Saturday 4 May 2013

Saturday, May 04, 2013 -

Summer Holiday

by Rue Chapman
Published: May 02, 2013
Words: 21,640
Category: romance
Orientation: M/F
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OPENING EXTRACT
Christmas in Australia - baking heat, cicada's shrill songs in the trees, and Christmas dinner round the barbeque, or a cold seafood platter with heaps of huge prawns and juicy oysters. And then January is perfect beach time - school holidays are on, with tribes of children loose everywhere you look; hot days interspersed with even hotter days; and everyone wants to recover from the pressure of Christmas fun. The beach. The perfect way to relax. And what could be more relaxing than a holiday house on the beach, with all the family having fun...

"Just what is that?"

"The coffee maker."

"You're packing the coffee maker?"

"Well, of course. You like coffee, don't you?"

"Becka, we're going on holidays to get away from it all. But we seem to be taking most of it with us."

"Just the things we really need."

"We really need the portable TV, the VCR, the laptop, the coffee maker...?"

Becka stopped wrapping the egg poacher in bubble wrap and looked at the love of her life, "Greg, for the next three weeks we're sharing a holiday house with your parents, your brother, his charming fiancee and her two interesting children. I NEED those things. For sanity. Ok?"

Greg frowned at her, his dark eyes serious. "For the next three weeks you'll behave perfectly, no matter what, ok?"

Becka tossed her long ponytail over one shoulder. "Sure. I'll behave. So long as I have coffee and my laptop."

Greg took her by the shoulders, turned her around towards the doorway and swatted the seat of her shorts gently. "Go. Pack. Get all the bags ready. And remember we have a car, not a truck."

Becka giggled at him and hurried off to finish the packing. She loved the beach, and three precious weeks to laze around were going to be wonderful. And she'd always got on well with Greg's parents, Molly and Frank. And with his brother Nick.

But Nick was engaged. To Melissa. The sister-in-law-to-be from hell. With two spoilt brat demon spawn in tow.

And three weeks of Melissa and her offspring were going to be a real strain.

Melissa was tall and slender. Becka was short and rounded. ("Full-figured" as the shop assistants said tactfully. "Built like a real woman" as Greg called it. "I need another diet" was how Becka saw it.)

Melissa had thick, wavy hair, black as midnight, with deep blue eyes and fine, fair skin. (She was probably an alien.) Becka had long, straight, fine, hair in an indeterminate mousy brown, and hazel eyes that couldn't seem to decide what colour they were meant to be. And skin that, according to Becka, went from sallow to muddy olive depending on the state of her tan.

Melissa was a model, most of her work consisted of waving at the latest product and looking suitably attractive and impressed while some hyperactive photographer tried for an even more flattering shot than the last one.