, over there, okay?" Standing on the deck, she waved to the Queen and pointed to a small island off the coast.
"Good." Regina waved to her. "Well, shall we? We can wake Rachel up and together we'll build a huge castle, okay?" She turned back to her niece.
"All right!" Tali nodded.
By the time they set about building, Esther had returned to the beach with the three cocktail glasses.
"Here you go." She sat on the sand next to Regina and handed one to her. "I think uncle won't be offended if we drink his cocktail too." She smiled, looking at the yacht moving away from the shore.
"We'll sacrifice it for Henry." The Queen suggested, quickly glancing at the young man still sitting under the shade of the trees. "And in return we'll have him build a castle for the girls."
"Good plan." Esther agreed. "Henry!" She called out to the young man. "Come to us! How long are you gonna sit in the corner?"
"Yeah, now." He answered, not looking up from the phone.
"Seriously, Henry." The Queen turned to the young man. "Your girlfriend also needs to be with her parents. Take a break from each other. Come here, take a dip, drink a mojito, build us a sand castle. You can sit in the messenger at home".
"Yes, I'm coming." Henry grumbled, rising to his feet. "That's it, see? I'm already here." He went to the Queen and his sisters.
"Sit down." Regina patted on the ground next to her. "Here you go." She handed him a glass. "Well what kind of girl is she?"
"Esther!" Henry cast an indignant look at his sister. "We studied together." He sipped a little from his cocktail. "Well, we still do but now she has transferred to a different course. Here, look." He showed the Queen his phone, on the screen of which he stood next to a dark-haired girl at the college courtyard.
"Pretty." The Queen peered at the screen. "How long have you been dating?"
"I don't know. Maybe six months or so." He put the phone in his pocket.
"And why is it a secret?" His aunt inquired.
"Well, this is not a secret." The young man dismissed her. "It's just… why should everyone know everything about my personal life?" He squinted at Esther again.
"Okay, no more questions." Regina smiled. "How about the sand castle? Will you build the best for us?"
"The biggest one, for all the princesses living there." Rachel said approaching them.
"Of course." Henry smiled at her. "I am the most famous master at the construction of huge castles!" He added proudly. "We need to collect a lot of wet sand. Tali, I see, has already begun. Let's go help her."
"Let's go buy more cocktails?" Esther leaned towards Queen. "Or shall we swim first? Can you swim on the beach, by the shore? It's not so deep here and there's nothing at all: no fishes and jellyfishes. Only crabs, on the rocks." she said with irony.
"I can by the shore." the Queen assured her. "Let's go."
After swimming for about an hour, they bought themselves another cocktail and returned to the beach, where the fortress' walls and towers were already growing.
"Look what a moat we dug!" Tali waved to them. "Rachel and I dag this!"
"Awesome!" The Queen admired. "Not a single dragon will fly over it or swim past it."
"You could help us as well." Henry paused briefly from constructing the wall.
"We cannot take work away from the most famous master." Esther grinned.
"I can take you to be my apprentice." The young man winked at her. "You will learn from the best. Say yes!"
"Okay, I'm persuaded." The Queen finished her mojito and headed towards the castle. "What do we need to do, master?"
After some time, a large-scale complex grew on the sand: with towers, fortress walls, a courtyard and a deep moat around filled with water.
"We have to put our crab in the moat." Regina suggested. "He will guard the castle from all sorts of floating threats."
"He can't handle it alone." Tali said thoughtfully. "The moat is too big."
"Now Gideon will catch a couple more for you." The Queen, covering her eyes from the sun with her palm, looked closely at the yacht, which was gradually approaching the shore. "They are already sailing back."
The yacht stopped a short distance from the coast, near the buoys.
"Mama!" Gideon waved to the Queen while standing on the diving deck. "Look!"
He jumped into the water and swam to the shore. Regina watched him intensely all the time as he was swimming.
"Don't do this anymore." She gasped as the boy emerged from the water. "It's too far from the buoys to the shore. Did dad let you do this?"
"Of course he did." Gideon sighed. "Do you really think that I jumped into the water when he wasn't watching?" He smiled conciliatorily.
"Okay, I'll talk to him about this." The Queen took her son by the shoulders, stroking him a little. "Where's Charlotte? I hope she won't jump like you?"
"No." The boy reassured her. "She will moor the yacht to the pier. I trained around the island and now it's her turn".
"Well, I hope everyone and everything will be safe." His mother sighed, watching the boat backing up to the stone pier.
Soon, Gold and Charlotte were on the shore and headed to the others. Charlotte was skipping and joyfully twirling around her father.
"Mama! Mom, did you see?" She shouted to the Queen from afar.
"I saw it." Regina nodded.
Gideon, standing behind his Mom's back and looking at his Dad, pointed at her, then with his hands he depicted an explosion and ran a finger across his neck.
"What are you doing?" The Queen turned to him, feeling the movements made behind her.
"I didn't do anything at all." The boy calmly shrugged.
Gold had already approached his wife.
"Don't be angry." He put his arm around her waist and kissed her.
"Don't be angry?" Regina asked, pulling away. "But these were about thirty meters and you didn't even watch him swim!"
"Well, you've watched him like ten people." he pressed her again to him. "And these were not thirty meters. Also somewhere in the middle of the way, he could already get on his feet. Although, as you saw, it wasn't needed because Gideon swam perfectly."
"And I ran the yacht very well." Charlotte interjected.
"You've done everything very well." Gold leaned over and kissed his daughter. "You both. Right mom?" He slyly looked at his wife.
"Yes." The Queen smiled, hugging the girl by the shoulders. "Everything was great!"
"Wow, what a castle!" Charlotte slipped out of Regina's arms and headed for the sand tower. "Did you build it?" She turned to Henry.
"Well, I helped your mom and sisters a bit." The young man smiled.
Gideon went after her.
"Seriously, Regina, don't be so anxious." Gold gently ran the back of his hand across his wife's cheek, with his other hand still holding her by the waist. "Relax, the children need vivid experiences and nothing will happen to any of them. I've got this."
"Okay." The Queen surrendered. "Only, another time, make sure I don't see these vivid experiences."
"That won't be interesting." he objected. "We need to brag to mom. Maybe just a little sedative? We have a cold Brut. Very good in this weather. And calms the nerves. Do you want any?"
"Really?" Regina was surprised. "And where did we get it from?"
"In the morning we went to the city while some were asleep." Gold smiled. "So we have everything."
"Okay, let's try it." The Queen smiled back. "And, by the way, we can already think about having some food, it's almost 2 pm"
"Let's go combine business with pleasure."
Standing near the open refrigerator and slowly sipping Brut from a tall glass, the Queen examined the contents of the shelves.
"So why do we need so many different fish?" She finally asked.
"We're gonna cook bouillabaisse." Gold added a little more champagne to both of their glasses.
"Well, we are not poor fishermen who have to put mishmash in the soup." Regina grimaced. "I still remember this smell in the fishing villages of our kingdom."
"We'll put some good fish in." Gold grinned. "And the smell will be completely different, you will like it."
After about an hour, everyone was already seated at the table set on the terrace of their house.
"Can I not eat the soup?" Charlotte examined the lobster claw, visible in the pot.
"You can." Gold nodded. "But you won't have any ice cream either."
"Okay, I'll eat the soup." the girl surrendered.
"Put me some more scallops." Esther handed the plate to Henry. "They're just delicious." She turned to Gold.
"Well, at least someone here likes how I cook." He smiled. "How do you like the soup?" He leaned toward his wife. "Is the smell normal?"
"Be quiet and add me another ladle." Regina grinned softly, moving her plate to him.
"Do you want me to poor you some more Brut?" Gold asked.
"Pour." The Queen nodded.
After the dessert, she took the children to the living room and handed Gideon a book, after scrolling through it and making a bookmark.
"As usual." Regina smiled. "You read two pages and then Charlotte two more."
"Come on, mom, these are a lot!" Gideon protested.
"What to do?" The Queen shrugged. "If you want to read faster than anyone in the class this year, then you need to train. And Rachel and Tali will thank you."
"Well, read at least one fairy tale yourself." Charlotte said.
"Fine." The Queen agreed, taking another book from the shelf. "I'll read one."
Returning to the terrace, she found it empty and the dishes were already removed from the table. Looking closer, she saw Henry and Esther on the beach. The girl was sunbathing, and the guy had again buried himself on the phone under the shadow of the mangrove. Looking around the terrace, she swiped the crumbs off the floor and went to the kitchen, where Gold was washing the dishes.
"I see the negotiations on the benefits of reading were long." He quickly glanced over his shoulder.
"The main thing is that we have achieved the wanted result." The Queen hugged him by waistline and buried her nose in his neck.
Her husband had just washed the last plate and closed the water.
"You know, perhaps I'll sleep a little after all." He squared his shoulders, flexing them and reached for his wife for a kiss.
"Take me to bed with you." Regina smiled, snuggling closer to her husband and unbuttoned his shirt.
"No, someone should remain awake." Gold grinned, turning to his wife. "Since the children are not sleeping."
"But I didn't say I was going to sleep." the Queen retorted.
"Is that so?" He pulled her to his hips and kissed her again. "But you will be on top and this is not a discussion."
"We'll decide on the spot." She put her arms around his neck.
"Everything has already been decided." He picked her up and carried her into the bedroom.