Adam's Journey Pt. 42

Ron stood, arms folded and straight-faced, calmly watching us, but when I saw Kori's eyes crinkle slightly at the corners, and the edges of her mouth tic up, I knew that once again I'd been totally and completely had!

I turned back to Kristi. "Wait just a minute here..."

She broke out laughing, sweet music to my ears, and hurled herself into my arms, almost knocking me down! I squeezed her tight enough to knock the air out of her, crushing her to me, and our mouths found each other for a long, deep, agonizingly sweet kiss. She felt so good, and so right, and I know I choked up a little with the pure joy and surprise of the moment. As we separated, we were both swiping tears from our eyes with our hands. I knew I had been missing her terribly, but at that moment I think I first realized how much!

I had a million questions! "How did you get here? I thought you had a closing you had to do, what happened with that? And how did you know we'd be here?"

She laughed again and nodded at Ron and Kori. "Thank those two, they set it all up. Kori called me yesterday, while they were waiting for you up at Bullfrog, just to see how I was doing."

Kori stepped across onto the dock, and she and Kristi gave each other a big hug. Kori then took over the explaining. "Yeah, and I found out that her closing had been pushed back at the last second."

Back to Kristi. "Yeah, the lender found something in the title search that they didn't like, and put the closing back two weeks while the current owner gets it cleared up, so I found myself available."

The narration kicked back to Kori, the two telling the tale together seamlessly, as though they'd rehearsed it. "So we cooked this up, and Ronnie got one of his buddies that he's made some great deals for in the past to fly her down to Page."

Ronnie interrupted their flow. "Yeah, Joey's a great guy. He used to be a fighter pilot in 'Nam, now he flies this sweet little Gulfstream that I helped him track down - he kind of owed me a favor." He winked at Kristi. "Now he owes me another one, since I let him meet you babe!"

Kristi laughed. "Yeah, he's pretty sexy! What is he, fifty-something, but he's in great shape and has that sexy uber-male, fighter pilot swagger thing going on. He even let me fly the plane for awhile!" Kristi seemed surprised when Ron told her that Joey was sixty.

Kori was still itching to complete her tale. "So anyhow, he flew her to Page, which is only a few miles from here, and...

Kristi again "and I caught the shuttle out to the marina, and here I am!"

I looked at Ron. "So the boat..."

He laughed. "Ah, I actually saw that light bulb go on! There's nothing wrong with the boat Adam, that was me screwing with the throttle and transmission, making it feel like it was missing or something. The boat is fine. Why do you think I wouldn't let you drive?"

Unbelievable! They had taken me utterly off guard, fooling me completely, and I had swallowed it hook, line, and sinker! But now Kristi was here, and I had my arm around her waist, and I didn't mind at all that they had made me look foolish. It was a very small price to pay.

I remembered something. "So how do you know Ty and Cody, the guys on the other boat?"

She laughed. "I don't, really. I was just sitting out here waiting for you guys when they showed up with all their gear and started to load up. They walked over to say hi and introduce themselves, and we started talking."

Yeah, I'll bet they just came over to say hi! I felt a small pang of jealousy before remembering that Kristi had been dealing with the attention of other men for years, and could handle herself just fine.

She went on. "Anyhow, I didn't have anything to do, so I started helping them load their junk, then you showed up, and here we are!" She turned and shouted over to them. "Hey Tyler, Cody, come here for a minute and say hello!"

They set down what they were carrying and wandered over, Cody, the taller of the two, wiping his hands on his pants. He smiled and stuck his hand out, and I shook it, noticing his strong grip. "Hi, I'm Cody. You must be Adam, we've heard a lot about you!"

"I am, good to meet you Cody. I hope at least a little of what you've heard was good." I liked him instantly, noticing his warm manner and open, honest smile as he greeted Kori and Ron. He introduced his friend Ty, both of them probably mid-twenties, younger than any of us. Cody looked to be in very good shape, but in a lean, athletic way. His friend Ty was shorter and more muscular, also in great shape but with more evidence of the hours spent in the gym, hitting the weights. His attitude was initially more belligerent, almost pugnacious, and I wondered what his problem might be.

He tried to crush my hand as we shook, but I was prepared and gave it right back. He winced. "You the guy?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"You, man, you Adam? Her guy?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess you could say that."

"Whatta you got?"

"I don't know what you mean." His attitude was starting to piss me off a little bit, but I was trying hard not to let it spoil my joy at seeing Kristi.

"Why you so special? What's she see in you?"

I'd had enough. "Well Tyler, I'll tell you. I found out a long time ago that she gets real hot over guys that can speak in complete sentences."

He bristled, realizing I was jabbing him a little bit. Cody cracked up and slapped him on the back. "You had that one coming Ty! Now stop being a prick and apologize." He turned to me. "You'll have to forgive him Adam, he's just disappointed that you showed up. I think he was hoping you'd be a no-show and we could talk this pretty lady into joining us on our boat - like she'd want to hang around with a couple of smelly fishermen on a mere dinghy while you've got this floating mansion."

Ty got a kind of sheepish look and apologized, mostly to Kristi, who was still the object of his adoring gaze. I realized it had just been a couple of stallions sparring momentarily over a long-legged mare, but that at least for the moment he recognized that she was mine.

They wanted to take a look at our boat, and Ron gave them the tour as I helped Kristi bring her bags aboard. I couldn't get enough of looking at her, and touching her, still not quite believing she was really there. Kori was almost beside herself with joy and excitement at how well her plan had worked out, and was visibly thrilled with how happy Kristi and I were to be together again, and she flitted around us, bubbling happily.

After they toured our boat, we walked with them over to theirs to see their ski boat, a MasterCraft Prostar packing a 350ci V-8 pumping out 400 horses. It was set up with a mid-ships pylon for skiing, and they had skis, slalom skis, and a kneeboard with them, stowed under the seats. It was a very sweet ride, sleek and undoubtedly fast. It belonged to Ty, although they were renting the houseboat.

We talked about meeting them during the week somewhere to go skiing, and while we tried to work that out, Kori remembered the party scheduled for that evening. "Oh, hey, there's a party tonight, a bunch of boats getting together at Smuggler's Cove! You guys should come, the lady organizing it said that single guys were always very welcome." She chuckled. "She had her eye on Adam, I think. He's taken now of course, but you guys aren't!"

That idea seemed to intrigue them, Cody joking about it and Ty eyeing Kristi speculatively. I don't think he realized that I saw him do that. They promised to try to attend, and we parted ways. We left the dock and headed back up the lake while they were still finishing up, and I took Kristi back to help her get settled into my room. Our room. It felt very good to think of it that way, and I wanted desperately to be alone with her. It turns out she wanted the same thing.

I sat and watched her unpack her bag, still not quite believing she was really there. She is so beautiful and moves with such a lithe easy grace that it makes my heart ache just to look at her, and when she turned and found me watching her I smiled. She straightened as she brushed her hair back, smiling at me in return.

"Gosh Adam, it's so good to see you! And to see you smiling, at that! Did we really surprise you?"

I laughed. "You could say that, you could have knocked me over with a feather! I turned around to ogle the pretty girl and check out her cute little ass, and when I found you standing there behind me it totally blew me away! I never expected that, not in a million years."

She looked puzzled. "What pretty girl?"

"You, of course! I was admiring your tight little tush as we came in, and your great legs, but I didn't realize from a distance that it was you - I should have known, asses that nice are pretty rare."

She laughed and wiggled her butt at me. "I'm glad you still like it. So you're really glad I'm here? You're not still upset with me?"

I looked at her, serious now. "No. I've been wishing since the minute I got here that you were here with me. There's stuff to work out, but God, I've missed you so much!"

She sat on my lap, putting her arm around my neck. "That's really good to hear. I've been so afraid that my lies had screwed up the best thing that ever happened to me, but now maybe we can start over and make it work. I sure plan to anyhow, but I know we need to talk." She laughed. "I guess it's a good thing you didn't find some bimbo to bring along to the lake like I told you to, huh?"

I grabbed my head. "Oh shit! I completely forgot! Seeing you here just blew everything else out of my head. I did Kristi, I met a woman that's planning to come and join us, but not until Wednesday. Crap, I need to make a call and tell her not to come, I guess. I hope we're not out of signal range." I dug for my cell phone.

Relieved to see that I still had a strong signal, I began to search for where I had entered Tiffany's number. Glancing up, I noticed Kristi looking intently at me, a bemused expression on her face. I held her gaze, waiting for her to speak, now feeling like a total ass for inviting Tiffany along.

Finally she smiled, shaking her head slowly. "You really did? You found some bimbo and talked her into coming along with you on a boat trip?"

I frowned. "Well, it sounds kinda bad when you put it like that."

She snorted derisively. "You think?"

"Really hon', it's not like that. First, Tiff is no bimbo, she's a very sweet and vulnerable woman. Tough though, and smart. She's definitely led a difficult life, at times, but there's some steel inside of her. Interesting lady."

"Is she beautiful? And did you say her name is Tiff?"

I wouldn't lie to her. "Tiffany actually, and uhhh, yeah, she is very attractive. Different though, not just all-over undeniably gorgeous like you."

"I guess that's meant to be a compliment? Never mind the ego stroking, just tell me about this woman you find so fascinating."

I was antsy to call her, before I lost my signal, but I took a few minutes to tell Kristi about Tiffany, about how I had met her, and about the bumps in Tiffany's life and how she had come through it to become a strong and more confident, fascinating woman. And about how she wore some of the damage of her former life on her face, like a badge of honor, and how I felt that added character and uniqueness to her beauty. And about her triumphs, in the arena and in life with her business and the kids she worked with. When I finished, Kristi just looked at me for a moment before speaking.

"She sounds like quite a woman. Do you love her?"

"I barely know her."

She stared into my eyes. "That's not an answer."

"No, I supose it's not. OK, I don't love her. I do like and admire her though, a great deal. I think we could have been great friends."

She smiled at that, I'm not sure why. "Did you fuck her?"

"No! We spent barely any time together, most of it driving down here. She met Ron and Kori, we all had a drink together. I really just invited her along on a whim, I was surprised when she accepted, but she had already said she was going to take a separate bedroom. It was just for fun, her coming along."

"Uh-huh. Were you hoping to fuck her?"

Again, I wouldn't lie to her. "I figured there was a pretty good chance of that happening. Yeah, I guess I was hoping to - it was kind of your idea you know, you said for me to. Was that just blowing smoke on your part?"

"No, I meant it. Call her Adam, tell her I'm here and explain the situation, but ask her to still come. I'd love to meet her. Any woman that can move you enough to invite her along on a trip like this after you've only known her a couple of hours must be something very special. She really broke through those fortress walls around you pretty quickly!"

I shrugged. "Yeah, I guess she did. There's just something about her. Are you sure about asking her to still come along? That might seem a little weird."

She patted my cheek reassuringly. "Sure, I'd really like to get to know her. I already know you have great taste in women - you picked me, after all."

I laughed. "Yeah, let's hold that thought and forget about my ex-wife for the moment. I don't imagine Tiff will want to come though, with you here."

Kristi shrugged. "She's got to come and meet me sometime - she's got your car, right?"

"Oh yeah, good point. I forgot about that. OK, I'll try." I hit the button to dial Tiffany's number, and it rang several times. Just as I expected it to go to voice mail, she answered. Her voice had that rich, sexy huskiness to it that I remembered. She sounded good.

"Adam, hi! I didn't expect to hear from you, what a nice surprise!"

"Hi Tiff, it's good to talk to you too. Hey listen, I had a little surprise of my own." I explained about how Ron and Kori had surprised me with Kristi, and that she was here now, but that we all still wanted her to come along and join us for a few days. When I was finished speaking she was quiet for awhile, long enough that I thought maybe I'd lost the signal. "Tiffany, are you there?"

"Yeah, I'm here, I was just thinking. Wouldn't that seem too strange, having me along while you're with the woman you love? I mean, I don't want to intrude."

"No, you wouldn't be intruding. Kristi told me to ask you to still come, she wants to meet you and get to know you. We all do, we'd love to have you still. Please come and join us."

She was quiet again, thinking. "How about if I bring a date?"

I hadn't considered that possibility. Strangely, I felt a pang of jealousy, quickly suppressed. "Sure, I guess that would be fine. Who do you have in mind?"

"Oh, I don't know. Do you think I'll have any trouble finding a volunteer?"

I laughed. "No, you'll probably have to take all the men in town and have a lottery, or pull a name from a hat or something. I'm pretty sure you can have your choice, but you'll have to leave a lot of disappointed guys behind."

Now it was her turn to laugh. "You say the nicest dumb things! You know, with all your bullshit you could probably make a living as a fertilizer salesman. OK, I'll plan on coming down, but I'll probably bring someone, if I can. If you're sure that's all right."

I assured her it was fine, although it still bothered me for some reason, and we verified that we would meet at Bullfrog Marina on Wednesday evening. My signal was breaking up by that time, and I lost her before we could say goodbye, but I was pleased that it had seemingly worked out so smoothly.

Kristi was looking at me as I put my phone away. "That sounded like it went well."

"Yeah, she's going to come, but probably bring a date along. It's probably for the best, but I think you'll like her. I hope so."

Kristi smiled. "Yeah, me too, since we'll be cooped up on this boat together. I'm glad she's bringing her own guy along."

I teased her. "Why, are you jealous or something?"

"No, not really, but you guys tend to tire out so quick and go all limp and useless - it's always better to have more men than less, if you know what I mean." She laughed at my expression. I should have known better than to try to tease her!