Long Blonde Hair, Sky Blue Eyes Pt. 04

Inside, the parents, remaining siblings, grandparents, and the engaged couple were discussing the life of a celebrity model cum actress like Annika, while Erik considered how accommodating Annika had been for the benefit of his sister and Johnny's sisters. In a way, it reminded him of her pied piper moments on the island; these were not children, but it would seem that her motives were altruistic.

It was already hot outside, so the revelations ended within twenty minutes, and the girls returned to the table with Annika. They were beaming, and Annika looked pleased.

Everyone went home to change, and then congregated on the Swahn's covered patio, next to their swimming pool. When Erik nodded at him, Alex proposed that the men get their business out of the way, and led them back to the den. Erik and Johnny's presentation was targeted at their fathers, but additional information that Oliver didn't have was provided.

Having been given sneak previews earlier by phone, the two men weren't as overwhelmed as others had been, but it did sound like something out of a sci-fi book or movie about saving the planet. Oliver just shook his head and said that they had been busy since they talked to him, and his offer of financial assistance stood.

A weekly video conference was agree upon, and scheduled into calendars, so everyone would stay abreast of changes. The 'green machine' was developed by and belonged to Greenlight, LLC but would be tested on their trucks first, so they had a strong interest in its development. They also had a strong interest in how their nearly 25 year-old sons handled the load and stress they knew was coming.

They returned to the patio, joined their women in conversation, and complained about the heat. At one time or another, everyone was in the pool, but the teens stayed there or under the shade of a nearby Pecan tree, while the adults spent more time visiting under the patio ceiling fans after their dips.

Questions were asked and stories were told of their lives in New Braunfels before it outgrew them and they moved to Hondo. They told of picnics and swimming in Landa Park, where the boys were lifeguards their last two summers before college, of tubing the Comal in town and the Guadalupe River north of town, of Canyon Lake and the lakehouse they co-owned there, and of Oom-Pah music and Oktoberfest, which was coming soon.

Remembering his promise to the senior Olssons, Erik prompted his parents. "I told Maja and Oliver that you two have a 'meet cute' story of your own, and that you would share it with them when we got together."

They smiled at each other, held hands, and Kathy began, "Since the younger kids aren't here to give me a hard time or be embarrassed, okay. Well, Alex and his parents lived in New Braunfels; mine lived just outside the city limits, north of the tiny town of Green, which is spelled Gruene. He was a New Braunfels Unicorn, I was a Canyon Cougar, so we didn't know each other. He worked as a lifeguard at Landa Park during summers, I worked as a lifeguard at Schlitterbahn Waterpark a few miles away. He was a Methodist, I was Lutheran. So, even though we lived within the city limits of the same town, less than two miles apart, we didn't know each other.

"I had the day off, and a bunch of my friends wanted to go tubing on the Guadalupe, and then go to a dance at Gruene Hall that night. We took our own tubes and put in about a mile south of Canyon dam on this guy's grandparents place. Maybe 500 yards downriver a bunch of other kids were launching their tubes, and some in each group knew some in the other group, so we started floating together.

"It was a half-day float, so we had ice chests with water bottles, before they banned such things on the river, and I got hot. I paddled over to the ice chest, this nice looking boy opened the lid and gave me a bottle. I thanked him, and paddled back to my friends. I'll let Alex take it from here."

"I just happened to have the day off and a group of friends who wanted to tube the Guadalupe and then go dancing at Gruene Hall, so I joined them. I drew second shift on the ice chest, and had the opportunity to serve a cold bottle of water to this knockout girl. I didn't know her but my friends all claimed to. I asked who she was, they told me 'Kathy something - she goes to Canyon' and as soon as my ice chest shift ended I went looking for her. Nothing - she had disappeared!

"My friends and I often - illegally - showed off by diving off one of the bridges across the Comal, and a bridge with about 15 feet of water under it was coming up. This looked like a good chance to show off for the girls floating below, so we diverted to shore, climbed up, threw our tubes back in, lined up, and did three-abreast swan dives off the bridge. Our tubes had already floated by, so we swam downstream to catch them, congratulated ourselves on not getting arrested or hurt, and hoped some of the girls noticed.

"I had no idea who was watching, but as it turned out, the hottie I had been unsuccessfully stalking was one of those clapping. I didn't see her again that day, and I was sorely disappointed, but at least I had a first name.

"That night my friends and I walked into Gruene Hall early and joined a buddy who was saving a table for us. Two minutes later, who walks in? 'Kathy something' and her friends. My best friend knew one of the girls in the group; he hustled over to them, offered seats at our table, and they accepted. I stood up, steered Kathy to the chair closest to me, introduced myself, and babbled about myself for a couple of minutes, before running to get her a Pepsi, and then making her tell me her life story, when we weren't dancing.

"The guy she was supposed to meet at the dance did show up an hour later, but he had been drinking and she wanted nothing to do with him. He was rather belligerent about having a date with her, but I convinced him to leave her alone and find someone willing. By midnight I was totally infatuated with her, but she wasn't too sure about me, or about me taking her home.

"I persevered, she reluctantly agreed, and then instead of taking her home I proved her skepticism about my motives by stopping at a parking place near the river, but we just talked some more. But then we kissed, electricity jolted us, and by the time I took her home, I was hopelessly in love.

"I manned up the next morning before I had to go to work and called her house. Unfortunately, her mom answered and I panicked. I did manage to tell her my name, and then blurted out that I wanted to ask her daughter for a date. She asked which daughter; I told her Kathy, and she laughed. 'So, let me guess: you dive off bridges, dance wonderfully, and are the smartest boy with the best personality in the whole world!'

"Not knowing what to say to that, I sputtered that I did dive off a bridge yesterday but don't normally do things like that, and admitted I can country and western dance a little.

"She laughed again, told me that's what her middle daughter told her sisters, and yelled, 'Kathy, Mr. Wonderful is on the line!' I heard 'MOTHER!' and then that sweet voice say, 'Hello, this is Kathy' and a bunch of giggling and laughter in the background. I managed to ask her for a date for that night, she accepted, slept on my shoulder during the movie, and fogged up my car windows after.

"And here we are, nearly 27 years later!"

"Still fogging up windows, whenever you can!" Erik added, to applause from the group. When it died down, Erik turned to Maja and said, "See - there's is lot like your story, where fate kept intervening to bring you together, and it even had a swan dive in it!"

That comment and unanimous urging prompted Maja to tell the story of meeting Oliver, which led to Carl and Mary sharing how they met when he bumped into her coming out of a courtroom when she was the office manager for the district attorney. They talked while picking up the papers she dropped upon impact, and he apologized again. She told him it was fine, not to worry, but he called before she left the office at five and asked her to dinner as an apology for almost knocking her down.

She accepted, and, although it took three more dates before they fogged up any windows, 18 years later it was still their favorite pastime.

Sara told how she and Lukas were set up on a blind date by mutual friends, but were wary of each other from the start. Somehow, Lukas spilling her drink in her lap made them both laugh, after the yelling that broke the tension. They steamed up the windows that very night, and were celebrating their 28^th anniversary on December 1.

Maja insisted that Annika, Hanna, Johnny, and Erik tell the story of their meeting, and, when they hesitated, began describing the circumstances of their dinner meal. "We were facing these cute boys who were Oliver's new business partners and whom we had enjoyed hosting for several weeks. Our backs were to the door when Erik poked Johnny and quietly sang, 'Long blonde hair, sky blue eyes.' Johnny looked, said something to him, and they watched the object of their interest walk to another table. I looked over my shoulder, saw her, and poked Oliver."

Oliver laughed, "I tried to warn them off, but they didn't listen, so here they are four months later tagged like your cattle!"

"Ha!" Annika exclaimed, "You warned them about me, your granddaughter, being a 'man-eater' of some fame! And then Farmor wanted me to return to my table while she told stories I'd never heard about them and my family! I was furious at being ignored in favor of these two boys, so I sat down anyway, only to be slighted and ignored by Erik.

"Johnny was nice and polite; he even got me a chair to sit in. But I lost him as soon as Hanna and some other friends dropped by: he only had eyes for her after that!"

Erik grinned at Johnny and asked, "So, should we tell this tale in an order our parents can understand?" Johnny agreed, and they took turns - with interruptions and elaboration from the other participants, of course. They took it past being extorted into attending JoJo's party in Chicago, to the vacation on Mackinac Island, and then quit. There was no mention of fogged windows in front of parents and grandparents, but that part wasn't hard to figure out.

There also was no mention of Pacific island parties, or NYC clubs, or social media coverage of Annika's escapades, although everyone in the room was familiar with those events. Enough explanation had been given to Annika and Johnny's families and further mention would have to wait until it had all been fully reconciled.

There were no windows to fog up, lying on blankets under the stars on their favorite hill, but Annika and Erik did stir up the coyotes again before returning home.

****

Monday morning they were taken to the private terminal at SAT, from which Annika departed to LA to complete the first commitment under her new contracts, and the others flew back to Minneapolis. She had a busy week, but was back in time for dinner with Erik, Hanna, Johnny, and her family on Friday. She had only positive things to say about the new people she worked with, praising the professionalism of the director and staff that shot the commercial. These were the first commercials for the makeup line for which she was the new spokeswoman, so they needed to be good Those who had seen them thought they were excellent, and Annika was ecstatic.

Her ecstasy wasn't misplaced; this contract was for four years, annually renewable after that, and it was approaching seven figures per year, with potential bonuses for sales increases and industry awards. Her net worth was already approaching eight figures, and this contract would push it over that mark. With better representation, she could see herself making high-seven, low-eight figures per year soon.

It wasn't Kendall Jenner or Chrissy Teigen money, but being lumped in with Karlie Kloss and Alessandra Ambrosio wasn't that bad when you didn't even have your own line of clothes or cosmetics.

The conversation at the table was varied, stimulating, and everyone was engaged. Axel and Elle had stories about school, events upcoming, and people they liked or didn't. Johnny updated the table on the progress of the tentatively dubbed 'green machine,' on the successful move to a more secure space, and on steps taken to make cyberspace as secure as possible for their newest enterprise.

Erik added that the new security team had already intercepted and thwarted a hacking attempt that originated in China, so they were worth the money it cost to hire them.

Annika then nonchalantly mentioned that Rhonda had also earned her keep, by handling an incident quickly and cleanly, without drawing undue attention. She meant it to blend in with Erik and Johnny's security tales, but every adult at the table frowned.

"What exactly happened, Daughter?" Carl asked.

"Nothing much really; some guy tried to climb in the back of the limo with us before our driver pulled away, but Rhonda planted her foot in his chest, pushed him out, and yelled at Joe to 'Go! Go! Go!' He sped away, Rhonda shut the door, and I just sat there. I'm sure he was just some drunken fan, but it was nice to have someone handle him rather than me having to, or calling the police."

Carl asked, "Has that happened a lot? People trying to climb in the car with you? And did you report it to the police?"

"Not climbing in, but a few have clung to the door or window as we were pulling out. Rhonda wanted to report it, but I didn't want to waste a day being questioned."

Erik pressed her for more later that night, but she had other concerns, like having been without her man for five days and four nights, and her point of view won out.

The next day arrived very, very early; Erik drug his butt out of bed, juiced up on Jet Fuel, and staggered off to a rare Saturday workday thirty minutes late, leaving the naked lovely sleeping. No one wanted to work on the weekend, but the two days off meant they needed half a day to finish catching up.

Carl was waiting when he got off the elevator, and summoned Erik to his office. Rhonda was waiting there, and her version of the guy-jumping-in-our-limo story was a bit different.

"I can't say that he was carrying a weapon, but I caught a glimpse of something in his hand when he approached the vehicle and yanked the door open. He was big but off balance, and a kick to his chest drove him back outside. I turned and watched as we sped away, and he didn't get up while I was watching.

"Annika acted as if it was nothing new, and she didn't want me to call the police because of the time it would take and the possible notoriety. I let her talk me out of it, and there were no other incidents, but it still niggles at my brain."

"My daughter forgets she is a multi-millionaire as well as a celebrity! Maybe it was just another demented fan, or maybe you stopped a kidnapping, Rhonda, but either way, it worries me more than it does her. I feel we need to take further action, like planning her trips more carefully.

"Erik, do you have any ideas?"

"I might. Ainsley is busy, but her new sibling, Aila, is free. I can give her instructions to look for anything related to Annika on the dark web. It's possible plans could be developed or rewards offered among the nefarious denizens of that underworld. We can certainly apply a revised version of the logistics program to Annika's travel to reduce vulnerabilities.

"As long as we have questions, though, she shouldn't be anywhere without security, and there must be no waiting on limos or planes, late appointments, or doing other things that leave her vulnerable. Likewise, we need to vette anyone we don't know - limo drivers, pilots, dressing room staff, or anyone else who could arrange or assist in her kidnapping."

"Which reminds me: where is she now?" Carl asked.

"in my apartment, and she's planning to walk over here around ten! Rhonda?"

"I'm on my way! Brief me this afternoon on your findings."

"That girl keeps things exciting, doesn't she?" Carl asked rhetorically.

"Maybe," Erik muttered as he turned to leave, "or maybe we're becoming overprotective. Still, better safe than sorry."

Erik's new AI was happy to have something to do, and began enthusiastically trolling for information. He set up a simplified logistics program to cover Annika's travel, and then texted her to stop by with her calendar when she had time. He then joined the work team, which had questions and observations.

He and the work team got caught up chasing a discovery and forgot lunch; he also forgot to check the phone he had left in his office until just before three. Aila had information, but there was no response from Annika or Rhonda. He quickly perused Aila's info, and made a call to Carl.

"Is Annika with you or her team?" he hurriedly asked. "No, I haven't seen her; let me check with Cal - he was expecting her. ^No, she's not with him either. What's going on? You seem worried."

"My newest AI found something you need to see; bring Cal, Amanda, and your chief of security to my office immediately!."