"Boys, take the two seats over there."
Kayden and JJ walked through the aisle to the opposite side of the plane where two seats sat together. There were three more seats in the middle and then two on the other side.
Willow put her hand on Emily's head and gently turned her to sit in the farthest seat.
"You," she said, then plopped Lily down in the nearest seat to the two she and Tara would be sitting in, "You."
She twirled her finger around the middle seat and pointed between it and Robyn.
"You."
Robyn's brow was crinkled angrily.
"Why do I have to sit in the middle?"
"You need a buffer," Willow said. It was too easy to sneak out of an aisle seat.
"It says so on our tickets, Robbie," Lily supplied helpfully as she proudly held up her ticket, "See, you're 'F'."
Robyn fell into her seat dramatically with her arms crossed on her chest.
"I'm F'd somethin' alright."
"I heard that," Willow warned and Robyn rolled her eyes.
In the window seat, Kayden's eyes were everywhere.
"Does it go…fast?" he asked JJ awkwardly.
He didn't want to look like a baby and admit he was scared.
"Only when we take off," JJ explained easily, kindly not mentioning Kayden's obvious fear, "We go real fast on the ground, then once we take off it's smooth sailing. Won't even know we're moving."
He popped out a piece of gum and offered it to him.
"Chew this. Sometimes your ears can get funky because of the pressure and stuff. It'll help."
Kayden took the gum and started to chew nervously.
Across the plane, Willow settled into her seat with a sigh.
"Thank god they let us board first. I thought that one guy was going to say the kids are too old!"
"Relax honey," Tara soothed softly, "We haven't even taken off yet."
Willow groaned.
"Don't remind me."
One of the flight attendants started walking through the aisles to check if they were ready to call the next group for boarding.
"Can we assist you with anything?" she offered Willow and Tara graciously and smiled at the girls, "Are you all able to buckle your seat belts?"
Both Lily and Emily were keen to show off their aptitude. The flight attendant looked to Robyn with that fixed smile on her face.
"And you?"
Robyn wordlessly lifted her buckle and let it fall back into her lap. The flight attendant remained disarmingly chipper.
"I like your shirt, young lady."
Robyn glanced down. Her shirt was glittery and fun but she knew a brush-off when she heard it.
"Thanks," she replied without much enthusiasm, "My Momma says it's a bitch to iron."
"Robyn," both Willow and Tara said sternly in unison as they jerked out of their seats together to send her a look.
Tara looked at the flight attendant with a mixture of gratitude and embarrassment. The flight attendant just smiled again and quickly moved on.
Robyn glared back at her parents and wiggled her fingers mockingly.
"Must be a case of the middle seat madness."
Both Willow and Tara sat back. Tara sighed.
"You don't even do the ironing."
"How can I when you get mad that I haven't done it seven seconds after it's left the dryer and do it first?" Willow snapped back quietly.
Tara held her hands up.
"You know what?" she said, letting her hands brush against each other, "No. We're not doing this. We're not starting off our vacation like this."
She unbuckled her belt quickly, before more people started to board.
"Robyn?" she called over, "You want the window seat?"
"Beside Momma?" Robyn called back with an arched eyebrow, "Hell no."
Willow scoffed pointedly.
"You're the one who's starting to get pubescent stank you know, not me."
"Emily?" Tara cut across them all, "You wanna sit with Momma?"
"Yeah," Emily nodded quickly.
"I wanna sit with Momma!" Lily suddenly announced and Willow looked smugly at Robyn.
"Emily can sit with Momma on this flight and Lily can sit with Momma on the next one," Tara reasoned, "Okay?"
The twins nodded but Willow was pouting a little.
"I thought I was gonna get to sit with you. The only good thing about flying was going to be sitting with you for hours. I'm sorry I got shirty about the laundry," she apologized and started to grin, "Get it?"
Tara squeezed Willow's arm.
"I do get it and I'm not moving because I'm mad. I'm moving because we need a better handle on the girls and you know sometimes that means flanking them."
Willow sighed in resignation.
"Besides," Tara continued with a discreet kiss to Willow's cheek, "We have our whole vacation to be together."
Willow nodded that she understood. Tara stood up and directed Emily to her window seat and then indicated for Robyn to take the vacated aisle.
Robyn switched over before the offer could be taken away.
"I'm trusting you, please don't make me lose that trust," Tara said quietly as she belted herself in between Robyn and Lily.
Robyn didn't like the whole 'disappointed' spiel and this was just a pre-version of that.
"Air travel is awful for the environment," she deflected.
"I know," Tara nodded easily, "We can plant a tree when we get home, if you want."
Robyn's head turned slowly.
"Can we plant a tree for everyone?"
"Not in our back yard, but sure," Tara agreed, then smiled chirpily, "What are you most looking forward to about Hawaii?"
"Seeing the volcanoes," Robyn said, smiling excitedly and quite childlike.
"You can't throw your Momma in," Tara teased gently.
Robyn looked unusually bashful.
"I wouldn't throw Momma in," she admitted and then rolled her eyes, "Some of her sweaters, maybe."
"What of mine would you throw in?" Tara asked curiously.
Robyn nodded down to the floor.
"Those sandals," she said distastefully, "Most people wearing those kinds of sandals are responsible for measles coming back to America."
Tara looked down and stretched her ankles around so her feet rotated.
"I like these sandals. They're comfortable. So I accept your opinion but I'm happy with my own sense of style and will continue to wear them."
Robyn rolled her eyes. Mom was no fun. At least Momma reacted.
She snatched at her backpack and took out her tablet.
"I'm going to draw now."
Tara gave the hint of a smile of success; just a soft slope on one side.
She sat back into her seat and stretched her legs; ugly sandals and all.
"She's nuts, they frame your lovely little feet so perfectly," Willow said as they waited in baggage claim, exhausted, but so ready to leave the confines of this airport and properly arrive in tropical paradise, "She once asked me if I was wearing my blue and yellow sweater with the cat's eyes ironically and when I said no she said 'you should be'. So what does she know about fashion?"
"I love that sweater," Tara replied, making a little cat claw with her hand, which Willow laughed at.
"I know!" she replied with grinning indignation and glanced over to where Robyn and Lily were playing Slaps. They were laughing but it was aggressive. She looked back to Tara unsurely, "Are we raising a mean girl? I mean I was scared about Lily for a while but she's not…mean. But sometimes Robyn…"
"Robyn gives half of her allowance to a refugee charity every week," Tara answered evenly, "And she helps with the twins with their homework all the time. She stands up for Emily and knows just how to be tactile enough with Lily to keep her calm. She idolizes JJ even when she pretends to be annoyed by him. And she's treated Kayden like all of the others since the moment he stepped into the house."
Willow nodded slowly.
"She's always been precocious, even when she was baby. Maybe we're just getting the teenage years in advance."
"I think she's just growing into a strong, independent woman. And we need more of those," Tara reasoned and cast a slow, side glance at Willow, "But you need to stop giving her the reaction she goads you for. It just encourages the mean parts."
Willow threw up her hands.
"Tara, I can stand here and promise that I will but she's ten and I haven't been able to stop so far so I'm not going to lie about the future," she answered, crossing her arms lightly across her chest, "It's your fault anyway with your genetically-transmitted sarcasm."
Tara threw a different kind of side-eye and Willow pointed at her and nodded.
"There it is. Don't even have to open your mouth."
Tara pursed her lips while Willow threw her a wink as she moved forward to grab their first piece of luggage when she saw it.
The boys helped hike everything onto a cart and they all headed to the car rental unit to pick up the car. At the curb, Willow closed her eyes and sighed softly. 70 degrees and a gentle breeze.
As they waited, Willow saw a guy in his 60s slide sunglasses on his face as he was handed the keys to a sleek red mustang convertible.
How she longed to be driving off in a Mustang or similar but as she glanced at the five children trailing behind her she knew it was nothing but minivan for her.
It was a new minivan, at least, and had lots of cool gadgets for her to play with as she mourned what she never had. She glanced over at Tara and smiled. What was she complaining about? She was in Paradise with her family. She reached over and squeezed Tara's knee.
"Is everyone belted up?"
She got a chorus of confirmations and pressed start on the GPS to guide them to their hotel.
There was some stopping and starting as they got out of the airport but after navigating through a couple of city streets they were pulled onto a simple two-lane road flanked with huge, plush green mountaintops ahead and silvery water to the side with the sun setting on its horizon.
"Look at that, kids," Tara said in awe with her hand up to touch the window like she might touch the setting sun itself.
"It's so pretty, Mom, it's so pretty!" Lily said excitedly, "It looks so good I want to eat it!"
There were murmurs from the other kids but everyone was exhausted after the day of traveling, thankfully dull as it was.
Their hotel was right on the beach, on a bay a quarter-mile long and uniquely crescent-shaped. In the morning, they'd see the golden sand and invitingly blue water but right now they could see the alluring glow of the sunset as it cast warm shadows on the building. There was mere feet from where the shores lapped and where the white balconies at the hotel stood out to overlook them.
A kindly bellhop arranged both their luggage and the valet service when Willow pulled up, so all they had to do was check-in, get their room keys, and ride the elevator up to their floor.
They had three adjoining rooms, specifically made for families. The middle, the biggest, had the mini-bar and the balcony, and the rooms either side were set up for their family structure — a twin to the left for JJ and Kayden and a triple to the right for all of the girls.
The boys were okay to look after themselves so Willow and Tara settled the girls quickly after a brief fight over who got which bed. With an agreement to rotate, the adults finally got to see their room properly.
They had a nice, big queen bed, a couch, and a table that led out to the balcony where there was more seating. The bathroom was marble; cool to touch but warm underfoot and had plenty of room for them both to be in there without bumping into each other. Everything was soft reds and yellows with contrasting dark furniture but the linens were bright and soft. From the view all the way in, right to the alluring shade of cushions on the couch, everything was made to be inviting.
Tara wanted to have a brief shower after traveling so Willow got enough of their clothes out to last them a couple of days so they weren't living out of the suitcase. She changed into the new silk pajamas her father had gifted her for Hanukkah and left Tara's pair on her pillow.
When Tara came out of the bathroom in a towel, Willow looked over from her spot in the bed, head on the pillow.
"Do you think the kids can handle breakfast by themselves in the morning?"
Tara squeezed some lotion into her hands and lifted her leg up onto the arm of the couch.
"Probably. Why?"
Willow cocked an eyebrow boldly.
"When was the last time we had morning sex?"
Tara lotioned down to her ankle and back up again before changing leg. Her eyes squinted.
"I'm not sure about the month but I could probably tell you the year if I thought back far enough."
"Exactly," Willow replied wryly.
Tara popped her leg down and smiled.
"Okay. I'm in."
She dropped her towel.
"Here's a little preview."
She turned around slowly and then folded herself into bed.
"Oh, no, no, no."
"What?" Willow asked with a frown.
Tara twirled her finger.
"Pajamas don't exist on vacation."
"I'm suddenly rendered weak-limbed by all of the travel," Willow exclaimed, throwing her arms up over her head, "You'll have to help me remedy this great injustice."
Tara smirked and started to run her hand down Willow's front, loosening the buttons along the way. Willow shrugged it off once she could and kicked the bottoms down when Tara gave them a little tug.
"That's better," Tara murmured as she pressed her naked front into Willow's naked back.
"Much," Willow agreed and reached out to flick the lamp switch above the nightstand off, "Aloha, my love."
Tara's arm rested over Willow's waist and she closed her eyes.
"Aloha indeed."
Willow's mussed head popped out from under the blanket and she frowned.
"Is the phone actually ringing or are you just so good at that that it's making my ears rattle?"
Tara's head joined Willow and there was a pause as she listened too.
"No, it's definitely ringing."
Willow turned her head to find where the actual phone was and finally picked it up.
"Aloha," she said with a low chuckle and winked at Tara, who blushed.
She listened for a minute and then her head dropped to the pillow with a pout,
"Okay. We'll be right down."
She hung up and sighed.
"Kid crisis."
"What's wrong?" Tara asked with a concerned brow furrow.
"Robyn probably sassed someone," Willow heaved out a huge breath as she swung up to a sitting position, "Or JJ hit on one of the servers."
Tara looked stricken.
"Or Lily…"
Willow's face adopted much the same look.
"Shit. Let's get down there."
The early morning coital bliss they'd ensconced themselves in was quickly forgotten, they fled their room together hastily buttoning sweaters as they ran to the elevator.
They arrived at the breakfast room and it became apparent immediately that they were dealing with A Situation™. The room had emptied but for some tables in the corner, and all of the people there were staring at the scene playing out from the booth nearest the door.
Lily was lying across a seat, wailing; Kayden and JJ were flanking her just so she didn't hurt herself; Emily was sitting at her feet looking up, afraid; and Robyn was so tense she was as red as the strawberries sitting atop the half-eaten pancakes on one of the plates on the table.
Tara immediately strode forward.
"I'll take Lily."
JJ and Kayden fell away like Lily was a snapping shark they were afraid of being bitten by. When Tara pulled Lily against her body, Lily didn't protest and flung her arms around Tara, crying into her neck. Tara quickly brought her away from the situation and left the rest of them in her eerily silent wake.
Emily tried to run after her.
"I haveta stay with Lily!"
Willow quickly caught her.
"Koala bear, I need you to stay with me. Lily is with Mommy. She'll be okay, I promise."
Willow lifted Emily onto her hip even though she was really way too big to be doing things like that anymore.
"Is everyone okay?" she asked and got a series of glum nods in return, "What happened?"
JJ held a hand against his forehead.
"Some other kid cut in front of her in the cereal line and took the last of the cereal she wanted. She just went straight to meltdown."
Willow frowned.
"Her body is adjusting to the time zone change and she's all out of her routine," Willow explained; they'd actually come up with a contingency plan for this but she hadn't anticipated meltdown so soon, "Shit, she's late for her pill."
No one made any remark that Willow had sworn.
"It's okay, mom will have realized," she said, almost talking to herself, "Why didn't you call us?"
"I tried! It went straight to voicemail," JJ replied, exasperated, "And Lily wouldn't let me touch her, and I didn't want to leave the others alone in case something happened."
Willow stepped forward and cupped JJ's cheek.
"It's okay, it's okay," she soothed, "You didn't do anything wrong. You handled it great. You're the best big brother."
Emily nodded quickly to indicate she agreed. JJ's eyes crumbled when he saw it.
"She hasn't freaked out like that in so long."
"I know," Willow said with a quiet nod, "C'mon kids, let's all go have some downtime. Do you need to eat? Were you able to have breakfast?"
There were just more glum nods so Willow ushered everyone out and back upstairs. Kayden and JJ went into their room and Willow brought Emily and Robyn into the girls' room, assuming correctly that Tara would have brought Lily into their room. There was no sound coming from that room, so at least Tara had succeeded in getting Lily to calm down.
As soon as Willow brought the girls inside, it became apparent that Robyn was not okay. She just seemed to be getting redder and Willow had a pretty high barometer on how red she'd seen a face go. She quickly went out and knocked two doors down.
"Boys, I need you to take care of Emily."
JJ opened his mouth to protest, then spotted Emily weaving between Willow's legs. He adjusted to a smile and it wasn't even all forced.
"We love hanging out with Emily."
"Yeah," Kayden agreed from behind, "I was going to sketch the water out the window. Do you want to do it with me?"
Willow mouthed 'thank you' and JJ just nodded as he brought Emily inside with them.
Kayden offered Emily his pencil pouch to pick out her favorite colors buy stayed with his arms crossed over his body.
"Is she gonna be okay?"
"Lil? Yeah," JJ answered, a bit dazed, "It's just rough getting through it. You don't have to do the babysitting."
Kayden shrugged.
"I like drawing with her. She's good."
JJ held up his hands, some of his normal carefree spirit settling back on his face.
"I draw stick men crooked, so…"
Willow let herself back into the girls' room about three seconds before Robyn's fist hit the wall. Thankfully, in those three seconds, Willow was able to run across the room and stop her.
"Robyn!" she said in shock as she held Robyn's arm tensely and tried to remain calm, "Honey."
Robyn, however, was not calm.
"Don't call me that! I don't deserve that!"
She pulled away from Willow and went over to the bed where she shoved her face into the pillow and screamed.
Willow held her hands against her face. What the hell was going on?
"What's going on?" she repeated her thought a little more kid-friendly, "Robyn…"
She walked over and tried to hold Robyn from behind.
"I love you. And Mommy loves you. And—"
Robyn spun around, eyes wild.
"Why?"
"Why do we love you?" Willow asked in disbelief, "Because you're our Robbie. We've loved you since before you were even a little dot. You were conceived through love."
Robyn pushed away from the bed and ran to the other side of the room.
"That's not even true! I was conceived in a test tube!"
Willow's mouth opened helplessly.
"It was a petri dish."
Robyn's little face grew ever more broken.
"THEN I WAS A WASTE OF A SINGLE-USE PLASTIC!"
A few seconds later, the adjoining door opened and Willow jumped up quickly to tell Tara now was not the time to scold her but instead, Tara just strode across the room and pulled Robyn into the same kind of all-encompassing hug she had with Lily earlier.
Immediately Robyn crumbled into Tara's embrace.
Those Mom-Hugs sure did seem to have an instant calming effect, but this wasn't news to Willow. She'd been availing of them for more than twenty years.
Tara gently laid Robyn down on a bed and laid down with her. She used to eyes to communicate with Willow to come in on the other side.
They all barely fit on the little bed but just about managed not to fall off.
Tara stroked Robyn's hair and when she was calm — calmer even than her normal state of being — Tara kissed her daughter's forehead.
"First of all, you are not a waste of anything."
She rubbed Robyn's back gently.
"Even if you were entirely made of single-use-plastic," she continued and wiggled her fingers, "With little straws for fingers."
"And a coffee lid for a face," Willow added, wobbling Robyn's lip, "You'd have to speak out of the little sip hole."
Robyn pushed Willow off but not very hard and a smile was threatening to break.
"You guys think that a mom sandwich solves everything."
"That's not true," Tara shook her head.
Willow raised her hand into a claw and brought it down on Robyn's stomach.
"We think that tickles during a mom sandwich solves everything!"
Robyn squealed with laughter for a moment before pushing Willow off again. Willow stopped but stayed smiled. Tara smiled at both of them.
"We think talking solves most things," she clarified, "And you can talk to us any time."
She continued to rub Robyn's back and Willow started to do the same to her leg.
"What happened, bean?"
Robyn looked up at the ceiling. It took a few minutes for her to speak, but nobody rushed her.
"I couldn't calm Lily down. I got so mad at myself."
Tara nodded slowly.
"You've always been amazing with your sister. But today it was just too much for her. It's not your fault, it's not her fault, it's nobody's fault."
Willow heaved a big sigh.
"Sometimes we forget how young you still are."
Tara brought her hand up to stroke Robyn's cheek.
"Darling, as some who had to grow up a lot at your age…don't try to grow up too fast," she said, keeping her daughter's bright blue gaze, "It is not your responsibility to save your sister."
"Or the world," Willow added softly.
Tara nodded and Robyn looked between them before looking down again.
After another minute of contemplative silence, Tara spoke.
"What would you think about having someone to talk to on a regular basis?"
Robyn arched an eyebrow.
"Do you mean a therapist?"
"I do," Tara nodded evenly, "You have a lot of big thoughts and feelings and ideas. It could help you regulate them a bit better."
"And if you do want to speak to someone, it would be in addition to us," Willow clarified, "Because we're here, always. But maybe sometimes there's some stuff you don't want to talk to your old moms about."
Robyn's eyes were turned in a requisite upward direction.
"Like wardrobe choices."
"And you know what, missy, we're going to work on that too, that mouth of yours," Willow added, getting a bit het up but a quick look from Tara made her soften her tone again, "There's a line between teasing and insulting. Sometimes you cross it."
Robyn's lips gathered on one side.
"I know," she admitted eventually, "You're just so easy."
Tara put her palm over Robyn's heart.
"We love that spirit you have deep in there. That caring. But I know something else about you — you're kind. You have been since you were an itty bitty thing. We don't want you to think that getting a laugh is more important than that."
She tapped that spot and kissed Robyn's forehead.
"We will let you ponder that."
She let Willow kiss her from the other side.
"You don't have to sleep but everyone is just going to have a little quiet time before we regroup later. We'll go out for lunch."
"Somewhere on the beach?" Robyn requested and her voice was quite young and excited.
"Yeah, totally," Willow nodded quickly, "Hey, I read in the plane magazine that they produce these huge avocados over here. I bet we'd get a big ole bowl of guac from that!"
Robyn sniffed.
"They're unsustainably produced."
Willow frowned.
"What about a shave ice?"
Robyn considered it for a moment.
"That would be okay."
Willow smiled again.
"Yeah, I want a pineapple one."
"Mango for me," Tara smiled too.
"Can I have guava?" Robyn asked hopefully.
"Any flavor you like," Willow promised with a little wink.
They did a last squeeze of their sandwich stuffing and stood again. Tara went over to Robyn's luggage and unzipped the front pocket. She took out Robyn's stuffed tiger, Stripey, and brought it over to her.
"I sneaked him into your bag just in case."
Robyn smiled and held him tight.
Tara smiled and opened the adjoining door. She put it to stay open and mouthed 'balcony' at Willow as she walked through.
Willow spotted Lily fast asleep on their bed and smiled. At least she was peaceful now.
They went out onto the balcony for the first time and took in some warm, fresh ocean air as they calmed down from eventful morning.
"We need to be more strict with Lily, give her some kind of routine. Same meal times, factor in a nap and stuff," Tara said a bit jadedly.
Willow nodded.
"We have it all written out, I just didn't think things would escalate so soon."
Tara shook her head.
"We didn't time her pill right, the poor thing. We let her down."
Willow reached over and rubbed Tara's arm comfortingly.
"Wake up, first thing from now on, before we bring them to breakfast even," she replied definitively, "Well, we asked for an adventurous vacay. We're certainly getting it."
Tara had to smile and rubbed the hand that was rubbing her.
"Would you go down to the breakfast hall and grab something for us? I'm starving."
Willow winked.
"I sure did work up your appetite."
"You're telling me," Tara chuckled.
They stopped and looked at each other, then met for a chaste kiss.
Nourishment could wait a few minutes until they replenished their souls.
Kayden sat back on outstretched palms on his towel as he took in the sprawling Pacific Ocean in front of him.
He couldn't believe how far it went on, or that they'd flown across it.
He'd only ever seen Lake Erie before.
In front of him, JJ was doing his best to catch a tan, and Lily and Emily were building sandcastles.
It had surprised him how quickly the little crisis earlier had dissolved. The next time he'd seen Lily she was all smiles and demanding to be fed. Everyone else seemed to just fall back into normal routine, so he had too.
Willow and Tara were playing in the water; literally playing. Splashing, chasing each other around. Happy.
Kayden didn't really know that adults could be happy.
That anyone could, not truly.
"Emily, you're s'posed to be building the moat," Lily complained and slapped Emily's spade away with her spade.
Emily started to frown.
"I wanna build the castle."
"I'm building the castle," Lily said with heavy emphasis and went about refilling her bucket.
Emily started to bring her spade back to her body, then suddenly looked up.
"N-No Lily."
Lily looked up in surprise.
"What?"
Emily took her bucket back.
"It's my turn. I wanna build the castle."
Lily just rolled her eyes and started to dig the moat.
"Whatever."
Kayden had been bracing himself but everything seemed to be okay.
He tilted his head back and caught some of that Hawaiian sun on his face.
Hawaii.
Whose life was he living?
After a few minutes, something cast a shadow. He brought his hand up to shield his eyes and spotted Robyn kicking some sand under her toes.
She flopped down beside him.
She said nothing and he said nothing.
After a bit, Robyn spoke to him while staring straight ahead.
"They make you do therapy, right? Moms?"
Kayden cocked his head but also kept his focus forward.
"Kinda? I think the social workers are the ones who 'make me'. But they bring me."
"But you…" Robyn paused, putting unusual consideration into her words, "You had like a bad home and stuff? Like, real problems. To talk about."
"I think every problem is a real problem," Kayden answered easily.
Robyn bit on her lower lip.
"Does it suck?"
"It used to," Kayden admitted with a nod, "She would just sit there and it would be silent for a long time."
Robyn frowned.
"Isn't the point to talk?"
Kayden nodded again.
"Yeah, but you gotta talk first."
Robyn paused and thought about it, then looked over at Kayden curiously.
"Why'd you start talking?"
Kayden felt his styled hair blow in the gentle breeze and smiled.
"I guess I started to find my voice."
They lapsed into silence again until Robyn shook her head at her frolicking mothers.
"They're such dorks."
"I think it's nice," Kayden replied with a soft shoulder shrug.
Robyn rolled her eyes.
"You haven't dealt with it for ten years."
"I'd like to," Kayden replied, surprising himself.
Robyn smiled softly, then pushed his shoulder playfully.
"Guess you're a dork too," she accused with a giggle and launched herself at him, "Pile on!"
Lily jumped up to join and Emily ran along the sand after her.
JJ looked up from a passing gaggle of bikini-clad chicks and smiled at the tower of girls Kayden was pretending to fight off.
He got his legs under him and ran over, arching himself over them all and catching them in their pile.
"Oh, now you asked for it!"
Robyn grunted as she found herself pinned.
"JJ, get off!"
"Say it!" JJ cackled, using all of his strength to keep the girls down, "I won't move until you say it!"
Lily and Emily protested and then started begging Robyn to 'say it' when their arms started to cramp up.
"UGH," Robyn screeched in annoyance, "Fine! Your muscles are too big! We can't deal with your large, superhuman muscles!"
JJ sprang back acrobatically.
"God-like is my preference but I'll take superhuman."
He sported his biceps and grinned at Robyn, who rolled her eyes.
Kayden was looking on, while shaking sand from his hair, amused.
Willow ran up, rubbing her hands together.
"What are you kids doing?"
Robyn threw her hands in her brother's direction demonstrably.
"Being squashed by JJ's—"
JJ thrust his stomach out.
"Abs."
"—ego," Robyn finished pointedly.
Tara jogged up behind Willow and Willow smiled over at her.
"Let's go get some loco moco and leave our abs and egos at the door, huh? Pack up your things, guys."
She picked up her towel and threw it behind Tara, wiggling it to help her dry.
"I'd keep you in that bathing suit all vacation long if I could."
Tara got close enough that the towel could be wrapped around them both.
"I can wear it beneath other things…"
She let her fingers dance up Willow's exposed collarbone. Willow gulped.
"I'm feeling loco something all of a sudden…"
"Behave in front of the children," Tara warned, though with a playful wink, "I'm craving some poke."
"I'd like to be po-kay-ed by you," Willow waggled her eyebrows.
Tara looked over her shoulder and the shimmering splendor behind her.
"There's something in this water…"
Willow smiled softly.
"I'm just happy."
"Me too," Tara agreed in the same tender tone, "This was a great idea."
Willow tucked her head under Tara's chin.
"The best."