Age Is But a Number

The friends had set up two different teams: Charlotte, Kevin, and Frankie as “KFC Delicious” for their initials; and Joe, Caitlyn and Nick as the “Samurai Ninjas.” Despite the fact that they had Caitlyn, the Varsity Volleyball player, and the oh so competitive Nick, the Samurai Ninjas were defeated by KFC Delicious, losing by three points. Charlotte was on fire and Frankie was good at getting the balls that went a little short and ones that were too low for Kevin and Charlotte to reach. Plus, Charlotte and Kevin just worked well together.

“Oh gosh, I‘m hot,” Charlotte announced, wiping sweat off her forehead. She tried to calm down the irregular beating of her heart.

“Heck yeah you are!” Kevin shouted, and then covered his mouth. It just burst out of him and he wiped his bristly upper lip, sliding his hand down to his chin. “I mean, you know, ‘cause you‘re sweating . . . and the sun is out. . . .”

“Smooth,” Frankie said.

“Let‘s go down to the water, huh? I mean whoo! Yeah. Okay. Help me out Joseph.” Kevin was now sweating from nerves.

“I‘m hot, you‘re hot, so let‘s get our butts in the water,” Joe said, grabbing the beach bags and running to a good spot to set up, racing Frankie.

Caitlyn and Nick began walking down, carrying the volleyball and Caitlyn’s small beach bag. They turned around and found Kevin waiting behind for Charlotte.

“You all right Charlie?” he asked.

“Yeah. Just need to catch my breath,” she explained. “Don‘t have to wait for me.”

“Turns out I will anyway,” Kevin replied. He turned to his brother and Caitlyn. “We‘ll catch up, all right?”

Nick smirked and the two nodded, turning back around and walked slowly. Nick’s hand kept on brushing Caitlyn’s, but he did not know whether or not Caitlyn wanted to hold his hand. Truth was, Caitlyn wanted desperately for him to grab her hand.

Charlotte smiled softly at Kevin. She wouldn’t admit it, but she was checking him out. His skin glowed in the sunlight, the sweat glistening off his skin, and she noticed some muscle in his arm. She could see he had chest hair; most girls would find it weird, but she found it attractive. She mentally slapped herself. His chest hair reminded her that he was much too old for her.

Charlotte caught her breath and walked towards Kevin. “Ready?” he asked her, looking down into her crystal green eyes.

She looked into his hazel eyes for a moment, and then looked out towards the crashing waves, the cool water calling to her. She nodded and the two began walking. Kevin mentioned he was getting really hot now and slipped his navy blue tank top off. Charlotte tried to hide her blush, tried not to stare. The man was beautiful - and freaking hot.

She and Kevin went to the spot where Caitlyn and Nick were setting up the towels. Caitlyn had taken off her summer dress, her short shorts and a rainbow bikini underneath, and Nick couldn‘t stop staring. Charlotte would have to give Caitlyn a heads up that Nick must think she‘s hot, and tease her for drooling over Nick shirtless.

Charlotte looked out into the water and found Joe and Frankie splashing one another. Joe had his shirt off and Charlotte could not help but noticed how toned and chiseled he was - how all three boys were. Maybe acting cute and playing a few instruments had more of a work out than Charlotte realized.

Charlotte looked at her three friends and saluted, then took off running towards the water, throwing her tube top summer dress at Caitlyn. When she reached the line where the water had just touched, she did a cartwheel and met up with Frankie and Joe. Joe became excited, pointing at Charlotte and mentioning the cartwheel, then tried it himself. He did it, was utterly excited, and was then knocked down by a wave.

“She‘s so weird,” Kevin laughed.

“You like weird,” Nick replied, straightening his towel. “I‘ll meet you guys in the water.”

“I‘ll beat you there,” Kevin said before running full speed to the water’s edge. Nick took off, trying to beat Kevin. They tied, and Caitlyn walked at a normal pace behind them, laughing and smiling.

.:-:.

“Kimiko, do you love this massage as much as I do?” Denise Jonas asked Mrs. Matters, sighing when her massager got a knot in her back out.

“Oh Denise, I love it - and you,” Kimiko Matters answered. “Thank you so much for treating me to this.”

“You needed it. All those hospital visits to Charlotte? I‘m not her mother and I‘m even going crazy wondering how the girl is.”

“Well I am basically her mother, so it is nearly killing me when I hear she‘s at the hospital,” Kimiko says, thinking of Mrs. Reynolds and her lack of concern for her own daughter. “Sometimes I wish she was my biological daughter so she would not have gone through all that . . . stuff with her father.”

“I don‘t like him at all. How can a person hurt his daughter so badly and nearly kill a person who is trying to defend her?”

“He‘s a disgusting man, he is. So are the men he invited over that would sexually harass Charlotte.” She gagged.

Denise’s jaws dropped. “Poor Charlie. It was very brave of her to leave. She must have been terrified when her father attacked her. What exactly did he do again?”

“Caitlyn said he kicked her in the stomach,” Kimiko answered, flinching a bit.

“And it caused that much damage? She was bleeding a lot from what I heard from Kevin.”

Kimiko sighed. “It did a lot of damage because . . . she was pregnant.” Denise froze, processing the news. “A friend of her father‘s raped her. The surgery she had was an abortion because the baby died.”

Denise gasped. “Oh my - how awful! She‘s such a sweet girl, and brave. How old is she? The boys guessed that she‘s older than Nick, and he’s seventeen.”

“She‘s younger than Nick, two years younger.”

“Oh. Well. I‘ll have to tell Kevin that.”

“Kevin? Why?” Kimiko asked curiously.

“He has a huge crush on Charlotte,” Denise answered, smiling. “And Nick has a major crush on your daughter.”

“If only Caitlyn knew that,” Kimiko laughed. “I had a feeling Kevin liked her. As for Charlotte . . . she‘s hard to figure out. If she does, I don‘t know how I would approve of them dating if it comes to that.”

“I agree. Kevin is almost twenty-two. She‘s much too young.”

“But she‘s so mature, and it‘s understandable why. It surprises me how much she‘s opened up to your sons. She, Caitlyn, and the boys are already so close.”

“Well your girls mean a lot to them. I doubt they‘ll fight much. Even if they do and decide to never talk to each other, they‘ll just have to deal with it. You‘re someone I could never get mad at.”

Kimiko Matters smiled, and then squeezed her eyes tightly as the massager hit a big knot and a crack went up and down her spine.

.:-:.

“I . . . need . . . a . . . break,” Charlotte gasped, walking to the water’s edge, going to her knees when she reached a spot the water barely touched.

“Charlie, you all right?” Kevin asked, rushing after her. “Dizzy? Out of breath?”

“Out of breath,” she answered, putting a hand on her heart. It was going so fast, the beating a bit irregular. She also got the familiar feeling of her legs having a fluid build-up. That happens sometimes - mostly during softball practice, and it sucked.

“Feel my heartbeat,” she insisted, grabbing Kevin’s hand and placing it on her chest where her heart is.

Kevin felt her heartbeat under his palm: thump - thump thump - thump thump - thump thump thump, over and over. His own heart was pounding, but not like hers. Her skin was soft, a bit damp from the water, and his skin tingled where it touched hers. He tried to avert his eyes from her . . . chest area, but failed a couple times. At least she was wearing a tankini and not a bikini top. Kevin is still a guy.

Charlotte‘s hand was on his and she stared up at his hazel eyes. “Uh . . . er . . .” What should she say? Weren’t they having a moment or something? “Thank you for blocking the sun?”

“You‘re welcome . . . ?” Kevin replied, smiling. He took a seat next to her

Thank you for blocking the sun? Really Charlie? Dumby, she thought to herself, scolding herself for saying something stupid. Then she scolded herself for caring whether or not she said stupid things to him.

Charlie had gone overboard playing tag with her friends. She was running around too much in the water, a bit of an effort for anyone, trying to get away from Joe, who was trying to tag her. The sun beating down on her was not helping, so she called a timeout for herself and got out of the water.

After a few moments’ silence, Kevin spoke: “Want to take a walk?”

Charlotte looked up from the water that was beginning to lap at her feet. She looked around, wondering if she should be worried that he might be attacked by some crazy girls, like fan crazy, if they decided to. There was hardly anyone there; most of them were in the water anyway. She nodded at Kevin.

“Guys! Hey, guys!” Kevin called. He helped Charlotte up. “Nicholas!”

Nick looked over at his brother as he got splashed. “What?” he laughed.

“We‘re going for a walk, all right?”

“Are you sure you two aren‘t just sneaking of so you can go kiss?” Frankie asked and Charlotte blushed madly. “It sure does look like you two are gonna - hey!”

Joe had picked him up and threw him over his shoulder. “Tag, you‘re it,” he said to a struggling Frank. He winked at his brother and friend.

After a few minutes of walking and silence, Charlotte had conjured up a few questions she wanted to ask Kevin. “Kev, tell me a little bit about yourself,” she said.

“Like what?” he asked.

“When is your birthday? When did you start playing the guitar? I don’t know, stuff like that.”

“All right.” He cleared his throat. “By birthday is the fifth of November and I was born in the year 1987.”

“Old butt,” Charlotte mumbled.

“Be nice,” Kevin chuckled. Charlotte shrugged and he continued: “I watched as my little brother Nicholas grew more talented each day and saw him make it to Broadway like he said he would. I was in a couple commercials as a kid myself. I learned how to play the guitar when I was home sick and realized how much I loved it and wanted to play it for the rest of my life. None of the teenage bands at school would let me play. Not that it matters now.”

“Their loss, I guess,” Charlotte commented. “Continue.”

He smiled. “One time when I was little I got that little squeaker in those rubber ducky toys stuck in my nose. Whenever I breathed it would sound like I was squeaking.”

Charlotte laughed. “Seriously? I would get those Barbie doll shoes stuck in my nose and my mom would have to stick her finger in there to get it out.”

The two laughed and laughed at childhood memories. Kevin reached for her hand in the midst of all that laughing and was once again surprised when Charlotte did not let go of his hand. She liked the way his hand felt. She did not want to let go, though she felt bad for leading him on when she knew this kind of thing would not work out. She still was confused of how she felt for him.

“Now tell me a few things,” Kevin suggested.

“Uh, okay,” Charlotte replied. “I was born on a cold morning on January fifth, nineteen -”

“Kevin!” a female voice called.

The two looked around, trying to find the girl who was calling Kevin, and they found her waving to him. She was lying on a towel with sunglasses and a rather skimpy bathing suit on. Kevin recognized her right away and groaned, letting go of Charlotte’s hand to use both of his to cover his face.

“What? Who is she?” Charlotte asked.

“Laura,” he grumbled.

The woman got up and walked to Kevin and Charlotte, grinning at Kevin. She was definitely mature, that is for sure, Charlotte thought. She had to be around Kevin’s age with the way she walked, talked - everything about her screamed woman. She had wavy brunette hair and, when she took off her sunglasses, Charlotte noticed blue eyes, icy blue. She was beautiful.

“Hey Kevin,” she purred. She gave him a hug and Charlotte felt a sudden wave of jealousy run through her. “Long time no see, handsome.”

“Hello Laura,” Kevin sighed, gently pushing her away.

“Who‘s this?” Laura asked Kevin, looking at Charlotte. “And what does she do with her skin? It looks so . . . young.”

“This is Charlie,” Kevin said. “She and her friend are on vacation with my family and me for the week.”

“You having fun, Charlie?” Laura asked. Charlotte nodded. “Quiet, huh? You‘ll open up to Kevin in no time. He sure is a talker and quiet a man if I you know what I mean.”

Charlotte looked up at Kevin, her eyebrow raised. “Laura and I were together months ago. It ended months ago, too.”

How can he like me after being with her? Charlotte thought.

“Not quite, sweet lips,” Laura replied, smirking. She even licked her lips.

“It was nice talking to you Laura, but we should be heading back now,” Kevin said, grabbing Charlotte’s elbow and dragging her away from the woman he used to love, a woman who suddenly changed from a sweet, modest woman into what she is now.

“You‘ll see me again, Kevin,” Laura promised. “Bye Charlie.”

Laura had a plan. She would have Kevin again.