with two women, both slick with suntan oil. I had yet to meet Bulldozer's wife but could only assume that the blonde sitting nearly in his lap was Layla Rafferty.
Axel, the spotter for the crew, was the first to spot me. "Woohee! The last of the rookies has arrived. Hey, Bronx, get yourself a drink." He held up a beer can. "We need to loosen you up for the hazing."
I glanced over to the tent where Kingston was getting mighty familiar with a curvy brunette. King raised his beer and shrugged. "No idea what he means by hazing. No one else seems to know either."
I turned back to Axel. He laughed. "I'm just messing with you. Grab a beer but don't drink too much. Topper's about to take the boat out if you're interested in some wakeboard action." Axel had been a jumper early on, but a motocross accident had shattered his femur. He was so dedicated to smokejumping, he retrained to be a spotter, the person who checks wind velocity and the general direction of the fire. It was a job that meant life and death to the crew, and he was damn good at it.
I nodded. "I could get into some wakeboarding, but first I'm going to take a swim. I need to cool off."
"That's right. We've got a near Olympic swimmer in our midst," Jane said from her chair under a giant umbrella. Two of her kids were busy burying her feet and legs in the sand. Jane was our pilot and the queen of the whole fucking operation.
"I don't think winning medals in high school is the automatic precursor for the Olympics, Jane, but thanks for the ego boost anyhow."
"There you go again, selling yourself short, Bronx." She reached into her beach bag and tossed me a cellophane bag with a big cookie. It was cut into the shape of a parachute and had the words Rookie No More painted across in hard icing.
I lifted it up. "Thanks, Malibu." Jane grew up surfing on a beach in Malibu, and she was tougher than anyone I knew. She was brusque and never held back. When one of us needed to hear shit we didn't want to hear, then Jane had no problem stepping up to plate to deliver it. She'd been married to another pilot, but he cheated on her. She sent him packing before he could even stutter out an apology. She just as quickly changed the tattoo of her husband's face into a pirate by adding an eye patch and a rose between his teeth. She said it was the most therapeutic tattoo session she'd ever sat through.
I headed over to Kingston. He'd conveniently parked himself in front of the ice chests.
"Didn't think you were going to show. How's Vick?" he asked, hesitantly. Vick had always been cool about letting Kingston stay at the ranch, especially as we grew into our teens and King started butting heads with his dad. He loved Vick too.
I shook my head as I searched through the ice chunks for a cola. "They had to take even more than they thought. Cancer was farther than they expected."
"Shit, that sucks," King said, and he meant every word.
The woman standing next to him with dark curls and pale green eyes clucked her tongue. "There's nothing worse than cancer."
"Oh hey, Jack, this is Mixx's cousin, Vera."
"Right." I shook her hand. "You're the Vera going into law school. Congratulations."
"Thanks." She had a bright white smile like her Aunt Atalia.
"Are you going out on the boat?" Kingston asked.
"Nah, think I'll take a swim first. I need to loosen up before I wakeboard. I slept on a chair all night, and I'm feeling about a hundred years old." I popped open the soda and shot it back.
"Are you swimming out to the island?" he called as I headed toward the water. "I'll time you."
"Not going for any records, just a swim," I called back. I pulled off my t-shirt.
Angus let out a whistle that could be heard all the way across the lake. "Look at those pecs and abs," he cooed. "Pretty boy Bronx is showing off his stuff."
I gave him the appropriate finger, waded in a few feet, then dove under. The cool water washed over me, sending me into my water world, a world I knew almost as well as the world inside a horse paddock. At least swimming only gave me earaches. Colt breaking left me battered, bruised and grinning like a fucking