Page 3 of Dead Calm
“You little pirates!” Ronan reached out to grab Everly, but she darted away from him with a high-pitched scream.
“Who’s a pirate?” Ten asked, wearing an amused grin. One-shoed Ezra was in his arms.
“Yourdaughter.” Ronan rolled his eyes.
“Oh, so when she does something deviously brilliant, she’smydaughter, huh?” Ten chuckled. He set his son down. “Have Daddy put on your shoe, okay?”
“DA! DA!” Ezra ran to Ronan and held up his foot. He wobbled for a second, but managed to catch his balance.
“Make sure you lock the door and set the alarm on the way out.” Ten grabbed his sunglasses from the front table. “Vacation, here I come!”
“Here, buddy, let’s get your shoe on so we can have a vacation too!”
“Fwimming?” Ezzie asked, holding out his foot.
“Yeah, we’re gonna do a lot of swimming at the beach.” Only ankle deep, if Ronan had anything to say about it. He’d seenJawstoo many times to go any deeper into the ocean.
“’Harks! Me see ‘harks!” Ezra jumped up and down.
“You want to see a shark?” Ronan asked, silently praying the only toothy predators he saw were on the television.
“Big ‘hark!” Ezra spread his arms out.
“Let’s get going and find out, okay?” Ronan wrangled Ezzie’s foot into his shoe and scooped up his son before he could get into more trouble.
Ronan grabbed his phone and the keys to the house and set the alarm. He dashed out the door and locked it.
“Come on, slowpoke!” Jude shouted from the van.
“Poke!” Ezra stabbed a bony little finger into Ronan’s cheek.
“You wanna be poked?” Ronan bopped Ezra’s nose and climbed into the van. His son laughed hysterically.
“Ten did you grab Ezzie’s bag?” Ronan asked, when their son was strapped into his car seat in the row beside Lizbet. She wore headphones and was watchingFinding Nemo. On the tray in front of her was a bowl full of yogurt melts. He stuck Ezra’s headphones on and set out his snack.
“Yeah, it’s in the row behind the littles,” Ten said.
Ronan peeked his head over the seats and saw both Ezra and Everly’s backpacks. His daughter, Wolf, and Aurora sat in thelast row. The girls were playing with what looked like a hundred stuffed animals, while Wolf kicked back with a book.
“Take a seat, dumbass!” Fitz shouted from the driver’s seat. “We’d like to get the show on the road before there’s too much traffic.”
Throwing a mock salute toward Fitzgibbon, Ronan took the seat beside Jude and put on his seatbelt. “Rhode Island, here we come!”
“I’m so glad Fitz picked the place this year,” Jude said. “If it sucks, then maybe you’ll all forget what happened last year in Maine.”
Ronan snorted. “Not likely. The Four Star Motel will live on in our nightmares.” If he were being honest, Ronan would admit the motel wasn’tthatbad. Everyone had fun, which, in the end, was all that mattered.
“What’s the plan, Fitz?” Ten asked. “You’ve been pretty quiet about what to expect at the hotel.”
“Jace, show them.” Fitz waggled his eyebrows at his husband.
The television monitors in front of Ronan, Jude, Ten, and Cope came to life with a picture of the hotel. “This is Hurricane Pointe. It was built in 1854. Back then it was called Holbrook Pointe, after Davidson Holbrook, the man who built the house. He was a prominent doctor, who unfortunately lost his only son, Henry, at Gettysburg during the Civil War,” Jace said, sounding like a tour guide. “As you can see, it’s a gorgeous three story, stone-faced building. The first and second floors have wrap-around farmer’s porches with rocking chairs. Atop the third floor is an hexagonal widow’s walk. The building was turned into a hotel in 1911. The Taproom is a bar located in the basement of the hotel. Back in the days of Prohibition, it was a speakeasy serving bathtubgin and red hot jazz. Singers from New York would come to spend time at the shore during the summer. Josephine Baker performed for a week in 1933, one month prior to the hurricane that nearly wiped the house off the map. Our rooms are on the second floor overlooking the ocean.” The picture changed to a view of the rocky Rhode Island shore. “The beach is private and lounge chairs are provided.” The picture flipped again to show chairs with brightly colored umbrellas and little tables for drinks, sunblock or a book.
“Damn, that looks amazing, Jace. Are there things for the kids to do?” Cope asked.
“They have arts and crafts classes in the morning for the kids so that the parents can sleep late, have breakfast in peace, or get a little lovin’.”
“That sounds amazing,” Ten practically purred. “I can’t wait to sleep late. Ronan, you can take the kids to class and have breakfast sent up to me.”
