It's been too long. I'm tying up all my loose ends now. I think one maybe two chapters after this one.
Hope you like.
Chapter 9Kirsten sat down next to her husband and stroked his cheek. He was covered in sand and stank of seaweed. He stirred slightly at her touch. When he finally opened his eyes she smiled, "Hey. How was fishing?" Sandy sat up and rubbed sleep from his eyes.
"A disaster." He said simply, "Let me go shower and I'll tell you all about it." He made his way into the bathroom rubbing sand from his hair as he went. Ryan sat on the chair next to Seth's bed. Seth spun onto his back and began to snore even more loudly. Ryan picked up a cushion and threw it at Seth. It hit him hard on the head and fell to the floor. Seth sat up groggily rubbing his hands across his face, "Hey." He croaked.
"What's up man?" Ryan asked smirking.
"Ugh the worst trip ever." He answered as he ambled over to the bathroom to find that it was locked, "Come on pops I want a shower."
Kirsten flicked through the seven channels they had that weren't static. She settled on an Italian re-run of Ally McBeal. Kirsten watched contently and laughed every now and then. Ryan frowned, "You understand Italian?"
"Yeah. I really liked languages at school so I studied French, German and Italian. Pity I don't use them much anymore."
"I've always wanted to learn Italian. There was a girl at my old school and she was from Florence. She always talked about how nice it was there."
"I can teach you some if you'd like." Kirsten offered. Ryan nodded and turned his attention back to the screen.
Seth and Sandy sat down wearily at the table and sighed, "It didn't go well."
"What happened?" Ryan asked growing impatient. Seth rolled his eyes.
"We sank."
"You WHAT?!" Kirsten yelled surprised, "I told you that damn boat was dangerous!"
"Sweetie, calm down." Sandy took her hands and settled her back at the table, "We kinda sprung a leak and we bailed. We took the lifeboat back to shore and the boat is now lying at the bottom of the Atlantic." Kirsten and Ryan listened intently as they rehashed the events of their day. When they finally came to a close Ryan shook his head and Kirsten sat back in her chair. She checked her watch. Twelve thirty.
"So what did you guys do today?" Sandy asked now relaxing in his chair. Kirsten shot a glance at Ryan who had opened his mouth to begin but Kirsten cut in.
"We had Mexican and then we had some drinks and came home." As Kirsten said this both Seth and Sandy exchanged confused glances but, too tired to pursue the issue, they both headed for their bedrooms. Sandy motioned to Kirsten to join him but she shook her head, "I'm just gonna have a drink first." Sandy nodded and collapsed onto his bed. Kirsten turned to Ryan, "Don't mention Jake to Sandy. He'll…" she flapped her hands searching for the words, "You and Sandy have a lot more in common than you'd think." Ryan nodded understanding that Sandy would kill the guy if he knew what had happened. No matter how much they tried to explain that it really wasn't a big deal, just a drunken idiot, Sandy would still see it in the worst possible light. Ryan leaned over and kissed Kirsten on the cheek, "I won't say anything. Night Kirsten."
"Night Ryan."
Three days later and they were nearing the end of the vacation. They had been spending a lot of time at the pool and topping up their tan before their return to Newport. "We live at Newport Beach. We can tan whenever we want," Seth pointed out as his mother settled herself onto a sun lounger. Ryan dove into the pool to cool down and swam a few lengths before hanging onto the edge clearly bored. Sandy threw down his book and Seth suddenly became fascinated by a beetle crawling along the grass. Ryan looked at the three of them. Kirsten seemed to be the only one content but as he thought this she sat up abruptly and pulled of her sunglasses, "Okay I'm bored." All three boys let out sighs and Ryan pulled himself out of the pool.
"Thank god honey. I thought we were gonna be here all day." Sandy said staring around at the poolside.
"Let's go do something." Seth whined.
"Like…?" Kirsten said pointedly. Ryan and Seth stared at each other uncertainly before staring back blankly.
"I got nothing." Seth sad defeated.
"Me either," Ryan echoed. Sandy looked up to the sky and saw a large blue and red parachute in the distance.
"What about that?" he yelled pointing to the sky. Kirsten, Ryan and Seth all turned their attention to the parasailor floating among the clouds. Kirsten saw Ryan's face whiten. Seth jumped from his lounger and started to collect his things.
Kirsten threw her towel and bag onto the sandy and waited for the boys to return. Seth sat himself down next to his mother, "Ryan's gonna sit the parasailing out but he's up for the banana boat and the water skiing. Dad said he'll do the parasailing but that's it." Kirsten smiled at the image of Sandy trying to water ski. He couldn't ski on snow never mind the water, "So mom what about you?"
"I'm gonna sit here and finish my book." She said as she lay back on her elbows. Seth mimicked his mother's actions and frowned disapprovingly.
"Mom, you have to do something."
"I am doing something. I'm tanning. It used to be my favourite sport," she said smiling.
"Ahh you and Summer could be good friends." Kirsten laughed softly and Seth turned to stare out to the ocean. Kirsten closed her eyes basking in the rays before Seth interrupted the silence.
"You're not serious about the whole grounding us thing are you?"
"Deadly." Kirsten replied not opening her eyes.
"It's what I thought." Seth admitted and ran to the shore to join his father for the parasailing.
Ryan lay next to Kirsten with his ipod blasting through the speakers. Kirsten turned to him suspiciously, "Is that Journey?" He didn't respond. Kirsten nudged him with her elbow and he jumped pulling the headphones from his ears.
"What?"
"Is that Journey," she repeated signalling to the white box in his hands. He looked down and realised what she meant.
"Yeah. You like them?"
"No." she said simply and Ryan stared back waiting for her to elaborate. She closed her eyes before continuing, "It's not my kinda music." She admitted.
"So what's your kinda music?"
"Well when I was younger I liked The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Stiff Little Fingers, Adam and The Ants, The Ramones. Punk rock." Ryan gawked back in shock.
"You were a punk rocker? Like the whole English punk rebellion thing? You did that?"
"I wouldn't say that I rebelled against The Queen or whatever but yeah I was kind of a rebel when I met Sandy." Ryan laughed unable to imaging her bawling out the lyrics to God Save the Queen or Cretin Hop.
"I don't believe you." He said smiling.
"No really. I have a picture of me with pink hair. I'm wearing big black clumpy boots and this tiny little black top. A silver chain around my hips, a short tartan skirt and pink ripped fishnet tights." Ryan frowned again speechless, "I swear." She said and held her hands up in Scout's honour.
Sandy pushed the boat into the sea before hopping on and trying to take a seat next to his wife. Kirsten began to paddle and laughed at her husband try to coordinate his balance trying to sit down. "A paddle boat? I feel like an eight year old," she laughed again and helped her husband into his seat.
"Ahh honey we're young at heart." He placed his hand on her thigh and paddled along with her.
"So what do you think? Successful vacation?" Kirsten probed.
"Definitely. Ryan almost died on the journey over, you got food poisoning, Ryan got sunburn, we were invaded by the Coopers, we had a pregnancy scare, our kids got drunk out of their minds on tequila and Seth and I sank a boat. It's been awesome."
"Well I wouldn't say it was uninteresting."
"Or relaxing."
"I guess. But I'm glad we came. Our first vacation with Ryan."
"Hopefully not the last. It's been great honey." He leaned over and planted a kiss on is wife's cheek. They both stopped paddling and Sandy cupped his wife's face toward him. "I love you, Kirsten Cohen."
"I love you too Sanford." She giggled. Sandy shook his head sadly.
"You just had to bring out the full first name didn't ya?" With that he stood up and best he could and pulled Kirsten into the water with him. When he resurfaced he found his wife looking panic stricken.
"Sandy get me out of the water!" she yelled. She turned and tried to scramble on the boat Sandy pulled her toward him.
"Honey it's okay what's wrong?" He said worried at his wife's panicked tone. She clung to him tightly.
"Sandy I told you. I'm scared of the sea. I don't like it now please just get me out." She pleaded close to tears. Sandy suddenly remembered Kirsten's fear of the ocean. He easily hoisted her onto the boat and pulled himself up behind her. When he got onto the boat she slapped him hard on the arm, "You asshole! You scared the hell outta me. Why did you do that?"
"I forgot I'm sorry." He said trying to pull her toward him. Instead she shoved him hard and he fell off the boat backwards. When he resurfaced he saw that she was paddling away toward the shore. He caught up easily and pulled himself up next to her, "That's what you get Sanford Cohen."
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