Just Once More Read Online Free Page B

sister, Kristen remembered. Taking it seriously, she guessed.
    “Where are the kids?” Liam asked, echoing her thoughts.
    Hugh gestured towards the water. “Out there on the raft. No worries, Reka and Kate are out there too. The others aren’t here yet. Our job to wait for you. And Hemi and Koti are putting the boat into the water.” He nodded across the beach where a tractor was backing into the surf, launching Hemi’s gleaming white powerboat. “Josie’s keen to show me how much better she is than me at water sports. Turns out she won some sort of wakeboarding championship, back in the day.” He sighed. “And I only find this out today? Too late to back out of marrying her, I reckon.”
    Liam smiled. “She’ll be better than me too, then,” he assured Hugh. “I’m not good on boats. Pity Toro isn’t here, because he’s the worst, bound to make us both look good. Can’t float. Something about not enough body fat.”
    “Aw, backs,” Hugh said with a shrug.
    “Not an issue for us fat boys up front,” Liam agreed. “That’s not my problem. Got nothing to blame but my own shrinking heart.”
    “It means you can babysit with me,” Kristen said.
    “Well, yeh,” Liam said. “That too.”
    “When’s Toro coming?” Hugh asked. “Bringing his partner, right? Ally? Haven’t met her yet. She’d be another one to school us, from what I hear. Some kind of sportswoman herself, eh.”
    “Climbing guide. And yeh, she’s been known to show him up a time or two. Or more than two. Going to do it more, too, because she’s his fiancée now,” Liam said withsatisfaction. “He did it in front of a whole crowd last weekend. Got her parents, his parents, everybody together for it. No backing out now.”
    “Really.” Hugh laughed. “That’s awesome.”
    “Liam,” Kristen protested. “Maybe they wanted to make an announcement.”
    “You reckon? Oh, well. Can’t be helped. If they make an announcement,” he told Josie and Hugh, “do me a favor and act surprised.”
    Josie laughed. “I’m going for a quick swim before we get started,” she said. “Anybody?”
    “No, thanks,” Kristen said.
    “You go on,” Hugh told her.
    Josie tossed her sunglasses to the towel, ran down to the water with athletic grace, kept running through the shallows, and dove. And only then did Hugh stop watching her.

A couple hours later, and everyone was there on the towels, picking at the remains of their picnic lunch in the shade of three huge umbrellas.
    Josie was heaps wetter, heaps sandier, and heaps happier. She’d been a bit nervous about this—well, add it to the list of things she’d been a bit nervous about. But, as it turned out, there’d been nothing to worry about.
    “I’m knackered,” Hugh sighed from his spot beside her. “And all right. Josie wins. I officially concede defeat. Who knew you could grab the board and do those turns in the air like that?” he complained. “That’s above and beyond, surely.”
    “You don’t win a wakeboarding contest because you can stay on the board,” she said smugly. “You win it because you can do tricks. And I’ve got tricks.”
    “Yes, you do,” he agreed. “I’d say you’ve got tricks and then some.”
    “But Kate didn’t do badly either,” she said graciously.
    “No tricks,” Koti’s pint-sized wife said. “But I stayed on, even though it was my first time. Koti beat me for sure, but it wasn’t
his
first time. Give me some practice, buddy,” she told her husband with her usual outsized attitude, “and we’ll see.”
    “Remind me never to give you any practice, then,” Koti said. “And anyway, I didn’t beat Josie. Hugh’s right, she gets the trophy. Or an extra slice of pavlova, in this case. About all we have to offer.”
    “Which she won’t eat,” Hugh said. “Hungry all the time. That’s the price you pay for this.” He put a hand on her side, fingered the gold chain that hung around her hips, weighted in the middle by the