I miss all the Spied/Nic interaction from my previous stories, so I had to start writing in their moments. This is a good one, I think, and Adventure Cove is totally a tradition for me. Of course, I usually only go to HH for a week, not a month, so I go once, but I always go. And laser tag is pretty amazing. I have plans to get them all there sometime, including a few surprises. Anyways, on to the chapter.

When Spiederman woke up the next morning, he found an empty house. Of course, it was 12:30, so he should have realized everyone would probably have plans on their first day. He found a note on the table in Jude's signature block writing.

Spied- we all went out. Sadie and Kwest are at the beach, Wally and Kyle went 'cruising' for chicks, and I'm just around on one of the bikes in the shed. I'll probably be out until late afternoon just exploring, Sadie won't come in until her insides are cooked, and well, the boys just don't give up. Call if you need any of us. Jude.

He sighed, opened the fridge, pulled out a Red Bull, and walked out onto the balcony.

"Good morning, sunshine," Nic smirked from next-door. "You're just waking up and I've already put in two hours at the beach and another hour in the small gym over here. You, sir, are lazy."

"I'm a late sleeper," he admitted, hopping up onto the railing. "How do you get up so early?"

"Typically, I'm still sleeping," she laughed. "But I always feel like if I sleep the day away on vacation, I'm wasting it, so I usually wake up around 9:00 or so."

He shook his head and stretched. "Too early. Vacation is prime time for sleeping, so I do it. When I'm in Toronto, I always have to be at G-Major by like, 10:30, so I wake up on the early side."

"Ick," she shuddered. "You should get a job where you work on your own terms."

"Yes, well, not everyone has the opportunity to be a freelance writer who's so rich, you really don't have to work a day in your life," he told her. "Some of us have to work for our money."

"I'll ignore that comment and move on," she interrupted. "What are your plans for the day, Mr. Spiederman?"

He shrugged. "No idea. Jude's out on the town, Sadie and Kwest are on the beach, and Wally and Kyle are scoping the area for girls."

"Well, Tommy's on a conference call to Montreal, so why don't we go get some lunch and do a little Hilton Head tradition?" she suggested.

"What, sex on the beach?" he joked.

"You wish," she scoffed. "Be ready in fifteen minutes."

Twenty minutes later, Spiederman stood outside the two houses, waiting for Nic to meet him. When she finally emerged from her house, she said nothing and just climbed into her Ferrari, waiting for him to join her.

"Where are we going?" he asked as she pulled out of Shipyard.

"Adventure Cove," she answered. "You can't come to Hilton Head and not putt-putt at least three times while you're here, so we might as well get an early start. Later this month, we'll get the whole gang to come, but until Jude and Tommy aren't at each other's throats, it's just you and I."

They rode in mostly silence, listening to an old No Doubt CD. Spiederman kept trying to sneak glances at Nic, who wore white shorts and a blue silk tank top, but she always caught him.

"If you want to stare at me, buy an old Seventeen magazine and rip out my picture," she teased.

"Oh, can I?" he said sarcastically. "Well, let me call their archives."

"You know, all kidding aside, you're a funny guy," she told him, pulling into the lot. "Not many people can make me laugh, but you do."

He shrugged. "Well, that could have something to do with the fact that you tend to guard yourself and are cynical."

"I am not!" she defended herself. "I'm realistic." She sighed as they walked inside. "Our parents aren't exactly the most doting and supportive, so we grew up on our own basically. My biggest role model is Tommy and his life hasn't been a picnic, so I tend to put up walls because that's all I know."

"Is that why you got divorced?" he wondered, unable to stop himself. "I'm sorry. You don't have to answer that."

"No, its okay," she assured him. "And no, that's not why. His name is Chris and we met in our junior year of high school. It only took me a few months to fall in love with him, or so I thought, and two and a half years later, we were married. Then, I realized he'd dated and married me for my money, which he was spending left and right. I served him the papers the same day he decided he 'deserved' a new Ducati."

"Wow," he breathed. "What a tool."

She laughed. "Yeah, to say it nicely. Anyways, he still calls every so often, like last night, trying to get me to see him again, swearing he's changed, but I don't buy it."

"You're probably better off without him," he said as he walked up to the desk to pay.

"Yeah, probably," she mused, smiling at him as he retreated away.

Half an hour later, on hole 12, Nic was beating Spiederman by eight and he was whining like a four-year-old.

"I don't play this as often as you do," he complained as she made another hole-in-one to his three strokes. "I've probably only played like, three times in my entire life."

She laughed. "Boo hoo, baby. Just think, if we were like, skateboarding, I wouldn't even be rolling."

"That's true," he agreed, stepping up to hole 13. "Okay, let's make a bet."

"All right," she nodded reluctantly. "What is it?"

Spiederman smirked. "If I make this shot in one try, you have to kiss me."

It was Nic's turn to smirk, as hole 13 was definitely one of the hardest and he wasn't doing so well. "Sure, all right. You get a hole-in-one, I kiss you. But, if you miss, in your next interview, you have to tell the world you lost to a girl at miniature golf."

"Fine," he said, shaking her hand. "You can even go first."

"Ooh, thanks," she smiled, setting her ball down. It took her two shots, but she made it quickly. "All right, cowboy, your turn."

He lined his ball evenly with the hole and stared down the line. If the ball went too far to the left, or too far to the right, it went into a two-foot ditch that took nearly four strokes to get out of. He took a deep breath, said a little prayer, closed his eyes, and hit it.

"Oh, my God," Nic muttered as the ball went straight into the hole. "You are one lucky SOB."

"Yes!" he cried. "Kiss me, Quincy."

"Yeah, yeah," she rolled her eyes as he made her way to him. "Come on." She leaned in to kiss him and while she'd only been planning on making it short and sweet, he deepened it and she didn't even mind.

When they got back to their two houses, everyone had returned and were sitting outside by the private pool they shared. Tommy, though, was still missing.

"I'm getting him out here," Nic declared. "And Jude, it's nice to meet you."

Jude eyed Nic wearily. "Yeah, same here."

"I'm not a bad person," Nic told her. "I just did what I needed to do to make my brother happy again."

"I know," Jude sighed. "I didn't mean to sound rude; it's just hard for me to be around Tommy again after so long."

Nic smiled half-heartedly. "Yeah, I get it. If you don't want him to be around, he doesn't have to be."

"No, it's okay," Jude shrugged. "He's gonna be around for the next month so I might as well get used to it."

Nic turned and went back into her house, leaving everyone to talk about her as soon as she was gone.

"So, Spied, what did you two do today?" Wally asked suggestively. "Find a private beach somewhere?"

Spiederman sat down on one of the lounge chairs. "No. For your unnecessary information, we went and played mini-golf at Adventure Cove, which we're all going back to tomorrow for laser tag."

"Oh, mini-golf?" Kwest mused. "Is that what you young kids are calling it these days?"

"Shut up," Spiederman demanded. "She's a fun girl; I like her."

"Uh-huh," Jude giggled. "You like her, Jackass. As your best friend, I can vividly see it. I saw it one the beach last night and I saw it when you walked up with her and I definitely saw it when she went into her house."

He ran a hand through his dirty blonde hair. "It's complicated."

"Why?" Kyle questioned. "Because of Karma?"

"Because of Karma," Spiederman confirmed. "And Tommy, and Chris."

"Okay, I understand Karma and Tommy," Jude cut him off, "but who's Chris? Secret husband? Or a kid?"

He stared at her dryly. "Her ex-husband."

"Really?" Jude replied. "Recent?"

"Married and divorced at 19," Kwest reported. "High school boyfriend who eventually screwed her over by marrying her for the money."

"19," Jude repeated. "Isn't she like, 22 now?" Suddenly, she caught on to what they'd known since they all found out. "Nic's the reason Tommy left me, isn't she? She was getting divorced and he went to Montreal to save her, didn't he?"

Kwest nodded his head. "Yeah, that's it. Chris was making things very difficult for her, so Tommy, being the overly protective older brother that he is, came to her when her lawyer went after him. I don't know why he never came back, and neither does Nic for that matter, but he didn't. Instead, he married Megan and then divorced her."

"Apparently," Sadie spoke up, "it's the big thing to be married and divorced by 19 as a Quincy."

"We joke that's it's the only legal way to be one," Nic announced, re-joining them with Tommy behind her. "Of course, our parents are still married, but they were 19 when it happened."

Tommy looked down at Jude. "Can I sit or will you conspire to push me into the pool?"

"Just sit," she told him. "So, let's make plans as a group tomorrow."

"I already told them about laser tag," Spiederman said to Nic. "But it's obviously not good enough for them."

"I know!" Nic exclaimed. "Jet-skis!"

"I'm in," Wally agreed. "We did those last summer in Italy and it was pretty sweet."

Kyle yawned. "Me, too."

"We'll go," Sadie added, referring to her and Kwest. "I'm not driving, but I'll definitely ride one."

"Why not?" Jude shrugged. "I had fun in Italy, too."

Nic turned to her brother. "Well? Thomas, are you going to join us?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "I hate those stupid things, Nic, and you know that."

"Just because you flipped one when we were kids doesn't mean you can't control one now," she rationalized. "I mean, you're a big boy now, Tommy. You even tie your own shoes."

"Don't be stupid," he warned her. "I guess I'll go."

"This should be interesting," Spiederman muttered to Kyle and Wally. "I'm feeling a pow-wow in my room tonight to discuss ways to get the two of them stuck on one jet-ski and stranded."

Kyle and Wally just looked at each other and nodded.

"I don't like the look of that," Jude spoke up from across the pool.

Spiederman just smiled. "You, dude, have absolutely nothing to worry about."

"That's what I'm afraid of," she murmured.

Now, please review. And I apologize for any errors you might have faced last chapter; it's cause I did some re-working of the chapters to help me organize. Everything should be okay now, so click on that cute little button down on the left now.