by Anna Durand
Val didn't need saving, but with Eve escorting Nico to his room in the guest house, I was the only other employee available to greet the Kittens. Val preferred not to get involved in guest intake. His forte was organizing sporting events.
I looked at Mara. "Will you be okay if I go? The Kitten Brigade is here, and I really need to get them settled in. Val isn't good at that, since those girls think he's a walking lollipop."
Sheryl's head popped up, her eyes wide. "Lollipop? Kittens? What kind of perverted resort is this?"
Peter hooked an arm around his wife's shoulders. "Relax, Sher, I'm sure it's nothing like that."
"No," I said, "it's really not. The Kitten Brigade is our name for a group of women in their twenties who come here at least twice a year. They all have serious, stable jobs, but visiting the resort gives them a chance to cut loose. And I was joking about Val being a lollipop. The Kittens think he's the cat's pajamas."
Mara snickered at my bad joke, and Peter smiled, but Sheryl kept gaping at me.
Yeah, she'd need more time to adjust to the naturist thing.
"Go on," Mara said, "I'll be fine. Sounds like Val needs a little help."
More screams echoed outside, confirming her statement.
"Why don't you go with Ollie?" Peter asked Mara. "I'll take care of Mom. Honestly, I think she just needs to lie down for a while. We had a long plane ride to get here, and a long drive from the airport."
"Okay, if you're sure."
"I am. Go." He glanced at me, then Mara. "It's nice to see you having a good time, honey."
Mara smiled shyly, and I led her out of the house.
Chapter Nineteen
Mara
A throng of lovely women frolicked in the area between Eve and Val's little home and the guest house. Well, frolicking wasn't the right word for it. They jumped and danced and chest-bumped and spun around and around. Every single one of them wore a pale-blue T-shirt dress and sandals, though each had her own version of the footwear. Some wore sandals with sparkly decorations on them, while others donned platform sandals or flip-flops.
They shrieked and hooted too.
My goodness, those ladies had powerful lungs.
In the middle of the throng, Val Silva stood there seeming quite calm and somewhat amused by the antics of the ladies around him. None of them touched him, but they danced around the man like they'd never seen a hot guy before---or like they were performing a bizarre ritual.
Suddenly, they all looked at each other and tore their dresses off over their heads. They hurled the garments high in the air, letting them flutter down to the ground.
The Kitten Brigade pumped their fists in the air and whooped.
Ollie shoved two fingers from each hand into his mouth and blew hard, emitting the loudest, most piercing whistle I'd ever heard.
I slapped my hands over my ears until he finished.
The entire Kitten Brigade froze. They swung their heads in our direction, all gazes zeroing in on Ollie.
A blonde girl broke off from the crowd and approached him. "Hey, Ollie, it's been a while."
He stared at her, not blinking and apparently not breathing either. His jaw fell open, then clapped shut. His eyes rotated toward me only to veer back to the blonde. "Heidi, hey. Wow. I, uh, didn't expect you to be here."
"I wasn't going to come, but then I realized it's silly not to. We're both adults. We can handle seeing each other again, can't we?"
Her innocent expression didn't seem fake, but Ollie eyed her like she'd suggested he drink that funny-smelling fruit punch she was offering him.
"Yeah, sure," Ollie said, "it's cool."
"So glad you feel that way."
Heidi flung her arms around Ollie and mashed her mouth to his, shutting her eyes, holding that position for several long seconds. Ollie kept his eyes open. His brows knit together over his nose, and he held his arms out like he was afraid to touch Heidi. When he glanced at me, he lifted his shoulders in the best version of a shrug he could manage with a beautiful blonde attached to him.
Finally, he pushed her away.
Wiping his mouth, he gave a nervous laugh. "Whoa, Heidi, we're not dating anymore. Remember?"
Heidi bit down on her bottom lip. "I missed you, Ollie. Maybe we could talk alone?"
"Talk?" His jaw fell open again, but this time it didn't clap shut for so long I started to wonder if bugs would fly into his mouth. Then he shook his head vigorously and swallowed hard. "Heidi, I have a new girlfriend. This is Mara." He slung his arm around me and pulled me tight against him. "Mara, this is Heidi Mackenzie. We dated for about thirty seconds last year."
Ollie's ex froze. Only her eyes moved when she looked at me. "New girlfriend? So soon?"
"I haven't seen you in almost a year," he said. "You went back to your ex. Was I supposed to wait around wishing you'd change your mind and come back? I moved on, and so should you."
Heidi gnawed on her lip, newly formed tears shimmering in her blue eyes. "Oh. I get it, sure."
It was totally bizarre to stand here with Ollie, both of us fully clothed, while his nude ex-girlfriend seemed on the verge of crying. Had Ollie hoped one day Heidi would come back and want to reconcile? He'd seemed shocked to see her, but that could mean one of two things. Maybe he was over her and hadn't expected to see her again, so he was caught off guard by her appearance. Or maybe he secretly wanted to get back with her, but he felt trapped by his involvement with me.
Which was it? I didn't know, and I couldn't ask him in front of his ex.
"Should I leave?" Heidi asked. "I mean, this is awkward, right?"
Ollie scrunched up his mouth, moving his lips like he couldn't quite figure out what to do in this situation. "You paid to be here, so you should stay. It'll be fine."
He looked at me, a question on his face.
What else could I say? "Sure, Heidi ought to stay."
"For real?" Heidi said. "You don't have to say that."
"It's all good," I said. "Don't worry about it."
"Yay!" Heidi flung her arms around me, squeezing me tight. "Thank you, Mara, you're awesome."
Why was she thanking me? I didn't own the resort, so my permission didn't mean much. When I glanced at Ollie, who'd been shoved away when Heidi hugged me, he shook his head and shrugged, a slight smile on his lips.
"Sure, yeah," I said. "You're welcome."
Heidi let go of me and rushed back into the crowd.
They had all remained silent during Ollie and Heidi's reunion, and they stayed like that after she rejoined them, waiting for whatever Ollie had been about to say after he whistled.
He raised his arms, spreading them wide. "Welcome back, Kittens. Get your tents set up and let's meet on the lawn for a game of miniten, okay?"
They shrieked.
All those beautiful, naked women split off in smaller groups and started gathering stuff from inside their big, neon-pink motor home.
"Wanna help me set up the miniten net?" Ollie asked me.
"Sure."
He kept a hand on the small of my back while he headed into the guest house to retrieve the net and the other equipment that went with it, like the thugs and the tennis balls. Ollie carried the rolled-up net while I lugged a bag full of thugs and balls, though he tried to convince me to carry just the balls and leave the thugs for him to get later.
"That's sweet," I said, "but I can handle it. They're not that heavy."
When I lifted the big canvas bag and hooked its straps over my shoulder, Ollie's brows rose.
"You're no wimpy girlie-girl, are you?" he said, smiling. "My Mara's a tough chick in disguise."
I loved it when he called me "his Mara." It gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling in my tummy.
After we set up the net, I lounged on a chaise at the periphery of the lawn. Ollie gathered the guests who wanted to play miniten and split them into two teams---the Kittens and the Silver Foxes, which meant the older guests. Val opt
ed out, despite the Kittens begging him to play for their side, saying he and Eve needed to rest and recover from jet lag. They'd only just gotten back from Brazil.
As the two of them retreated into their house, Ollie leaned in to whisper in my ear, "Eve and Val have a different idea about what resting means. I hope your mom won't freak out if she hears them having a good time in their room. It's right across the hall from where I put them."
"It might be good for Mom to be exposed to inappropriate behavior."
He chuckled. "You're the best, Mara."
With Eve and Val home again, Ollie and I had to take rooms in the guest house. Val had moved my stuff there while Ollie and I got the miniten court ready, so I didn't need to do a thing except watch my hot boyfriend referee the game. Ollie had kept his clothes on, partly for my sake, I was sure. But I also suspected he did it so my mom wouldn't go ballistic.
My parents emerged from the main house not long after the miniten game started and took seats on the chaises next to mine. Mom sat right beside me, with Dad on the other side of her.
And Mom tried really, really hard not to look at the naked people knocking tennis balls around with wedge-shaped boxes on their hands.
I still had a little trouble with nudism. Whenever these people played sports, parts of them flapped that I didn't really need to see flapping. Sometimes they wore jockstraps or sports bras. Other times, they didn't. Ollie had told me, and my experience over the past few days had confirmed it, that naturists liked miniten because it was less strenuous than tennis and therefore didn't, um, flap their flappable parts as much.
The Kittens didn't seem to have gotten that memo. They played miniten with a vengeance, like they were competing for the Olympic gold medal in naturist sports. All but one of them had put on a sports bra. All but Heidi Mackenzie.
Her boobs bounced like crazy every time she leaped up to slam her thug into the ball. Good thing she had modest-size breasts instead of big jugs. I couldn't imagine how painful it would be to play so roughly with a huge set of tits.
My mom sat sideways on her chaise, hands on her lap, studiously avoiding glancing at the nudists frolicking off to her right.
"Dear lord, Mara," she said. "How can you stand to be around these...people?"
"You mean how can I stand being around super nice, friendly people who make me feel like I belong here? Who don't treat me like a screw-up who can't do anything right?"
"It's not proper, running around with no clothing on, where anyone can see you."
"Not anyone." I folded my arms over my chest. "This is a private resort in a secluded section of the woods. The only people who can see the nudists are the other nudists."
She rolled her gaze up to the sky. "What about satellites? Your father showed me Google Earth once. Did you know you can see into people's backyards with that website or software or whatever it is? It was horrifying."
"Oh come on, Sher," Dad said from where he reclined on his chaise, his baseball cap over his eyes. "You once sunbathed in the nude. And I remember that time at the lake when you suggested we skinny dip."
My eyes flew so wide the air dried them up. "Mom! You skinny dipped? And sunbathed naked?"
She threw Dad a chastising look. "Peter, you promised never to tell anyone."
He sighed and sat up, plopping the cap onto his head. "Mara's not anyone. She's our daughter, and I think it's about time she learned the truth about her mother."
"But---"
Dad tipped his head down to peer at her with an expression I'd never seen before. He seemed to be...almost scolding her with that look. "We both know why you've force-fed Mara all this nonsense about being a proper lady. You were humiliated once, and that's all it took. You stopped being the adventurous woman I'd married and turned into a prude." He winked and smirked. "At least in front of other people. You still love sex, don't you, Sher?"
My mom's mouth dropped open so far her chin might've touched her chest.
Okay, maybe not quite that far, but still really far. I watched for insects so I could warn her if any of them tried to fly into her mouth.
Dad moved onto Mom's chaise and clasped her hand in both of his. "Relax, honey. It's time we told her the truth. I let you instill your fears into our daughter, and today I realized how wrong that was. I should've made you stop. I should've helped you get over your fears before you ever started in on Mara. I love you, Sheryl, but things have to change."
Mom shut her eyes, exhaled a long breath, and leaned against Dad. "Maybe you're right. But what will Mara think of me?"
"She'll understand."
"I will," I said. "You can tell me whatever it is. I can handle it. Believe it or not, being here with all these nudists has helped me realize how silly all my fears were. If I can get over it, so can you, Mom."
She opened her eyes, fixing her uncertain gaze on me. "But I've done things you would never have done."
"You'd be surprised what I might do."
Nico strolled up to my chaise. "Hey Mara, let's go for a walk."
"I'm having a conversation with my parents. You're being rude, and I don't want to go anywhere with you." I faced my parents, blatantly ignoring him. "Take yourself for a walk, Nico."
Out the corner of my eye, I could see him watching me.
"Go," I said, waving a hand to dismiss him.
Nico headed for the nature trail.
Mom cleared her throat and said, "About the skinny dipping..."
Chapter Twenty
Ollie
I was keeping an eye on the miniten game---okay, mostly I watched Mara---when I saw Nico Marshall traipsing down the nature trail. Had that guy ever been in the woods before? I kind of doubted it. He seemed like the urban type, not the vacay-in-the-wilderness type. Maybe I ought to go check on him, to make sure he knew to stay on the trails and not wander off into who-knew-where. The last thing I wanted to do was talk to Mara's ex, but it was my job to look after the guests.
With Eve and Val "recuperating" from their big trip south of the equator, I was the only one who could stop Nico from getting himself into trouble. Not that I cared if he got bitten by velvety tree ants or quilled by a porcupine. In my opinion, he totally deserved that. But we had these annoying things called laws that required us to keep our guests safe. Letting Nico wander into a bear's den might be fun, but it would get us shut down for sure.
So, I tramped toward the nature trail.
I passed Mara and her parents, but they were too involved in their conversation to notice, and I didn't want to interrupt just to let Mara know I was stalking her douchebag ex.
By the time I got into the woods, Nico had disappeared down the trail.
Where had the moron gone? He clearly knew nothing about the woods. If I were an arrogant ass who'd never left the city before, where would I go?
Nope. I had nothing.
When I got to the fork in the trail, where one branch led to the hot spring and the other toward the lake, I hesitated. Two signs announced where each trail went, but I had no idea which one Nico might've chosen. Was he a hot spring guy? Or did he prefer a lake? Maybe he didn't like water, in which case he could take one of the offshoot trails after he picked left or right at this junction. Which did not help me find him.
Damn. What would I tell Mara if her ex disappeared in the woods? Or got mauled by a wild animal?
"Help!"
The cry echoed in the distance. It sounded like a man's voice.
Oh great. What had Nico done now?
"Help me!"
I decided the cry was coming from the hot spring trail and hustled down that path. Not far in, I found Nico.
He huddled in a tree, clinging to a slender branch with his ass pushed into the trunk and his arms lashed around the branch. His eyes were big, and his lips quivered.
"Oh thank God," he said, almost whimpering, when he saw me standing a few dozen yards away. "I'm gonna die. You have to do something."
"Com
e on, man, you got yourself up there. I'm sure you can get your sorry butt back down again." I waved at the branch he clung to, then at the ground. "It's not that far. Jump."
He flapped his head. "I can't. It'll get me."
I glanced around but couldn't see any dangers. "What will get you?"
"That." He jabbed a finger toward the ground, pointing to the other side of the tree. In a hushed but hoarse voice, he said, "It's waiting to eat me."
Maybe I should've brought a can of bear spray. I hadn't, though, so I crept around the tree, keeping a good twenty feet between me and it at all times. As I rounded the backside, I saw the vicious wild beast that had treed Nico.
The raccoon sat up on its hind legs, holding its cute little paws up.
I looked at Nico and chuckled. "It's a raccoon."
He jabbed his finger toward the animal again. "That thing chased me. It bared its teeth, and now that monster wants to eat me alive. Do something, will you? Save me."
I stifled a laugh, which turned it into a snort. "You probably scared the little guy, so he bared his teeth. Raccoons don't eat people." I glanced at the critter, who was watching Nico with what I took for curiosity. "I think your yelling and fussing caught his attention. He's curious, that's all."
"Do something," Nico snarled. "It's your job to take care of guests, isn't it? That means you work for me. So kill that monster right now."
"Kill it? No way, man. It's a harmless animal." I rushed toward the raccoon, stomping my feet and clapping my hands. "Shoo, little man. Shoo."
The raccoon scampered off, out of sight.
"See?" I said to Nico. "It's gone."
He whimpered again, injecting a slight whine into it too.
"It's okay," I said, trying to sound encouraging. I wanted to tell him to man up and get his own dumb ass down here. Instead, I told him, "You can do it. Just slide off the branch, keeping your arms around it until you're ready to drop."
"Drop?" He almost shrieked the word. "I'll break my neck. You have to call the fire department and get them to bring their truck out here."