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“What does that mean?” he called out and turned his whole body, leaned back, and looked expectantly up at his dad.
“Get your ass up here,” Sawyer called out to me, pretending to be annoyed.
“Get your ass up here,” Remy called back, mimicking his dad.
“Remy, what did I tell you about using your daddy’s potty words?” Billie scolded, shading her eyes from the sun and glaring up at her husband. “Sawyer Wild, you need to watch that mouth of yours, these are your children, you know. What did I tell you?”
“Guys, are we going out on a trip or does anyone else want to hold us up?” Colby looked seriously fed up as he glanced embarrassed toward another teenage boy standing beside him.
“Sorry, Colby, we’re almost ready” I said, realizing he had company and probably felt mortified by all of us, like most teenage boys did.
Tricia had wandered toward Billie, who had lifted Brynn and perched her on her hip. They stood on the back of the bottom deck already, but Billie set Brynn down again after wiping something from her eye. On a sideward glance, I saw Remy as he began negotiating the steep steps from the upper to lower deck. Rushing forward I caught him two steps from the bottom and lifted him up in my arms.
“Whoa, buddy. You need to ask an adult to help you move between decks, Pirates rules, little man. Got it?”
“Sorry, Uncle James, I want to see Auntie Tricia,” he mumbled, his head bent as he spoke into my chest.
After hugging him I set him down on the deck and he made a beeline straight for Tricia. When Tricia sat down, Remy immediately followed, climbed up on the seat next to her and chatted enthusiastically. It was clear he adored her.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw him creep closer to her until you couldn’t have split a hair between them. Turning my head, I saw Brynn walk over, and climb up beside Tricia on the other side.
Remy climbed onto Tricia’s knee and Brynn appeared jealous as she tried to push him off. Billie wandered over, muttered something to Tricia, and picked Brynn up, but I didn’t hear what she said as Billie stepped farther inside the cabin out of view.
“Excuse us.” Colby’s voice distracted me, and I glanced in his direction. “Can we pass, Uncle James?” he asked, nodding to the stairs I had stood in front of.
“Right, sorry, and this is?” I asked, nodding toward his friend.
“Damian,” his friend replied, confidently, “Colby’s buddy—we’re on the same baseball team.”
“Pleased to meet you, Damian,” I replied, and stood aside.
The following ten minutes were spent equipping everyone out with life jackets and ensured the kids understood their boundaries.
Once Sawyer was satisfied everything was in hand, we set sail for the ocean. Instead of all the seating being up on the upper deck, we’d had the spec changed to provide double berth extra seating on the lower deck to provide a great view from the stern.
For the first hour we were exhilarated by the speed and it moved well in the water, thanks to the powerful engine on board. After weighing anchor, we then spent an hour fooling around in the refreshing cool waves of the Atlantic.
Although the water had felt freezing at first, the weather was perfect for a swim in the ocean. Calm waters made it as near to perfect as we could have hoped for.
The twins swam contained within a little plastic structure that floated on top of the waves, but had a small compartment to keep them in a confined space, allowing them around three feet of water to swim in while it kept them securely attached to the boat. Sawyer really had thought things through in the wake of our impulsive buy.
Tricia told us she’d been put off swimming in the ocean after watching “Jaws” as a kid. I knew better than to tease her about that. She made up for her lack of participation by keeping watch on the twins to let Billie swim with Sawyer and the rest of us.
After our swim, we ate the packed lunch made by Mallery and once the twins had polished theirs off, they behaved in a more docile way. Remy was tuckered out and lay down next to where Tricia was seated and within minutes, he’d fallen asleep. Brynn clung to Billie with her thumb in her mouth fighting tiredness.
Leaving them in the downstairs seating area, I headed up to the top deck to find Sawyer. He and the boys were talking boats and I felt a pang of envy at how easy Sawyer could switch his conversation from one level to another with ease in the way that he did.
The conversation was interrupted when Billie came up a couple of minutes later and reminded them all they still hadn’t eaten. As they filed downstairs, she asked if she could talk to me for a minute.
“Has Tricia ever spoken to you about Brynn?”
“Brynn?” I repeated, but knew immediately what the issue was.
“She overtly favors Remy over Brynn and it’s breaking my heart. I know she’s a handful, but she escalates her behavior when she gets ignored… and she clearly feels ignored by the way Tricia avoids her.”
“Did you ask Tricia about it?”
“No, of course not, Brynn has always been near us when Tricia is around. The poor kid has been seeking her attention since the moment you both arrived, and Tricia for some reason is either immune to her or just has an outright dislike for her.”
