The barbeque was already in full swing when Sara and Liv showed up. A random kid let them in Nick's house, informing them that the party was out back.
"Who was that?"
"Either Jackie's kid or Doc Robbins' grandkid, I can never tell those two apart."
"Oh. Where should we put this stuff?" Liv gestured to their food: an ice cream cake and veggie burgers. Sara popped the cake into the freezer and led Liv down the hall with the burgers.
"Did you already change?" Sara asked her.
"Not yet."
"Okay, change in here. Make sure you lock the door. Had an incident last year." Sara's cheeks turned a little pink. "I'll meet you out back."
"Where's Greg?" Sara asked Warrick out on the patio.
"On his way, he just called."
"Oh. So, how are you?" The pair caught up.
Sara watched Greg and the rest of the guys play some Frisbee in the park behind Nick's house. Who knew that underneath that lab coat he had quite the decent set of abs going? Sara was getting more and more pleased with her man by the second. And she was just pleased that she had Greg to call 'her man.' Sara smiled happily to herself.
One of the boys pulled on Greg's arm and pointed at her, who immediately beamed and ran over to her.
"There you are!" he leaned in and pecked her cheek before sitting next to her on the grass. "Having fun?" He asked her.
"I'm enjoying the view." She smiled up at him.
"How's it going?"
"Pretty good, you?"
"Can't complain."
"What did he say to you?" she asked of the boy.
"I think that girl is staring at you." He intoned the young boy's voice. Obviously for the kid, girls still had cooties. Greg turned to her, "Where were you when I got here?"
"Oh...uh, Peter, Bobby's boy, had a little accident. Liv and I helped him…with it."
"See, you are good with kids."
"Liv did everything, I just held…stuff." Greg wisely chose not to ask for details and the pair fell into silence.
Sara glanced over at Greg, casually flopped down on the grass, just watching the Frisbee fly. The silence allowed the part of her mind that liked to panic to rise to the fore and raise the issue of admitting her problem to him. She knew she should tell Greg about what had happened in the last 12 hours, of her new resolve to deal with her problem, of her very admission to herself that she even had a problem with alcohol. But she was also very afraid that he wouldn't support her, that he'd walk away. 'he won't walk away,' her brain told her. Or maybe it was just wishful thinking…
"So, what'd I miss last night?" his question startled her out of her thoughts. She couldn't tell him now, she wasn't ready,
"Oh, not much, we just went out dancing last night."
"Just the two of you?"
"Yes, just the two of us, mister suspicious boyfriend."
"Boyfriend?" Greg asked, his voice raising a register. Sara panicked,
"I mean, if you want to be. If you don't that's-"
"Sara, Sara! Calm down. Of course I'd love to be your boyfriend." He smiled to himself. A moment later he stuck his hand out in the air and shook it like he was introducing himself, "hello, I'm Sara Sidle's boyfriend, and yes, I'm having a great day." Sara's pulse stopped racing as she laughed at him.
Suddenly the pair was doused with water from behind. Jumping up in shock they turned to face their attackers. It was a bunch of the kids, and Nick, armed with waterguns. Nick waved at them,
"Hi guys."
"Stokes, you are so dead." Sara threatened. Greg grabbed Sara's hand to hold her back, which did not go unnoticed by the pack. Some of the boys started to tease.
"Hey, you sit still, you get wet!" Nick said, then turned the rest, "Ready guys? Get 'em!"
Greg had started to pull Sara away, but they still got caught again. The pair ran and hid in the pool house, laughing by the time they got there. Taunts of 'Sara and Greg, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g!' filtered through the thin material. Greg looked at Sara and shrugged,
"Well, if they say so," and went in for the kiss.
o
"So you're not mad?" Greg asked later, sounding surprised.
"No, the cool water actually felt pretty good," she admitted, "but I'm not about to let Nick know that." He saw her lips purse together in thought, already working on the retribution.
"Kill Nick later, more kissing now," she swatted his arm, but gave in. Yes, having a man like Greg was quite nice.
TBC - more barbeque to come :)