Feels Like Summertime(28)

“Stop!” she yelled, but she was laughing as she covered her head with her hands.

I dropped onto the sand beside her and rested my forearms over my knees. “You’re ignoring me.”

She laid an arm over her eyes as she reclined against the towel. “You were calling me like I’m some kind of pet.” She was smiling, but I could tell that she wasn’t going to let me get away with any shit.

I leaned close to her ear. “I wanted to ask you out tonight.”

She lifted her arm from where it rested over her eyes. “Like a date?”

I nodded. “Yep. Just like a date.”

She sat up. “Where would we go?”

“It’s a surprise.” I couldn’t just tell her I wanted to take her out on the lake in my dad’s canoe.

She heaved a sigh. “I couldn’t go anyway.”

“Why not?”

“My dad and Uncle Adam. You’d have to ask them.”

“Okay.” I steeled my shoulders and stood up.

“Okay?” She smirked. “Have you met them?” She snorted and lay back again.

“I’m not afraid.” Actually, I was shaking in my swim shorts. “Do you know where they are?”

“No idea.”

“Do you even want to go on a date with me?” I asked, looking down at her. She squinted back up at me.

“If Dad and Uncle Adam give you permission to ask me, I might say yes.”

“That’s it.” I scooped her up in my arms. She kicked and flailed her arms and legs, trying to get free, but I just clutched her to my chest and stalked toward the water. Then I tossed her ass in it. She came up with her hair a wet stringy mess, and it was hanging in front of her pretty blue eyes. She brushed it back.

“I can’t believe you did that.” She blew water from her lips.

“That’s what you get,” I told her. Then I turned and ran when she came after me. She stopped when she got to her towel and she dropped heavily onto it. Then she started drying her hair with another towel her friend handed her. I climbed back onto the lifeguard station and planned my question asking for when I saw her dad and Adam later. And no matter how I worked it out in my head, my palms still got sweaty and my heart still beat too fast. I was a bumbling mess by the time I finally got to ask them.

“Mr. Higgins,” I said, as I ran the brim of my hat back and forth in my fingers as I stood in the doorway. Mr. Higgins didn’t open the door. He made me talk through the screen.

“What do you want?” he asked as his eyes moved up and down my body. I was wearing a button-down shirt and some khaki shorts, and I had on sneakers instead of flip flops. I’d dressed up.

“I was wondering if I might take Katie on a picnic, sir,” I said. I spun my hat.

“A picnic?”

I held up the basket I’d packed earlier. “Yes, sir. My dad said I could take the canoe out, so I thought I might take Katie out in it and have dinner while the sun sets.”

Adam opened the door a little wider so he could step up beside Mr. Higgins. “Oh, that sounds so romantic,” he said with a smile. “Doesn’t it sound romantic, Dan?” He batted his lashes at Mr. Higgins.

“No.” Mr. Higgins slammed the door in my face.

I knocked tentatively. Katie’s dad opened the door again. “What?”

I held up the basket. “I made sandwiches. And brought a pasta salad. And I was hoping to share it with Katie.”

“You really like my daughter, don’t you?” he asked.

I coughed into my fist. “Yes, sir.”

“Do you have any beer in your cooler?”

I cleared my throat again. “No, sir.”

“Wine?”

“No, sir.”

“Alcohol of any kind?”

I opened my cooler and showed him the soda cans. “Just soft drinks, sir.”

He narrowed his eyes. “And you’ll treat my daughter with respect?”

“At all times, sir.”

He bellowed over his shoulder, “Katie!”

She appeared from the hallway and grinned at me. She waved and it was all fingers.

“Jake wants to take you on a picnic,” he said.

“Can I go?” She grabbed his arm and held on to it with two hands. She looked at him until he bent and kissed her forehead.

“You can go,” he said. “Be home by ten.” He stepped to the side so she could walk out from behind him.

“That’s it?” she asked. “That’s the worst you’re going to do?” She laughed. “I thought you’d make him beg.”

He snorted. “The boy already looks like he wants to shit himself, so I cut him some slack.”

“I wasn’t going to–” I stopped. “Never mind.”

“So, I can go?” Katie asked.

He nodded his head toward us. “Go.” He closed the door in our faces.

I took a deep breath for the first time in ten minutes. “Oh my God,” I said.

She patted my shoulder soothingly. “You did great.”

We walked down to the dock, where I helped her into the canoe. We rowed around the lake until we found a quiet spot, then we ate, and then we kissed until her lips were puffy and pink. When the sun went down, she laid down on my chest as I reclined in the bottom of the canoe. She snuggled under my chin and I stared up at the stars.