* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Day Two - Saturday, June 17

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

No sooner had Kate stepped out of the rented minivan than Clay jumped out right behind her and wrapped his arms around her. Mmm... Clay hug. She leaned her head back onto his shoulder with a contented sigh, nestling herself close into the crook of his neck.

Sally's daughter Martha wrinkled her nose at the pair as the others gathered around Sally's vehicle. "How long have you been together again?" the college-age girl asked.

Clay smiled at Martha, a cousin not that much younger than his wife. "I started dating your cousin a little under a year ago, and we've been married..." He glanced at Kate as he did the mental math. "Five and a half months, right honey?"

"Mm-hm," Kate answered. "We've actually known each other longer than that."

"Oh." Martha twirled a strand of hair around her finger. "Mom and I were always getting into arguments over how long it would take for Clay to find someone. I told her it was going to be love at first sight. She told me that with all that fame stuff going on, it was going to take him some time getting to know a girl before he trusted her enough to give her his heart."

Jerome placed a warm hand on the girl's shoulder. "You're both right. They spent about two years getting to know each other, but when they met for the first time it really was love at first sight."

"Really?"

"Trust me - I was there," Jerome winked at her.

Clay flushed lightly but clarified for her. "Our relationship grew a lot over the two years we spent getting to know each other over long distances. We had loved each other for some time, but it was when we finally met face-to-face that it became obvious to both of us."

"Ah," Martha grinned.

Sally grinned at the assembled group here for packing day, the five traveling on the mission trip with her and her husband and daughter. "Everyone ready?"

"Ready!" Sarah exclaimed.

They entered the church, slipping through the hallways to the offices and storage rooms where the supplies going to Haiti were being kept. Will let out a low whistle at seeing the piles and boxes full of clothing, toys, school supplies, and medical supplies that they would be taking with them. "That's a lot of stuff we're gonna be packing today..."

"We'll make sure to pack what we absolutely need first," Sally informed him, "and then we'll pack as much of the other stuff as we can. Some of it may have to go through on another trip."

"Which supplies," Sarah began as she peeked into a couple of the boxes, "are first priority?"

When Sally didn't answer right away, Kate stepped in. "The medical supplies, the toiletries, and the things we need for bible school are first priority. So are all the kits - the health kits, the school kits, and the baby layette kits. Those are all priority items. Clothes don't perish if they sit around a while."

"I see."

Sally turned back to the group. "The first couple of times I went they let us pack our supplies in cardboard boxes, and they could weigh up to seventy pounds. Of course since the towers, a lot has changed. Haiti doesn't allow boxes to count as luggage - we can only use suitcases or duffel bags, and we have to pack them lighter now too."

"How much has it changed since I went?" Kate asked.

"I'll have to ask Pastor Tom for sure," Sally told her, holding up a finger as she headed down the hall.

Kate sighed as she and the others leaned against the wall. Glancing to the side, she noted that several of the other team members had started to arrive to help pack.

"Pastor Tom?"

Sarah's questioning look made Kate smile. "That's what some of Pastor Macy's coworkers and good friends call him. Between working with him and going on the last six years worth of mission trips with him, Sally has 'earned' the privilege. I haven't yet."

"Six years?" Jerome nodded with appreciation. "She's been going that long?"

"Yep. She's been one of his co-leaders from the start. She handles the VBS end of things while he handles the construction end and about half the logistics."

"And you," Sally told Kate as she returned, "are going to be my lieutenant this year."

"Me?" Kate asked, dumbfounded.

"Yeah. You're the only other team member who has taught VBS in Haiti before. The only other returning Haiti team members are going to be out on the construction site. Everyone else doing VBS this year is a Haiti newbie."

"VBS?" Will asked uncertainly, unfamiliar with the term.

Sally glanced at him. "Short for vacation bible school. It's a summertime staple of a lot of Protestant churches. We put the kids in classrooms by age or grade, teach them lessons about God and His love, sing songs, do crafts, have snacks for a week. Then we always sing for the services on the Sunday morning following so they can see some of what we've done all week. It's a lot of fun."

Will blinked. "Oh. Is that what we're going to do in Haiti?"

"Yes it is, and Kate gets to help me lead it."

Kate stared in shock, and Clay deposited a gentle peck on her temple. "Congratulations, honey."

"Katydid," Sarah chided, "it's not as if you've never taught bible school before."

Finally Kate found her voice. "It's a good thing I'm not in charge..."

Sally made a face at her. "Kate, you are in charge. That's what being a 'lieutenant' is about - being in charge." As Kate's eyes bulged again, Sally reassured her cousin. "You're just not the only one in charge."

"I believe in you," Clay told her as he placed another kiss on her. "You'll do just fine. If you can handle an entire day of foreign language teaching, you can handle this."

Kate smiled up at him. "Thanks, hon."

A fifty-some blonde-haired lady leaning against the opposite wall studied Clay for a minute. "You remind me of someone, but I can't place who. Have I seen you before?"

"Maybe," Clay admitted sheepishly, shrugging lightly. "I know I haven't met you before, but that doesn't mean anything." The lady gave him a puzzled look, and Clay decided the best thing to clarify matters would be an introduction. He extended a friendly hand to her to shake. "My name is Clay Aiken, and this is my wife Kate."

Recognition lit her features at the mention of his name. "Sheila Hanson, and this is my husband Jack." She indicated the dark-haired man next to her. "The Clay Aiken?" she asked as each of them in turn shook his offered hand.

Clay nodded with a giggle. "Guilty. But I don't want anyone on this trip treating me as if I was anything special just because I've recorded a couple of albums or been on TV a few times. I'm just Clay - I'm no different from anyone else here."

"I like you already," another man, gray-haired and in his sixties, on the other side of Jack proclaimed. "If it's one thing I can't stand, it's a celebrity who's full of his own importance." The second man extended his hand to Clay as well. "Wayne Muth."

"Clay Aiken," Clay told him with a grin, "and my wife Kate."

Introductions continued for a moment or two until Pastor Macy entered the place where they had gathered, his pre- and early teen children following him. "All right, everyone!" he called out. "We have our duffel bags and suitcases. They can be fifty pounds - let's keep them as close as we can to that." He laid a stack of paper signs with the church information on them down on a nearby table with several mailing tape dispensers and black markers. "Let's start packing!"

Quickly the assembled group scattered, and everyone started sorting through the items to pack. They sorted all the clothes by gender and by age, all the school supplies, and all the medical supplies into their own piles, and they placed the kits where they could be easily accessed. A bathroom scale was placed close by so that everyone could use it, and everyone started packing.

"Sarah, sweetie, I appreciate the care you're going to," Sally interrupted Sarah's work, "but when it comes to some of those clothes items, we pack them into any number of corners as they fit. Don't worry about a few wrinkles - the Haitians are just happy to have the clothes." Seeing Sarah's mildly annoyed face, she placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "If it makes you feel better, I had to tell Kate the same thing on her first packing day."

Sarah snickered and raised an eyebrow. "Really."

"Really. You two really are sisters under the skin in many ways." Sally chuckled as Sarah and Will went back to packing the duffel with school supplies and children's clothing to fill the empty spaces. Speaking of my cousin... Sally walked over to where Kate and Clay worked along with both of Pastor Macy's children. Clay and Kate chatted amiably with the children, listening attentively as the two kids chatted about school and everything they could think of.

"You think we have enough stuff in here?" Clay asked the older of the two Macy children, thirteen-year-old Maggie.

"I dunno," Maggie answered.

"Shall we try it?" Clay lifted the bag in his arms and stepped on the nearby scale. "I'm going to ask you to read the number, Aaron, since you're so quick."

Aaron knelt on the floor to recite the weight. "Between 180 and 185."

"Is that all?" Clay asked. "How much is 185 minus 50? Take 50 away from 185..."

"Umm..." Aaron mumbled.

His sister was faster with the figure. "Is it 135?"

"Yes! Good job, Maggie!" Clay told her. "Now I weigh a lot more than 135 pounds, so it looks like we can put some more stuff in here, maybe some heavier things. What can you guys find that we can pack in here? Hurry hurry!" Clay stepped off the scale with a giggle as the two children scrambled to find more items to pack in the bag.

Sally grinned as Kate stood on her tiptoes to place a warm kiss on Clay's cheek. "You guys do that entirely too well."

"It's fun!" Kate told her cousin, grinning from ear to ear. "We're having a good time with the kids."

"Looking forward to having our own," Clay confessed, eyeing Kate slyly and smiling as she returned the amorous look.

"Hey, guys," Sally teased. "Save it for the hotel room."

"Aw, you're no fun," Kate pouted.

"If you want to corrupt those kids, be my guest."

Maggie bounded up at that moment with a small armload of kits that she had dug up elsewhere. "I found these, Clay."

"All right." Clay placed the bag on the floor so that Maggie and Kate could start slipping more kits inside the best crevices of the bag.

"Why didn't Dad tell people that you were coming on the trip until today?" Maggie asked.

"Because," Clay told her, "while there are a lot of really good things about being famous, like having the opportunity to tell lots of people what I believe in - "

"Like Jesus?" Maggie asked excitedly.

Clay nodded with a smile. "Like Jesus and how much he loves us, or how to treat other people with kindness and good manners. Or getting the chance to do a lot of really neat things that make a difference to the people around me, there are also a lot of things that make being famous really difficult."

Maggie gave Clay a blank look. "Like what?"

"Sometimes when we're out in public, we don't get a chance to just be by ourselves. If we're having dinner together at a nice restaurant, someone might ask for our autograph. If we're walking down the street, someone might run up to take a picture of us." Clay shrugged. "It's not easy to deal with, and Kate and I have had to get used to not having a lot of privacy."

"Oh." Maggie frowned as her brother returned. "But... your fans would understand, wouldn't they?"

"Some of them do, honey," Kate suggested quietly, "but not all of them. Some of them, quite without thinking, do some things that might somehow be dangerous. That's why we have people like Jerome and Will looking out for us, to help make sure that we stay safe. Just the publicity alone for our trip could have caused us a lot of trouble if your father would have told more people."

"How?"

Clay and Kate exchanged a look, unsure how to answer Maggie's question. "Try asking your father that one tonight, Maggie. Since he knows more about the security issues of Haiti than I do, he would probably be the one to ask."

Kate shrugged. "It's complicated. I know that doesn't help you understand, but it's complicated."

"I get it," Aaron offered. Quickly he put forth his thought on the matter. "They don't want a big crowd of your fans in the church on commissioning day."

"I'm sure your dad and everyone else wants a crowd in church," Kate chuckled as Clay grinned at the suggestion, "but we would question their motives if details about Clay going on the trip and when we were going had been made public knowledge and they showed up in droves just because he was here."

Finally Maggie nodded with satisfaction. "Got it."

Shaking her head with amusement at the interaction between the Aikens and the Macy kids, Sally walked over to where Jerome had been helping the Hansons pack a bag or two. "I think your charge is going to have the time of his life," she offered to the bodyguard.

Jerome chuckled warmly as he glanced up at the four of them going through the weighdown and the mental math all over again. "It looks to me like he already is."

"Yeah, he really likes the kids."

"Isn't he mostly going to Haiti to work with the kids?" Jerome asked.

"Seems like it," Sally nodded, leaning back on the wall to study Clay and his helpers further.

Jerome took a momentary break to stand beside Sally. "You made quite an impression on Clay at the reception for his wedding day," Jerome teased.

"I always make an impression," Sally drawled. "So what kind of impression did I make?"

Giving her a practiced eye, Jerome leaned closer. "He told me he felt that he had shown up to a taping of The Sopranos without his knowledge." When Sally chuckled lightly, Jerome nodded. "Now I'm sure you have your reasons for messing with his mind like that, but I think I have you figured out. You're not with the mob at all, are you?"

"No, I'm not, and don't you dare tell him that." Sally cast a wicked grin at Jerome. "I'll tell him myself when I'm good and ready to let him in on the truth."

"Make sure to tell me when you do," Jerome nodded, "because I want to be there to see his reaction when he realizes that you pulled a fast one on him."

"Deal."

Clay closed yet another duffel and held it still while Kate and the kids put on the label and taped it up. "All right, guys. We're ready to add this one to the pile." He walked the bag over to the others that had already been packed and sealed, placing it there before returning to the group. "Now let's see what else we have that we can pack." The kids ran off to gather more things to pack as Clay grabbed another bag. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Kate move to grab a pile of school supplies. "Honey, why don't you let me get that, and you can start putting it in the suitcase."

Kate raised her eyebrow at him. Several times that morning when she had attempted to pick things up, he had gently intervened to do that himself and had given her a different task. "I can get it."

"Hon, I saw that book Doctor Kelley sent home with you," Clay told her, referring to a book on pregnancy that Doctor Kelley had insisted was "standard literature" for expectant parents. "I skimmed through it a little while you were busy with other things." He wrapped his arms around her waist. "I don't want you to overdo it in case we are..."

"I won't overdo it," Kate scolded mildly.

"Kate..." Clay returned in the same manner. "I know you. I know how you were always trying to help out the roadies on the crew when you thought no one was looking, and how they always chased you away from trying to carry anything."

Kate rolled her eyes. "I remember... but I was hoping you would forget."

"You wish," Clay drawled, squeezing her lightly. "I'm not trying to spoil your fun, honey. I'm just trying to look out for you and the health of our child if we really are expecting. All right?"

Giving him a gentle poke, Kate sighed in surrender. "All right, you win. This time."

Clay placed a tender kiss on her forehead. "That's my Kate." He smiled as she leaned her head on his shoulder and hugged him back.

Maggie groaned as she returned to see Clay and Kate sharing their affections with each other. "Not again..." she whimpered.

"What?" Clay asked, pretending to be offended.

Aaron nudged his sister. "At least they're not stealing kisses like Mom and Dad do."

"Ew," Maggie complained, her nose wrinkling in disgust.

"Ew?" Kate asked incredulously.

"Yeah," Maggie replied with a tone of voice that suggested their opinion should be obvious to all. "It's weird to watch your mom and dad kiss and get all mushy on each other."

"It's weird to watch anyone get all mushy on each other," Aaron informed the couple.

Kate blinked at the two of them. "What makes you think that we haven't? We've just waited until the two of you were elsewhere before we stole any kisses."

"Yuck!" Aaron howled, earning a sharp elbow from Maggie.

Sarah's laugh burst out from nearby, and Clay and Kate glared at her as she bent double clutching her stomach. "I warned you two that you need to behave yourselves today..."

Kate raised an eyebrow at her. "You're one to talk."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Sarah placed her hands on her hips defensively.

Knowing that the Macy kids were nearby, Kate switched into German. "Not now," she told Sarah. "Later after we're all done packing. I need to get myself some new delicates before we go to Haiti, and maybe you can go with me."

"Whoa..." Aaron breathed. "Cool..."

Sarah ignored the boy's awed expression and continued her conversation with Kate. "Delicates? I thought you were taking your ratty underwear with you and leaving it there."

"Not those delicates - the other ones." Kate made a sheepish face, remembering Clay's surprise at discovering her... gradually growing size. "Mine haven't been fitting right."

Giving her best friend a look, Sarah raised her eyebrow. "Isn't that one of the symptoms of pregnancy?" she asked point-blank. When Kate nodded, Sarah gave a not-so-gentle snicker. "Cute..."

"I thought you'd like that one."

Clay scowled at his wife. "You know it drives me crazy when you do that."

Kate placed a gentle kiss on Clay's cheek. "Nothing you don't already know, love."

Pastor Macy stepped into the middle of the room where people were packing. "If we're ready to take a break for lunch, everyone, we've ordered some wonderful delivery food from Valentino's. Pizza, breadsticks, salad, and sodas." He whispered to Clay. "Mushrooms only on the supreme."

"All right," Clay nodded agreeably.

The group gathered around for Pastor Macy to lead them in prayer. Once the lunch prayer was finished, the team started filing through the line.

"Sweet," Kate sighed as she walked around Clay to wrap her arms around his waist from behind. "I haven't had Valentino's in ages..."

"Are they good?"

"Ooooh-ho-ho..." Kate groaned. "They make really good pizza. Makes me wish that the chain extended further than Nebraska."

Clay blinked. "Local chain, then."

"Sort of. I think there might be some outside of Nebraska, but most of them are Nebraska-based." Kate leaned over to Sally. "Val's started in Nebraska, right?"

"Sweetie, Val's started right here in Lincoln. The original Val's is right across from East Campus. Josh and I used to go there all the time." Sally grinned. "Sometimes we still do, simply because it reminds us of the old days when we were dating."

"Aw, your special place..."

"One of," Sally agreed. Giving her a wry look, she smiled. "Where's your special place?"

Clay and Kate shared a momentary puzzled glance. "Do we have one?" Clay asked.

"I..." Kate slowly released a breath in deep thought. "I don't know."

Sally frowned slightly. "You gotta have one."

"I don't know what it would be," Kate confessed.

"The park doesn't count," Clay drawled, causing Kate to snicker under her breath.

"No, let's not count that," Kate agreed with a giggle. "I don't know, honey, I really don't. My special place for us is wherever you are, really. Because if we're together, then it's my favorite place to be."

"Aw..." Clay said, pulling up one of her hands to kiss it gently. "My favorite place is in your arms. Oh, look - I'm there right now."

"Yuck!" Aaron called out from where he had found a seat with his food in hand. "Are they getting mushy again?"

"I'd rather see them get mushy than Mom and Dad," Maggie told him.

Pastor Macy frowned lightly at his kids. "And what's wrong with your mother and I getting romantic with each other? If we weren't romantic, you two would never be here." When the kids gave him a blank look, he clarified. "How do you think we had the two of you?"

"Gross!" Aaron yelled as Clay and Kate broke into laughter in each other's arms. "Make them stop!"

Sally shook her head while the couple shared a sweet "Eskimo kiss" with each other. "You're going to corrupt those kids yet."

Kate raised an eyebrow at her cousin. "You tell me how showing the kids what a loving, godly marriage relationship looks like would corrupt them, and we might consider it."

"I'll pass," Sally muttered with secret amusement, watching Clay and Kate exchange a light kiss on the lips before he nudged her ahead of him in the food line. Once more Sally shook her head at them and their antics before glancing up at Sarah and Will, also nestled in each other's arms. "What, is it something in the Kearney water?"

Sarah snickered. "It makes you wonder."

"I'll say." Sally studied the newer couple. "You two have certainly gotten closer since Christmas."

"We've had some time to talk," Sarah informed her, "and get to know each other better. Plus I've spent a little time out there, and we saw each other again when the Aikens performed in Omaha again."

"That helps."

Finally the entire group had filled their plates with food and staked a claim to places to sit. Clay and Kate were the last ones to find a seat, having been held up talking for a moment with Pastor Macy at the drink line. Kate glanced at the one remaining chair, shrugged and prepared herself to sit on the floor.

"Hold on, honey." Clay placed his food and drink on the nearby table before he sat down and beckoned her over. Putting her own lunch on the table, Kate once more prepared to sit down on the floor... only with her back up against Clay's legs. "That's not what I had in mind, hon," he scolded, slipping his first two fingers in one of the belt loops of her jeans. "Get over here." Pulling firmly enough to guide her, Clay made sure that she was seated securely on his leg before turning to his meal.

Kate flushed slightly but found herself quite content with her seat. Works for me. Looking up, she caught a wink from Sheila Hanson. Can't tell we're newlyweds, can you? Kate chuckled as she reached for her pizza and soda.

Pastor Macy caught the team's attention one more time, suggesting introductions for everyone to get to know each other. Everyone was urged to give their name, what they did for their living, a couple of hobbies, and why they wanted to go on the Haiti mission trip.

Clay took note of the variety of people going on the trip. There were the two pre-medical college students Adam Land and Matt Shore who wanted more experience with young children. There was Frank Shore, Matt's father, and Wayne Muth, both construction workers who had been to Haiti before. Jack and Sheila Hanson were a lawyer and counselor respectively ("The only lawyer I'll ever trust," Sally had told him) and both wanted to touch the lives of others for Christ. Clay appreciated seeing that there were other families going on the trip - not only another husband and wife team, but a parent and child team. It warmed his heart to know that they would share their experiences with each other the rest of their lives. Burly police officer Chris Williams confessed to having a soft side for children - they would probably see him both on the construction site and inside teaching the children. Lisa Shutt was a nurse, hoping to find opportunities to start some medical mission trips in future months. Tracy Rals was an elementary school teacher who simply wanted to teach the children about the love of Jesus. Kate's cousin Sally carried the job of music minister at the church, and she loved telling children about God and leading them in song that gave Him praise - no matter what language the song was in. Both Jerome and Will acknowledged that they were the bodyguards for Clay and Kate, but they also admitted that they were looking forward to spending time with the children. Sarah told the team about her job as a social worker and how she had also taught in the classroom this past semester, but otherwise kept a lot of her reasons for going on the trip to herself. Clay and Kate also shared about themselves, telling about their teaching background as well as their current background in the professional music business. After everyone had seen them interact with the Macy kids, the team knew where the Aikens would be spending most of their time in Haiti.

"How much do we have left to do?" Jerome asked at last.

Pastor Macy blew a breath through his lips. "Not that much, really. All the kits, school supplies, and medical supplies are packed, and we've filled in the cracks with a lot of the clothes. We can just keep going until we run out of bags or things to pack."

"Works for me," Sarah replied, polishing off a breadstick.

Finished with lunch, the team put away the few remaining leftovers before they started tackling the remaining packing. Fortunately there was not a lot of either, and the team was finished a little after two.

Sally placed a hand on Clay's shoulder. "I have it from a reliable source that Kate and Sarah are going to desert you for an hour or two for some shopping. You guys are invited over to the house to hang around for a while."

"Sure," Clay nodded, looking to his bodyguards for their input.

"Jerome, you can take this one," Will told him with a yawn. "I didn't get much sleep last night, and I need to get a little shuteye."

"We can always drop you off at the hotel," Kate offered, noting both Sarah's blush and Jerome's attempt to keep a straight face. There's more to this than meets the eye, and as usual, I'm out of the loop.

Clay and Jerome joined the Kleinbach family in their vehicle while Kate took Will back to their hotel before she and Sarah went to one of the nearest retail discount stores.

"How many do you think you need for the trip?" Sarah asked.

"Considering how long it took things to dry in Haiti after I hand-washed them," Kate grumbled, "enough for most the trip. But since we're going to be working up a sweat down there, I don't want fancy and I don't care if they flatter me or not. I want functional and inexpensive."

Sarah nodded. "Makes sense to me."

The two entered the lingerie department and started looking around. Once they found the style Kate was looking for, they grabbed one in her current size and the next one larger for her to try on.

"Oh look, Kate," Sarah pointed as they walked towards the dressing rooms. "The new swimsuits."

Kate snorted. "They're looking especially bright and skimpy this season. I'll stick with my nice, conservative one-piece, thank you."

"Chicken."

"Chicken?" Kate questioned. "No, just sensible. Whaling might not be illegal in Haiti."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Katydid, I bet it will be five or six months before you even look pregnant. But right now you could pull that look off easily."

"Yeah, right."

"Bet me," Sarah offered. "Get a flattering two-piece today and take it to Haiti with us. I would wager that you will get stared at by Clay and at least two of the other men on the team."

"Whatever," Kate scoffed.

"All right, three," Sarah suggested, raising the bar. "Buy a two-piece suit to wear in Haiti and I will wager that you get Clay and at least three others completely drooling all over themselves."

This could be an interesting bet. Kate raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Name your stakes."

The women quickly agreed on a wager before walking over to browse the racks of swimsuits. After five minutes of hunting, they had selected a couple of options for Kate to try.

At last the two narrowed the selections down to the one that made Kate grumble the least. "Katydid," Sarah chided as Kate scowled at her reflection, "Clay loves you more than any other woman on the planet. He married you, didn't he?"

"Yeah."

"You've heard him say that you're beautiful. And if that isn't enough, there's the footage from your wedding and the footage from St. Louis where it's all over his face what he thinks about you. He thinks you're beautiful and sexy!"

Kate covered her cheeks with her hands to hide the pink in them. "His opinion is the only one that matters to me anyway."

"Now that's the first good thing I've heard you say about your looks since we got here."

"I can't help it if I don't have many good things to say about them," Kate drawled.

"Don't make me call Clay," Sarah threatened severely, "and tell him you've been bad-mouthing yourself again. You know what he'll do."

"Mm," Kate grunted. She did know. If Clay received a phone call reporting that his wife had been saying negative things about herself, he would make Sarah give Kate the phone and give Kate a very long lecture. "Too bad he isn't here. I remember what happened the last time I kept slamming myself."

"What happened?"

A second blush colored Kate's cheeks. "He told me that every time I said something bad about myself he was going to kiss me."

"Really," Sarah giggled. Suddenly her expression turned impishly naughty. "So how many times did you get kissed?" she purred.

"I lost track," Kate shrugged, "but not because I wasn't counting."

"He got a little too into kissing you, hm?"

"Sorta," Kate confessed. "but it didn't happen the way you think." When Sarah waited expectantly, Kate grinned sheepishly. "He made the mistake of saying something bad about himself, and well - what's good for the goose is good for the gander." Kate bit her lip and giggled once. "I kissed him, a little too enthusiastically, and you can guess what happened after that."

Laughing warmly, Sarah nodded. "I can. It didn't take very long for the two of you to decide that kissing each other every time you degraded yourselves was counterproductive, did it?"

"You might say that."

Sarah studied Kate thoughtfully. "Well, if we're going to gather enough male reactions to decide who won our little bet, then we need to figure a way to keep you covered until you get poolside - you need a sari or something."

"I need one?" Kate growled. "What about you, Miss Sports Illustrated? I know you - you've already got a knock-em-dead two-piece in your luggage, and with your hourglass physique I'll look like a pale moon indeed next to the sun! If the modeling industry wasn't so stupidly prejudiced against the vertically challenged, you'd have a serious future as a supermodel."

"If you got it," Sarah shrugged, "flaunt it. But I will agree that your point is valid. I will get a cover-up too, and wait until you've removed yours before I remove mine. That sound fair?"

"Fair as a summer day," Kate insisted.

Go to the next day, Day 3 (June 18)

Go to yesterday, Day 1 (June 16)

TITN series

Home