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"Howard?"

The grey fox looked up from cleaning the sparkling-white deck of his vessel to meet the soft, curious look on his wife's face through the railing opening, and smiled, his eyes drinking in the delight of the vixen's sea-blue gaze.

"You've been out here all day," she said matter-of-factly, and weakly took the portable steps one at a time until she could clamber aboard. "The Petersons will be here at eight, and you haven't even gotten all the barnacles off, have you?"

"Working on it, my love..." came the gentle reply. "Takes time is all. We want her to look perfect, don't we?"

She sighed and nodded, looking around the deck. "I'm really going to miss this. I really don't know why we have to let her go like this, but...the doctor said..." She trailed off and fought tears, wiping her eyes with the back of her paw. "I just wish..."

Howard frowned and braced himself so that he could stand back up, and he heard his back creak. "Vicki..." He lifted his arms and hugged her until the two could rub noses. "I...I love you...so much..." He looked steadily into her eyes. "P-promise me...after I'm gone..." The vixen started to cry and he could feel her whole body trembling against him. "Please don't cry...please..."

She pulled away from him and swallowed hard, nodding. "I have dinner ready, okay? Don't spend too much time out here. The heat..." She glanced up at the late afternoon soon. "Probably not good for you..."

He chuckled then and playfully swatted her hip. "Go on. I'll be in soon."

Vicki sighed deeply and lowered herself back down the steps to the dock. She kicked at the fiberglass hull with a sandled-foot, and the sound made a strange thrum as it vibrated. "It's just not fair...after all we've been through...damn you..." she murmured at the boat, and trudged up the dock steps and back to the hideaway they both had shared for almost 40 years.

Howard winced and stood up from the deck, fixating his gaze on the endless Pacific mirroring the sunlight, scattering its beams into bursting jewels across the surface. The hot August sun beat down on his fur, and he felt his whole body tingling from the heat, the sweat dripping down his bare chest and staining faded denim shorts.

"She'll be alright..." he chuckled, and ran his paw along the steel and oak-wood railing, turning it into a caress. "She just doesn't understand..." His tired grey eyes blinked up through the late-afternoon glare until he could see the top of the mast hoisting a trim blue-and-white shaded mainsail and jib. "Remember the time when Dad first got you, right? And I met her? Sure, it was June. June of 1945. We'd just been let out for summer break and school felt like it was a thousand years away..."

**

"Mom, Mom! Where's Dad?" Howard James practically burst into the kitchen and set down his small bookbag before pulling out a few pieces of paper. "Wanna show him the final grades I got. He'll be right proud of me!"

The vixen laughed and wiped her paws of baking flour. "Oh really? Well, he's out back at the dock, little fox. And he has a surprise for all of us. A brand new boat."

The 10-year-old todd's eyes lit up and his tail started to wag faster. "Honest? For real, Mom?!"

She smiled somewhat sadly. "Yes, he got it from the will his father left. Remember Grandpa Bob, right? We all went to his funeral in May."

The boy nodded. "The bad storm, yeah." They'd all gone to the old fox's funeral and had subsequently been caught in the worst torrential downpour in Northern California's history. Grandpa had been a hard fox, not well-liked by most in the small fishing town of Petersville, and Howard remembered someone joking under a makeshift canopy in the middle of the cemetery, while the winds howled and the streaking rain fell, that Robert Oswald James II must truly have entered Heaven.

"So Dad got his boat then? The Summer Sparks?" He got excited again. He remembered seeing the boat once, in one of the pictures from the funeral. His grandfather had looked almost majestic as he posed next to the beautiful maroon and white 32-foot sailboat. His surviving wife, Grandma Caroline, was muttering as she gazed at the photo, about how all the old fox had cared about was "that god-damned boat".

The mother pursed her lips. "Yes, but we shouldn't really be selfish, Howard. Your grandfather died so we could get this."

The todd nodded solemnly then brightened and let out a cry of delight as he turned around and slammed out the back door. He ran down to the dock and nearly slammed into his father before the two held one another in a tight embrace. Behind them sat the Summer Sparks, its mainsail almost shining in the hot afternoon sun.

Howard suddenly saw a vixen about his age climbing out of the water next to it, wearing a beautiful gold and blue one-piece swimsuit. He watched her mesmerized as she stood up dripping wet and wrung out her tail, before calling out to his father. "Got all the barnacles off, Mister!" She smiled and waved to Howard shyly.

His father grinned. "That's great, Vicki. Oh, Howard, this is Vicki Daniels. She just moved in a few months ago. Vicki, this is my son."

She looked bashful as she gently took the boy's paw in hers. "I'm...I mean...it's nice to meet you..."

Howard felt his heart beating a mile a minute before he responded with a very soft, "Uh-huh..."

**

Howard smiled fondly, realizing he'd been stroking the railing so much that a combination of his sweat and the salty-spray of the sea had made it wet and slick. "Remember when we caught our first fish on you? Dad didn't like to admit it but..."

**

"Reel in, reel in!" his father was yelling at the two children and laughing excitedly. "Come on, Howie, pull! There! A little bit more! Vicki, stand clear, hon!"

The teenage todd gave a Herculean tug on the pole and a huge rainbow trout nearly leaped into the boat, flopping and jerking wildly. Before the father could get a hold of the line, the fish had managed to rip free from the hook, and was now dangerously close to flopping over the side and back into the water.

"Catch 'em, Howie!" Vicki shouted, trying to corner the fish. "Quick, before he goes over!"

The fish leaped up mightily, pinwheeling and splashing, and for a split second, seemed about to make good its escape. But suddenly a brisk gust rose up and filled the mainsail, and the wooden boom attached to it swung forwards and knocked the fish back towards them, stunning it. The father pounced on the fish and quickly got it into a net. "There! That's how it's done! Well done, you two!"

Howard grinned widely, watching the fish wriggling helplessly in the net, and then felt a warm nuzzle from Vicki's against his cheek.

"Did...did you see that?" she whispered into his ear.

**

"You let us have the fish that day," Howard smiled softly and sat down on the deck. "Oh, I know Dad probably'd never believe such a tale if we'd told him, but...we know what you did. We knew all along...and never told a soul."

He looked up and watched the mainsail gently sway back and forth on the gentle winds. "Vicki..." he sighed, "Our first kiss, remember?" He started to laugh heartily, shaking his head. "You were so insistent..."

**

They sat wordlessly on the boat as the other todds and vixens whooped and splashed around them. Some jumped or dove off the stern, while others sunned themselves or chatted privately. Howard crossed his feet as he sat on the bench next to the young vixen.

"N-nice day..." he said quietly, looking down at his lap. The vixen shyly agreed it was so. "Um...V-Vicki. I, um, gosh, I've...I've been wanting to ask this a while now..."

She turned to look at him, a gorgeous russet-furred face framing beautiful, innocent blue eyes behind golden hair, and a brilliant white smile. She was wearing a lovely pair of jean shorts, with a blouse tied and tucked around swelling, pert breasts. "Y-yes, Howard? What is it?"

"Well...I..." A large wave rose up from a passing motorboat, and the resulting wake hit the Summer Sparks, causing the boat to pitch to the side. Vicki had time to gasp before she was flung against the surprised todd and their mouths met in a deep, passionate kiss.

They were still kissing long after the boat stopped rocking.

**

Howard unconsciously ran a paw along his shorts, feeling a stiff erection there, and gently pawed at its denim confines. "That was that. Vicki and I were goin' steady and then we fell in love and...you made it all happen for us..."

He thought about one of their most romantic dates, skinny-dipping in the moonlight. He had caught her after a long swim, breathless and panting, and had braced her against the hull of the boat, aroused and ready. Her legs had wrapped around his waist, welcoming his hardness eagerly. She had let out a startled cry of delight as his thick length settled deeply into her. And while the Summer Sparks rocked slowly in the waves to the perfect rhythm of their lovemaking, they had clung to her hull and satisfied their carnal desires for the first time.

There'd been other good times with her. Like when his father had taken the four of them out to sea to view the fireworks on the Fourth of July, and everyone had at first argued over what to eat, or where to sit. But then the cool evening's spectacular lightshow of streaming color started, and everyone had stopped shouting and huddled under a warm blanket to watch.

Or the time he'd taken Vicki out on the boat to go snorkeling for the day, and they'd caught lobsters on the sea floor. He couldn't take his eyes off of the way she moved through the water, and by the time they were done eating a beautiful dinner, they had made love on the deck, holding one another naked for hours under the twinkling stars.

Howard closed his eyes and sighed deeply, unzipping his shorts to let out his stiff, swollen member, giving it a few soft caresses. He didn't notice his lovely wife padding down to the dock and wordlessly coming aboard until she hugged him tightly, stirring him from his thoughts. She murred softly at him, smiling, and reached down to take his hardness into her paw. "One more time?" she whispered, and together they sank to the deck, kissing passionately.

**

"I don't understand," Brad Peterson frowned as he looked up and down the dock. "They said it'd be here. Do you see her at all, Brenda?"

The vixen shook her head and squinted in the sunset. "I just see that one boat way out there but...that's not it, is it?"

Brad shaded his eyes against the glowing sun and saw two shapes swimming around the large sailboat in the distance, a naked todd and young vixen, laughing and splashing one another, looking as if they hadn't a care in the world. As he watched, the two met in a loving embrace and kissed deeply. Then their heads disappeared below the water, still kissing.

"No, that can't be it. I wonder where they went..." He shrugged and started walking away.

"Maybe they changed their minds." Brenda suggested, following him.

Behind them, the two children in the sea surfaced and then the vixen followed the todd back onto the deck. The mainsail suddenly filled, and the boat started heading farther out to sea and was soon a dark speck on the horizon before disappearing.

END