“Thank you, sir,” Kris said.
Without any further encouragement, the fellow left, leaving Kris and Jack alone. Kris stayed seated on the bed. Should she and Jack put it to use immediately?
Kris found herself surprised on how unsure she was. Shy even.
Jack kicked off his shoes, saying, “Follow me,” and headed out to the beach. He walked the full distance down to the water. It was low tide, so that was quite a walk.
Leaving Kris to wonder what was going through his mind.
She was a woman; the owner had piqued her interest about clothes. She checked out the closet with a skimpy two-piece swimsuit painted on it. There was a big, colorful muumuu. There were several pairs of shorts and tank tops from nice to so skimpy Mother would never have let Kris out of the house in them, even in college. Not that Mother knew all that much what Kris wore in college since she and Father had moved into Government House.
Even with the house to herself, Kris kept to Mother’s standards. It wouldn’t help Father’s next election to have a photo of his daughter dressed inappropriately.
Hey, baby ducks, Kris could almost hear Abby saying, remember, other side of the galaxy.
The swimsuits went from skimpy to Oh My God bits of string and not much else. What had the sign said at the restaurant? TOTAL NUDITY NOT ALLOWED.
Kris eyed her closet and wondered where “Total Nudity” ended or began.
She grabbed the muumuu and stepped into the bathroom to change. She had the cottage to herself, but she really was feeling shy. What if Jack returned when she was only half-dressed?
The bathroom was nice. A large tub, clearly intended for two. The shower seemed fully open to the outside, but no, when she looked closer, she spotted shutters.
They didn’t look like they’d been closed for a while.
Dressed in a muumuu and nothing else, she followed Jack to the shore. He seemed so intensely focused on the ocean, Kris was almost afraid to disturb him, but she put a hand on his back and began to gently rub it.
“Thank you,” Jack said. “That feels good.”
“I’m glad then. A penny for your thoughts?” she said.
It took him a while to answer. When he did, he surprised Kris. “I love the ocean, and it scares me.”
Kris owed Jack a whole lot more than a penny for that. Never in her life would she have guessed it. “You’ve got to explain that.”
“I know you love sailing.”
“It’s some of my best memories as a kid. We quit sailing after Eddy died. The family did, but I could still get some of my friends to go out sailing. And yes, I loved the freedom of it.”
“But you were sailing a lake. Did you ever sail so far out you couldn’t see the shore?”
“The lake was too small for that.”
“The ocean is a totally different matter. It’s been here for billions of years, waves pounding on the shore, turning rocks to pebbles, and pebbles to sand. The ocean goes on forever.”
“Yes,” Kris said, aware of the geology lesson, but not at all sure what this meant to Jack.
“And it will go on for billions of years more after our bones have turned to dust.”
“My, aren’t you the pessimist. We could screw up, let the aliens take the planet, drain the oceans, then no more billion years.”
“Now who’s the pessimist? I wasn’t thinking of the ocean going on after us as something pessimistic. I was thinking that our time is so short, we have to be fools to waste it.”
“Oh,” Kris said. She found that reply on the weak side. “Good point.” she added, and felt like a bigger fool.
“You come here often?” she finally said, throwing in a smile and hoping he’d forgive her loss for words.
“To the beach, not nearly enough. Here, only once with the most beautiful girl I’ve ever met. Really spectacular girl, did I tell you? Not so great a conversationalist at times, but wow, can she blow up ships!”
“But can’t open a can, cook spaghetti, or warm water,” Kris added, smiling as she enjoyed his choice of words. He saw a woman she could never believe existed.
He put his arm around her. Now it was him massaging her back. Just her back, nothing more.
“Can we sit down?” she asked.
“You’re dressed for it. Do I really want to get my greens sandy? Will you stay here while I go change?”
“Make it quick. A Sailor might come along and ask me to show him a good time.”
“You warn him that if he takes off with my girl, I will track him down and beat him to a pulp.”
Kris considered several replies, and was leaning toward “Can I watch the fight?” when she thought better of it. “I’ll warn him off and send him on his way, a sadder but wiser man.”
“You do that,” Jack shouted over his shoulder as he jogged for the cottage.
Kris sat down cross-legged. The damp sand quickly soaked through the thin material. She’d even left her spider silk behind. When she’d put them in a bureau drawer, she’d found no underwear.
Interesting.
She’d also taken a peek into Jack’s closet. There were shorts, from long to scandalously short. Shirts from casual to hardly enough to keep the sun off. Swimsuits from indecent to “Oh My God, Why Bother?” and some colorful thin scarves that you could see right through. Lava-lava she thought they were called.
Kris sat patiently, eyes on the ocean, ever-changing, yet ever the same, waiting to see what Jack showed up in.
His shorts were long, and his shirt would not have been out of place in a casual bar back on Wardhaven. He settled down beside her, then winced. “The sand didn’t look that wet.”
“Ocean, Jack. It’s been wet for, what did you say, billions of years?”
“Yes, but what am I going to wear to supper tonight? These were the only decent shorts in the closet.”
“And this was the only muumuu in mine.”
Jack looked sidewise at Kris. “You think your granny did more than just reserve us a cottage? You think she chose our wardrobe?”
“She was a Longknife. Long ago, admittedly.”
“I’m sorry, Kris. I hope you won’t take offense, but from where I sit in the cheap seats, once a Longknife, always a Longknife.”
“Honey, you have not been sitting in the cheap seats. You’ve spent nearly as much time in the same room with my Grampa Ray as I have lately, and you’re closer to him.”
“That’s so I can jump between you two if you ever come to blows.”
“Whose side would you be on if it ever happened?” Kris asked. More than curious.
“Raymond is my king,” Jack said. “But you are my girl.”
Kris couldn’t help but grin. Not “my primary,” “my girl.”
“You’re the first guy to call me his girl in a long time.”
“There was someone before me? Should I be jealous?”
“Nope, he was a dork. Just wanted to be able to say he’d scored on a Longknife, and I was foolish or lonely enough to let him get close to me. Mother had warned me about boys like that. I ignored or forgot the only good advice Mother ever gave me.”
“I admit, I was jealous of that fellow on Chance. Mayor what’s-his-name,” Jack admitted.
Kris got pensive. “Yeah, that one had prospects. But he took one good look at what happens around a Longknife and beat feet for the exit.” Kris sighed. “Like they all do.”
They watched the ocean in silence for a long while.