“Carla!” Isaac exclaimed in return, hurrying over and giving her a huge hug and a short but sweet kiss.
“Mmm, I missed you.”
“Oh get a room,” Zac grinned.
“Ahh, you’re just jealous. Oh! Mary Anne, you wouldn’t have met my girlfriend Carla. Carla, this is our friend Mary Anne.”
“Forgetting someone?” asked Nate.
“Right, Mary Anne, this is Nate and Doug, Carla’s brother and father.”
“Hi,” Mary Anne smiled.
“How have things been with you guys?” Taylor asked.
“Good, what about you? How’s the tour?”
“Great. This ought to be some cruise, huh?”
Nate shrugged.
“Should be just like any cruise except we’re surrounded by a bunch of people who consider themselves musicians. Whether they actually are or not is debatable.”
Taylor raised his eyebrows.
“Hey, I never said you weren’t!”
“Oh, let’s not fight,” Carla cut in.
“I agree,” Doug added with a grin. “We came here to have a good time. Or at least, you came here to have a good time. The kids and I came here to work.”
“Hey, you guys wanna be in on a trick?” asked Carla.
“Carla,” Nate complained, “we’ve been over this.”
“No,” Carla answered. “You’ve been over this. I never agreed. C’mon Ike, it’ll be fun.”
“Mmm, I think about it,” he answered, kissing her forehead.
“Would you two knock off all the kissing stuff?” Zac complained.
“Oh you’re just jealous,” Taylor retorted.
“And you ain’t Mr I-left-my-girlfriend-back-in-Tulsa?”
“And we dated these guys?” Mary Anne commented teasingly to Rachel.
“Yeah, how scary is that?”
“Hey!” Taylor and Zac objected.
Carla giggled.
“Yo dudies! I hear a familiar cry of indignation.”
“Jo!” Zac exclaimed. “Hey long time, no see! I didn’t know you were going to be here.”
“Love the hat,” Taylor commented dryly.
Jo grinned and shook her head so that the bits of cork flew around.
“Ow!” she yelped as some hit her. “I think it’s cool.”
“I thought you hated stereotypes,” Rachel said, confused.
“No, I like to rip them off, and today I was in the mood to wear a typical Aussie outback hat.”
“Why the cork?” Mary Anne asked.
“To keep away the mozzies, mate. Or at least the female ones. Female mozzies are the only ones who bite and that’s so they can feed their bubbies.”
“Jo?” said the young man next to her.
“Yes Gary?”
“Shut up.”
“You’re just embarrassed I’ve been going around and yelling ‘g’day mate’ to everyone I’ve laid eyes on. Well except these people here,” Jo grinned.
“Who are you? Her boyfriend?” asked Zac.
“Jealous Zac?” Taylor teased.
“No!” he replied with a sidelong glance at Mary Anne.
“This is my brother Gary.”
“You have a brother?” Taylor asked.
“I was adopted by his family. I did tell you I was adopted.”
“So you did.”
“Anyway, Gary, these are my friends Isaac, Taylor, Zac and Rachel. And the rest of these guys I’ve never met.”
“Well, this is my girlfriend Carla, her brother Nate and her father Doug,” Isaac answered. “Good to meet you Gary. And great to see you again Jo.”