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The Company You Keep (1/1)

Catherine slipped off her shoes as soon as she stepped into the beach house, relieved to be out of the tortuous footwear for the next 48 hours. As she untucked her blouse from her skirt she called Steve's name.

"Out here," came his reply so she headed for the deck.

She sighed happily as the door slid open before she'd even made it across the kitchen and he greeted her with a smile.

"Welcome home," he said as he kissed her on the lips.

"It's good to be home," she said as she wrapped her arms around his waist. She could feel the tension in his back muscles. "It's been a long week."

He rubbed her shoulders soothingly. "Luckily you don't have to think about work all weekend."

She chuckled. "Fingers crossed."

Suddenly she noticed the wire brush and cleaning agents sitting on the counter. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing really." He shrugged. "I've been meaning to clean the tile grout for a while now so I figured 'no time like the present',"

"Are you ok?" she asked.

"I'm fine," he insisted. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, you texted me …" she checked her watch, "about ninety minutes ago to say you were heading home. I thought I'd find you sitting on the deck with a beer in your hand but instead it looks like you came through the door and immediately started cleaning the grout."

"Not remotely true." He grinned the boyish grin that could still make her heart do backflips. "I changed the oil in my truck first. I just started the grout a few minutes ago."

She cocked an eyebrow.

"Like you said," He returned to scrubbing. "It was a long week."

"Everything working out ok with Jadon?" she asked.

"Everything is great with Jadon," he assured her. "He was the right choice. In fact, you should have seen him today. He had to show someone his credentials and he was so proud I thought he was gonna burst."

Catherine smiled. "Cody said Jadon has stopped by their apartment every night this week to tell him and Jess all about his day."

"That sounds like him."

Steve stretched his arms behind his head, pulling on each elbow in turn, in an effort to loosen his shoulders up, then continued.

"There were just a lot of red tape issues this week and you know how I hate those."

Catherine rolled her neck from side to side as she grabbed a bottle of water from the outside refrigerator. "I think we both need a little stress relief after this week."

He waggled his eyebrows.

"Not that," she laughed. "At least not yet. Mom, dad and Grandma Ang are on their way with Angie, Ashae, DJ and Michael. It's sleepover night, remember?"

"How could I forget," Steve said. "Angie has only mentioned it about a thousand times."

As if on cue, the door slid open and Angie and Ashae bounded out, followed by Joseph and Elizabeth with DJ and Michael, one on each side of Grandma Ang, pulling up the rear.

"We stopped at Mr. Jirou's," Angie reported as she hugged first Catherine then Steve. "He gave us cookies."

"They were very yummy," Ashae bubbled.

"They were good," DJ confirmed as he greeted both his parents with a smile and a hug.

"Chocolate Macadamia Nut," Michel said. "Those are my favorite."

"I picked up a few things for dinner," Joseph said as he placed several bags on the part of the counter Steve hadn't cleaned yet.

Steve peered inside. "There's a lot of meat here. Are we expecting a football team for dinner?"

"Jirou was having a sale." Joseph grinned. "I figured you can put the extra in the freezer."

"This reminds me of when you guys used to come and visit after I got my first place off base." Catherine smiled. "You always knocked on the door with an armload of groceries."

Joseph dropped his arm across her shoulders. "Old habits die hard."

Suddenly Angie and Ashae squealed with excitement and when Steve followed their eyelines he saw Cody and Jadon appearing around the corner of the house.

"I brought your wrench back," Cody said. "I put it in the garage. Thanks again."

"Any time," Steve said.

"Have you got to say 'freeze' to a bad guy yet?" Angie asked as she and Ashae greeted their new guests. "Jadon is on the team now," Angie reminded her bestie. "His badge is very shiny."

"We can help you practice saying 'freeze' if you want," Angie offered. She looked at Cody. "You can be the pretend bad guy because me and Ashae are gonna be on the team with Jadon."

"What are you two up to tonight?" Grandma Ang asked.

"Jess is at a concert with her sister so we thought we'd go out and grab some food and just hang out," Cody said.

"You can eat here if you want," Catherine offered. "We have plenty."

"I love that idea," Grandma Ang clapped. "Cody, you can catch me up on your wedding plans and Jadon can tell me all about his first week on the task force. And maybe we can play a little Uno later."

"That's fine with me." Cody looked at his best friend who looked at Steve hesitantly.

"What?" Steve asked.

"I just thought maybe now that you see me everyday you might not want me hanging around here in my off hours," Jadon said.

Steve shook his head. "Don't be ridiculous. You're always welcome here."

Jadon beamed. "Thanks. Then I definitely accept. I've been working on sharpening my Uno skills. I want to test them against the master."

"Like I always say." Grandma Ang grinned at Jadon. "This one has charm for days."

"I hope that offer goes for us too," Grace said as she, Linda, Kendra and Casey came through the door in time to hear the tail end of the conversation.

Steve smiled. "Of course it does," as Grace greeted him with a hug.

"There's a major water main break across town and we're not gonna have water until tomorrow at the earliest," Grace said. "We have plans to meet some friends downtown later and we were hoping we could borrow your shower. Danno and Gabby's water is out too."

"We would have gone to our house but Jacob is having a bunch of his Tutor Time friends over and it's a little chaotic," Casey said.

"You can come here anytime," Catherine told them. "You know that." She pulled out her phone. "I'm gonna text your dad and tell him and Gabby to come over too."

An hour later there was music blaring from Grace's phone and she and Casey tried to teach Elizabeth and Joseph that newest Tik-tok dance. Kendra and Linda were playing a game with the four younger children which had them all squealing repeatedly at a level that Catherine was sure could be heard all the way down the beach.

Jadon and Cody were filling Grandma Ang in on everything that had been going on in their lives lately while Danny playfully heckled Steve about when dinner would be ready.

Catherine walked up beside where Steve stood manning the grill.

"You know what's amazing?" she asked.

He smiled. "You."

She blushed.

He still had the ability to render her speechless.

She kissed his cheek. "I was just thinking that I came home to find you with the whole house to yourself, all the peace and quiet you could want, and you were cleaning grout and trying to shake off the stress of the week."

He nodded.

"Now we're here, surrounded by unexpected guests, loud music, kids screaming." She looked around and smiled. "General chaos everywhere you look. And you're standing here looking totally relaxed."

He thought for a minute as he looked at everything going on around him.

"I guess it's true what they say." He grinned. "It's all about the company you keep."

THE END

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