The first time I ever got caught doing something I shouldn’t have been doing with Katie Higgins, I had to clean the bath house at the campground with a toothbrush every day for a week. Looking back, I spent a lot of time in that bath house. It’s a miracle I can get near a toilet now. In fact, I tend to keep my toothbrush in the kitchen. Toilets are nasty. Toothbrushes in toilets are even nastier.

But holding Katie into the early hours of the morning…that was priceless. I’d do it all over if given an opportunity.

That day started like most others. I got up, went to play lifeguard at our small swimming area, and I ogled Katie as she played volleyball in the sand with her friends near where I worked. She waved at me every few minutes, and I caught her looking at me often, which made me smile.

“Jake, get your head out of your ass and watch the swimmers,” Pop grumbled at me when he caught me watching Katie rather than the water.

“My head’s not in my ass,” I grumbled back.

“Get your head out of her ass then,” he said, nodding toward where Katie had moved over and was sunning herself in a modest bikini.

“But Pop,” I complained, “her ass is worth it. Just look at it.”

Pop didn’t look, but he said, “As asses go, I suppose you could find a worse one to look at. Maybe you’ll find one when you’re cleaning toilets.” He threw a towel at my face.

I blew the whistle at a kid running down the dock, and he slowed to a fast walk before diving off the end.

“Speaking of Katie’s ass, Pop, do you think I could take the boat out tonight?”

He sorted through the box of tools he had on the dock in front of him without looking up at me. “What for? And what’s the boat got to do with Katie’s ass?”

I learned to drive a boat before I could drive a car, which was the case with most kids who grew up on the water. “I want to show her the lake.”

“Is ‘show her the lake’ code for showing her your penis?”

“Pop,” I growled. “Seriously?”

“You can use the canoe. Take it or leave it.”

I opened my mouth to complain, but Pop held up a finger. When Pop held up a finger, I knew I was done. I could take the canoe out, though. That was good. It would work.

“Take condoms,” Pop warned. Then he walked away while I was still shaking my head and smiling.

I wrapped my hands around my mouth and yelled Katie’s name. She raised up on her elbows on the blanket where she was sunbathing, and her naked belly scrunched up. Damn, she was pretty. And curvy in all the right places. She held her hands up in question at me.

I crooked my finger at her, motioning for her to come to me.

Fred, who was working at the lifeguard station on the opposite dock, let out a wolf whistle.

Katie didn’t come to me, though. She lay back down on the blanket and ignored me. Her friend leaned over close to her and whispered something but Katie just shook her head.

I wrapped my hands around my mouth and called her name loudly again. “I can’t come to you, Katie!” I yelled.

She rolled onto her belly and shot me the middle finger over her shoulder.

Pop chuckled from behind me. “You might want to work on your delivery, son. A Jacobson has to have more game than that.”

I could hear Fred laughing from his perch across the lake. I looked out and saw that there was only one person in the small swimming area. I motioned for Fred to keep an eye on him, and then I pulled my whistle from around my neck and tossed it onto the lifeguard chair. I dove into the water and swam to where Katie was lying on a towel on the sandy beach. I stood over her and shook the water from my hair like a dog after a bath. Both she and her friend squealed and Katie rolled over.

“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.

And we fell asleep like that.

I woke up to a light shining in my face as someone pulled Katie off my chest. My arm was asleep, and I couldn’t wiggle my fingers to grab her back.

“You’re an idiot,” Pop muttered to me as he climbed carefully into my canoe. I could see Mr. Higgins and Adam rowing Katie back to the shore in their boat.

“I really messed that up,” I said.

“Yep,” Pop grunted at me as he began to paddle us back toward land.

“They’ll never let me see her again.”

“Did you use condoms?” he asked as we tugged the boat onto the shore. He stared into my face.

“Pop,” I complained, “we didn’t–”

“They’ll let you see her again. In the daylight. Where you can’t do any snuggling.” He started to whistle as we walked to our house.

That was a damn shame, because cuddling with Katie…that was the highlight of my summer.

The next day, Katie was cleaning the bath house with a toothbrush, while I hammered nails into the dock. It was like we were on opposite ends of the earth, and I couldn’t even tell her I was sorry for getting her in trouble.