"Yes or no?" Robin grinned.
Maryl wasn"t really angry, but it was the next closest thing. "I am so going to get you back for this."
"Is that a yes?"
Maryl nodded.
"You have to say it," Robin pressed.
"Yes."
"Yes, what?"
Maryl wiggled and still couldn"t escape. "Yes, I will sing for you." Robin kissed her mouth quickly and backed off. Maryl sat up and glared at her. "I ought to give you a hickey."
Robin held her arms wide. "Go ahead. Not only do I deserve it, my family will get a kick out of it."
Maryl ended up singing Happy Birthday after drinking a second beer for courage. Robin"s face beamed with excitement as her small voice mangled the brief tune.
"That wasn"t nearly as bad as I expected," Robin said as she hugged her.
Maryl mumbled into her shoulder. "I feel like an idiot."
Robin laughed. "You"re adorable, Maryl, but you have to sing with enthusiasm or it just won"t work."
"You heard how bad I was."
Robin kissed her face. "You can"t miss the cobbler. The berries around here are wonderful. Now, what are you going to sing?"
Maryl hedged and whined, but Robin was so loving, attentive and relentless that she gave in and began to enjoy herself. Robin taught her a song that made her laugh and they sang it over and over until Maryl had it down pat.
"One more time," Robin urged, "and then I"ll leave you alone."
Maryl took a deep breath and sang. "n.o.body likes me, everybody hates me, I"m gonna go eat worms. Big fat short ones, long tall skinny ones, I love the way they squirm..." She sang it straight through at full voice, laughing as Robin picked her up in a bear hug and swung her around.
"That was perfect! Sing it just like that and you"ll knock their socks off!"
Maryl hid her face. "I can"t believe I"m going to sing for cobbler."
"Not for cobbler," Robin laughed. "To prove that they can"t scare you off or bully you."
"You did."
"That was different."
"How?"
Robin shrugged. "Because you secretly wanted me to force you."
Play erupted and Maryl chased Robin through the river and around trees, shrieking and laughing until she managed to pin her against a rock and kiss her. The dreamy feel to the day increased and they made love and talked and made love again.
Maryl looked with regret at the sun"s position and knew it was time to go. She snuggled deeper into Robin"s body. "I don"t ever want to leave. I want to stay here forever."
"I can build a fire," Robin offered. "We could sleep here. You never did try out the air mattress."
"I wish I could."
"Let"s do it," Robin begged.
"They"re going to start looking for me soon. If I don"t come back and they can"t find me, they"ll call Search and Rescue." She closed her eyes as Robin kissed her forehead.
"Can you come back tomorrow?"
"I think I accidentally agreed to stay in camp tomorrow. I could have kicked myself, but I couldn"t think of a way out of it without hurting Wendy"s feelings." She could see Robin"s disappointment. "Maybe I could get away for a little while in the afternoon, but I can"t promise. I resent feeling obligated to spending time with them. I like some of them all right, but they"re not my friends. They"re just people I know."
"It"s okay, Maryl. I"ll be here at one tomorrow and I"ll stay for a couple of hours. If you can"t come I"ll understand that it"s not because you don"t want to be here."
Maryl leaned on an elbow so she could see Robin"s face better. "The next day is my last full day here, you know. I don"t care what happens at camp. I want to spend every minute of it with you."
Robin smiled. "Then I can live with not seeing you tomorrow if that"s what happens."
Maryl kissed her for being so understanding and being so flexible about it. Working together they cleaned up the beach and packed their things. They shared a last fiery kiss that threatened to make them late, then turned and went their separate ways.
PART TWO.
IT HAD BEEN such an incredible, amazing, pa.s.sionate, unforgettable, wild and utterly enjoyable day that Robin couldn"t even feel bad about not seeing Maryl the next day. She grinned and laughed and sang to herself as she walked, almost forgetting to stop and put her clothes back on before arriving at camp.
Her oldest nephew, Jonny, was the first person she saw and she waved to him as he ran to join her.
"Aunt Robin! Aunt Robin! I caught a fish!"
"No way!"
"Uh huh!" He puffed his chest out proudly as they walked. "Daddy said we could eat it. Do you want some?"
"Absolutely!" Robin suspected it was not going to be a pleasant experience and she resolved to do something rotten to Eric in return. "Congratulations!"
"Can I pull your tube?"
Robin handed over the rope and he proudly marched in front of her, the tube dragging him more than he was pulling it. When they reached the trail up to camp, Robin hefted the cooler in her arms. Jonny flipped the tube up and used the inner netting to balance it on his head.
"Daddy says you had a date."
"Something like that."
"What did you do?"
Robin smiled. "Oh, we rode in a limousine and went to dinner, then we went to a movie and did some dancing."
Johnny was quiet for a moment. "There"s no limousines or movies in camping."
"There"s no fooling you, is there?"
"You always tease us and make up stories," he complained.
"And you always figure it out," she said fondly. "I like that you"re so smart."
Jonny beamed through the netting at her.
"There you are, dear."
Robin looked up and into her mother"s eyes. "Am I too late for dinner?"
Her mother"s eyes searched her face as Jonny marched on past and apparently she liked what she saw. She put her arm around Robin"s shoulders. "It"s good to see you happy again. It breaks my heart to see you miserable."
Robin leaned past the cooler and kissed her cheek. "I love you, Mom."
"Of course you do," her mother said briskly. "I raised my kids up right."
Robin laughed and headed for the cooking area.
"Look out for Bruce," her mother warned. "He seems to think..."
"There you are!" Bruce"s tenor rang out. "You dog!"
Robin set her burden down and Bruce lifted her into the air. "Put me down, you ape!" She twisted his ears and laughed, but he bounced her in his arms.
"I know what you"ve been doing," he hissed at her.
"You think you know," she corrected.
"You"ve been getting lucky almost constantly since about 2 hours after you left."
He looked pleased with himself and Robin colored sharply. "You"re guessing!"
Bruce lowered her to the ground and hugged her. "I"m not guessing, Sis. She makes you happy."
"This isn"t fair. How come you got all the psychic ability?"
"You got the good looks and the brains. I"m happy for you. I hope it works out."
Robin hugged him back. "You"re the best, Bruce."
"About time you figured that out." He released her and punched her in the arm, then turned to the others and held his hand out. "Pay up, guys."
"You took bets?" Robin asked in embarra.s.sed horror.
"Man"s got to make a living."
Robin opened her little cooler and tossed out all the cans and bottles. She picked it up, half ice and half water, dumped it over him as he collected and then ran like h.e.l.l. She didn"t get far and she put up a good fight, but it wasn"t until the wives took pity on her that Bruce was driven off. She wandered back to the campfire with them, picking burrs out of her hair.
"What"s her name?" Julian"s wife, Clarisa, asked.
"Maryl. She"s blond; a little shorter, a little younger and gorgeous. You"d like her. She"s got a great sense of humor."
"Do we get to meet her?"
"Probably not," Robin admitted with regret. "We haven"t talked about the future at all."
Bruce"s wife, Phoebe, took her hand. "So, did you really...?"
Robin felt her face growing hot again. "Most of the day. It bugs me that he always knows about me and I never know about him."
Phoebe laughed. "Doesn"t bother me at all. But I have to tell you, it sure makes him randy."
Robin covered her face with both hands and a groan. "I don"t want to know things like that, Phebes." The wives laughed at her discomfiture and Robin dropped onto a log by the fire.
Jonny"s fish turned out to be some sort of bottom feeder and there was just enough of it that everyone had to choke down a bite. Jonny was puffed up like an old bullfrog with pride and that just barely made it worth it. To keep her s.e.x life out of the conversation, Robin sat next to Uncle Gus and listened to his hunting and fishing stories. If you relaxed with a beer in your hand, he was actually kind of fun to talk to and it made her feel closer to her dad because he figured prominently in most of Uncle Gus" tales.
Eventually, her family drifted off to bed and Robin pulled a lounge chair over by the fire. She watched the stars and wondered if Maryl was doing the same.
"Make some room for your mother."
Robin pulled her knees up and her mother sat down at the foot. At her mother"s urging she placed her legs on her lap.
"I"m happy for you, honey, but I"m worried for you, too."
"I know," Robin said quietly. "I"m not worried exactly, but I know I"m not thinking clearly."
"Do you love her?"
"Yes and no. I barely know her, but I think I could love her."
"What happens at the end of this trip?"
"We are deliberately not talking about it. She lives over in Edgewater and she"s happy there."
"Will you try to have a long distance relationship?"
"I hope so. I hate to think it could just be over." Their voices were soft and private.
"If it doesn"t work out, what happens to your heart?"
Robin heard her mother"s real question. "Will I go back to how I was? I hope not. I think a part of me knows that it will probably end when she goes home, but the part of me that was broken seems to be healing. I don"t know what happened between Tammy and I; I probably never will, but it"s in the past now. It wasn"t before I met Maryl."
"What"s she like?"
Robin"s heart grew tender. "She"s very pretty and she"s clever. I think she"s smart, too, but clever describes her better. She"s really feisty, Mom, and she laughs at herself. I know she"s recovering from a relationship, too, but I don"t know anything about it. She works the front desk in a medical office. Her family lives in South Carolina and her dad calls her "The Brat"."