Sarah's POV
"All right, Sam, let's see what you got," said Natasha, moving so he could get on. I could see how excited he was to ride with her. I couldn't tell if he blushing or not, but I figured he probably was; Natasha was looking pretty hot today.
"Sweet!" Sam climbed on, leaving Jace stag.
"Tony, is Kate here yet?" I called, realizing she hadn't shown up yet. "I told Jarvis she was coming a while ago."
"I'll check with Jarvis. Hold on."
"Pepper, are you sure you don't want to try again?" Jace called out, "I need you for balance."
"Nope, I like dry land just fine. Sorry Jace, I've seen you drive and I can honestly say that Tony wasn't the most reckless one out there for once."
We laughed at that and waved the others off to go dink around while they waited for us to be ready.
"Jarvis said she's changing and then she'll be down," Tony said.
"Great! Rhodey, if you want to come back to get me, I'm going to go show her the way."
"Sure. Is she cute?"
"Yup. Single too." I dropped my wet life jacket on the dock and ran up to the house.
"Jarvis, where's Kate?" I asked as I came inside.
She is just coming down the stairs, Sarah.
"Perfect, I'll go to her." I walked over to the stairway to see the blond coming down the last few steps. "Kate - perfect timing. Bruce, Tony and Pepper chickened out, so we need you ASAP."
"What is it that we're doing that you need another girl?" Kate said, looping her arm through mine and letting me lead her to the door.
"Water wars. Each jet ski has to have a guy and a girl to win. One person ones are too hard to tip and two guys are always too heavy, so they whine when they lose. Do you need sunscreen? It's pretty bright out on the water."
"Yes, I burn easy otherwise. You tip them?"
"You'll see. It's fun. Are we telling everyone your cover? I think Natasha, Maria and I are the only ones who know you're really with Shield."
"That's the plan."
I sprayed her with sunscreen and led her down to the life jackets. "You're riding with my best friend Jace Barnes. He won the last round, so you have the advantage there."
"Barnes?" She looked at me quizzically. "As in Bucky Barnes?"
I grinned in return. "Yup. Same family, believe it or not. He can tell you about it."
We found her one to fit and walked out on the dock. Jace and Rhodey came over when they saw us standing there. I put back on my still wet life jacket and zipped it up.
"Jace, this is my neighbor, Kate. She finally got done with her family stuff so she could come play with us. Kate, this is Jace."
"Hi Kate. Hop on." He flashed her a wide grin, patting the seat behind him.
"You didn't tell me he was cute," Kate murmured, giving me a wink. I laughed and pushed her towards him.
"See you out there." I hopped on behind Rhodey and wrapped my arms around him. "On a scale of Pepper to Natasha, how aggressive are you on these things, Rhodey?"
"I started in the Air Force as a pilot, Sarah."
"We'll do fine then."
Finally we were all out on the water. "Everyone, say hi to my neighbor Kate. This was as soon as she could make it here."
"Hi Kate. Thanks for coming," said Steve, sounding surprised.
"No problem, Steve. This sounds interesting."
He gave her wide grin. "You said it."
"Ready, Set, GO!" I shouted and we took off. Rhodey was a pretty good driver, a little more cautious than I was, though. This round lasted a lot longer, mostly because everyone knew how it went now. Rhodey and Sam went after Steve and Chloe first; he was clearly the least experienced of all of us, but he caught on pretty quick. Clint and Jace were going at it until Clint ended up getting caught in the wash from everyone around them.
Steve and Chloe were the next to go down and Rhodey made me work to keep us balanced as we went after Jace. We managed to pull out of the maneuver before we tipped ourselves, only to stall momentarily. Jace went after Sam again, seeing that we were momentarily disabled. The kill cord had caught on the handlebars, so Rhodey untangled it and restarted the jet ski. By that time, Sam was on his way over, avoiding Jace.
Rhodey and Sam shared a grin, turning back to take Jace on; there was no way they were going to let him win again. Kate was laughing as they went over, so I took that as a good sign. Sam then came back to take us on but was a little too aggressive, because he ended up taking out himself and Natasha instead. I gave Rhodey a high five and we all headed back to shore, ready for a short break from King of the River. Some of the others wanted to just zoom around for a bit, so I climbed back on behind Steve and we went to check out the river traffic.
"How was that for you, Steve?"
"That was pretty fun," he said with a smile. "I didn't realize you all were so competitive."
I snorted. "You've met the team, right? I'm pretty sure competitive is both Jace and Sam's middle name."
Steve chuckled at that. "It's nice that Kate could come."
"Yeah. She got here at the perfect time. So am I going to have to worry about Nat getting revenge for me tipping her?"
"I don't think so, but no promises. You'd have to ask Clint on that."
"Will do." I rested my head on his back, just enjoying the ride. Eventually we headed back to the dock. Tony and Jace were getting things ready for skiing when we parked our jet ski, so Steve went over to give them a hand.
Kate and Sam were chatting with Chloe, Clint and Maria. Everyone looked like they were having fun, so that was good. Checking my phone, I could see that we still had three hours before we needed to get cleaned up for the party. I headed over to the group to find out who was going to go out on the boat with us.
"So who here already knows how to water ski? I know Jace, Sam and I do. Steve says he wants to learn. Kate?"
"I know how to, but I haven't in quite a while."
"Clint?"
"I do know how, but I'll leave that up to you young things today." I rolled my eyes at him and snorted.
"Cuz you're so ancient, Hawkeye. Maria? How about you?"
"I'd like to learn if we have time."
"Chloe? You ready to try again?"
"Nope. I am content in my cowardice. You and Jace have tried to teach me for as long as you've known me, Sarah. It's just not happening."
"All right," I said, smiling at her. "I give up on you. Happy?"
"Very. Are there any yard games? I owe you a rematch on cornhole."
"What on earth are you talking about?" Clint asked, staring at us.
"You know that beanbag toss thing you play at carnivals?"
"Yeah?"
"There's a yard version called cornhole. I had Jarvis order a set of yard games, but I don't know where they're at right now. Let me ask Tony."
I walked over to the boat. "Papi, where did you put those yard games when they came in? They should've come last week sometime."
"In the garage, kitten. There were three big boxes, but I never got around to opening them."
"Okay. Steve, Jace, do you want to help me get them out here?"
"Sure. We'll be right behind you."
I walked up to the garage and opened the door. Sure enough, there the boxes were. I pushed them up to the door and we all grabbed one and headed back down to the group.
"Found them!" I called out. "Lets see what's in them."
"I call yard darts. I like sharp pointy things." said Clint, smirking at Natasha.
"They don't have points anymore, Clint." I said, bursting his bubble. "Too many people managed to put them through a foot."
"No points? Where's the fun in that?" he griped, opening the large box to pull out the assortment inside.
"No hospital visits today, Clint. Kate has the day off for a reason."
"That's right. A puncture wound like that is gonna put you out of commission for at least a week," Kate said, giving him a look before turning to me. "I didn't think you could get the pointy ones anymore?"
"You can't. They don't make them, probably because of people like Clint." I elbowed him and he poked my ticklish spot.
"Boats ready," said Tony. "I can take six with up to two skiers at a time."
"Great. Jace, Sam, Steve, Maria, Kate and I are all there are for skiers unless anyone else wants to." We looked around, but everyone else shook their heads, clearly more interested in the yard games.
"All right," said Tony. "If you're skiing, grab a life jacket and head to the boat."
I linked my arm with Steve's as we walked to the boat. "Ready? You can watch us first and Jace and Sam can explain it to you. I get up a little differently than they do; I don't care for their way." I stopped to grab my life jacket and put it on.
Jace and Sam came up arguing about who was going to go first, so I dropped back to walk with Tony and he put his arm around my shoulders. "Thanks for doing all this today, Papi. It's been a blast."
He squeezed me gently. "You haven't even seen the fireworks yet, kitten."
"I can't wait! I love watching them - and setting them off."
"You're a pyro like your old man then?"
I rolled my eyes and poked him in the side. "Yup, I take after you when it comes to that kind of stuff - the bigger the better."
We all climbed in the boat and settled in to leave the dock. Jace and I were going together, it wasn't often we could both ski together at the same time. The lake we usually went to back home was pretty small and the boat we used didn't have a lot of get up and go. In no time we were where Tony wanted to be and he killed the motor. Jace and I jumped in and Sam handed us our skis and ropes.
We were ready pretty quickly and Tony started taking out the slack. Right on cue we started coming out of the water as he picked up speed. I grinned at Jace and we gave Sam the signal for Tony to floor it. We eased into the feel until the wake got to where we wanted it. With a nod to each other, we started in on our trick skiing, doing jumps, springs and rolls until I landed funny and wiped out. I popped up as Tony swung around, looking for my skis. They'd scattered, but I got both of them back on by the time the rope was coming by. Jace looked over at me, a huge grin on his face.
"Once more and then we'll change out for a while?" He shouted.
"Sounds good!" I caught my rope, shouting 'ready.' This time I stuck the landing I'd missed but Jace missed his a couple minutes later. Tony swung around and I climbed in the boat after handing up my gear. We went back to get Jace and I went up front by Steve. "What did you think?"
"I didn't know you could do that. It was pretty neat to watch from here. Was it fun?"
"Yeah. I love the rush! You ready, Kate? Sam's gunna go this round too before we teach Steve and Maria."
"Sure. I've never learned how to do tricks, though."
"Most people don't. One of my dad's friends coached the local ski team, so Jace and I joined it for a summer to learn how to do them. We put on shows and everything." I grinned, thinking back to that summer.
Jace got in then, so I went back to help get things ready for Sam and Kate. She knew the signals, so that was helpful. They got in the water and geared up and Jace told me to go be the communicator for them. I sat up by Steve and told Tony what they wanted. They did pretty good, staying up for a decent amount of time before Kate went down. Sam rode out the turn and let loose to even up with Kate for another pass. She was much more confident on this pass, and it showed. She looked beautiful, blond hair flying, blue eyes sparkling and laughing happily; no wonder Jace couldn't keep his eyes off her, not that it was a bad thing.
Finally, they decided they'd had enough, and we picked them up. Steve and Maria had decided that she would go first, so I went back to get in with her again. I was going to get a workout this time because we were going to be stopping and starting a lot. We got in the water and I made sure she got her skis on right, getting them pointing the right way. I gave her her rope and told her what she was going to be doing.
I gave the signal, and Tony took up the slack, starting to bring us up. She got up on the first try and I shed my skis to slalom for a bit, signaling Jace. He nodded and I looked back over to Maria. She did good until the wake shifted and she lost her balance. I let go and swam back to help her with her skis. One had floated pretty far away.
"Thanks, that was easier than I thought it would be."
"It helps that we have a good driver. That can make all of the difference sometimes. Ready to try again?"
"Sure. Where are your skis?"
"I dropped them a while back. I can barefoot just fine once we get up to speed since I don't have my trick skis with today. Makes it easier for me to get to you when you go down."
Tony came by and Jace slid me my skis. I preferred not to start barefoot if I didn't have to and he knew that. I signaled that we would take one more round and he nodded. Maria got up again fine, a little faster this time and made it a while longer before going down. I let go right away and swam back to her.
"You all right? That one looked like it hurt."
"I'm fine. Just got the wind knocked out of me for a moment."
"I hate it when that happens. You did great, though. You picked it up pretty quick for never having done it."
"Thanks. We'll have to do this again sometime. I know Clint and Nat both ski well, too."
I handed Jace the gear as Maria climbed in and then I followed her. Jace was talking through the process with Steve, giving him a verbal run through. I squeezed Steve's arm and smiled as I passed him on the way to the front. They jumped in and we went to take up the slack. Sam was watching for the signals, so I was Tony's communicator again.
Steve did great for never having seen waterskiing before today. Jace was a good teacher, so he got Steve up right away. Steve overbalanced and went down shortly after getting up and we swung back to get them. Steve mananged to stay up for longer the second time before the wake of a passing boat caught him wrong. He decided that he was done, so we packed up to head back to the dock. It was time to get cleaned up for the party, anyway.