Waking to the feel of cold drops of water on her back, Lucy looked up to see Zac grinning down at her. 'God, he's so gorgeous and so much fun. How did I get so lucky?'

"'Kay handsome, what do you want?" Zac started to chuckle. "No, don't answer that I already know! Remember this is a G-rated picnic!"

Laughing, Zac plopped down on the blanket next to her, showering her with drops of water from his wet hair. Lucy rolled over and gazed up at him, thinking again how lucky she was to have such a great guy want her. Zac leaned down surrounding her with his damp hair and gave her a big wet kiss on the mouth. Lucy kissed him back and started giggling, so she pushed him off and sat up.

"I better go see if your mom needs any help. I imagine the meat's almost cooked by now." She stated.

"Yeah, let's go see how badly Ike burned the chicken. Amanda never lets him near the kitchen except to make coffee and toast," he offered.

They stood up and Lucy wrapped a towel around her waist. They walked hand-in-hand back to the picnic area just in time to hear the dinner call. Zac, not being shy around food, was the first in line pulling Lucy with him. He loaded his plate high with chicken (not too bad, Ike), a burger, potato salad, coleslaw, and fruit. Lucy wasn't quite so hungry so the chicken and salads were just enough. They each grabbed a drink and sat down at one of the tables. Diana and Walker joined them followed by Isaac and Amanda. They all asked Lucy more questions about the area, her experience with horses, and what she did the rest of the year. She felt a little overwhelmed but Zac grabbed her hand under the table and gave it an encouraging squeeze.

"Well, I grew up in this area and spent most of my childhood exploring the valleys and mountains with my father who always loved the outdoors. We had a farm in a neighboring community so I grew up with animals and learned to ride at an early age. I started helping out here in the summers with the horses and mucking the barns. They asked me to help with trail guiding and I took over as head guide last year.
As far as the rest of the year, I'm working on a creative writing degree at the University of Washington. I've always enjoyed the power of words and using them to express myself. I hope to do free lance magazine work after I graduate. I've been offered full-time employment here to manage the recreation program so I'll just have to see how things go."

Zac glanced at her and smiled. "So you're a real mountain girl, Northwest style I guess. Is your family still in the area?"

Lucy took a deep breath, "My mom lives on the ranch which my brother and sister-in-law own now. My dad passed away last year from a heart attack. He'd been sick for a while so it wasn't unexpected but it hasn't been easy for my mom. They were always there for each other and she misses him a lot."

Diana reached over to give her a hug. "I bet your mom really appreciates you and your brother being close to home. Losing a loved one is the hardest thing we all have to go through. I lost my mother when the boys were little and it was a long time before I stopped crying at the smallest thing."

"Thank you for understanding. I do talk to her a lot and usually see her a couple of times a week during the summer," she replied.

The small talk continued until everyone was finished eating. Isaac and Walker headed off to stretch out on the grass for short naps (BBQing is hard work!) while the rest gathered up the remnants of the picnic. Taylor and Zac loaded most of it in the cars, then headed down to the beach.

The women sat down together with some wine and talked quietly. Diana asked how Amanda and Colleen were feeling after they assured her that Lucy was in on the "secret." They were each doing okay, just a little queasy in the mornings but otherwise fine. Amanda patted her tummy saying, "My clothes are starting to get tight. I definitely need to start shopping for maternity clothes. In fact I should probably try to find some jeans and slacks soon as I can barely snap my old ones. At least I'm okay with shorts since most of them having some elastic in the waistbands."

Lucy spoke up, "There's a little shop in town that has designer maternity clothes. I'm not sure why except that the owner has gone through a couple pregnancies and found this great line of clothing. Maybe you could find something there that you like."

Amanda and Colleen both got excited about shopping for "baby" clothes so a trip was planned for the next day. Diana laughed and volunteered to go along. She was the real expert on maternity wear after 7 children! Lucy listened to them thinking about the love and joy they were sharing. 'What a great family, and such a nice mother-in-law!' she thought.

Amanda and Colleen got up to go tell their husbands about the little trip for tomorrow and Diana and Lucy remained at the table.

Diana looked over to Lucy, "Lucy, I just have to say I haven't seen Zac so happy in quite a while. He went through a rough time in his last relationship and I was wondering if he had given up on women all together. You obviously have something that just clicks for him. I hope he makes you happy too."

Lucy smiled back at Diana, "Zac is really nice. I just want us to be happy and have fun while you're here on vacation. I guess after that we'll just have to see what happens."

"Well thank you for joining us today. You fit in so well with everyone and make Zac so happy, I'm just glad you're here with us. Walker and I are looking forward to getting to know you for the next few weeks," she responded.

Getting up from the table, Lucy walked around and gave Diana a hug. "Thank you so much for making me feel welcome. Your family is really special, I think because of your love."

Smiling, Diana hugged her back. "Your welcome, dear. If you need anything just let me know."

Nodding, Lucy started to walk off saying, "I'm going to see what Zac is up to. I'll see you later."

As she approached the water, Lucy could see Zac and Taylor sitting on a blanket shooting the breeze. She got a sudden urge to cause some mischief so she walked over to the bag of water toys. Keeping her back to the guys, she picked through the bag until she found what she was looking for. After filling it up with water, she walked casually back towards the beach with the water gun behind her back. When she got within about 10 feet of Taylor and Zac she called to them, "Hi, what's up?" As they were looking up to her she whipped the water gun up to her shoulder and let loose on the unsuspecting brothers.

"Hey, what the hell�" yelled Zac, while Taylor rolled over and jumped to his feet trying to evade the stream of water. Zac scrambled to his feet and starting advancing on Lucy. "You are gonna pay BIG TIME for this, babe!"

Backing up and laughing AND trying to keep up the gun was just about too much for Lucy. She stumbled over someone's shoes and went down, landing on her bottom. Meanwhile Zac bent down and threw the toy out of her reach. He pushed her onto to her back and proceeded to tickle her unmercifully. Lucy was laughing too hard to fight him off with any success.

"Okay, say you're sorry. Come on, say you're sorry woman!" Lucy just kept on laughing, pushing at his hands with little effect. In the meantime, Taylor picked up the water gun, pumped it up, and let loose a stream of water on Lucy and Zac.

Turning away from Lucy, Zac stood up and took after Taylor running along the edge of the water. Zac could see Tay was getting out of range so he ran over and grabbed a new super soaker out of the bag and ran into the lake to fill it. By this time Taylor was out on the dock taunting him so Zac swam after him, climbing up the side of the dock and cut Tay off from the shore. Taylor backed up raising his hands in surrender but Zac was having none of that. He kept on coming at Tay who was now begging for mercy. Zac got him cornered at the end of the dock so Taylor threw down the water gun and jumped into the lake.

Lucy watched the whole thing, giggling and shouting encouragement to Zac. She watched as Taylor came back to the surface of the water sputtering and yelling threats at his brother. Zac stood watching him with a big grin and both water toys in hand. "See Tay, it doesn't pay to mess with your little brother. I'd think after 20 plus years you'd have that figured out!" Taylor shrugged while getting his hair out of his eyes, "Whatever, Zac. Your day will come! Even the mighty fall once and a while." So saying he began the swim back to the beach.

Getting up and walking over to Amanda, Colleen and Isaac who were sunning themselves well away from the water, Lucy was hoping Zac would let go of any more payback.

Amanda greeted her saying, "Hey girl, you're a brave one. Zac has a long memory. Growing up with Taylor and Isaac, he was always getting picked on so he learned very quickly to wait for just the right moment for revenge. If I were you I'd watch my back very closely for the rest of the day!" Lucy giggled as she sat down next to the others. "Yeah, but it was so much fun seeing the expression on their faces! Let me know if you see him coming before I do." She turned to see Zac stalking up to them with a very intense look on his face.

"Okay lady I'm not through with you yet!" He scooped her up kicking and screaming and marched down to the lake throwing her in over her head. Lucy came up laughing and gasping trying to get some air. Laughing and water don't mix and she swallowed some down her windpipe. Zac reached over and pulled her up, smacking her on the back to help clear her airway. She kept laughing and choking so he hoisted her over his shoulder saying, "I guess this calls for CPR!" Causing Lucy to laugh even harder.

Zac strode out of the lake and up to the grass where he laid Lucy down on her stomach. He straddled her and started pushing along her back to force the water out of her lungs. Lucy coughed a little and started to get her breathing back under control. Zac rolled her over her saying, "I think you need more air. Here I come!"

Lucy coughed and laughed as Zac put his mouth over hers like he was going to do CPR. Grabbing her chin he locked lips with her, laying on a big ol' kiss. Feeling an electric jolt down her spine, Lucy stopped laughing and started kissing him back. Suddenly this was serious. Deepening their kiss, Zac caressed her lips with his tongue. Lucy groaned and sucked his tongue into her mouth. Their tongues intertwined, stroking against each other. Eventually coming up for air, Zac could feel his body responding to their loving and decided to back off before everyone could tell how strongly Lucy affected him. Bending down, he whispered in her ear, "I think we need to leave soon, don't you?"

Sighing happily, Lucy nodded in agreement. She smiled up at Zac, pushing his hair behind his ears and caressing his cheek. Zac smiled back and grabbed her hands, pulling them both up to their feet. He put his arm around her shoulders and they walked over to where his brothers and their wives were resting on blankets. Plopping down on a vacant corner of a blanket, Zac pulled Lucy onto his lap and began kissing her shoulders and neck. She squirmed her hips a little, which only set Zac off into more passionate kissing.

Their activity of the past few minutes had not gone unnoticed. Giggling and chuckling were taking place all around them but Zac and Lucy were too intent on each other to notice. Isaac cleared his throat saying, "Zac, time out. . . Zac!"

Zac raised his head finally hearing his name. "Ike, what?"

"Hey, I hate to interrupt but this is a public beach and, like, you two are putting on quite a show. Maybe you need to head back to the resort and finish this in private?" That sent the little group into fits of laughter. Zac and Lucy blushed a little and joined the laughter. "Well okay, we were thinking of leaving but we didn't want to seem too obvious either," Zac explained.

Taylor laughed saying, "It's pretty obvious you can't keep your hands off each other so it just depends on how 'obvious' you want to be when you leave."

Colleen shoved Taylor, pushing him over as she said, "Right honey, like you've never been 'obvious' either. Remember at the Grammy's last year when I left to use the restroom and then you excused yourself to see if I needed any 'help'. No one at the table was too surprised when we never came back! For god's sake, I had a hard time convincing you why I needed to keep my dress on during the limo ride to the hotel."

This was cause for even more laughter and storytelling. Zac pulled Lucy up to her feet and they said their good byes as they gathered up random towels and gear and slipped some clothes on. Walking up to his parents who were resting underneath a shade tree, Lucy thanked Diana again for making her feel welcome. She explained that she needed to leave early and take care of some things before starting back to work again in the morning.

Zac and Lucy said final good byes and walked over to the Acura, loading their things into the trunk. Zac helped Lucy into the car and got into the driver's seat. He leaned over and kissed her briefly on the mouth. Lucy put her hand up to his face and lengthened the kiss. Sighing, she murmured, "You make me feel so good."

Chapter 6: "You seriously don't think this is gonna stop me do you babe?"

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