"Look, Frank! See what I’ve got?" Megan dropped to a seat beside him on the shady bench outside Caesars Palace in Stateline. He leaned to kiss her, smiling a welcome.

"Show me, Baby."

Carefully, she emptied a sack that seemed to be filled with mounds of tissue paper. "It’s the crystal bells," she explained. "From the different places I went, and one for each day of vacation. Ten!" She dimpled, and kissed him again, and set about unpacking her treasures, one by one.

Now he felt like being outside for a while, enjoying the warm sunshine and observing the bustle and noise and glitter of the Stateline scene. His arm was in a comfortable sling, and as long as he didn’t try moving too rapidly, his ribs didn’t bother him, and the headaches seemed to have mostly stopped. Despite the incessant noise of cars and tourists, it felt…peaceful, somehow.

"Where are my folks, do you know?" he asked, now, as Megan finished putting away her bells.

She giggled, her blue-green eyes lighting up in the way he always found so alluring, and her dimple dodging in and out of her cheek. "They’re currently in the casino, trying to beat the odds at blackjack!" she told him exuberantly. "Maybe they’ll hit it big!"

Frank groaned, laughed, and rolled his eyes. "More likely, there goes my college fund!" he exclaimed. "I’ll probably have to get a second job to afford the tuition!" They laughed together, and Megan hugged him gently, mindful of his injuries.

Familiar voices and more laughter came their way, and Joe and Vanessa appeared, walking up from the street. Vanessa had evidently been shopping too, for she was carrying a plastic sack with a store logo on it.

"This has to be the most PERFECT gift for Mom!" Vanessa was insisting. She held up the bag, and dropped to a seat on the grass in front of Frank and Megan. Joe squatted down next to her, giving his brother a very gentle slap on the knee in greeting as he did so.

"What about the balloon you bought her at Heavenly?" Joe teased, ruffling Vanessa’s hair. "I thought that was the most perfect gift for Andrea!"

"This is better!" she replied, in a laughing, indignant voice. "And you saw it, so stop pretending you don’t know! It’s a pendant and charm bracelet set," she explained to Frank and Megan. "The bracelet has lots of tiny hot-air balloons on it, in different colors – and there are earrings that match, too, with little balloons dangling. It’s perfect – Mom will love them!"

She drew out the jewelry and held it up. Megan cooed, and marveled, and admired it; Frank smiled, and nodded his approval.

"That balloon ride was totally divine, yesterday!" Vanessa continued, putting the gifts back in their sack. "I wish you two could have come, Frank; it’s something nice and easy and gentle, that you could have done."

Frank grinned ruefully. "I’m just as happy to keep solid earth under my feet right now, Van, after coming so close to being tossed out of a helicopter!"

"It was worth getting up early for, though." Joe admitted. "Really pretty! And so quiet! And the brunch afterwards was super!" He grinned. "Even if Van and I couldn’t have the champagne!"

"The balloon will be a reminder for me, and the jewelry will be a perfect thing for Mom." Vanessa reiterated. "After all, she missed out on her vacation!"

"And so you’re reminding her that you got to go on one?" Joe queried, laughing. "Besides, I know you intend on borrowing that jewelry. Andrea will be lucky to ever get to wear it!"

Vanessa playfully smacked him with her bag. "At least I don’t eat waffles for every meal, Waffle Boy!"

"Hey!" Joe protested, laughing and making a grab for the bag. "Stop picking on me!" He snatched it from her grasp and held it teasingly out of reach for a moment, then surrendered it. "Speaking of waffles, though, isn’t it about time to eat? We’re on our own tonight; Mom and Dad are finally going to a dinner show tonight – with the Claremonts, of all people! I’m not sure Mr. Claremont has forgiven Dad yet, but Mrs. Claremont and Mom are trying to smooth things over. So," he concluded, breathlessly, "what are we going to do?"

Frank sighed, feeling somewhat depressed and overwhelmed by Joe’s bubbling enthusiasm. Joe had bounced back from their ordeal in the woods quickly, whereas he wasn’t feeling up to doing much of anything, yet. He’d expected it – the doctor had told him it would be at least a week before he started feeling more like himself – but it was still frustrating. He wouldn’t be allowed to try going back to work for at least two weeks…and with this busted arm, I can’t fly, anyhow! Maybe there’s something I can do, to help Jack, but I don’t know what….

Before anyone had come up with a satisfactory reply to Joe’s demand, they were joined by yet another couple – Laura and Fenton, who walked out of Caesars and stopped to talk.

"How’d the blackjack go?" Frank asked, teasingly, after greetings were exchanged.

"Could’ve been worse." Fenton patted his pocket smugly, but didn’t elaborate. Laura’s eyes were twinkling; Frank surmised that for once, Caesars’ house odds had been beaten by a detective’s good luck!

"I can live with coming back to Lake Tahoe!" Joe smiled. "If it’s winter time by then, we can go skiing!" He looked up at Frank. "Doesn’t that sound like fun, bro?" Frank nodded, smiling a little. He hoped he’d feel like skiing by that time.

"Cameron Jacobs has to be one of the best-looking criminals I’ve ever seen." Vanessa commented in a dreamy voice. She winked at Megan, as Joe gasped and bristled at her remark. "Don’t you think so?"

"Uh-huh." Megan followed her lead without missing a beat. "Totally studly – and deadly!"

Frank and Joe both groaned loudly, and Fenton and Laura burst into laughter.

"Studly or not," Laura retorted, when the laughter died away, "he was a blasted nuisance, and I’m glad to be well rid of him! He deserves every day he’s sentenced to, in my opinion!"

"Dad, did you ever find out about the knife?" Joe queried. "How did Reed get stabbed with Randall Claremont’s knife, anyway?"

Fenton smiled a little. "It wasn’t Claremont’s knife, Joe. Lieutenant Hunt told me that the murder weapon turned out to be one which was stolen from a museum in Sacramento over ten years ago. They found a little marking on it which showed it was representative of a small katana made some time in the 1700’s in Japan….Claremont’s knife is still safely in Sacramento. Oh, and the men who had been helping Doncaster have all been apprehended. Other than Lloyd Doncaster, they all worked as security guards for the Grand Tahoe Resort. As soon as he’d spotted Frank filming, Jacobs set them onto shadowing you kids, trying to either get the camcorder away, or later, to eliminate you. And there were enough of them that they could keep tabs on you most of the time."

A white Mercedes drove up in front of Caesars, and swung into the parking lot. In a few moments, Randall and Lisa Claremont got out, and approached the group near the bench. Laura and Lisa greeted each other warmly, but Randall and Fenton were stiff and formal, eyeing each other warily like antagonistic dogs.

Frank watched the two men curiously, knowing there was considerable reason for constraint between them. Fenton was highly embarrassed by his major error in judgment, and Randall was righteously indignant because of the results of that error – but Frank thought they might be able to work things out, given half a chance. I’m glad I was able to thank Mr. Claremont for saving me…I felt bad about him going to jail, and I’m glad things were sorted out….

"Not too bad, thanks, Mr. Claremont." Frank replied. "I’m still pretty tired, but I feel a lot better than I did yesterday." He eyed Claremont speculatively, wondering if he dared ask…. "Out of curiosity, sir, could I ask something? What was the ‘we have to do something about the boy’ comment about?"

Randall Claremont sighed. "I was on the phone when I said that. I was talking to one of the supervisors at my company, about an employee who’s been with us for a year and still isn’t measuring up to the job, even though he was highly qualified. He recently made a big enough error that he cost me nearly twenty thousand dollars. That’s all I meant by the comment….we have to figure out whether to fire him, or find out if it was a major training problem."

"Oh." Frank nodded his understanding. As simple as that….

"Mr. Claremont, I apologize, again, for not asking you about it, right then and there." Fenton said tautly. "And I apologize – again – for believing the worst of you, without proof."

Randall finally faced him squarely, and shrugged. "Look, Hardy, I may not ever get over spending two days in jail because of you, but I do understand that things happen, and I know you were upset – rightfully so. I may not like you very much right now, especially since you suspected me of being with the Mob, but let’s try to get along for Lisa’s and Laura’s sakes. We can try to forget, as much as possible, what happened, and go enjoy the show, and just go on from there. If you keep apologizing to me, Hardy – er, Fenton – it’s not going to work."

Fenton smiled tentatively, and nodded his agreement. He and Laura and the Claremonts bid the teens goodnight, and the four adults departed for their show.

Still reluctant to move from this comfortable spot, Frank, Joe, Vanessa and Megan sat talking a little longer, watching the people as they walked by in the sunshine. To no one’s real surprise – it seemed to be an afternoon of renewing acquaintances – another person approached them: Thomas Streeter.

"Hey, guys – I just wanted to thank you for listening to me, the other day," Streeter began. "Oh – I’m Thomas Streeter," he introduced himself to Frank. "I’m sorry now that I didn’t speak up sooner about Cameron Jacobs – maybe you wouldn’t have been hurt, if I had!"

Frank smiled at the earnest young man. "It wasn’t your fault at all, and I’ll be fine; don’t worry about it. What are you doing now?"

"I’m leaving Tahoe," Streeter admitted. "Today, in fact. I’m going to go back home to my parents’ house for a while, and go to school, maybe try to pick up a degree of some kind." He smiled, for the first time since they’d met him. "I guess Lake Tahoe just wasn’t where I was supposed to be." He looked at his watch. "Hey, I’ve got to go; I have a bus to catch! Thanks again!"

And Thomas Streeter hurried down the street and was lost to view.

"Dinner?" Joe hinted, once they were alone again.

"Why don’t we just go inside and order from Room Service and eat on the balcony of one of the rooms?" Megan suggested. "It’s the first chance we’ve had to do that in a long time; we haven’t been together like this to eat since the day we played volleyball on the beach." Aside from it being a pleasantly agreeable idea, Megan knew this would be the easiest on Frank, and she was concerned about him overdoing things.

"Sounds fine to me," Vanessa chimed in, and Joe nodded his head. He, too, wanted Frank to take it easy.

They got up, Joe making his offer of assistance to Frank as inconspicuous as possible. Once on his feet, Frank draped his arm across Megan’s shoulders, willing to use her as a prop, and she encircled his waist with a gentle arm, cuddling close.

They went inside and upstairs to the boys’ room, got Frank comfortably settled, and proceeded to order dinner.

"Look, there are waffles in here!" Joe pointed to the Room Service menu. "It says ‘available all hours’! Maybe I should order waffles…."

"If you order waffles, I’m going to hit you!" Vanessa threatened. "If I was you, I’d be so thoroughly sick of waffles by this time—"

Joe laughed. "I’m kidding, babe – a man can’t live solely on waffles. Not when there are cheeseburgers!"

She gave a relieved shout of laughter. "Now that’s the Joe Hardy I know and love! For a while there, I was beginning to wonder if you’d become a waffle-tarian when I wasn’t looking!"

Later that evening, the four of them stood on the balcony outside the bedroom, looking at another glorious sunset over the lake. Megan stood in front of Frank, who held her tightly against him with his good arm, and rested his chin on top of her head; and Joe had his arms wrapped around Vanessa as they stood watching the brilliant colors play out over the waters.

Megan tilted her head back to rest against Frank’s chest. "This certainly was a vacation to remember!" she murmured.

Frank thought about that for a little while in silence. Finally, he smiled and replied. "Baby, when you said ‘beware the Ides of March,’ you were more right than you knew – but the Ides of March had nothing on the Ides of August!"

They shared a laugh as the sun went down beneath the horizon.

*****

Somewhere across the lake, a man was similarly holding his wife in his arms, and he kissed her cheek and smiled as he whispered: "Well, Erica, maybe this place isn’t the best one for your family to move into, after all – but it has the best sunsets we’ve seen in a long time. Still…better tell The Family that Tahoe is a no go…."

The End