Okay, so, I lied, there's gunna be one more chapter than I thought, making a total of 8 chapters. This one has more reminiscing than I had intended, but I suppose I'm just missing old-Waige...
The next morning, the four of them met downstairs in the hotel restaurant for breakfast. To everyone's relief, the awkwardness seemed to have subsided, though there may have been a few fumbling apologies when Walter and Paige got in each others way, and there might have been an incident in which Walter accidentally touched Paige's arm and jerked his hand back, splashing a full glass of water onto his own plate.
Near the end of their meal, Paige suggested, "Hey, we should go swimming before heading into the park. Their pool is beautiful." Turning to Ralph, she added, "They have a water slide." Ralph agreed enthusiastically, while Veronica shrugged, not really caring either way. When Walter didn't respond, she turned to him, "What do you say, Walter?"
Walter, who had always been appalled at the idea of a swimming pool, shook his head.
"Come on, Walter. What, are you just gunna sit in your room by yourself?" she asked teasingly.
He shrugged, "That's what I've done for most of my life. And I brought my laptop, so I won't be bored."
"You brought your-" She cut herself of and rolled her eyes in exasperation, "You are coming with us, Walter. This family is a democracy, and we've got three to one."
Deciding not to overthink her choice of the word 'family', he responded, "I didn't bring a swimsuit." After a pause, he corrected, "I don't own a swimsuit."
"That's fine, just hang out."
Sighing, he knew he'd run out out of excuses, "Fine."
Paige smiled, "Good." Then, talking to everyone, "We'll meet up at the pool, and Walter, you better be there."
Walter arrived at the pool, carrying his laptop. He noticed Paige was wearing a flowy sundress, and the straps of her swim suit peeked out the top and wrapped around to a bow at the back of her neck. He quickly pushed aside the thought of what she might be wearing underneath, opening his laptop. When Paige saw the laptop, she said, "Walter, I didn't want you here so you could be on your laptop. If you're gunna do that, you might as well be in your room."
"Okay," he closed his laptop, turned around, and headed in the direction of the pool exit, knowing full well that's not what she meant.
"Hey!" She laughed, grabbing his elbow, "That's not what I meant, and you know it."
He turned around and just gave her a slight smirk. God, he was cute when he did that. Rolling her eyes, she caved, "Alright, fine, you can have your laptop."
Even though she would have liked him to actually engage, she secretly found it hilariously adorable that he'd be sitting beside a pool under a cabana on a warm, sunny day... on a computer. It was just so... Walter. And the more she thought about it, the more she liked that, rather than if he did the normal thing of swimming and participating. And she thought that seemed like a good metaphor for how she fell in love with him: He was, every day, proving her wrong about what she wanted and what she liked. Walter was nothing like the fictional man she'd imagined herself falling in love with, the man who was so much like Tim, and yet, here she was, not with Tim, and thinking about metaphors of her love for Walter.
"Cute dress!" Veronica pulled Paige out of her thoughts.
"Uh, thanks."
"Hey, mom, these water slides are awesome! You have to try it!"
Paige smiled, "Okay, sweetie, I'll be there in a second." She pushed the straps of her dress off her shoulders, and let the dress fall to the ground. She was wearing a simple, black bikini sewn with blue thread. It wasn't at all overly revealing, in fact it was quite modest for a bikini, but she instantly felt a little self-conscious at her bare stomach and thighs. She had never been particularly self-conscious about her body since her teens, but she hadn't shown this much skin since before she was pregnant with Ralph. Not to mention that nobody except Drew had ever seen her stretch marks. Of course, there was that time at the nudist hot springs, but her adrenaline and fear that day had far outweighed the insecurities that, even now, only briefly entered her mind before following Ralph into the pool.
Walter fixed his gaze on his computer, biting the inside of his cheek with the effort of keeping his eyes from drifting to her. He could see her in his peripheral vision, and god she was beautiful. But he wasn't sure if he looked at her directly that he'd be able to look away, and he didn't think he had any right to stare at her like that.
She'd be lying if she said she hadn't felt a twinge of disappointment when Walter didn't even glance at her. Had he even noticed? She thought back to that first dance with Walter, how he had so awkwardly responded to her question if the dress looked good. And that time he'd been staring at her as she'd strode out of the ocean. The look in his eyes... Why was he not looking at her like that now? She felt a little silly questioning and analyzing this, as if she were an insecure teenager again looking for attention from guys. But this was so far from just any guy, and she felt the old frustration come back. They'd almost kissed last night, and now he was pulling back again. Why did he always do this?
But she pushed her thoughts to the back of her mind. She was going to have fun with her son, dammit.
Walter didn't really do much on his laptop. He was too busy observing Paige and Ralph. They would go down a water slide, then surprise-attack each other with a squirt from a water gun, and he couldn't help but think what a great mom she was. It was the very first thing he'd noticed about her. The way she handled Ralph at the diner... It took a great mom and a strong woman to raise a genius kid with so much patience and understanding. And that was the second the he learned about her: the strength of her personality, when she told him off for insulting her nail polish. And not just anybody could drive 200mph a few feet underneath a flying plane. If it hadn't been for her, a lot of people would have died that day.
Meanwhile, he was aware of the scrutiny of Veronica, who sat beside him, sipping a pina colada. Eventually he sighed and turned to her, "Yes?"
She narrowed her eyes, and he suddenly felt very uncomfortable, as if she were trying to read his thoughts. After what seemed like an eternity, she replied, "You really love her, don't you?"
Walter was taken aback by the question. Of course he did, but why was she asking him that? And did he have to answer now, with Paige so close by? With a nervous glance at Paige, who had just lost an underwater breath-holding competition, he answered tentatively, "Uh, yes."
"Then what the hell is holding you back?"
Walter hesitated. Were they really having this conversation here, now? "Um, well, I... I'm still not... I'm not able to be there for her emotionally. Not... not yet. I wouldn't be good for her right now."
Veronica gave an exaggerated sigh, "Haven't I already told you that you are what is best for my daughter? I don't know where you got his idea that you're not what she wants."
He was about to reply when he heard Paige get out of the water. He snapped his jaw shut and turned to her, only for his jaw to fall slack again. God, he was even more mesmerized than that time he saw her walking out of the ocean, sopping wet and her shirt clinging to her body. After what could've been a few seconds or hours, he realized he wasn't breathing, and quickly let out the breath he'd been holding. He wondered when he had become so affected by her like that. He had never really felt much attraction before Paige. Sure, he had understood what constituted a conventionally beautiful woman, but he had never actually felt the attraction himself. He wasn't sure when it had happened with Paige, but oh, boy was he attracted to her now. He supposed it probably happened somewhere around the time he had fallen in love with her.
He was snapped out of his thoughts when Paige approached them, "Hey, it's almost lunchtime, so I was thinking we could go into Disneyland and eat somewhere on Mainstreet?"
Walter wasn't quite recovered, so Veronica answered as Paige wrapped herself in her towel, "Yeah, sounds good."
Paige had noticed Walter's staring, and looked away from him as she felt a blush creep up her neck to her cheeks. That was the look she'd been thinking about earlier, and she felt and strange mix of relief and impatience, wishing he would quit holding on to whatever was making him shy away every time they got close. She decided that moment that she would talk to him next time she had the chance. They needed to clear the air, because she couldn't go on with this will-he-or-won't-he game anymore.
After lunch, they headed further into the park, and passed the same shop with the, well, Indiana Jones hat... incident. Ralph spoke up, "There's something in there I wanted to buy, can we go in?"
Once inside, Ralph approached his grandma and spoke quietly to make sure Paige and Walter couldn't hear, "Can I talk to you alone?"
She nodded, and turned to the other two, "We're gunna be over there," and pointed to the T-shirt section.
As they walked away, Ralph explained, "Okay, so I think Walter wanted to get my mom one of those rings."
Veronica smiled, "You read my mind. Let me guess, you don't think Walter will have the guts to get it himself, so you want to buy it and give it to him to give to her." When Ralph smiled and nodded, Veronica shook her head, "It's like we share the same brain." Then she tilted her head and corrected, "Well, minus the genius part."
"Only problem is, I don't have the money for it, and my mom will know something's up if I ask for more."
"Ah, you want me to buy it." She paused for dramatic effect, pretending like she had to think about it. Then she smiled, "Of course!"
She bought it, and discreetly handed it to Ralph, who stashed it in his backpack. He knew exactly when he was gunna give it to Walter. Just not yet. He looked at the time, and realized that took longer than he'd expected. Crap. He was in danger now of running late... "We need to get fastpasses for Space Mountain," he said with a little too much urgency.
Paige looked down at him in slight surpise, "Oh, okay, well we're gunna get some ice cream here first, then we can do that."
Ralph took a deep breath, thinking quickly, "But if we wait any longer, the fastpass return time might be in the middle of the fireworks." He didn't tell her that he'd done the calculations, and he knew exactly what return time was currently being distributed. And it certainly wasn't the same time as the fireworks.
After hesitating Paige replied, "Okay, Grandma can take you. But that means you won't get any ice cream."
Ralph was already rushing away, pulling Veronica with him, and yelled over his shoulder, "That's okay!"
Soon he broke out into a run, and his grandma exclaimed, "Hey, what's the rush?"
"No time to explain!"
They were both huffing and puffing by the time they reached the fastpass distributor for Space Mountain. When Ralph caught sight of what the return time was, he breathed out a "Yes!" and quickly retrieved four fastpasses. He knew that his mom and Walter wouldn't be using them, but they didn't know that. It would look too weird if he had only gotten two.
Just as he walked away from the distributor, Veronica asked, "Okay, you wanna tell me what that was all about?"
Ralph smirked, "Well, I made reservations at the Blue Bayou for 8:00 tonight. Mom knows we're eating dinner there, but she doesn't know that I calculated when the fastpass return time would be 8:00 to 9:00, so you and I have to miss dinner to use them. Mom knows it's my favorite ride, so I don't think she'll refuse."
Veronica laughed and high-fived him, "That's my boy."
Hope you liked it! I meant to move the story along a lot more this chapter, but the scene at the pool kinda got away from me... Oh well, the next chapter will be very Waige-y, then the angst after that. :)