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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Well we've got another later chapter. Like a really late chapter, but I'm assuming (since I have a full day of work tomorrow) that I won't have time to post tomorrow like I want to. It'll probably come on Saturday, hope that's okay. At least you'll still be getting three updates this week! For this chapter we've got nothing but cute things, and we're going to be opening the door to a new development within the McGarrett family, I wonder if you can guess what it is! As always don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys on Saturday! (Though hopefully tomorrow)

Chapter 368

The door opened and Con was ready. Nahele was the first to burst through, dragging this massive piece of luggage with him.

"Hey Uncle Con!" he cried and then he was hugging him.

Con was happy to hug his nephew back. But he wouldn't let him hug him for too long. After a slow count of ten he pushed Nahele away and then ruffled his hair.

"Hey buddy! Uh… you know I only get you for two days, right?"

This was a major big deal.

Rowan and Steve were going off on a Valentine's Day romantic weekend, the other Five-0's had their own plans too and Wo had his own Valentine's Day stuff with Jian which meant that the younger, cooler uncle got Nahele for the weekend.

Yes, Ro had made him seem like he was the last viable option, but that was just cause she didn't want to have to jump her son anywhere. But she ran out of options and then had no choice but to jump him over to California for the weekend.

"Yeah I know. It's mostly videogames for us to play."

Great he was going to have to buy a console cause the kid's wouldn't survive the void. Probably. You know what they weren't going to test it.

Rowan followed after the kid but Steve stayed firmly rooted on the other side of the portal, probably because they were supposed to leave soon.

"Okay so it's only for one night," she said but Con didn't know if she was talking to him or Nahele. "Steve and I are going to be back tomorrow so we'll pick you up then."

Kid. She was talking to the kid.

"Okay mom," Nahele said as she pulled him in for a hug. It should have been brief but she didn't let him go. "Come on mom, we already said goodbye…"

"I know… I just…"

"What you don't trust me?" Con asked teasingly.

But Rowan surprised him by hitting him with an unimpressed glare as she said: "No, you're the fun uncle. You're going to be exactly like Wo was with me last year."

True, but that was the cool thing about being the fun uncle. He got to do all the things with him that his parents would frown on.

"Yeah, well you had fun last year," Con reminded her. "And nothing too traumatic happened to you… that you didn't instigate."

Rowan sighed aggressively because he had a point and they both knew it.

"Okay, I will take care of your baby, why don't you and McGarrett go to your hotel and try and make a baby."

"Ew, Con! Not in front of my son!" she cried but he just pulled Nahele out of her grasp and shoved her towards the door.

"Just go, Ro, I got this. I promise."

He pushed her to the door, both Rowan and McGarrett got one last good-bye thrown both by them and by their kid and then he shut the door.

Once he was certain Rowan had closed the portal, he turned back to Nahele.

"Right, so what do you wanna do first? Unpack? Lunch? Or Breakfast in your case?"

"Nope. Already ate and I'm totally fine living out of the suitcase for one night," he said. "I wanna go to the beach and meet some beach bunnies."

Con nodded. Well, he was definitely a sixteen-year-old boy and he could definitely swing that.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Steve could not even begin to explain how excited he was for this trip. Like, words did not describe it. They literally didn't. This was going to be their first mini-vacation since they got married.

A single weekend to themselves for Valentine's Day. Just him and Rowan in a hotel suite, not having to worry about a kid walking in, or hearing them. He'd be able to do anything he wanted to her.

And though his mind was brimming with all the possibilities all he really wanted to do was cuddle with her. Because Cuddling could lead anywhere and it made Rowan happy.

They took Rowan's GTO to the Hilton Hawaii Village where she took care of checking them in. Once they had their key, she took them up to their room which was basically almost to the top floor.

She found their room, and Steve held the door open for her. He only had had two duffle bags while Rowan had her beach bag and the one of the roller suitcases she took all over the world last year. Thing was massive. It was almost like she packed the whole house with her.

They were only going to be here for one night, but Rowan was clear that she needed more things to make herself look pretty. Steve just had to put on jeans and blue shirt and he was walking sex.

"Mmm, with the fruit basket… you sprung for the suite," he said. "Ro, we agreed on affordable."

"Affordable? This was affordable."

"Yeah, I meant to both of us, we were supposed to get something that we could both afford. The happy median."

"If I had done that, we would have been 8 floors lower with no view in a little box room," she said. "And mami wanted the Ali'I Presidential Suite."

Steve had her in his arms, had been about to kiss her but he stopped. "See, please… don't call yourself mami cause now I'm thinking of Con."

"You can't call him that, you have to call him Sin Nombre."

"Ew, that's so unsexy," he said.

"Well… Let's fix that, Happy Valentine's," she said as she pulled him down to her so he could slide his lips on to hers.

"And happy Valentine's to you too," he managed to whisper once they were fully kissed out.

"I can't believe you got the weekend off work!" Rowan cried, taking a hold of his arm and taking him to the balcony so they could see the amazing ocean view. "And can you believe the view?"

"Yeah I can't believe it either. This view, or that I got off work," he said. "Staying local was a good call, too."

"Right? All the benefits of a vacay without the hassle of travelling," Rowan said proudly. "Either on a plane or with my powers."

"It was good idea, babe. We both know I'm happy to be away from work," he said. "But uh… maybe we could have kept our kid local for the weekend?"

But then Rowan winced and Steve understood right away why. "I know but we didn't have anyone to watch him and we didn't want to leave him all alone for a weekend. I know he's 16 about to be 17 but that's prime age for a house party and… we have weapons in the house and… I unno, what if people start kidnapping him instead of me?"

She was right. He knew that. He knew it wasn't about her not trusting their son, because their son was a good kid. No, the problem was not trusting the world around them. And with who her brothers were, with who he was and who Rowan was, logically it would make sense to grab the kid that's home alone.

It would be a really dumb move and he knew it.

Then, of course, none of their friends had been available, and Rowan no longer trusted the parents of Nahele's friends, other then Kai and Makani, as they were the only two who had not gone along with Mrs. Stickle's plans to get Nahele thrown into juvie.

Steve had had a long chat with Nahele about what Mrs. Stickle had done to him. Hitting on him and texting him inappropriate things and what not. They had talked about how he had dealt with it very maturely and appropriately, but he should have told them that it happened.

Then he and Nahele had the talk and he was horrified to find out that almost everyone had had the talk with him already. Kong and Brandi had one with him when his first girl stayed over. Wo Fat and Sin Nombre had had one with him, that was interrupted first by Jian who gave him the medically correct version, and then by Danny who had walked in and not liked anything anyone was saying so he just had to give his own two cents whether it was wanted or not.

But Rowan had beaten them all to it. Apparently, he had asked her a question one day and she launched right into it. They talked about everything. From specifics and how-tos, to when it was okay to do it and all the way to how to put a condom on properly. They even practiced on a cucumber together.

Wouldn't let him stop until he could do it flawlessly.

Steve had never felt more redundant in his life. There was literally nothing left for him to teach.

"You're right," he said. "I'm sure he'll be fine with his Uncle for the weekend, its not like we won't get him back in one piece on Sunday evening. And besides, I'm just glad to be here, with my wife, for some… quality time…"

He reached out for her again but she ducked him.

"We've got plenty of time for that," she said shooting him a cheeky grin. No, see, no because he wanted to kiss her, so she better come back. "Why don't you grab yourself a beer, check out the view, I'm gonna unpack real quick. And you know… slip into something a little more comfortable?"

She did that eye wiggling thing that was just super suggestive and he smiled at it. Alright, he could get behind that.

"If you insist," he said softly.

"Ee, I'm just so excited," Rowan squealed as she skipped away. "This is going to be so much better than last year."

Well last year they were separated, he was pretending to like Lynn, or Catherine, or anyone else, while he wanted her back. He also got clocked in the face with a shoe.

That reminded him…

"Babe, small request, if you're planning a strip tease tonight, take your shoes off first," he called, Rowan poked her head out of the room with a confused look on her face. "It's… you know… lingering trauma from last year."

"Really? Did I give you a strip tease last year?"

"Uh no…"

"Right I didn't have void powers yet I couldn't have anyway," she said. "So who was giving you a strip tease… and what did she do with her shoes that was so bad?"

"I was with Lynn last year. And there was an incident that I don't want to talk about," he said quickly, already heading towards Rowan and that bedroom because honestly that was where he wanted to be anyway. "If you would care to remember, we weren't together last year. Last year you were on a bar, god knows where, downing a bottle of god knows what while people chanted fuck Steve."

Rowan blinked her eyes. "Oh I was… but… how… how did you know that? I barely remember that."

"You sent Kono a video…"

"I did?!" she cried, her hands slapping to her face, framing it in her surprise. "Oh my god, I don't remember…"

"How can you not remember that night?"

"I downed a bottle of absinthe Steve, we're lucky I'm alive."

Oh, so was that what she was drinking? He heard that was a hallucinogenic. Never tried it, himself, but he had heard from friend that it was a wild ride. Lots of really strange things happened to people who got drunk off of that.

"Yeah?" he said going to her and wrapping her up in hug. "Are you gonna tell me who caught you when you dove off the bar?"

"I dove off the bar?" she asked.

"Yeah you don't remember… wow… great, you make great choices."

Rowan pouted up at her man. "I was missing you. Absinthe made me forget that... and everything else that night. Made me puke green for two days though."

Steve didn't want to think of the year apart anymore. He wanted to focus on the hear and now. Him and his wife in a beautiful hotel suite… completely alone.

He angled in for that kiss again, but she ducked him. "Uh-huh. Let me freshen up and get changed…"

"But what if I want to help you," he said as he pulled her close. He managed to sneak a kiss in but only for a moment before she pushed him away.

"No, no helping, cause you won't actually help, you'll just ravish me and as I keep saying there is plenty of time for that," she said pushing him through the doorway and back into the main room of the suite. "Now, beer, view, go."

And then she shut the door in his face.

God she was lucky he loved her. And oh god did he love that woman.

Still he did as she asked, grabbing himself a beer and then heading out onto the balcony to appreciate the sun dancing off of the waves and how relaxing this weekend was going to be.

He knew she wanted to do all of these couple-y things this weekend but if he got his way, they were going to spend the entire weekend in that bed.

And he was going to remind her, again, that he knew all of her freaking bases. This was going to be a weekend of foreplay, yes sir. She was going to beg him to stop with the foreplay and just fuck her, that was the goal here.

He was only out on that balcony for two seconds when he realized someone was on the balcony next to theirs. What was worse, when he turned, he realized that it was someone he recognized.

For some reason Danny was on the balcony next to his.

Just staring at him.

He too had a beer in his hand and he was staring at Steve with a darkened glare.

This could not be happening. Yes, he knew they both took the same weekend off, because you know, Valentine's Day. And he could even understand if they ended up in the same hotel. But same hotel, same floor, right fucking next to each other. This was a little more than a coincidence.

"Why?" Danny asked him dryly as if this were Steve's fault or doing.

Steve shook his head, realizing right away what his wife must have done and she better not have because he wasn't about to have screaming-sex, and it could have been either of them, cause he got loud when she rode him, with Danny right next door.

Oh my god the bitching he'd have to listen to.

"Okay. Something tells me this is not an accident."

Danny took that in and shouted for Melissa, Steve did the same and shouted for his wife.

When neither of them answered, Danny turned to his suite again. "Melissa!" he barked just as she opened up the screen door to join him.

"Hey, look who I found," she said as she led Rowan out onto the opposite balcony. She smiled at Steve and waved from where she was and he almost contemplated jumping the distance between the balconies, he was sure he could make it, to wring her neck.

"How did she get over here?" Danny asked pinning a very serious glare onto Steve's wife. And already he felt the need to defend her, because she wouldn't just jump into Danny's room for a social call. She only did shit like that to him or her brother. And she warned people first.

Melissa didn't know Rowan could portal, so he was going to assume it was adjoining rooms.

"We've got adjoining rooms, don't we?" Steve asked her and she nodded.

Melissa was leaning against Danny now, draped all over him while Rowan was leaning against the railing, a little too far over for his comfort.

"You know how you're always talking about how we should all hang out?" Melissa reminded Danny.

Steve wasn't really paying attention because his wife was pointing to her wedding band and engagement ring and mouthing the word forever to him. Oh, well played Rowan, well played.

"Well, Rowan and I finally decided to make it happen," Melissa said and finally Rowan's focus was off him which meant he could focus on other things too, except he didn't because she was still leaning against the railing and the irrational part of his brain was worried she was going to fall.

"Surprise!" Rowan cried and then she let go of the balcony.

"Hey, I'm I… Woo! Rowan can you just… if I'm not there, not so close to the edge," Steve ordered. Rowan just cocked an eyebrow at him, and made a move to hop up onto the edge. Steve practically squawked with fear and his voice broke and he cried: "Danny!"

But Melissa just grabbed Rowan. "We've got a lot of fun stuff planned for this couple's trip," Melissa said to them. "You guys finish your beers, and Rowan and I are gonna go get ready for the beach, okay?"

Melissa pinned a kiss on Danny and Rowan blew a kiss to him and then the two of them were leaving the balcony.

Once they were gone both Danny and Steve shut their respective balcony doors and then they came back to the edge to talk about what the fuck had just happened.

"I know what you did," Steve snapped. "I know what you did. Yeah, you. You told Melissa we need to hang out as a group, didn't you?"

Danny shot a glance over his shoulder to make sure both girls weren't there before he turned back to Steve.

"Yeah, but I didn't mean it. That is what you say to your girlfriend when you don't want her to think you're an anti-social weirdo."

Steve almost swore. "You are an anti-social weirdo."

"That's the whole point!" Danny cried. "I don't want her thinking that."

Steve shook his head. "Okay. No, smart move. Hide your true self from your girlfriend, I'm sure it's gonna be great for your relationship."

"Really?" Danny snapped. "Really, when your girlfriend hid her true nature from you for a whole two years before you figured out she was a sociopath? How was that for your relationship? You still have trust issues."

"Okay. First thing, it's sociopathic tendencies. Not full. You know this. Secondly, it was bad for our relationship, because if you remember when those tendencies started coming out I started arresting her and it took a really long time for both of us to get past that. Thirdly, my trust issues come from my mother, and Rowan's trust issues came from hers, but both of us are working on that, and her and I are much better, much better," Steve growled.

Danny just sighed heavily.

"And lastly, lastly. She is my wife. My wife. Which means I've managed to sort out my relationship with her, where as you're doing god knows what."

"You finished?" Danny asked. And Steve nodded as he took a swig on his beer. It wasn't his fault that Danny had hit all of his pressure points at once. "This… this is a disaster."

No. No. Danny wasn't ruining this weekend for him and Rowan, specially not Rowan. He's fucking drop kick him into the ocean if he tried.

"Are you crazy? Look at us. We got baller suites, killer views, we're drinking beer at ten in the morning. It's awesome!"

The only thing wrong with the place was the neighbours. Danny, not Melissa, he was sure Melissa would be a great neighbour.

"First of all, don't say baller ever again in your life," Danny ordered and Steve nodded. Nahele had said something similar the last time he used it too. "That's number one. Number two, I am… uh… supposed to be romantic this weekend with her. You're aware of that, right?"

"Yeah, and I'm supposed to be romantic with Rowan, what is the issue here?"

"Yeah well romance to you is cuddling after you fuck her comatose, and I swear to you… Steven… if I hear anything tonight, I will break down that adjoining door…"

"Oh, just shut up, shut up, what is your problem? Seriously what is it?"

"The problem is that you are here and I do not need you judging me. I don't need your judge-y eyes, your judge-y face, your judge-y everything! I don't need that while I'm trying to be romantic, you understand?"

Well Steve didn't want to be around Danny when he was trying to be romantic because it didn't match Steve's brand of romantic, probably. Who knows actually, he borrowed a lot of material from Danny over the years, him and Wo Fat.

Who would have though that Wo Fat was good at romance?

"First of all, I'm very aware of your issues, of your intimacy issues and the last thing I would wanna do is make you feel uncomfortable."

"Uh-huh."

That single noise told him that Danny didn't believe him and that hurt. Like actually hurt.

"Here's what we're gonna do. If at any stage my presence makes you feel uncomfortable, makes you feel like you can't quite get to that romantic intimate place you need to get to, you said the word, I'm out."

Danny hit him with the uh-huh of disbelief again and Steve almost sighed.

"So… like a safe word?"

"Yeah."

Danny was nodding again. "I say the word, whatever it is, and you…"

"I leave," Steve finished for him.

"Okay… what's the safe word then?"

Really? He was going to put that on him to come up with? Come on now, Rowan was the word smith not him.

"I don't know, chicken salad."

"Chicken salad?"

Okay if he didn't like it, he should have come up with it himself.

"Yeah."

"Chicken salad. Okay. Well, yeah, I'll just figure out a way to casually slide chicken salad into a normal human sentence."

Steve nodded. "Organically."

Damn near impossible, unless Danny just started craving Chicken Salad sandwiches whenever they were together.

"Organically," he agreed.

"Weave it in."

He was being sarcastic of course and luckily Steve got out from this awkwardly sarcastic conversation when his phone rang.

"Chin," he said almost gratefully and the man chuckled on the other end of the phone.

"Well, we caught a homicide," he said. "And happy Valentine's Day by the way."

"Thanks, same to you."

"How's the hotel?"

Steve glanced to Danny. "It's uh crowded," he said and then a little light bulb went off. "So, uh… you guys in on the surprise?"

"Yeah, as a matter of fact, Lou and I have a bet on which one of you is going to check out first."

"Ok yeah?" he asked softly and then thought about it for a second. "Hey, you need help with the case? We can, uh…"

Chin just laughed. "Yeah, and how mad will Ro be if you bail?"

Steve thought about it and nodded. Yeah, she'd be angry. Like really angry. She had been talking non-stop about this weekend since her birthday. You should have seen how excited she got when he said he got the days off like he said he would. You would have thought she won the lottery.

"Tell him, tell him ten minutes we could be there. We're not doing nothing!" Danny called but Steve waved him off.

"Right, listen, enjoy your Valentine's Day. Keep us posted on what happens and, uh, you know, hope you get home to spend some time with Abby for Valentine's."

"Yeah, you and me both," and then Chin was off the phone.

Danny was clearly unhappy with this but Steve wasn't going to listen to him anymore. In fact, without even saying goodbye he just turned around and walked back into his suite.

The second he got in there he immediately heard: "Steven, you take a case, so help me, you will not get laid until your birthday."

Okay she was back with him then, that was good cause they were going to argue.

His birthday was like a month away so there was no way he was chancing not getting laid until then. He'd take not getting laid until then if their schedules were off, or if they were worried about Nahele hearing, but not cause she was pissed with him.

But they were going to talk about this trickery. Oh yes, they were.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

While the Hawaiian Valentine's Day was just starting, Wo Fat and Jian were winding up theirs.

And he had done good if he did say so himself.

He had wined and dined her like a good boyfriend should.

They got dressed down and went to the least classy place he could think to take her.

However, this was a girlfriend chooses day. So Jian chose everything. Where to eat, where they went, and what he bought her, and today was also a no spending limit day. And every time he said yes, no matter what it was he was saying yes to, she would squeal and jump up and down super excited to be out and about with him.

By the time they got home she was ready for the boyfriend chooses part of the night.

He got to pick what outfit she put on and he got to pick all the… activities… and positions they were in.

All his favourites and some of hers, ending on the one thing he liked best. His girlfriend astride him, lost in passion, head thrown back. It was his favourite image of her and any chance he got to see it he took.

When they were done, Jian curled into his side and he held her to him. He had begun to notice little things that were… strange to him.

Like how Jian always seemed to want to curl into him on the side that had all the scars. He knew they were grotesque, and they probably weren't very comfortable, but she really, truthfully didn't seem to mind them.

Or how he would say something, she would look at him, and then tell him plainly that what he said was insulting or had been taken in a different way. Then she would wait for him to either apologize or explain what he really meant. But she didn't expect the apology, she understood that sometimes he just didn't understand what was wrong with what he had said.

But the newest thing, was a little flutter in his chest.

It was almost similar to the sort of flutter in his chest when he was with Rowan. When she'd hug him, or she'd smile at him or tell him she loved him, he'd get this little flutter. A little light swelling of happiness.

Well Jian had something similar except hers came with a burn, and an itch to hold her close and a smile he couldn't contain.

He had thought about asking Rowan, or even Steven, if they knew what it was, but he didn't need to. Rowan had talked about it enough on her year away from Steven, so he knew exactly what it was, he was just sort of hoping that what he had could also, maybe, be some kind of illness.

Except it wasn't.

It was love.

It may not have been full love but it was there and it was starting to take hold of him.

And that scared him.

He already had too many weaknesses, too many people he was scared to lose. He didn't like that the number was getting larger by the day it seemed. But he knew he wouldn't be able to turn it off.

Just like he couldn't for Rowan, or Con and now Nahele.

"Wo?"

It was just a sleepy little murmur of his name and there it was, that stupid flutter again.

He turned to her, catching a little bit of her face turned up to his in his peripheral vision. There was always a seriousness about Jian's face but this was her proper serious face.

"I wanted to speak to you about something…"

"Oh?"

"I understand if you can't give me an answer, but I'd like you to at least start thinking about it…"

She was going to say she loved him. Would he answer her now? Or would he pull a McGarrett and hold onto it until the very last possible chance?

Maybe he'd pick the happy medium.

"Where exactly do you see this going?" she suddenly asked. "Me and you I mean."

Wo found himself disappointed. That definitely wasn't what he had expected.

"Uhm… well… what do you mean?"

"It's not that I don't like this, because I do, but uhm… I guess I want to know where you see this ending?"

Okay… what had he missed? They had just had a great day, and a great night, what… what could she be upset about? She wasn't seriously thinking about their end… right?

"Ending? Why does this have to end?"

"No, I… that's not what I meant," she said and then she was sitting up, tucking their sheet around her. As if she needed to modest.

Wo Fat sat up as well, leant back against the pillows and said: "Well… what did you mean?"

"I mean… your sister just got married, do you see yourself marrying me?"

Honestly, he didn't really see himself marrying anyone, but if he did, it would be her. "Uhm, I don't know. I hadn't thought that far in advance."

Except it was completely unlike him to do that.

"Okay… well… I have…"

Yes, that made sense, girls usually did think about their own wedding. Rowan had hers planned to a tee before Steven was even contemplating proposing.

"And I don't see how this is going to work."

A bolt of ice-cold confusion and dread snaked down his throat to his stomach. "What do you mean?"

"You're a fugitive, Wo," she said. "You can't settle down and… I'm pretty sure marrying you would make me a target to every law enforcement agency on the planet."

Yes… it would…

"I don't want to have to abandon my life and practice… it's not that I don't… have… feelings, I just… I worked so hard for this…"

"And I would never ask you to abandon it." She looked at him again, a sort of wistful sense of finality on her face. "So… is this you breaking things off? Is that what you're doing? On Valentine's Day of all days?"

"No… I don't know… I guess… I guess I just wanted to know what we were going to do…"

And he had to guess she had her answer. She had probably had the answer before she asked, he had just confirmed it.

"Can we… can we pretend I didn't bring it up?"

"Yes, I'd like that," he said. "We were having such a nice night until you brought that up."

She slapped his shoulder but he just shot her one of his smirks and pulled her back to his side. As she settled in against him, though, that smile faded though.

She was right, of course. With him a wanted criminal, and her firmly settled in her life here, there was no real future the two of them could have. It wouldn't be fair to hold on to her when he couldn't give her what she wanted, not without putting her at risk of being arrested in connection to anything he did.

The problem was, he didn't want this to end.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

The very first couple's activity the girls too them to was on the beach. Steve had hoped it would involve romping with his wife through the waves but instead they had scheduled the beach volleyball court and they were going to play a match. Couple against couple.

Which Steve was finding hard to pay attention to because Rowan was in a navy-blue two-piece that was mouth droppingly hot on her. She had a high waisted bottom and a low-cut top that bared all of her tattoos. Including that mermaid underboob tattoo.

Steve didn't even care that they were matching. He had put on his own navy-blue board shorts and the navy-blue tank top with the rainbow lettering of the word Hawaii, without realizing what she would be wearing.

The matching was a good thing though because they were catching a lot of stares, both from boys interested in Rowan and girls interested in him. The matching helped prove that they were together, though the wedding bad would do well to prove it too.

Across from them was Danny, who was in shorter blue shorts and a grey tee-shirt, so nothing special. But Amber had dressed up for the occasion. She too was in a two-piece. Hers had hunter green bottoms and her top was white with a green palm leaf pattern.

They had been playing for a while and to his horror it was not going well. They were actually losing and though this was supposed to just be a friendly game, Rowan should have known it wasn't. Steve was very competitive, and it was worse with Danny.

He kept saying it was okay but it wasn't, it really wasn't, because he was competitive and he was losing.

To Danny.

"My bad," Rowan said for the millionth time as she handed Steve the ball to serve.

"It's a friendly game. Don't worry about it. It's all good. We got this." But as he walked towards the net he said to Danny: "You wanna switch the teams up a little bit?"

"No, I don't want to switch the teams!" Danny cried and then looked to Rowan. "He wants to switch the teams."

"No, you did not just say that to Danny," Rowan cried immediately looking hurt.

"I'm just trying to be a good sport and mix it up," he said to her but she just turned a glare to him and he broke, he just crumbled like one of her warm cookies. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm competitive. You're competitive I don't understand how you haven't like rainmaned your way into winning this for us right now."

"Why would I, nothing's right on this," Rowan said with a shrug. "It's just beach volleyball."

"My pride is riding on this, Rowan!" he cried but

"Are you going to serve?" Danny asked but Steve just shook his head.

"How about we put something on this? Huh? Okay? Would that work?"

"I mean… if I really wanted it then…"

"Okay, you help me win this…"

"It's eight to three, buddy. You're not coming back from that. This is the highlight of my weekend beating you," Danny cried and then turned to Melissa. "I mean, aside from spending time with you obviously."

"If you help me with this, you get to pick what we do next, and I cannot say no."

Rowan's eyes lit up and across the net from there he swore he saw worry on Danny's face.

"It's not going to help…" he tried to say but Rowan was already re-doing her hair and talking to herself.

Steve smiled at Danny who was shaking his head. "This is cheating!" he called but Steve wasn't going to let him have it.

"Kay, I'm ready," she said and Steve served.

Danny answered and then Rowan shot forward. And then she hit it, straight this time, landing just a foot away from Danny without the time to catch it.

Danny turned to her and she smiled. "Eight-Four."

This happened four more times, and each time, Rowan would send the ball exactly where Melissa and Danny weren't expecting it. And each time she updated them on the score until they were all tied up.

"Okay, see, see," Steve said. "See what you can do when you put your mind to it?"

"Okay, her math thing… her math thing shouldn't be helping her this much…"

"It's not," Rowan said. "I just watched you guys play. You're both weak on the left. If it put the ball on your left 75% of the time you'll miss."

Steve turned to his wife. How… how did she know that? How long had she known that? Had she known that before they made their agreement? Was her knowing that why she had made that agreement?

"Wait a second… wait a second… have you … were you… did you Professional me?"

"What do you mean, you? If anything, she's Professionaled us!" Danny cried.

"If you mean, did I purposely play bad knowing that you'd get upset and ask me to do my math thing, and I'd be able to rope you into doing something that I want to do in return without you complaining?" she asked. Steve just glared at her while she smiled. "Of course not! Steven, how could you think so lowly of me?"

Except she was grinning while she said it so she obviously had done just that. God he should have seen it, should have guess that was what she was doing.

"But if you'd like me to stop…"

"You can stop when we beat them, thank you," Steve said.

And then a frisbee hit Melissa's ass.

She turned, yelping a hand going to the affected body part and the game and the argument all stopped.

Danny picked up the offending frisbee and then turned just as a kid said: "Hey man. That's my disk."

It was a kid, probably 13 or 14, in obnoxious lime green shorts, a cap that wasn't on his head right and a blue button up shirt that he had unbuttoned entirely so they could see his very gangly not-worth-looking-at chest.

"Yeah, I know, your disk just came and hit my girlfriend in the butt."

He's lucky actually, cause if it had been Rowan's that kid would have been face first in the sand. Either cause Rowan had knocked him over or he had.

"Yeah, I really puled that last scoober," h e said like he was speaking English and not nonsense. "Accidents happen when you're shooting for greatness, right."

"Yeah, I don't know what that means but you should apologize."

When the kid just stared at Danny, he narrated what the kid should be saying: "Sorry, lady. I'm sorry, miss."

"Dude, get over yourself. It was an accident," he said.

Rowan shook her head and stated forward. Steve had to grab her around the middle and clutch her to her chest to keep her from getting under that net. Yeah, he didn't want to know how Rowan was going to deal with it but she bet the kid would have been traumatized by the end of it.

"Huh."

Yeah it was not the right thing to say at all, but he was still going to let Danny deal with it and not Rowan.

"Alright, well, go long. I'll get you on the scoober," Danny said. "I'll scoob you out…"

And the kid took off, going long as Danny said and then instead of throwing it to the kid, he threw it right into the ocean.

"My bad, that was an accident," Danny said except he didn't mean it.

"That was, like, really mean, dude," the kid called.

"Kid, run or I'm going to come over there and make you regret everything from your choice of clothes to your hairstyle," Rowan warned.

The kid stared at her and she sighed: "Alright, do you think your new friends would like to know that the reason your hair and your hat are so big is because you're worried both of your heads are too small?"

The kid's eyes bugged out and he scampered away, like right away and they all turned to Rowan.

"What? My mom was a shrink. She taught me things. Like, when it comes to guys almost all of their choices revolve around sex or their penis."

Steve shook his head. God, sometimes he wondered what Rowan would be like if she had a normal mom, but then again, he wouldn't have his Rowan anymore.

"Right, what are we playing to, cause it doesn't matter we're going to win either way," Rowan asked

"Yeah we'll see about that,"

It didn't matter though, Rowan and Steve beat Danny and Melissa 23-to-10 and his fate was sealed.

Fucking mani-pedis were next on the agenda for him and he had no one to blame but himself.