And Mom tried really, really hard not to look at the naked people knocking tennis balls around with wedge-shaped boxes on their hands.
I still had a little trouble with nudism. Whenever these people played sports, parts of them flapped that I didn't really need to see flapping. Sometimes they wore jockstraps or sports bras. Other times, they didn't. Ollie had told me, and my experience over the past few days had confirmed it, that naturists liked miniten because it was less strenuous than tennis and therefore didn't, um, flap their flappable parts as much.
The Kittens didn't seem to have gotten that memo. They played miniten with a vengeance, like they were competing for the Olympic gold medal in naturist sports. All but one of them had put on a sports bra. All but Heidi Mackenzie.
Her boobs bounced like crazy every time she leaped up to slam her thug into the ball. Good thing she had modest-size breasts instead of big jugs. I couldn't imagine how painful it would be to play so roughly with a huge set of tits.
My mom sat sideways on her chaise, hands on her lap, studiously avoiding glancing at the nudists frolicking off to her right.
"Dear lord, Mara," she said. "How can you stand to be around these...people?"
"You mean how can I stand being around super nice, friendly people who make me feel like I belong here? Who don't treat me like a screw-up who can't do anything right?"
"It's not proper, running around with no clothing on, where anyone can see you."
"Not anyone." I folded my arms over my chest. "This is a private resort in a secluded section of the woods. The only people who can see the nudists are the other nudists."
She rolled her gaze up to the sky. "What about satellites? Your father showed me Google Earth once. Did you know you can see into people's backyards with that website or software or whatever it is? It was horrifying."
"Oh come on, Sher," Dad said from where he reclined on his chaise, his baseball cap over his eyes. "You once sunbathed in the nude. And I remember that time at the lake when you suggested we skinny dip."
My eyes flew so wide the air dried them up. "Mom! You skinny dipped? And sunbathed naked?"
She threw Dad a chastising look. "Peter, you promised never to tell anyone."
He sighed and sat up, plopping the cap onto his head. "Mara's not anyone. She's our daughter, and I think it's about time she learned the truth about her mother."
"But---"
Dad tipped his head down to peer at her with an expression I'd never seen before. He seemed to be...almost scolding her with that look. "We both know why you've force-fed Mara all this nonsense about being a proper lady. You were humiliated once, and that's all it took. You stopped being the adventurous woman I'd married and turned into a prude." He winked and smirked. "At least in front of other people. You still love sex, don't you, Sher?"
My mom's mouth dropped open so far her chin might've touched her chest.
Okay, maybe not quite that far, but still really far. I watched for insects so I could warn her if any of them tried to fly into her mouth.
Dad moved onto Mom's chaise and clasped her hand in both of his. "Relax, honey. It's time we told her the truth. I let you instill your fears into our daughter, and today I realized how wrong that was. I should've made you stop. I should've helped you get over your fears before you ever started in on Mara. I love you, Sheryl, but things have to change."
Mom shut her eyes, exhaled a long breath, and leaned against Dad. "Maybe you're right. But what will Mara think of me?"
"She'll understand."
"I will," I said. "You can tell me whatever it is. I can handle it. Believe it or not, being here with all these nudists has helped me realize how silly all my fears were. If I can get over it, so can you, Mom."
She opened her eyes, fixing her uncertain gaze on me. "But I've done things you would never have done."
"You'd be surprised what I might do."
Nico strolled up to my chaise. "Hey Mara, let's go for a walk."
"I'm having a conversation with my parents. You're being rude, and I don't want to go anywhere with you." I faced my parents, blatantly ignoring him. "Take yourself for a walk, Nico."
Out the corner of my eye, I could see him watching me.
"Go," I said, waving a hand to dismiss him.
Nico headed for the nature trail.
Mom cleared her throat and said, "About the skinny dipping..."
Chapter Twenty
Ollie
I was keeping an eye on the miniten game---okay, mostly I watched Mara---when I saw Nico Marshall traipsing down the nature trail. Had that guy ever been in the woods before? I kind of doubted it. He seemed like the urban type, not the vacay-in-the-wilderness type. Maybe I ought to go check on him, to make sure he knew to stay on the trails and not wander off into who-knew-where. The last thing I wanted to do was talk to Mara's ex, but it was my job to look after the guests.
With Eve and Val "recuperating" from their big trip south of the equator, I was the only one who could stop Nico from getting himself into trouble. Not that I cared if he got bitten by velvety tree ants or quilled by a porcupine. In my opinion, he totally deserved that. But we had these annoying things called laws that required us to keep our guests safe. Letting Nico wander into a bear's den might be fun, but it would get us shut down for sure.
So, I tramped toward the nature trail.
I passed Mara and her parents, but they were too involved in their conversation to notice, and I didn't
