The two of them sat lazily talking for most of the next hour. Other than the time they’d spent in the hotel room the night before it was the first time they’d had to just sit alone and talk with each other. Jane could see she still had a lot to do in pulling Rick out of his shell in general, but as far as she could see he’d opened up with her a lot, even though he was still pretty reticent. She suspected that some things were pretty ingrained in him and she might be a long time in fixing those, if she ever could – but for the moment they were pretty comfortable when they were one on one.

Jane really wanted to get into some of the bad experiences he had in high school, but she also sensed that this wasn’t the time, and that time might not come soon. She’d at least given him cause to build some confidence and comfort with her, and she thought that needed to be built up more before she could get into some of those painful things. But overall, everything had gone about as well as she could have hoped for. There was a real chance this whole crazy thing was going to work out!

In time, they heard the ringing of an old-fashioned dinner bell they’d seen near the main house. “Guess it’s time to go to dinner,” she said.

“Yeah,” he replied. “I guess that means we have to go meet everyone.”

“You’re not real crazy about it, are you?”

“No, but I have to do it.”

“I’ll try to handle most of the talking, at least at first,” she offered. “Who knows, there might be some interesting people for you to talk to.”

“Jane?”

“Yes?”

“Maybe we’d better not mention how we happened to get married. I mean, at least not yet.”

“I figured that,” she told him, understanding his concern perfectly; it bothered her more than a little, too. “If anyone asks, we’ll just tell them we had a quick romance. No one needs to know the details, at least not yet.”

They walked across the lawn to the main building, about a hundred yards; she could feel he was nervous about this, and pretty much understood why. Hopefully this would go well; it could make a lot of difference in how the next few days went.

Dinner proved to be on an open-air lanai next to an in-ground pool. There was one big table, actually, several long tables pushed together. There was a large barbecue grill with a man working at one end, and the smell of frying chicken filled the air as Sabrina carried out dishes for what appeared to be a family-style dinner.

“Find a seat,” Sabrina told them. “It shouldn’t be long now, since Lee is about done with the chicken. I’ll introduce you around when everyone gets here.”

As predicted, there were four other couples soon seated at the table.

“I just thought I’d let everyone know we’ve got another pair of newlyweds with us tonight,” Sabrina explained to the group. “This is Rick and Jane Thredford. They’re from Colorado, and I don’t know much about them. Rick and Jane, the other newlyweds we have with us are Chuck and Bianca Moody. They’re from Oregon.” She went on to introduce the rest of the couples. One couple, Sam and Gina, were about Sabrina’s age to look at them. Two other couples were somewhat younger; Chuck and Bianca were about Rick and Jane’s age, give or take. Chuck was dressed in a T-shirt and slacks, while Bianca had on a halter top and a pair of the shortest, tightest shorts this side of a bikini bottom that Jane had ever seen.

“So did you have a big wedding?” Bianca asked when the introductions were complete.

“No, just a private civil ceremony in Las Vegas, with only a couple friends present,” Jane explained. “Neither of us wanted to make that big a deal out of it.”

“You might have made the right move,” Bianca commented. “I was so stressed out from ours it wasn’t funny. At least this is a good place to recover.”

There was some light conversation around the table for a while as food was passed, none of it very personal. Rick, of course, said very little, and Jane had to carry his share of the conversation load, and tried to keep it down.

“You sure seem to have an interesting life, and an interesting business,” Jane commented after a while. “How did that happen?”

“Well, mostly it just happened,” Lee told them. “I’m a retired Navy commander. When it was getting close to my time to get out, Sabrina and I talked about where we wanted to live. We’d spent three different tours in Hawaii, two of them at the Pacific Missile Range Facility out at Barking Sands at the west end of the island here, mostly doing logistical support. We really had enjoyed the time we spent there, more so than the other tour, which was at Pearl Harbor. We mostly agreed we liked Hawaii, but weren’t all that thrilled with all the people and the expense of Oahu. So Kauai seemed like a good idea, especially with the exchange and medical facilities out there. We knew we wouldn’t have enough to live here on my retirement, so we decided to look around for opportunities.”

“I’d always thought that running a small resort would make a good retirement income,” Sabrina added. “I’d been left some family money from my grandfather not long before, so we did some looking around. This place seemed just like what we were looking for, and a good place to invest that money. That was almost ten years ago, and I’ve really enjoyed our lives here. We not only get to meet some interesting people, we get to know them a little. You hear such interesting stories.”

“Seems like a good life,” Jane replied.

“It’s a lot different than I ever expected my life to be when I was in college,” Sabrina smiled. “I never expected to be a Navy wife and have to make my life and raise my children all over the world, but at least they got a broader view of the world than most kids get. Our son became a dentist before he went Navy, he’s at Norfolk. Our daughter turned into a Navy wife; she’s working for the Navy as a civilian at Bremerton.”

“So how did the two of you wind up meeting?” Bianca asked.

“She was the daughter of some friends of my parents,” Lee explained. “I was home in Des Moines on leave, and we all wound up at a big thing at the Elks Club. Well, one thing led to another.”

“I was still in college,” Sabrina added. “He asked me out to dinner the next night, and the next thing I knew I was a college dropout and moving into base housing at Alameda Naval Air Station. That covered a period of a little over two weeks. It was the best decision I ever made.”

“That really seems like a quick romance,” Bianca commented. “Chuck and I spent a couple years fooling around before we decided to get married.”

“Our parents, both sets, thought it was pretty quick, too,” Sabrina agreed. “And it was. But we were up against a time schedule, what with Lee being on leave, and we didn’t have much other choice. But from what little we knew of each other we seemed like a pretty good fit, and I decided I could do a lot worse, especially considering some of the guys I’d gone out with in college. I don’t think it took us a week before we decided to take the plunge. It worked out very well in the long run.”

“It’s not that we haven’t had our problems, but I guess every couple has those,” Lee added. “The first few months especially were a little hard, mostly because she had to learn to be a Navy wife. I grew up as a Navy brat and I pretty well understood it. But we made it work.”

“Trust me,” Gina, the wife of the oldest couple said. “It takes a while to get used to each other.”

That sent off a round of stories from the older couples about the troubles they’d had in getting used to each other’s ways when they’d first been married. Most of them were funny; some would have been embarrassing at the time they happened, although the passage of years seemed to have healed that.

Eventually dinner was over with, and a good dinner it had been, too – nothing too exotic, but seeming to have more than a little Hawaiian touch to it. Jane realized that she and Rick shouldn’t have trouble with not getting enough to eat while they were at the resort.

The conversation over dinner had been good, although as expected Rick hadn’t participated in it much. As Lee, Sabrina, and a couple of the women started the cleaning-up process, the talk continued, although the scene moved a few feet away to lounge chairs around the pool.

“Chuck, honey,” Bianca said as they settled in. “I think a drink after dinner would be nice. Would you be a sweetie and go get me something?”

“I can do that,” he said, and turned to Rick and Jane. “They don’t serve alcohol here, so drinks have to be BYOB. Did you bring something?”

“No, we didn’t know that,” Jane replied. “We’ll pick something up tomorrow.”

“We can loan you something to get by for tonight,” he offered. “Beer or something harder?”

“Yes, please,” Jane replied. “If you don’t have a wine cooler, a beer would be fine.”

“Beer, thanks,” Rick said, one of his longer speeches of the get-together.

Chuck headed off to their cottage not far away. “I’m afraid it’s going to be Budweiser, instead of something good,” Bianca frowned. “Chuck may have grown up rich, but he doesn’t have the tastes for it. That’s something I’ve got to work on, getting him away from beer tastes on a champagne budget.”

“You might have to think about meeting him part way,” Jane observed gently. “After all, like we were talking at dinner, there has to be some getting used to each other.”

“There are some things he’s just going to have to get used to,” she replied. “He likes to mess around with sports cars, but I get real tired of hanging around with his racing buddies while they drink beer and talk about cars. That’s something that’s going to have to change. There are other things to do.”

“You may have to find yourself making a few concessions,” Jane replied, thinking that it sure appeared Bianca wanted to wear the pants in the relationship.

“Some, maybe, but there are some things I won’t do. If he wants to spend money on cars, he ought to be able to spend some on a comfortable car for me, not some damn roadster that makes too much noise.”

That ought to be interesting, Jane thought, seeing the obvious parallel between them. She didn’t exactly want to wean Rick away from his computers, just to be more reasonable about them, but Bianca was pretty forward about what she was saying, especially since they’d just met. Somehow, Jane found herself not liking the pretty but rather vain-sounding little blonde, who gave the impression she’d caught her man and now intended to break him to heel. While Jane faced some of the same problems, she hoped she wouldn’t have to be that pushy about it.

Bianca said nothing more along that line, mostly because Chuck came back carrying an armload of beer, and because some other people were joining them around the pool. He handed each of them a beer; when he got to Jane, she promised, “We’ll make it up to you.”

“No big deal,” he said.

Just a little curious about Chuck, Jane easily got him talking about his interest in sports cars. He was mostly a club racer, not exactly a world-beater, but enjoyed it as a break from his work in the financial industry. Without him making a point about it, it was clear that he had both his own and family money, but didn’t like to flash it around. Bianca, on the other hand, had been a Hooters waitress, and it was clear she thought she’d made quite a catch and intended to ride it for all it was worth. It was not, Jane thought, exactly a match made in heaven, and she didn’t need to be any kind of prophetess to see trouble on the horizon for Chuck and Bianca. Jane didn’t want to approach her marriage with that kind of attitude and hoped that the discussion wasn’t giving Rick ideas that she did.

What with all that, one beer was more than enough for Jane, and Rick seemed to think he’d had enough, too. Besides, the sun was getting low and the shadows were getting long. “I hate to be a party pooper,” she said finally. “But Rick and I have had a long day, and it’s longer with the time change. I think it’s time we found out how comfortable the bed is in our cottage.”

“Yeah, well, have fun,” Bianca smirked.

They still hadn’t taken the rental car to the cottage with their luggage yet, so now Jane drove it over there while Rick walked. “I suppose we could have stayed around longer,” she said as they got their things from the trunk. “But Bianca was starting to get on my nerves.”

“Mine too,” he agreed. “I wonder if Chuck has any idea what he bit off with her. I think he’s going to have trouble chewing it.”

“Me, too,” she replied, and decided to get right down to the nitty-gritty. “Rick, I’m pretty sure you can see some obvious parallels, but I hope you don’t think that I’m seeing you as a meal ticket like she seems to be using him for.”

“I don’t think you are,” he said slowly. “I’m sure we’re going to have some problems along the way, but I don’t think you plan on being a bitch about things. I don’t think you have it in you.”

“I hope not. She seems to think she can get him under her thumb and keep him there. I just hope he realizes it in time, before things get a lot worse. I want to be a partner with you, Rick, not your boss. If I start acting too pushy and making you uncomfortable, you make sure I know it. You’re hard to read sometimes, but I think I’m learning how, at least a little bit.”

“Thank you, Jane.” He pulled a couple bags from the trunk, then added. “You know, I’m starting to realize just how good a job Sophia did of putting us together. I mean, I look at Bianca and she makes me think of . . . well, someone I used to know. Someone I used to dream about a lot, and never could get the time of day out of her.”

“Someone from high school?”

“Yeah. Maybe I’m luckier than I thought. Were you serious about wanting to use the bed? I mean, for something besides sleeping?”

“Of course I am,” she grinned. “That struck me back at the pool as more interesting than sitting around and watching Bianca preen her ego.”

“It’s sure more interesting for me.”

They took some time to unpack and put things away before deciding to use the shower – with solar heat it was bound to be warmer than in the morning. Of course they showered together again, although under a relatively weak flow of water it wasn’t quite the intense experience they’d enjoyed the night before, long ago and in far away Las Vegas. Rick was excited and ready to go, but Jane managed to prime his pump a little with her hands and her mouth to make it more fun all the way around when they tried out the bed. It was definitely an improvement over the night before, so much so that they spent some time caressing and cuddling and teasing each other before doing it again – and it was an even bigger improvement the second time.

“You know,” she grinned as they both caught their breath after the recent activity, “If we keep practicing at this rate, we ought to get pretty good at it.”

“I can’t wait to find out what you mean by pretty good.”

“Me, either,” she smiled. “You know, we probably ought to rinse off before we try to go to sleep. And, as much as I liked that, I do want to go to sleep. We’ve had a long day.”

“As much as I’d like to keep doing it all night, I think you’re right.”

An interesting idea crossed her mind. “Tell you what,” she teased. “We’ve been here for hours and we haven’t been in the ocean yet. Why don’t we go out and take a dip before we shower off?”

“You mean outside in the nude?

“Of course I mean in the nude. This is a clothing-optional place, after all, and it is dark, although I don’t think I’m quite ready to go running around bare-assed in the daylight. Maybe I will in a few days, but it shouldn’t matter at this time of night. That’ll at least give us a taste of running around outside in the nude. Think of it as skinny-dipping, like you heard about as a kid.”

“You know, Jane, you have an adventurous streak to you. You could get to be a handful yourself.”

“If I ever get to be too big a handful for you, you have my permission to turn me over your knee to do something about it.”

“I could never wrestle you over my knee.”

“No wrestling involved. If you ever think I need a spanking for something like that, I’ll cooperate gladly.”

“Did you tell Sophia that?”

“No, I’ve just figured it out since I’ve gotten to know you. Come on, Rick, let’s go skinny-dipping.”

The waves were so gentle that they were hardly there at all, the water was comfortably warm, and the sand of the beach was friendly. They didn’t do much actual swimming, but a lot of cuddling together in the darkness, all of which eventually led to some heated, passionate lovemaking on the little slip of beach right at the water’s edge, with the waves washing over their legs from time to time. It may have been the best one of all.

Not surprisingly, they slept late the next morning, well past the time for breakfast. Of course, being on their honeymoon there were some other activities to pursue before they got up to stay, and that left both of them sweaty. Jane went to check the shower, but not surprisingly the best it could manage was lukewarm, and not very enticing for showering together. “Swimming in the ocean might just get us salty and uncomfortable,” she announced. “But I don’t see any reason we couldn’t put on our swimsuits, take a dip in the pool, and have some coffee and pastries, if there are any left.”

Rick agreed that the idea had potential, so they got up and did their morning ablutions in the nude – it was surprising how comfortable they’d gotten being naked with each other so quickly. Since they were going over to the main house, Jane pulled on her most conservative bikini while Rick pulled on a swimsuit. “Good grief!” she said at her first look at the board shorts, which had a hemline down below his knees. “You’re not actually going to wear those, are you?”

“The salesman said they’re the style today.”

“Maybe if you’re some homeboy hanging around the ’hood, but when my husband has a swimsuit on I expect him to be something less than fully dressed.”

“It’s OK,” he protested lightly.

“Why is it that men like to see women wearing a little as possible when it comes to swimsuits, and women don’t get the same privilege?’

“Who knows,” he said. “Besides, it’s not like you’re wearing that one bikini I see you have.”

“Hey,” she smiled. “In my book, showing off for your spouse goes both ways. We’re going to have to do something about that.”

In actual fact, Jane was just a little bit self-conscious about the bikini she had put on. Despite it being the most conservative one she had with her, it really didn’t cover much; most of the underwear she normally wore was considerably more concealing. While being nude in front of her husband was one thing and seemed natural, going out in public dressed in so little – even just as far as the main house – seemed pretty strange, at best. She’d never been one to wear a swimsuit when she’d been at home, mostly because around Hartford there weren’t many places she could wear one. Only one family in town had a pool, and she had never been at all friendly with their kids. Even on the couple occasions since middle school when she had worn a swimsuit, for one reason or another it had been a pretty conservative one-piece. When she’d outgrown it, she’d never bought another. She’d been aware, of course, that other girls wore much more radical swimwear, but she’d never really given practical consideration to doing it herself.

Now, here she was, with her husband in the most radical swimwear she’d ever dreamed of wearing out in public, and she was sure she was going to be wearing the even more radical bikinis Sophia had pushed on her, perhaps before the day was out. Oh, well, she thought. It was all in a good cause, and maybe she’d get used to it. Maybe.

She caught a glance of herself in the mirror. There was a lot of skin there, and not much cloth – but once she looked past that, she thought it looked pretty good on her. The important test, as far as she was concerned, was the effect it would have on Rick, and she could see he was interested. “That really makes you look sexy,” he smiled when she sort of modeled it for him. “It makes me want to take it right off of you again.”

“Glad you like it,” she said. “That’s the general idea, after all, but maybe it’d be best if you waited till a little later to take it off of me.”

They made their pool session just a quick dip, then checked out the breakfast buffet, which consisted of strong coffee and some excellent cinnamon rolls, which, being mindful of the sun, they ate in the shade of the lanai by the pool.

Sabrina was mostly busy doing other things, but stopped by for a moment to chat with them. “I heard from your secretary this morning,” she announced. “Apparently it’s nothing to do with your work, but she wanted to know how you were getting along. I told her that everything seemed just fine, but nothing more than that.”

“Good,” Jane said. “She’ll probably call again, so let’s just keep it that way. She may be a friend, but this is a honeymoon.”

“Right,” Rick agreed.

“I can do that,” Sabrina smiled. “Just so you know, this isn’t the first time I’ve had that request or that response.”

“I thought you’d understand,” Jane grinned. “Hey, at some point today we need to run somewhere and get a six-pack of beer and some wine coolers. Any suggestions?”

“The closest place is back toward town, but so long as you’re out you might want to take in some of the sights. I have maps I can give you for trips on the north shore, the east shore and the south shore. The helicopter tour over the Na Pali area is very good, too.”

“I don’t think we’re quite that much into being tourists just yet. Maybe sometime. We just need to make a quick supply run, although maybe we could look at a few things on the way.”

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