Flirting with Fire: A Summer Camp Swingers novel

Chapter 4

I grinned to myself when the driveway alarm beeped twenty minutes later. Allie must have left almost as soon as we’d hung up. I yelled upstairs to the girls and then headed out to greet them.

I’m telling you, the little head insisted, that’s why she called. She wanted you to invite her over.

I couldn’t argue, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up, either.

The little head was an eternal optimist. She totally wants it, man. She wants us!

You realize there’s no such thing as “us,” right? We’re the same person.

No, you’re the person, he said pedantically. I’m a talking penis, a figment of your imagination. Dumbass.

“Ha!”

Allie stopped with one foot on the ground and the other still in the car. Her smile faded to uncertainty.

“Sorry,” I said quickly. “Random thought. Never mind.”

She couldn’t read me as well as Christy, but my sheepish expression was enough. She figured out who I’d been talking to, and her smile returned, wry this time.

Car doors slammed on the other side, and Madison and Carly appeared.

I smiled a greeting and hooked a thumb at the house. “The girls are upstairs. Go on in.”

“Thanks, Mr. H.” They disappeared inside.

“Pop the back,” I said to Allie. “I’ll grab your stuff.”

She did, and she’d brought her laptop bag in addition to her usual pool bag.

“In case you need to work,” she explained. “Then I can get some work done too.”

“You probably won’t need it. I’m on vacation. Besides, it’s Sunday.” Still, I slung the laptop bag over my shoulder, grabbed the pool bag, and closed the lift gate with my free hand. Allie frowned when I faced her again.

“Sorry, I was just thinking about your work,” I said.

“What about it?”

“You only need a laptop. I always pictured you with a big pile of manuscripts or something.”

She laughed in relief. “A slush pile? No, not me. I’m all electronic these days, emails and Word documents.”

“Oh, okay.”

“I thought you had to work, though. You have a board meeting, right? For your big foundation?”

“Yeah, but it’s mostly reading. Scholarship applications, grant requests, that sort of thing.”

“Ah, okay.”

I opened the door to the house and gestured for her to precede me. I could already feel the sweat trickling down the small of my back, just from a few minutes outside, so the air conditioning was a welcome relief.

“Oh, God, thank you,” Allie said as we walked through the living room and toward the kitchen. She wore her hair in a loose French twist that kept it off her neck. It was her go-to look, especially in the summer. “We were blasting the A/C on the way over,” she continued, “but it still wasn’t enough. This is nice.”

“Environmental control,” I quipped. “One of my specialties.”

She gave me a curious look.

“Inside joke,” I said. “Long story.” And I still have the radio.

“You’ll have to tell me sometime,” Allie said. “I love a good story.”

“I dunno if this one’s any good,” I demurred.

“Ooh, now I’m intrigued.”

I set the laptop bag on the breakfast table and slid the larger bag into a chair. It was bulkier than usual, probably because she’d brought dry clothes for later. Madison and Carly had arrived in their swimsuits and shorts, and I realized that Allie had done the same. She wore a patterned cotton shirt and khaki mom shorts over her one-piece from the day before.

I started to answer her about the radio story, but a fight broke out between Thor and the Jötnar on the floor above us. The skirmish thundered down the stairs a moment later. Four girls burst into the room, followed by a pack of dogs. So, not the giants after all.

The kitchen suddenly felt crowded, especially when Spike and Buck barged through the group with tails a-wagging. Molly was almost as excited but more singled-minded about it. She sniffed Allie and then greeted her affectionately.

I wondered (not for the first time) why I’d thought three Labs had been a good idea. And all at once? Why not a small breed? Or a cat? Or fish! They were quiet, weren’t they? Fortunately, Emily piped up before I had time to question my other life decisions. Unfortunately, Emily was Emily.

“Hey, Dad… have you talked to her yet?”

Allie realized she was talking about her, but Spike got her attention in typical Spike fashion—he stuck his nose in her crotch.

Can’t fault him for his taste, I chuckled silently. Allie even rewarded him with a pat on the head. Note to self…

“Dad…? Dad…! Have you—?”

“No, not yet,” I said.

Emily gave me a pointed look that was straight out of her mother’s playbook. And, big surprise, she’d already been maneuvering behind the scenes.

“Can we, Mom?” Madison begged. “Please.”

Carly chimed in, “Yeah, please.”

“What’re you talking about?” Allie bent over to greet Buck. He was so excited that his tail thwacked my leg. Repeatedly. Allie scratched his ears and looked up at me for an explanation.

“The girls wanna go swimming…,” I began, but Emily couldn’t wait for me to finish.

“And we don’t wanna wear suits.”

Allie straightened, and her brows rose in surprise when her own daughters nodded emphatically.

“C’mon, Mom, please,” Madison begged. “You said we could.”

“I don’t know…” Allie deliberately didn’t look at me, but I felt the weight of her attention. “I mean, now isn’t the time—”

The girls exploded with a chorus of complaints.

“Why not?”

“You always say that!”

“Unh, Dad! You said!”

“Aw, c’mon, please!”

Spike and Buck barked encouragement, and the girls yelled even louder.

“Hey!” I shouted over the racket. “Everyone, settle down!”

Buck’s rump landed on my foot like he was back in obedience school. Spike stopped barking too, although he thought it was a new game. Fortunately, he and I had settled the question of who was the real alpha in the family. He took one look at me and immediately lowered his eyes. Molly watched the whole thing with mild amusement.

The humans fell silent as well, although Emily bristled with indignation, all seventy-five pounds of her. I tried to warn her, but she came from a long line of headstrong women.

“Unh! You said!”

“I know what I said,” I replied coolly.

“Then why can’t we—?”

“Because it’s complicated.”

“Ugh! No fair!”

I inhaled slowly and exhaled with exaggerated patience, for Emily’s benefit more than my temper’s. She’d pushed me about as far as she could without consequences. She could push harder in private, but she knew better than to do it in front of others. She and I had settled that question the same way Spike and I had, and with the same results. I was the dad, end of discussion.

“I said I’d talk to her, and I will,” I said. “But I’m not going to do it in front of you.”

Allie was made of softer stuff. “It’s okay.”

Emily saw her opening and pounced. “Dad said we don’t have to wear—”

“That isn’t what I said!” I bit back the rest. I wasn’t going to argue with an eleven-year-old.

“Tell me what you want,” Allie said reasonably, “and we’ll talk about it.”

Madison spoke up, “We don’t wanna wear our suits. You said we could try.”

“Yeah,” Carly echoed, “you said.”

Emily simply didn’t know when to quit. “And Dad said—”

“I said we’d talk about it!”

“Okay, okay,” Allie soothed. “Everyone… just calm down.”

Emily and I traded glares, even though I knew better. (For the record, I loved all my daughters, but I wouldn’t have been upset if one of them joined a convent, preferably soon, and definitely before her twelfth birthday.)

If she actually makes it that far, I grumbled to myself.

Allie read me perfectly and did her best not to smile. That was enough to break the tension between Emily and me, and we both relaxed ever so slightly.

“Do you really wanna do this?” Allie asked her daughters.

“We don’t see what the big deal is,” Madison said.

“Yeah. What’s the big deal?” Carly agreed. “It’s just us.”

“Besides, it’s natural,” Emily interjected.

Susie nodded.

The dogs watched the whole thing like spectators at a soccer match. Their heads swung to each new speaker and waited for one of us to score.

“I think it’s probably okay,” Allie said, “but your dad’s right, we need to talk about it first.” She stopped Emily with a look. “You need to respect that. Okay?”

Emily would have argued if I’d said it, but she was too polite to face off with Allie. Well, almost.

“Ugh, fine.”

I cleared my throat with a warning.

“Sorry! I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” She turned to Allie. “I didn’t mean to be rude.”

“That’s okay,” Allie said. “Sometimes I get upset too, especially when things don’t go my way. Isn’t that right, Maddy? Like the air conditioner yesterday?”

“I thought you were gonna break something after you talked to Dad.”

“I wanted to,” Allie admitted, “but it wouldn’t’ve done any good.” She looked at Emily. “Like now, with your dad. Arguing won’t help. As a matter of fact, it’ll probably make things worse.”

“I know,” Emily said. “I’m sorry. Only—” She caught herself and looked chagrined. I decided to meet her halfway.

“Tell you what…,” I said. “Why don’t you all go swimming. In your suits, just for now. Allie and I will talk. We’ll let you know what we decide. Before lunch.” I glanced at Allie for confirmation.

“Right,” she agreed. “But you have to respect our decision, okay?”

All four girls nodded, although it had really been directed at Emily.

“Run upstairs,” I told her. “Get your suit.”

“You can wear one of mine if you want,” Susie said. “Maybe the two-piece with the boy shorts?”

“The green one?”

Susie nodded, and Emily brightened immediately. She loved anything green.

“C’mon,” Susie said. “I’ll get it for you.”

* * *

“Thanks for backing me up,” I said after the girls had gone upstairs.

Allie nodded. “Crisis averted.”

“More like deferred.”

“Yeah, the girls’ve been bugging me about it for a while.”

“Sorry about that. Emily can be…”

“Just like her mom. It’s okay. I know how Christy works.”

“Yeah.”

“She’s been trying to get me to try it since Ken left.”

“He was the reason you didn’t before, right?”

“He was the reason I didn’t do lots of things.”

I shot her a sideways look. “Maybe one day I’ll figure out the attraction between you two. I mean… Catholic conservative meets Jewish liberal? How does that work?”

“We’re both lapsed.”

“I know. And I get it, opposites attract, but that’s a fairly wide gap. I’m sure you had other things in common, but… I mean… I never saw it, whatever it was.”

She shrugged. “It was complicated. And… it was better in the beginning.”

“People change.”

“Ken didn’t. That was part of the problem. Anyway, I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“No problem.”

We fell silent and listened to the sounds of the girls upstairs. Madison was the only one even close to a hundred pounds, but they made enough noise for a herd of elephants.

Or giants. I chuckled to myself.

“Yeah, I know,” Allie agreed. “I don’t remember being that loud when I was a girl.”

“I probably was, but I don’t remember either. I was pretty clueless.” I thought back and shrugged. “About lots of things.”

“At least you got a clue. Some guys never do.”

I glanced at her again but decided not to ask.

“Thanks.”

“Mmm.”

We waited in silence until the girls came downstairs. They were slightly quieter this time, although Spike and Buck circled eagerly when they stopped in the kitchen. Molly sank to her haunches and waited.

Emily wore the green two-piece, and Susie had changed into a purple and teal one-piece. Madison and Carly had left their shorts and shoes upstairs and wore their suits from the day before.

“Thank you, girls,” I told them.

Emily smiled with resignation more than enthusiasm, but at least she smiled.

“Are you coming with us?” Susie asked.

“We’ll be out in a bit,” I said automatically, and Allie nodded agreement.

“Okay.”

“Don’t forget sunscreen,” I added.

“You too,” Allie told her girls. “It’s in the bag with your towels.”

Emily headed toward the patio door with Molly at her side, and the other girls followed. Spike and Buck scrabbled to catch up. The girls left the door open, of course, and I was about to yell after them when Susie ran back.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t—!”

She slammed the door with the force of a hurricane. I had to give my eardrums a moment to recover.

“You know,” I said at last, “I always thought it’d be better with girls instead of boys. They wouldn’t be so loud, I thought. They wouldn’t break things. They wouldn’t make a mess. Ha! Silly me.”

“No kidding,” Allie laughed.

“At least they’re well-behaved.”

“To a point.”

“Mmm.”

We watched through the windows as the girls coated their arms and legs with sunscreen. Emily didn’t, but I wasn’t worried about her. Instead, she helped Susie do her back, while Madison and Carly did the same for each other.

“And helpful,” I added.

“Heathens one minute, civilized the next,” Allie agreed.

They tossed the bottles of sunscreen on the table, and both of them fell over. I had visions of sunscreen oozing onto the wood—it was teak!—but all four girls raced away without a second thought. The dogs followed and leapt into the water with wild abandon, even Molly.

I sighed. I was turning into my parents. In fact, my mother had once said that they’d waited until Erin and I had moved out before they’d bought nice things. My own children were just as careless, thoughtless, and destructive as I’d been.

I brooded for a moment before I reminded myself that it was just stuff, and we could buy more. Then I adjusted my attitude, like I always did. I heard Christy’s voice in my head, Thank you, Mr. Positive.

Mmm. Harumph, harumph.

Allie was smiling at me, which improved my mood a thousand percent.

“Can I offer you something to drink?” I asked.

“Cranberry Snapple?”

“Have to keep the plumbing clean.”

“Oh, it’s clean. That isn’t the problem.”

I shot her a look.

“Yeah, sorry,” she admitted, “we’re flirting again.”

“That’s cool. As long as it’s just friendly.”

“It is.”

I handed her the Snapple and opened one for myself, a lemonade. We drank in silence and watched the mayhem in the pool. I pointedly ignored the sunscreen bottles and focused on the girls instead. They were having fun, and we couldn’t buy that.

“Thanks again for inviting us,” Allie said.

“My pleasure.”

“And I guess we should talk about the swimsuit thing.”

“We don’t have to if you don’t want to,” I said. “I mean, I’m fine telling the girls they need to wear them. We do it all the time when we have company who aren’t nudists.”

“No, that isn’t fair. Besides, it’s your house.”

“Well, yes,” I agreed, “but you’re our guests. So we’ll do what makes you happy.”

She gave me a sideways look that I couldn’t interpret. Regret? Annoyance? Desire?

“No,” she said at last. “The girls’ll keep bugging me. Besides, it isn’t a big deal.” She gestured at the yard and the forest beyond. We could see the lake through the trees, but only in a few places, and only because the sun scattered off the waves in pinprick flashes.

“I mean, no one can see,” Allie finished.

“No. That’s why we built here, the privacy.”

“It’s nice.” She paused and watched the girls for a moment. “I don’t want them to be ashamed of their bodies. I mean, not like I was.”

“I think we all were,” I said.

“But it’s worse for girls, especially when they start developing. They become women all of a sudden.”

“Only they aren’t,” I agreed.

We’d had this discussion before, several times, in fact. The last one had been recent, too, back in May, when I’d hired a new group of summer interns. I’d chosen four young women, third- and fourth-year architecture students from around the state. I wanted them to start their careers at a company that valued them as architects, not as token hires or ornaments to some executive’s vanity. In spite of that, I had few illusions about their maturity. They might look like women, at least on the outside, but they were still girls on the inside.

Whereas Allie…

I inhaled slowly and kept my libido in check. She wasn’t interested either. She’d made it clear, and I needed to respect it.

She must have been thinking the same thing. “Sorry, I…”

“No need to apologize,” I said evenly.

“Yeah. Thanks.”

“Anyway… back to the original question. Do we want to let the girls be nudists?”

“I think it’s probably okay, but I’ll support whatever you decide.”

“It’s up to you,” I countered. “I mean, they’re your daughters. Mine grew up with it, so it’s no big deal to them.”

“No, you decide. It’s your house.”

“Okay,” I said slowly. Part of me wanted to err on the side of caution. But part of me—

Me, me, me!

—wanted to see Allie without her swimsuit.

“I think it’s okay,” I said at last. “But… what about you?”

She feigned ignorance. “What about me?”

“Your suit. You should set an example. For the girls.”

“Oh, is that it?” she laughed.

“Of course!”

“You just wanna get me naked.”

“Duh. I even said so.”

“What about you?” she shot back.

“I’ll take off mine right now.” I flipped up the hem of my T-shirt and grabbed the shorts’ drawstring. Allie pursed her lips in anticipation, so I decided to tease her instead. “Well…?”

“Go ahead.”

“And what about you?”

She clearly wanted to, but something stopped her. “I… don’t think so,” she said at last.

I hid my disappointment. “That’s okay.”

“Sorry. I hope you aren’t upset.”

“Nope,” I lied. “I told you, it’s your body.”

“Thank you.”

“Let’s go ahead and tell the girls, though.” At least we can make them happy.

* * *

The girls stripped as soon as we told them. I wasn’t surprised at mine, but Allie’s didn’t even hesitate. All of a sudden I realized that they’d tried it before, probably during a sleepover, and maybe more than once. I glanced at Allie and watched her come to the same conclusion.

Emily drew us back to the present. Her swimsuit landed on the side of the pool with a soggy plop-plop. The other girls tossed their own suits, and water darkened the flagstones in spreading circles where they landed.

Then Susie splashed Carly and streaked up the stairs. Carly raced after her, and they shrieked toward the deep end. At some unspoken signal, they both cannonballed into the water. Spike and Buck paddled after them, and the girls kicked away in a game of chase.

Emily and Madison went the opposite direction, toward the shallow end. Molly climbed the stairs and shook the water from her coat in a rainbow spray of droplets. Then she lay on the warm stone, while the girls stopped on the steps in front of her.

Overhead, the sun climbed toward its zenith and blazed down steadily. The summer haze did little to stop it, and sweat prickled at the small of my back.

“Let’s have a seat.” I gestured toward the shade on the breakfast patio.

Allie joined me, and I righted the sunscreen bottles before I settled into a chair. We watched the girls in silence. The younger ones were playing a game that only they and the dogs understood. The older girls rested with their elbows on the stairs and chatted about who-knew-what. They were pretending to be grown-ups, doing the exact opposite of the younger girls.

“I… had no idea,” Allie said. “I mean, they couldn’t care less. I thought they’d be self-conscious or something. At the very least that they’d need some time to adjust.”

“It’s ’cause they’re kids. They adjust quickly.”

“No. You saw it too. They’ve done this before.”

“Probably,” I agreed. I watched her out of the corner of my eye. “Are you okay with that?”

“I guess,” she said after a moment. “I mean, it could be worse. They could’ve been playing doctor with boys or something.”

I chuckled and didn’t mention Christy’s suspicions about Laurie, that she’d been “playing doctor” with girls. At least Laurie and her friend were teenagers. The other girls were all too young.

Allie and I were on the same wavelength.

“They grow up so quickly,” she said. “I mean, they already know about sex. Well, Maddy and Em. I didn’t learn until high school! Not for real, at least. Even then, it was only the stuff they taught in Health class.”

“Exactly. Fallopian tubes and vas deferens.”

“I didn’t figure out the rest until college.”

“Me either,” I fibbed.

“They learned about it last year. In fifth grade! Not just the body parts, either. Consent and everything! I’m not complaining,” Allie added quickly, “but I don’t know if I’m ready for Maddy to deal with that stuff.”

“It could’ve been worse,” I said. “Christy wanted our girls to go to Catholic school, Holy Spirit.”

“Ken too.”

“Sex Ed there is nonexistent.”

“It’s asinine.”

“It’s both! I mean, ‘abstinence pledges’? What the fuck?”

“Literally!” Allie agreed with a laugh.

“Ugh. Don’t get me started.”

We fell silent and radiated agreement.

“So, yeah,” I said at last, “you and I might think fifth grade is too early, but the people with the education degrees say otherwise. Besides, I think they’re doing it the right way.” I told her about my conversation that morning with Emily.

“Is that what we’re supposed to do?” Allie laughed. “No wonder you keep trying to get me naked!”

“Of course!” I shot her an unrepentant grin before I nodded toward Emily and Madison. They were still reclining on the stairs, still relaxed, nude instead of naked. I mentioned it to Allie.

“I guess you’re right,” she said. “‘Naked’ has a connotation of ‘exposed’ and ‘vulnerable.’”

“Exactly.”

“So… you want me to be vulnerable?” She had a habit of moistening her lips when she wanted to remind me of her tongue stud. She did it now. Then she smiled, sly and suggestive. “Vulnerable to what?”

To me, duh!

I ignored him. “I want you to be comfortable. How is up to you.”

“You don’t wanna see me naked,” she said matter-of-factly.

My expression said otherwise, but I didn’t pursue it. We were just friends, after all. Right?

“Hey, Dad…? Dad…? Dad!”

I sighed. “Fair Juliet calls…”

“Saved by the bell,” Allie said, although I wondered who she thought had been saved this time.

“Dad…! Dad!”

“What!” I suppressed my annoyance and feigned a smile.

“Come play with us,” Emily begged.

“Yeah, come play!” Susie said.

The others joined in.

“Please, Mr. H.?”

“Please, please?”

“We want you to throw us,” Emily added.

“Yeah, come throw us!”

“I think there’s an echo in here,” I joked to Allie.

“It’d be a shame to disappoint them.” She added in a low voice, “Or me.”

“It’s a good thing we had a talk last night,” I said.

Allie batted not-so-innocent eyelashes. “Why, whatevah do you mean?”

Brandeis education or not, she was still an Alabama girl at heart, a coquette with a honeysuckle drawl and a ribbon from the county fair, Miss Blue Balls ’86.

“Uh-huh,” I replied in a monotone. “Just friends.”

She smiled sweetly.

“Be right there!” I called to Emily before she could start up again. She was ten times as tenacious as her mother, yet without Christy’s adult filter. Worse, she didn’t understand that I’d been trying to get laid.

Yeah! the little head harrumphed.

Allie’s blue-green eyes glittered with amusement. She couldn’t hear my inner monologue, but she could figure it out from my expression.

I stood and removed my T-shirt, and her amusement turned to frank admiration. I didn’t have a wrestler’s physique anymore, but I was in pretty good shape for a guy who’d just turned forty. My wife certainly thought so. Allie did too, and she’d decided to take her flirting to the next level.

Two can play at that game. I paused and gave her a long look before I started to turn away.

She stopped me with a coy, “Aren’t you forgetting something?” I turned back, and she lowered her gaze to my trunks. “It only seems fair,” she added. “I mean, the girls aren’t wearing them.”

“You are.”

“A woman’s prerogative.”

“Uh-huh,” I said dubiously.

“Well…?” She arched an eyebrow. “Care to put your money where your mouth is?”

“Now who’s trying to get who naked?”

Fortunately, the girls were too far away to overhear. They were watching us, though, and part of me wondered if Emily and Madison could read our body language.

“Well?” Allie said playfully. “What’s it gonna be… big boy?”

“Big boy, huh? All right, we’ll play it your way.” I turned to face her, untied the drawstring on my shorts, and slid them down in one smooth motion. Then I kicked them off and straightened. My dick flopped into view, semi-hard and completely smooth. Allie gulped.

“Happy?”

Her nostrils flared.

“Didn’t think I’d do it, did you?” I folded my trunks and draped them over my T-shirt. “Well? See anything you like?”

Behind me, Little Miss Megaphone lost her battle with patience. “Dad…? Dad…? Dad…! Are you coming?”

“Saved by the bell,” I said to Allie, low and suggestive.

For the first time all day, she didn’t have a comeback.

* * *

The girls and I played for an hour, a game that involved me throwing them into the air or flipping them toward the deep end. Emily even managed a one-and-a-half back somersault. Madison wasn’t as daring, and I didn’t push her. She was a good dancer and a decent swimmer, but her coordination hadn’t caught up with her latest growth spurt. She stuck to regular dives instead.

The younger girls simply shrieked and tried to make the biggest splash. The goofy dogs thought that was a splendid idea. Spike leapt from the side of the pool and paddled around until it was Susie’s turn again. Buck, short on brains but with balls to spare, flung himself from the diving board. Molly hung out in the little pool that was part of the waterfall. It was cool there, and she could keep an eye on Emily.

Allie watched it all from the shade of the porch, where she laughed and shouted encouragement to girls and dogs alike.

“All right,” I said at last, “I need to take a break.” I shrugged off a chorus of complaints. “Hey, there are four of you but only one of me.”

“Unh! Please!”

“Yeah, Mr. H., please?”

“Nope, sorry,” I said. “Unless your mom wants a turn.”

“Not me!” Allie laughed.

“Come join us anyway,” I said.

The girls turned their high-wattage enthusiasm on her instead.

“Yeah, Mom, c’mon!” Madison said. “Please?”

“Please, please!”

“Sure, all right.” Allie had removed her shirt earlier, but she stood now and slid her shorts down her long, tan legs. Then she adjusted the legs of her swimsuit and started toward the stairs.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” I said.

Her eyes narrowed.

“I mean, we’re all nude. Shouldn’t you be too?”

Madison turned on her. “Yeah, Mom. You said you’d do it.”

“Please,” Carly added. “You said you would.”

“It’s fun,” Madison added. “And no one can see. Except Mr. H., but he doesn’t count.”

Allie’s lips compressed, and I read her easily: He most certainly does count.

“It’s cool,” Emily said. “Really. You should try it.”

Carly delivered the coup de grâce, “You said we shouldn’t be ashamed.”

“That’s different,” Allie said patiently. “I’m the mom.”

“So?” Madison said. “Their mom does it.”

“Yeah! All the time,” Carly agreed.

“Girls… I said no.”

“She’s right,” I said. “Remember, girls, it’s your choice, just like it’s your mom’s. Okay?”

They grumbled anyway.

“You have to respect her wishes if you want her to respect yours. And if she wants to wear her suit, that’s her prerogative.”

Carly frowned at the big word.

“It means her choice,” I explained. “And it’s her right to make a choice in the first place.”

Allie nodded.

“Yeah, they’re right,” Emily said, although she didn’t seem too happy about it. “Remember what they told us in class?”

About consent, I imagined, and Allie confirmed it with a glance.

“Oh, all right,” Madison huffed.

Allie waded into the water and then toward me.

“Thanks,” she murmured.

The girls realized I’d shifted from dad to grown-up, so they kicked toward the deep end. They were worn out too, even if they hadn’t been doing the heavy lifting.

“No problem,” I said to Allie. “We aren’t husband and wife, but we’re a team.”

“And a pretty good one,” she agreed. She looked past me and called, “Girls, time for more sunscreen, especially without your suits.”

“Oh my gosh, yes,” Susie said immediately. “I turn into a lobster if I don’t.”

“Hey, Dad…,” Emily said, “I think we’re gonna get out for a while. Then maybe can we have lunch?”

“Sure. Why don’t you get a shake now, though.”

“Okay.”

The girls climbed out of the pool and dripped toward the breakfast patio. Molly rose, shook off the water, and trotted around to join them. Spike and Buck traded a couple of confused looks.

For the umpteenth time I wondered how three dogs from the same litter could be so different. Labradors were supposed to be a smart breed, but I couldn’t tell by looking at ours. Molly had all the brains and the common sense to boot. Spike and Buck reminded me of teenage boys, and not in a good way. I didn’t want to blame testosterone, but the evidence was pretty clear.

As if to prove my point, Buck started licking himself. I couldn’t blame him, though. I’d tried it myself, and more than once. (Hey, I was a teenage boy at the time. Don’t judge me.) Even today, I sometimes wondered if well-hung guys like my brother-in-law Tom had tried it too.

Did he… succeed? Get it? Suck seed?

Fortunately, Allie snapped me out of it before the little head could really get going.

“Wow, that was easy,” she said.

“What was?”

“The girls. They didn’t argue.”

“Yeah,” I chuckled, “that’s my secret, wear them out first. Then they’re easier to manage. Works every time.”

“Does it work on grown-ups too?”

My eyebrows twitched upward. “Why? Do you know someone who needs it?”

“No,” she fibbed. “Just asking.”

“Mmm.”

Up on the patio, Emily wrapped her towel around her slender body and went inside with Molly. Madison and Carly took Susie’s advice and used the blue bottle of Coppertone Sport, SPF 100. They were both pale where their swimsuits normally covered, although I didn’t think they’d had time to burn.

I spared a glance at my own skin. I had a decent tan, but I could still burn if I spent more than an hour or two in the sun. I normally didn’t forget sunscreen—too many bad sunburns as a kid—but Allie was a serious distraction. She was a pleasant one, to be sure, but still a distraction.

Speaking of which… “You wanna help me fix lunch?”

“Sure,” she said brightly. “But let me cool off first.”

“Sounds good.”

“You go ahead. I’ll join you in a few minutes. I wanna enjoy the quiet.” She tried not to grin, and I took the hint.

“Right. Okay. Well… enjoy.” I climbed the stairs and felt her watching my ass. It was one of Christy’s favorite things about me, and I was pretty sure she bragged about it to her girlfriends.

I dried my face with my towel and let Allie have a good look. Then I turned for a front view, and my penis began to swell. Fortunately, I wasn’t a teenager anymore, so I didn’t have to worry about a full erection. Unfortunately, the increased blood flow created a different problem, snark.

I thought you said she wasn’t interested.

She isn’t, I replied. She just wants a show.

So… what? Now you’re a Chippendale?

Whose side are you on? I griped.

Allie smiled and kicked off backward. I had a perfect view of her body, even though it was covered by a swimsuit. Unfortunately, “look but don’t touch” was the order of the day. Besides, we were just friends, right?

“Hey, Dad,” Susie asked when I joined them, “is it okay if we lay out for a while?”

Madison corrected her, “Lie out.”

“That’s what I meant.”

“Then why didn’t you say it?”

“Ugh. You’re worse than my grandma.”

“I am not!”

“Are too. C’mon, Carly, let’s go over there.”

They took their towels and headed to the other side of the waterfall.

Madison watched them go, nonplussed.

“Don’t worry about it,” I chuckled.

“‘Lay’ is a transitive verb,” she said stiffly.

“Exactly. It requires an object. ‘Lie’ is intransitive.”

She wrinkled her forehead. She knew I was right, but she was wondering how I knew.

I leaned toward her and confided in a low voice, “My mother was an English major too.”

“Really? Cool. Mom says it’s important to use the right word.”

“The lightning bug and the lightning,” I agreed.

Madison’s eyes flew wide. “You know that one too?”

“Mark Twain, of course.”

She beamed.

“What about him?” Allie asked from behind me.

“Mom, he knows about Mark Twain and the lightning bug!” Madison gushed.

“What’re you talking about?” Allie laughed. “Ah, right. The almost-right word and the right word.”

“You know,” I deadpanned, “like… ‘enjoy the quiet’ versus ‘enjoy the view.’”

Madison wrinkled her forehead again, while her mother gulped like she’d swallowed a lightning bug.