Rachel woke with an instinct that was relatively new to her in her forties, but an instinct she woke with every day since Emma and Logan had come to stay with them. That instinct was to ensure they were there and safe. She looked over from the bed she shared with Al, saw them both sleeping back to back in theirs and smiled. 

Everything had gone well with Logan yesterday. He'd done exactly as they'd asked, keeping in contact by text whenever he went somewhere new, making eye contact with the adults whenever he was close by. He had a great time, he'd said, and learned a lot about his new friends. They'd even ended the evening together at the pool, where Logan had exchanged a few lingering hugs with his wet, swimsuited friends before finally tearing himself away and coming back up with his sister and foster parents to sleep. He'd spent an inordinately long time in the bathroom before they'd all gone to bed, and Rachel surmised the boy had been reliving those hugs in his fantasies. She hoped he'd flushed any evidence away, because they all used that bathroom.

His nocturnal emissions made Rachel frustrated for her own thwarted ambitions with her husband. All yesterday she couldn't find a good opening to steer Al back to their room. She'd found herself instead having to be nursemaid to Lauren's ego, and that had been exhausting. Sunny's comical tiptoeing around what might have been a small crush on Lauren had been the most entertaining part of the day, and she was sure Tej must have gone in for a feel when she'd joined Sunny and Lauren in that overly long hug. Lauren had certainly looked gropable in her little tank top and cut off jean shorts, with her cherry blossom tattoo peeking around the strap of the tank top, and it made Rachel think back to the night before, the three of them in the shower together, soapy wet bodies sliding against each other, and it made her itchy and longing to get a little release by fucking her husband.

That would happen today, she resolved. It was the last full day of their vacation, and she wanted her turn. Lauren might not be taking advantage of her own, but that didn't mean Rachel had to lose out. 

She didn't know how Lauren could stand Joanie being here, welcoming Joe into her room, even if it had been Lauren who'd sent him there. That was a low thing for Joe to do, rubbing Joanie in her face like that, daring her to do something that would jeopardize her marriage and her friendships; taking Tej up to her room with them had been a bit reckless if wonderful, but Joe had driven her to it, Rachel was sure. She didn't know what kind of game Joe was playing, whether this was because he still suspected Al of something, but she thought he was better than that. If Rachel wanted, she could tell Lauren about Joe's own indiscretion with her, the real story, and Joe would lose all the moral authority he thought he had to play this game, even if it threatened her own relationship with Lauren and her marriage to Al.

That was what was so frustrating. No one could show their hand, or all of this would come crashing down.

Logan and Emma were still fast asleep. She turned over and looked at Al. He was still asleep. 

Fuck it. She was randy now, and she needed to do something. 

She gently shook him. "Al," she whispered. 

His eyes fluttered open, and he took a deep breath and peered at her. "What?" he said, a little too loudly for what she was planning.

She put her finger to her lips, got out of bed, beckoned to him, and walked into the bathroom. He followed, and she quietly closed and locked the door behind them. Al looked a question at her, but when she began to strip, he got the idea immediately and took his own clothes off. Yes, this was just what they needed, a morning shower together. She could relive her other night with Lauren and Tej, and show him just where they'd touched each other, and he could reenact it with her.

It was the quietest love they'd ever made, and it was wonderful. The added frisson of the kids waking up and hearing what they were up to in the bathroom made her wild for him, and she had to bite into his shoulder to keep from screaming when he thrust himself into her with one leg in his arm, holding on to the shower head for balance.

Now that they were up, they decided to get their morning ablutions in before the kids did, and they took their time at it while the mirror defogged. They couldn't stay locked in the bathroom forever, though, so after they put their sleepwear back on, Rachel took a deep breath, quietly unlocked the door and peered around it into the room. Logan was wiping the sleep from his eyes and Emma was sitting up in Rachel and Al's bed, watching TV. 

Busted. 

Rachel strolled into the room and acted as if nothing were amiss. She sat beside Emma and saw what she was watching. 

"News and weather?" she asked.

Emma shrugged. "I'm too old for cartoons, and this was the only thing on."

"Oh, well. It's something."

Al strolled into the room a minute later, saw them all awake, and said, "Oh, good morning, are we going to get ready for the breakfast buffet?"

"We were going to," Emma said, "but we had to wait until you were done having privacy."

Al looked gut-punched. Rachel couldn't help it, she burst out laughing. Eventually, Al got over his embarrassment and started chuckling. Logan groaned in disgust and got back into bed, pulling his covers over himself.  

This time, when they went downstairs for breakfast, they found that Joanie was already there at the entrance to the Lakeside, chatting with Sunny and Tej, the kids hovering a few feet away, Harpreet craning an ear to listen to what the adults were saying. Joanie's hair was wet and in a ponytail.

"Hey, guys," Rachel said. "How come you're waiting out here?"

"Still waiting for Joe and Lauren," Sunny said, checking his watch.

"Did they call and say they'd be late?" Al asked, checking his phone. "Or even text?"

"Not us." Sunny gestured to Joanie. "We were just asking her if she knew anything."

"And I told them I saw them at the pool earlier," Joanie said. "I guess they went for a morning swim."

The elevator doors opened and Naomi and Tosh walked out. "Hey, kiddos," Rachel called to them. "Where are your parents?"

"They'll be down in a minute, they just had to get changed," Naomi said. "They left me a text earlier, saying they'd just gone down early to use the adult pool alone." She grimaced and said, "I think they were having some privacy."

Joanie blushed and looked away. "Kiddo," Rachel said, "you can't have privacy in an outdoor pool."

Sunny coughed in embarrassment. Tej raised one eyebrow. 

"Maybe not that kind of privacy," Naomi said. "I think they just needed to talk alone. They've been doing a lot of low talking whenever they think we're not listening."

"You're going to follow in your mom's footsteps, aren't you," Al said. 

Naomi shrugged but didn't say more.

After a few more minutes of waiting, Joe and Lauren finally emerged, looking as if the talking alone thing hadn't improved things. Lauren, though, when she saw Joanie, walked over to her and threw her arms around her. Joanie stiffened at first, then gently patted Lauren's back.

It was extremely awkward, and Rachel looked at Al as if he had some kind of explanation for this. Al only shrugged.

"Are you okay, Lauren?" Joanie asked when Lauren still didn't release her. It wasn't an affectionate hug. It was an aggressive hug, a vice grip intended to trap rather than comfort. Somehow, the differences in the two women's sizes made the action almost obscene; Lauren barely came up to Joanie's chest, and her face was buried in her sternum, her mouth very close to parts Joanie might not want close to her mouth.

"Lauren," Joe said sharply, eyes wide with subdued panic. He had no idea what was going on, either.

Finally, finally, Lauren broke away. "Sorry," she said. "I'm just happy to see you."

Nobody believed that, but no one said anything.

"Join us for breakfast today!" Lauren said, a little too brightly. "We missed you yesterday."

"Really?" Joanie asked, brow furrowed. "I didn't know if I'd have been welcome."

She was sharp, that one. Now Rachel felt a little shabby for her jealousy yesterday. "No, really," Rachel said. "We'd love for you to join us. We're sorry we never invited you before."

"You can sit next to us!" Emma said, drawing Naomi to her.

"Well... okay!" Joanie said, brightening, suddenly happy to be finally included in their group, and now Rachel felt really bad about unconsciously excluding her. 

She wondered now how lonely Joanie was. The fact that she would accept a relationship of casual sex with a married man, a relationship sanctioned by his wife, made Rachel wonder why she didn't hold out for something more conventional. She was gorgeous, although her height probably intimidated most men. Maybe being a police officer also turned off potential suitors; they'd be constantly examining their dwellings, looking for the roach they thought they'd discarded or signs of other small illegalities, pirated cable or DVDs, wondering if she'd arrest them for it and quietly resenting her for their own insecurities.

They arranged a table to fit all of them again. "Come sit over here!" Lauren called to Joanie, indicating a seat beside Joe, which made everyone's eyebrows rise.

"Oh, but I'm..." Joanie indicated her place next to Emma and Naomi.

"We can sit there too," Emma said, easygoing on chair placement as long as she sat next to her new best friend.

Joanie, uncomfortable with any attention on her and unwilling to protest any further and draw even more, sat next to Joe, with the girls beside her. Lauren, satisfied, sat not on Joe's other side as Rachel expected, but over with her, which both pleased her and made her wary.

"What are you doing?" she said low into Lauren's ear when she sat down.

"Performing a little experiment," she said into her ear.

Rachel looked over at Joe, who seemed to have chosen the strategy of acting as if everything were completely normal. He dressed his coffee after the server brought the carafe around, then stood to go to the buffet. Later, after Rachel returned with her own breakfast, she noticed him chatting pleasantly with Joanie, even including the girls in their conversation.

"Smart," Lauren remarked, watching them too.

"Did you really need to do this?" Rachel asked.

Lauren shrugged. "Honestly? I didn't want to sit with him for breakfast, and I just wanted to make him uncomfortable."

"This isn't going to help you two smooth things over."

"I have a feeling they're not going to get smoothed over during this vacation."

"Oh, no!" She turned to her and said, "Naomi told me you took an early dip in the pool. I thought maybe you were trying to reignite some romance."

She sighed in frustration. "You know, I thought so too. Last night we shared a bed, and that felt right, at least. We didn't fuck, because I'm not a doormat, but I was feeling a little better about things, so I suggested we go down to the hot tub and soak together, you know, build a little romantic momentum; maybe things might have progressed to the point where we were back to normal, so that by tonight I'd feel good enough about us that we might make love. But then..." She blew out in frustration.

"What happened?"

"Take a wild guess," she said, looking over at her husband and his mistress.

Rachel had heard it from Joanie, but she played along. "Oh, no, she was there?"

"Apparently she likes to do morning laps, because her shoulders and arms aren't already toned enough. So, Joe and I went into the indoor pool area, you know, where the hot tub is, thinking we were going to have some quiet time to ourselves, but who did we find already there? Oh, she said, so sorry, she was just in from laps and wanted to relax in the hot tub, but did we want some alone time? Nonsense, I said, we won't kick you out, these pools are for all the guests, but inside I was seething, like, is there not one thing we can do where you're not there too?"

"That had to be just a coincidence," Rachel said. 

"Of course it was. Just a stupid, terrible coincidence, nobody's fault at all, but it ruined the whole endeavour, because now nobody was talking, and I was looking anywhere but at her or Joe. Eventually she couldn't take the tension and decided she'd relaxed enough in the hot tub, and got out and dried off. One mercy is that she was wearing a one-piece this time because she was actually swimming, so Joe's eyes weren't popping out. Well, she left, and we were still not saying anything to each other because I was like, why bother now?"

"Oh, babe, I'm so sorry."

"And then Joe tried a few opening lines, but by then more guests came in to use the hot tub, and then it was too late because I'm not airing dirty laundry in front of strangers. So, back we went to our room, irritated and unsatisfied, and now here we are."

"No shower together before you came down here?"

Lauren just stared at her.

"Okay, sorry, I'm a bitch," Rachel said. "So, what, this is you saying, look, Joanie's everywhere we want to be?" She gestured to the seating arrangement.

"Yup. They can spend the whole day together, for all I care."

Rachel squeezed Lauren's hand and said, "I don't know if this is a good idea, babe. It's making Sunny and Tej suspicious, and what about Naomi? She might start to wonder what's up, and then she might remember your car at our place, and then she might think her parents are splitting up."

Lauren shrugged. "Well, Joanie's around enough anyway. Maybe Naomi won't know any different."

"She is noticing things, though, like how much you and Joe talk all low and heated. She takes after you, so you know she's going to be clever."

"Shit," she said, putting her hands over her face. "This is more than I can take."

"Maybe you two should just spend the day alone in your room, really talk things out. We can look after Naomi and Tosh."

Lauren looked up at her and said, "Thanks for the offer, Rachel, but that's not fair to you. You and Al haven't had any alone time."

Rachel leaned in and whispered, "Actually, we snuck into the shower this morning while the kids were still asleep."

Lauren gasped and playfully shoved her. "So, that's why you mentioned the shower, you devil." She groaned and leaned into her and whispered, "Remember the three of us that day at your place, in your shower, and you won that little competition?"

"Lauren..." Rachel felt heat rise in her cheeks. "Don't go there, not while we're here, at least. Way too risky."

She sighed in frustration. "I know. But I need to get laid, and I don't want to give into Joe while she's here. Hell, I was even fantasizing about Sunny after that hug he gave me yesterday."

"You two did linger; poor Tej had to join in just to make it respectable. Did he cop a feel?"

"No, he was a perfect gentleman. I think Tej did, though, the sneaky bugger. We need to watch her."

Rachel chuckled. "Okay, so, you have no excuse, now. Spend the time with Joe."

Lauren looked over at her husband, who seemed to be laughing at something, and Joanie was smiling a bit too adoringly at him and nudging Naomi playfully. Rachel's heart sank as she watched them; they were looking a little too much like a family, and Sunny and Tej would be blind not to notice. She thought she could see steam literally shooting out of Lauren's ears.

"Lauren," she warned, low into Lauren's ear. "Remember, you sat them together. If Joe just ignored Joanie it would look even more suspicious."

"I'm not hungry anymore," Lauren said, getting up. "Tell Joe I went back to our room, if he asks."

Just like that, she was gone, and Rachel saw Joe's look of dismay as he watched her leave. At least he noticed.

Al leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Is she okay?"

Rachel shook her head. "I don't think this day is going to end well."

Thanks for reading this far! Let's see if Rachel's prediction pans out by clicking on "Continue reading." If you liked what you just read, hit "Vote" and leave a comment.