After our boat ride, Mitch takes us back to the dock. Josh and Amber, who were making out the entire boat ride, start heading back to his condo, quickly leaving us behind.

“Well, I guess they want to be alone.” Jackie laughs.

“Seems that way.” I smile.

“So, what now?” she asks, looking so damn cute in her white tank top and pink denim shorts.

“I’m not sure,” I answer, wondering if she is hinting for me to make a move on her.

“Would you mind hanging out with me? My condo is down that way. We could swim at the pool or just watch TV or something.” She points down the beach.

“Sure.” I shrug, having no real plans right now.

We start walking down the beach. I wonder why she is acting all friendly now, when just days ago she stood me up.

“You know, I have a confession … I thought maybe you were still mad at me about last week. Is that why you stood me up?”

“Maybe,” she answers as we continue strolling along.

“Really?” I’m shocked by her honesty. I was actually expecting some kind of excuse.

“Just a little, but I did have something come up. My sister Laura needed me to watch her kids. She’s a nurse and they needed her to work a second shift. Her husband Donny still had a few hours left at work and Mom is out of town visiting Jane and Chris and their new baby.”

“Oh, well why didn’t you just say that?” I ask her.

“Because I was still mad at you,” she answers.

I stop, grabbing her hands so she will face me and I look at her. She refuses to make eye contact with me now. “Jackie, I’m sorry for whatever I said that night. Whatever it was, I didn’t mean it. You have been awesome and I was being a complete jerk.”

“I’ve forgiven you, but you did hurt my feelings. Why were you so mean? Did Julie hurt you that badly?” she asks.

“Yeah, she hurt me, but it was more than that. I have stress at school, my knee, and then my dad.”

“What’s wrong with your dad?” she asks, looking very concerned.

“He’s fine, he’s just being Dad. Nothing I do is ever good enough.”

“I didn’t see him at the graduation,” she says, finally looking into my eyes.

“He was too busy,” I say, looking away and letting go of her hands. I don’t want her to see the hurt I’m feeling now.

“Okay, enough of this depressing stuff, we need to have fun,” she announces.

“We do, huh?” I laugh at her quick turnaround.

“Yes, we have to cheer you up. That is now my mission. There is so much to look forward to.”

“Like what?” I ask as she takes my hand and begins strolling on the beach.

“The summer, no classes, going to the university in the fall … being alive, you name it!”

“Jackie!” we hear someone yell out.

Jackie begins looking at the people on the beach and then points to a large umbrella with a lounge chair and four small children hanging around. “That’s my sister and her kids, come on,” she says, taking my hand and pulling me along.

“Laura?” I ask.

“No, this is my oldest sister Maggie. Hey, Sis!” she hollers over to her and waves.

“I thought that was you. Here,” Maggie says as she tosses a bottle of sunscreen to Jackie.

“For the kids?” Jackie asks, looking at the bottle.

“No, you! Are you asking for skin cancer?”

Jackie rolls her eyes but starts applying the sunscreen. “Maggie, this is Tyler. Tyler, this is my overprotective big sister Maggie.”

“Nice to meet you,” I say, looking over at the thirtyish woman with her hair up in a ponytail and large shades on.

“Nice to meet you too. It looks like you could use a little sunscreen yourself. Just because you have tattoos doesn’t mean you won’t burn.”

“Maggie!” Jackie scolds her sister. It pleases me how quick she is to come to my defense.

“It’s okay. She’s right.” I walk over to Jackie as she is finishing up applying her sunscreen. Jackie hands me the bottle and I peel off my shirt.

“Wow!” she exclaims.

“What?” I look myself over, wondering if it’s too late and I’m already sunburned.

“I only thought you had the ones on your arms.”

I suddenly feel self-conscious and wonder if the tattoos are a huge turnoff for her. I grab my shirt, getting ready to put it back on.

“They’re gorgeous,” she says, leaning in closer to me and carefully tracing them with her fingers. “Give me the lotion. I’ll get your back.”

I can’t help but think of that statement in two ways, both literally and figuratively. After all, that’s what friends do, right?

Her soft hands touching my back feel so good. I want to lie down on a towel and have her rub my back for hours. I imagine her sitting on top of my back in just the bikini, rubbing lotion, or better yet, oil on my back.

“So, what are you two up to?” Maggie asks and breaks me out of the wonderful, yet sexy daydream about her baby sister.

“Just hanging out. Tyler took me parasailing,” she chimes.

“Parasailing? I thought you were afraid of heights,” Maggie says.

“Tyler helped me through it. It was scary at first, but once I got over the fear, it was fabulous.” She quickly finishes up and I immediately miss the contact of her touch.

“I thought you were up here with your friends?” Maggie says.

“Tyler is my friend,” Jackie scolds her sister once again.

“I meant the girl friends.”

“Amber took off with Tyler’s friend Josh, so we decided to hang together.”

“So, he’s not your boyfriend?” Maggie asks, looking over at me. I would love to bury myself in the sand right now. She is looking at me like I robbed the cradle.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but no, we’re just friends.”

I quickly look at Jackie, who is staring at her sister. Something about her statement just friends bothers me. Why, I have no clue.

“Sorry for the third degree, but Jackie is a closed book when it comes to who she’s seeing, or in this case, not seeing.” Maggie smiles over at me.

“No problem.” I relax again, thinking it wouldn’t be the first time someone thought I wasn’t good enough.

“You want to come up and have a late lunch?” Maggie asks us.

“No, we already ate, but thanks,” Jackie responds quickly. Too quickly … am I right? Is she ashamed of me?

“Well, these kids have been at it all morning, so I’m sure they are hungry.”

“Mommy, we’re playing,” the oldest girl speaks up.

“Go on up, Maggie, we’ll stay and watch the kiddos,” Jackie volunteers.

“We will?” I shoot her a surprised look. Little kids worry me. I’ve never watched one. I have no clue what to do for one.

“Sure, they’re playing and having fun. We’ll just kick back and watch after them.”

“Can I talk to you a sec?” I call her over.

“What’s wrong? Are you in a hurry? Do we need to get back?”

It would be so easy to say yes to her questions, but looking into those eyes of hers, there’s no way I could lie. “No, nothing like that. I just have never been around little kids before. I’m not sure I know what to do.”

“Oh, it’s easy, really. Just watch me,” she says, patting me on the chest. “No worries, Maggie, we got it,” she says to her sister.

“You sure?” she asks one more time.

“We got it,” I reassure both of them, now that I can man up.

“Thanks, Sis. I’ll call you when I have it ready,” Maggie says before escaping to the condo. My bet is we won’t hear from her for hours.

“Kids, come here a sec,” Jackie commands them and they immediately mind her. “Kids, this is my friend Tyler. Tyler, this is Cole and Mikey.” She points to two small boys, who my guess is are aged six and four. “And this is Lauren and little Lizzie.” She points to a young girl probably around eight and a toddler who can’t be more than two.

“Aunt Jackie, do you want to make a sandcastle?” the littlest boy Mikey asks her.

“Sure, pumpkin,” she agrees. “Do you want to help?” she asks, looking over at me.

“I thought you said all we had to do was watch them?” I reply back to her.

“Come on, it will be fun.”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you want to build a sandcastle?” she sings in tune of that annoying song from a kid movie from years ago.

“What?” I start to laugh at her attempt to be charming.

“Come on, I haven’t done one since I was a kid. I bet you haven’t either.”

“You mean yesterday?” I tease her.

“Ha ha. Come on, it will be fun.”

“Okay, as long as you promise to not sing that song.” I smile at her.

“Deal.” She walks over to the sand piles with the kids, leaving me standing alone. “Come on, they don’t bite. At least, not anymore.” She laughs.

“Funny,” I say as I walk up to her.

“I’ll tell you what, girls against boys. Tyler, you guys go over there, and we’ll be here. Whoever makes the best one, wins.”

“Yay!” they all cheer.

“This is silly,” I quietly say to her so the kids can’t hear.

“Well, maybe you need a little silliness in your life. Now, go and make a sandcastle,” she says, giving me a slight push.

“Fine, but we’re going to kick your—”

Jackie’s eyes grow wide as she puts her fingers over my lips. The simple gesture turns me on even more.

“Don’t cuss in front of the kids,” she whispers.

I’m so tempted right now to either kiss her fingers or playfully bite them. This girl is definitely getting under my skin, and not in a bad way. “I was only going to say butt,” I mumble while her fingers are still over my lips.

“Oh, sorry,” she says, quickly letting me go. I immediately miss the contact, but I give her a wink and head over to the boys.

Cole, Mikey, and I are working hard on our sand creation while I peek over at Jackie, Lauren, and Lizzie working hard on theirs.

When her sister Maggie comes down to check on us, we let her be the judge.

“Wow, these are both great. I can’t decide. I say it’s a tie,” Maggie says. I knew there would be no way she would say one was better than the other, not when it involved her kids. She reminds me of my mom.

“All right, munchkins, inside and make sure to rinse the sand off before going in.” She quickly takes Lizzie’s hand to keep her from following her older siblings. “Are you two coming up?” she asks.

“No, we have to get back. We’ll see you later, Sis,” Jackie says as she starts brushing sand off of herself.

“I guess I will see you later, then. Nice meeting you, Tyler,” she says as she picks up Lizzie and starts heading to her condo.

“You too,” I call out as I continue to brush the sand off of myself.

“Ugh, now I remember why I don’t sit on the beach. I have sand everywhere,” Jackie complains as she continues trying to brush herself off.

I stare at her as she tries desperately to brush off the sand and suddenly I have a sneaky idea. It’s payback time. I walk over to her, standing right in front of her.

“What?” she asks, looking up at me.

“There’s an easier way to wash the sand off,” I say to her, holding back my grin.

“There is?” she asks, looking serious.

I nod and quickly lift her and start running with her to the water.

“What? Wait, no! Tyler, put me down,” she starts screaming with laugher.

“I thought you wanted to have some fun?” I say to her, holding her tightly.

The waves start hitting us and I dive in with her. Soon we are both wet with the salty waters of the gulf, but the sand is washed off. We start splashing each other, acting like kids and having a great time.

“Okay, okay, enough,” she says, barely catching her breath. She comes up, taking my hands to stop me.

“You ready to head back?” I hold on to her hands as the tide keeps pulling us.

“Yeah, we should go check on them,” she says.

“Come on, then.” I smile, taking her hand to help her out of the surf.

We grab our things from the beach site and head to the showers to rinse the salt water off. As I wash the salt away, I look over at Jackie, watching her rinse away. The water is flowing off her bikini clad body. It’s almost erotic as her sun kissed skin shines, calling to me. I wish I could make this water ice cold right now.

She has no clue how she is turning me on. Or does she?

We walk back to her condo, finding Josh and Amber hanging at the pool.

“There you two are. We were about to form a search party. What have you two been up too?” Amber says.

“Nothing,” we both respond

“Are we going out tonight?” Josh asks.

I watch Jackie look up at me and it breaks my heart to have to say this. “I’m sorry, I can’t. I have to work tonight,” I say to her. I was actually going to quit tonight and go back to Clover, but suddenly I would like to stay.

She smiles, but I can see the disappointment in her eyes. “It’s okay. I probably should go over to Maggie’s tonight. If I don’t check in, they start checking on me. I had fun today. I’ll see you later, okay? Don’t work too hard tonight,” she says before starting to head inside.

“Wait.” I reach out and grab her hand, walking her to the corner of the pool area, away from nosey eyes and ears.

“What’s wrong?” she asks.

Looking down at her now, and seeing those pouty lips just begging for me to kiss them, I lose my train of thought for a moment. “Nothing’s wrong. I just wanted to say thank you.”

“For what?” she asks.

“For today. I had fun.”

“Me too. I like it when you smile. You don’t do it enough,” she adds.

“Maybe that is changing.” I tell her, our bodies even closer now. I itch to kiss her. It’s the perfect moment, but I hold back. “If you can get away, come to the club tonight. I get off at eleven. Maybe we can dance. I still owe you a few.”

“Sure, that sounds like fun.”

I open the door for her and wave goodbye. Hopefully, this time she won’t stand me up.