My ownership levels remain the same. Peace and love...

"Seriously, dude, is something wrong?"

"I'm fine, Seth. Just leave it."

Ryan rolled over onto his back, squinting in the sun. Seth groaned and walked around him to look at his face.

"Seth, really. Forget about it. It's not a big deal."

"But, Ryan..."

"Seth!"

Seth turned his head to see the kid running towards him and throw himself on top of Seth's stomach.

"Why are you here when you can be in the water?"

"Just one second, okay, Chris?"

"What are you doing?"

"Finding out what's wrong with Uncle Ryan."

"What's wrong with Uncle Ryan?"

"I don't know. That's the problem."

Ryan propped himself up on his elbows and gently rolled his eyes. "Seth. Leave. It. Alone. Please?"

"What's wrong with you, Uncle Ryan?" Chris sat up too. Ryan rolled his eyes.

"Nothing, Chris. Go find your mom. Take Seth with you."

"Are you okay?" Chris asked.

"I'm fine. Bye."

"You could just ask. Come on, Seth." Chris took Seth's hand and tried to pull him up. Seth looked at Ryan and sighed.

"You are going to tell me."

"Whatever you say, Seth."

Seth gave in and let Chris pull him up and toward the waves. As soon as they touched the sand that was slightly wet, a wave broke and sprayed Chris, who promptly screamed. Seth laughed and picked him up.

"Are you scared of the water?"

"No! It just surprised me."

"Oh. Okay."

"It's true. I live in California, Seth. I can't be scared."

"That is true."

Chris looked jealously ahead at Summer and Jenn jumping over and under the waves that came toward them. Seth watched in amusement.

"Chris? Buddy, are you sure you're not even a little scared?"

"No, Seth; I'm not a baby."

"Okay, okay. I believe you."

"I can sail on it."

Seth nodded. "Yes, you can. Well too."

"Really?"

"Yes. Very much potential."

Seth didn't really let him sail alone. The kid was seven. Mostly, Chris watched Seth as he dictated what he was doing. But Seth wasn't about to crush the dreams of any kid who had changed his mind about Seth quicker than he changed his clothes.

Chris hit Seth's shoulder. "Put me down."

He obeyed, but Chris stayed close to Seth's leg and held his hand. And everytime a wave came, he gasped and held on to Seth's fingers a little tighter. After a while, Summer caught Chris's eye and walked in closer to him.

"Hey, Chris. You don't want to swim?"

"I'm staying here with Seth."

Seth nodded. "I was scared."

Summer grinned and nodded too. "That's very nice of you, Chris." She bent down with her knees in the sand and pulled the sand out of his hair. She looked back up at Seth. "How's Ryan?"

Seth shrugged. "No idea. He's back to all moody mode."

"I'll talk to him."

"Good luck."

She smiled and kissed Chris's and Seth's cheeks before walking all the way in and making her way to Ryan.

"Hey."

"Hey."

She sat down and lay back beside him.

"So what's wrong?"

"Seth's making it up. Nothing's wrong."

"Are you sure?"

"Yup."

"I don't believe you."

"I'm fine."

"I won't tell Seth. If you don't want me to."

"That's not it."

"So what is it?"

"It doesn't matter."

"But you're sulking anyway. So just tell me."

Ryan's hands were interlocked behind his head and his eyes were closed now. "Do you ever wish that you didn't have Chris?"

"Sometimes, yeah. Well, I mean, you know, I'd want him. Just later."

"Yeah. Because people look at you different."

"I guess."

"People treat you different. Even if they don't want to."

"Yeah."

"People break up with you because you have responsibilities and they're not ready for responsibilities like that yet. And they have the choice of waiting for the time that they want to have kids. And they say they love you for the first time on the same day that they break up with you."

"Oh my god, Ryan, I'm sorry."

"For what? You didn't do anything wrong."

"I'm sorry that it's hard for you."

"It's just weird that because of one woman I'm going to be alone until I'm thirty."

"You don't know that's true."

"But it probably is. Women don't like to be 'tied down' too early either."

"That doesn't have to be true."

"But it probably is."

"Don't live your life by probablys."

"Yeah, well, there you go. Now you can tell Seth to leave me alone."

"He meant well."

"But it's a pain in the ass anyway."

"I know." Summer sat up and looked down at Ryan with his eyes still shut. She touched his knee.

"Go back to your kid. And your boyfriend." He lay a hand over his eyes. Summer nodded.

"Okay."

She stood up and walked away from Ryan, letting him finally take the hand off his eyes.

Seth had Chris back in his arms, Chris's eyes scanning the water. Summer stood next to Seth and threaded her arm through his.

"So?" Seth asked.

"He's just assessing his life. Just leave it alone," Summer answered.

"Is he okay?"

"He's just being a little bit of a pessimist. He'll be okay."

"But you can't tell me what it is?"

"I don't know."

"Okay."

A woman walked up behind them and tapped Seth on the shoulder. He turned around and the woman blushed.

"I'm sorry to bother you. I'm Karen, and I was wondering if I could take a picture of you and your family. I'm making this calendar of beaches and your family is just perfect for it."

"Oh, um, yeah, sure, I guess."

"Thank you so much. Just turn back around and, you know, pretend I'm not here."

Seth looked at Summer and raised his eyebrows. She raised her own back and looked at Chris. He was nearly asleep, Seth slowly rocking his arm. She wondered if Seth had noticed the 'family' bit. She wondered if he cared. She thought about what Ryan had said.

The woman took her picture, thanked them again, and as she was leaving, Chris decided to wake up again.

"Mom?"

"Yeah, honey."

"When do we see Grandmom and Grandpa again?"

"Next week, honey. You can call them when we go back to the hotel, if you want."

School had officially ended, and so Kirsten and Sandy had paid for all of them to go to Miami. Granted, it wasn't as great as it could've been, seeing that Miami was a lot like Newport. But it was new and the kids liked staying in a hotel. Everything seemed more relaxing when you were across the country from home.

Chris seemed to accept this, because he nodded, but his eyes were closed again against Seth's wet tee shirt and his hand wasn't moving anymore on Seth's arm.

Jenn walked in too and smiled.

"Can we go back? I'm tired."

"Yeah, sure, sweetie. Let's go." Summer took her hand too and they walked back to Ryan stretched out with his eyes closed again. He was sleeping too.

Seth sighed. "I'm not carrying him."

Summer smiled and bent down to shake Ryan. He squinted his eyes.

"We're going, babe," Summer said, rubbing his arm.

"Oh. Okay." Ryan stood up and grabbed their stuff.

Back at the hotel, Seth lay Chris down in his bed and sat on Summer's. She sat down next to him and leaned her head on his shoulder. His arm wrapped around her shoulder and she shivered gently.

"So, did you, um, did you catch that 'family' line?" Seth asked into her hair.

"Yeah."

"I can understand though. I mean, with Chris and all."

"Yeah. Are you okay with that? People thinking things are...you know, like that."

"Yeah, sure, I guess. I mean, you're hot, so I guess it's okay."

"Thanks. So if I was ugly you would've corrected her?"

"I...don't think there's a good way to answer that question."

"You're probably right."

"Okay. So I'm going to bed. Good night."

"Good night."

He tilted her head up to his and kissed her carefully, cupping her cheek with his hand. He winked and walked out of the room, to the one next door. One of the rooms in the suite had two beds; one had one twin and a queen. They had decided to give Ryan and Jenn the queen, even though it meant making Seth say good night to Summer every night. It set the right picture or something like that was what Ryan said. Seth agreed; Summer had followed.

Seth opened the door to the dark room and stumbled a little to get to his bed. He heard Ryan softly snoring, and slipped under the covers of the bed to realize he wasn't alone.

"Holy shi...Jenn! What are you doing?" His voice trailed down to a whisper. Jenn sat up and shrugged.

"I couldn't sleep. And I didn't want to wake up Daddy."

"Okay. Well, do you want to go outside and talk or just sleep?"

"Can we talk?"

"Um," Seth glanced at his watch and winced, but shrugged anyway. "Yeah, sure. If you want."

"Cool."

Jenn crawled out of the bed and ran over to the doors to the balcony. Seth followed her and closed the door as quietly as he could behind him.

"So what's up?" Seth was still whispering.

"I wanted to talk to you."

"About?"

"Your vacation. My dad didn't tell me anything."

"Oh. Okay. What do you want to know?"

"Everything." Jenn sat down on the chair in front of him and smiled. Seth shook his head; he wasn't going to sleep anytime soon.

"Well, uh, there's this island" Yawn. "chain in the middle of the Pacific and they're all pretty close together, right? So, I went from island to island." Yawn.

"For how long?"

"A long time."

"How long?"

"Nine years."

"Wow."

"Yeah." Another yawn.

"That's as old as me."

"Yeah."

"And what did you do for nine years? Didn't you get bored?"

"Uh, yeah, sometimes. But there were a lot of interesting people there."

"Like what?"

"Well, people with different talents, you know? And they did stuff different than in California."

"Like how?"

"Well, um, people there were mostly in their late twenties or thirties. Or retired. So there were a lot of parties. And a lot of bridge games."

Jenn giggled. "Did you have a girlfriend there?"

"Uh, not really. You know, I dated some of the girls, but nothing serious."

"Like you are with Aunt Summer."

"Uh, yeah. Right."

"What were the girls like there?"

Easy. "Um, some were really nice. Some were kind of annoying. Like in California. They were all different, mostly."

"That's cool. Now tell me the good stuff."

"What?"

"I'm nine, Uncle Seth. I can take it. I've seen rated R movies. Tell me."

Seth shook his head, slightly amused. "I'm sorry, Jenn, but I don't think I have that exciting stuff to tell you."

"Yes, you do. I can tell you about my da-ad."

"Yeah? Like what?"

"Like him and Aunt Summer."

"Keep going."

"You first."

"What do you want to hear?"

"Something cool."

"Uh...well...there was this one girl, right? She was born in Ohio. And she was living with her brother. Now, her brother was a stage performer, okay? So he dressed up like a lady. And I knew all this because I dated her for, like, a week, right? And you know how I met her?"

"How?"

"Her brother had a crush with me."

"Ew!"

Seth nodded. "So now that you know that I went on a date with a man and then dated his sister, you can tell me about your dad and Aunt Summer."

"Okay. We went to the movies, like, a year ago. Me, Aunt Summer, and my dad, right? Chris didn't want to come because it was a girl movie. So there was this scene where the good girl makes out with the bad guy and my dad kept moving in his seat, you know? And so Aunt Summer put her hand on his and said something in his ear. And then, when we got home, Dad went for a walk with Aunt Summer and the next thing I know, they're kissing everywhere, but, you know, trying to hide it. But they were really bad at it. Everyone knew about it. And then Aunt Marissa came over once and she saw Aunt Summer and my dad kissing and she flipped out. She was yelling and yelling and that was the only time I saw my dad scared."

"What happened with them? Did they just stop kissing one day or something?"

Jenn shrugged. "Aunt Summer talked to Aunt Marissa, and seemed to talk to my dad less. I heard Aunt Marissa say to her that she didn't know what she was doing. That Aunt Summer was confused, right? And that she only was kissing Daddy because it was easier than finding someone new and that it wasn't fair for him. And I don't know, but I think Aunt Summer listened to her."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Did your dad ever talk to you about it?"

"Not really. He got all quiet for a long time. He talked to Grandpa a lot. Well, Grandpa talked to him."

"Oh."

"I'm tired now, Uncle Seth. I'm going to go to bed."

"Okay, good night, Jenn."

Jenn kissed Seth's cheek and started to walk back into the house, but turned around.

"Don't tell my dad I told you that, okay? I don't know if I was supposed to."

"Yeah, okay. Don't worry about it."

"Okay. Good night."

"Good night."

Jenn closed the door behind her and Seth faintly saw her crawl into bed next to Ryan. He pushed a little harder on his hands and sat on the balcony, starting to really wish he had been around for the past nine years. Or at least the past one.