195:16

In moments Tracy felt the lull of the ocean refresh her stress and channel her build. She'd had this head ache for a week. She hadn't been able to get out here with the pressures of six kids, a new baby, wrapping the animated Disney, and doing music videos. Not to mention the recording hours and time spent at ABC.

They rode a few waves as the sun came up, Danny watched carefully as she'd been teaching him even more ways to feel the waves, rather than get munched by them. They spent a half an hour working hard on his skills, and then they paddled out a little farther and Tracy sat her board and watched Danny paddle out to meet her.

He seemed to sense that she wanted to talk. She did, that's why she had brought him out here, alone, away from the crowds. Any crowds.

"Mom, how come you didn't marry Austin?" Danny began ingeniously, giving her a quizzical look too astute for a six-year-old.

She shrugged. "You wouldn't want to marry someone you didn't want to be with forever, would you?"

"No. But why didn't you want to be with him? He's got the boys, like me. You like the boys."

Tracy laughed, and trailed her fingers in the water. "Absolutely, Dan, I love the boys... I love all my kids, and Chris and Kelly and Stevie feel like my kids sometimes, because we've spent so much time together, but Austin loves Lisa, and... I love somebody else."

"You love Daddy Raine?" He'd had this conversation with her before. He looked dejected, then he brightened. "You love Blaze?"

Tracy shook her head and laughed again. "Blaze can't take me to the Temple." She said gently.

"But you love him?"

Tracy shook her head again. "He's just my friend."

"I like him." Danny said. But she knew he liked all the guys who paid a little attention to him. What he needed was a full-time Dad.

"Yeah, he's pretty fun to be around, but I have somebody else in mind to be your Dad forever. That's what I want to talk about. Do you think you can keep this just between you and me for awhile? Not tell Grandma Lorraine about it, or Marc..." She jerked her head back toward the shore meaningfully. Danny glanced back the way they had come, bouncing lightly on his board. She knew for his age he had about a one minute per year of life attention span, and she'd already used up three out of the six. He looked back to her, sensing the importance of what he was about to be told, and knowing instinctively that Momma was serious. "Richard Mann is coming home soon from his mission. Do you remember Richie?"

Danny slapped the water and rolled his eyes. "Of course, I remember Richie, Mom. Is that who you're gonna marry? Yippee! That's gonna be fun. Richie is a lot of fun."

She wondered how he could have remembered Richard, since he'd been only three when Richard had left, and he seemed to forget people he didn't see even for a month. Everything was right here and right now, for Danny. And she didn't make the kids write to Richard, and she didn't have pictures up. In fact, she never talked about him to the children.

Another surfer was coming toward them. It wasn't Jake. Tracy turned her board to shield Danny. The guy was further out than them and obviously moving through the water quickly. They both watched as he drew closer, and then when he was right there, too close to have been an accident, and obviously allowed by Jake to get this close, she recognized him.

"I wasn't sure that was you, Joel-Wade." She cried, somewhat enthusiastically. He sat his board easily.

"Not my normal beach, really, but Ben wanted to come to Huntington today, think he's got concert tickets for tonight in Atlanta, wanted to see if you'd hang out after..."

Tracy gave him an incredulous gasp. "You seriously changed beaches and came out here to ask if I wanted to hang out after my concert? Are you kidding? There are phones for this kind of thing, Joel-Wade."

He flexed his muscles, gripping his hands behind his back and stretched. Then he relaxed and shrugged. "Ben told me you surfed."

"Religiously." She agreed, laughing. "Joel-Wade Murphy, this is my son, Daniel James Crandall, you can call him Danny, he's my surf buddy. Dan, Ben Arendt is Joel-Wade's friend and surf buddy, but they usually surf Capistrano, where we used to live."

Danny moved his board closer, sensing that it was okay to be friends, he held up his hand for a high five. "How's it going, bro?" Danny said and Tracy tried not to laugh at his casual display of maturity. She knew the little boys had been talking like that for awhile, calling each other 'bro' more often.

Joel-Wade tightened his fist after the high five, and met fists with Danny and then did the thumbs up shake as well and some kind of weird other thing after that. Danny was delighted. She knew he'd be practicing it all day now.

She'd met Joel-Wade several times, casually. He was in his mid to late twenties, an actor, very popular, very well paid, and a well-known surfer, and golfer. They'd never surfed together though. She knew Ben Arendt a little better, had gone clubbing with him and his girlfriend, model and actress, Hanni Maxine. She didn't feel threatened, a little disappointed that her time to talk with Danny had been cut short, but she'd told him the important thing, the rest was simply details.

He didn't surf in a wetsuit, and should have this time of year, it wasn't exactly warm, but his extremely well-muscled body above the water line was very attractive. She actually thought about reaching over and poking him just to feel the rock hardness of him. She knew he'd laugh. She also knew he'd get the wrong idea. They all did.

Tracy paddled away and caught a wave, seeing Danny out of the corner of her eye, as he also started paddling faster. The mother-son conversation was over. She didn't need to talk to Joel-Wade, knew instinctively that as a surfer, he wouldn't have to talk out here, could just appreciate the waves together, without the need for conversation. They surfed and laughed together for an hour and then he high fived her, told her he'd see her that night and paddled away.

She signaled Jake that they were going in, the sun was full up, and she heard Danny's tummy rumbling.

Jake got out first, and led the way, giving Marc and his buddies a wide berth and several meaningful stares. They snapped away but didn't bother Tracy and Danny this time as they got out of the water and headed home to start their day.

*****