Just for Fun by Rosalind James Page A

throw it right out the kitchen window.”
    “You had a lot of hostility there,” Lucy commented.
“Good thing he dumped you.”
    Emma laughed. “They sent me a birth announcement, can you
believe it? They waited to have a baby until she finished her Ph.D. Of course they did. And who knows what they did to get it timed so perfectly. Born at
the start of the summer holidays.”
    “I shudder to think,” Lucy admitted. They grinned at each
other in perfect accord as they stood to exit the ferry, docking now. “Point
taken. No engineers. But maybe one of Tom’s mates?”
    “Like Mr. Sucktoes?” Emma asked, causing heads to turn in
the boarding queue, and both sisters to burst out laughing.
    “OK, the foot fetish was a surprise,” Lucy conceded when
they were free of the crowd and walking along the wooden wharf together. “What
are the odds of that happening again, though? Isolated disaster. I’ll make Tom
vet them better for kinkiness next time.”
    “Well, bad kinkiness.”
    “Is there a good kind?” Lucy asked, staring at her sister.
    Emma shrugged and smiled, waited till Lucy popped the lock
on the car, then swung in with her gym bag.
    “Don’t answer that,” Lucy decided. “TMI.”
     
    So that was no Lucy on the beach trip. Graham’s mum Stephanie
was a washout, too. “I think that cold of Heather’s has turned into an ear
infection,” she’d sighed on the phone. “Looks like another fab Saturday in the
doctor’s office.”
    “Let me take Graham,” Emma urged. “Then at least you’ll only
have the one.”
    “Thanks,” Stephanie said. “I owe you.”
    “Nah. It all evens out.”
    Now she sat at a picnic table with her grid-lined
sketchbook, working on a design and casting an occasional eye at the distant
play structure where Zack and Graham were happily scrambling, climbing, and
taking turns zipping down the long flying fox with the other kids. She found
her attention straying as well to the group of young men playing an
enthusiastic game of touch rugby in an open space nearby. It would be exciting
to see Nic play at Eden Park tonight, she had to admit. Zack wasn’t the only
one looking forward to that performance.
    Some of the guys here didn’t look too bad with their shirts
off, she decided. But none could hold a candle to Nic, the way he’d been in
Fiji. Brown and hard-muscled, impressive even then. He’d added a few more kilos
of power in the years since, she’d noticed. The shoulders and thighs might be a
bit bulkier now. His arms, too. Her gaze became abstracted as her mind drifted
to those powerful forearms, the bit of bicep showing beneath the hem of his
T-shirt sleeves, all she’d really seen of him so far. She’d bet the rest of him
still looked as good as ever, though.
    She glanced across at the water, the long stretch of beach
that gave Long Bay its name. Pity she hadn’t been able to arrange some
additional adult supervision. She’d have liked to have a real swim herself. Or
something else, she thought as she felt the tug of desire. To be with Nic
again, the way it had been.
    They’d taken one of the resort’s kayaks out one morning, had
paddled to an isolated beach on the other side of the island, pulled the boat
up high on the fine white sand. Had gone for a swim in the clear turquoise sea,
diving down to look at shells, picking up live sand dollars where they lay
humped just under the sandy bottom, then setting them gently down again. Nic
made her laugh by kicking up into a handstand, then walking on his hands,
strong brown legs waving in the air.   
    “Show-off,” she chided as he shot back up to the surface in
a spray of salt water.
    “Race you,” he said with a grin. “To the other side of the
bay.”
    “You have to give me a head start,” she objected. “You’re
too fast.”
    “OK. I’ll count to 20. Ready . . . steady . . . GO!”
    She’d set off, using her fastest crawl, putting all she had
into it, knowing he’d beat her anyway, her heart