“What if I don’t head that way?”
“There are six souvenir shops in town. If you can’t reach one, you haven’t gone far enough.” She grabbed her purse and headed for the door.
“Fine,” I yelled as she shut the door behind her.”
I sipped my coffee until the temperature was undrinkable and cleared the table. I put on my violet, solid, two-piece bathing suit and threw a pair of light-blue denim shorts on with a vintage floral blouse. I tossed my cell phone, wallet, and sunscreen in a soft canvas shoulder bag, slipped on my sunglasses, and walked out.
The sun was beaming and felt warm on my bare legs and arms. I pulled off my hair tie, letting my hair fall loosely around my shoulders.
Moments later, I was walking past the wooden fence along the boardwalk and down the ramp that slowly descended into the warm, lumpy sand. Slipping off my flip-flops, I eased my toes onto the hot sand. The grains covered my toes with every step. I walked along the wet, even shore for a few minutes before trying to remember where Jake’s Souvenir Shop was.
I walked past the rocks, where I sat to watch the sunrise, scanned the storefronts along the boardwalk, and even reached the boats and yachts lined up by Emmons, where I’d run into Chris during one of my classes. Still no sign of this shop. I shook my head at Rachel’s comment that if I hadn’t reached one souvenir shop, then I hadn’t walked far enough.
After the boats, I was approaching the pier, where Rick had held a water sports session with the boys. An image of eight boys jumping off the pier and catching a green ball flowed into my mind and then disappeared. When the vision cleared, the only thing left sitting on the very edge of the planked walkway was a young girl. It was hard to tell her height and age, but her profile suggested she was early teens. I did a quick run-through in my head of the older campers to see if she resembled anyone. She wasn’t one of Bay’s Summer Camp girls, yet she looked somewhat familiar, and I was oddly drawn to her.
I walked up behind her and dropped my bag behind me. She glanced up at me and moved to her left, gripping the wooden pillar. Her feet barely touched the water, but as I looked closer, I saw she was hardly letting her feet sink below the surface.
“Nice day to soak your feet,” I said, sitting down and sinking my own into the cool ocean water.
She kept her eyes on her feet. “This is as far as I get.”
“Well, this is as far as the pier gets.” I knew there was more to what she was saying, but responding with matter-of-fact statements is almost always better than prying.
“No. I mean, I don’t go in the ocean.”
“You know how to swim?” I asked, looking at the boats ahead.
“Oh, I can swim. Really well, actually. My brother taught me when I was five. I just prefer to…see what’s floating around me.”
“It’s mostly seaweed,” I reassured, splashing my feet a little.
“Not always…” Her voice trailed off.
“That’s really cool you learned to swim at a young age. You know, I didn’t learn until I was, like, thirteen. This boy I liked threw me in the pool once and then laughed at me for doing the doggie paddle.”
She made a disgusted face and finally looked at me. “Ugh, what a jerk. So what did you do?”
“What any grown-up, mature young woman would do. I pulled myself onto the ledge, and when he was too busy laughing to notice, I grabbed his ankle and yanked him in.”
She laughed.
I laughed along. “But the next day, I told my dad I was ready to learn to swim.”
At that moment, another Jet Ski whooshed by us and I noticed the girl watching the wave runner closely. “You ever ride one of those?” she asked me casually.
“Yeah. At a beach back home. Why, you interested in riding?” I asked mischievously.
“I think so.”
I smiled. “No time like the present.”
Her face lit up with excitement. “Really? Could we go now?”
I hadn’t meant that exact present. “Oh, with me? Oh, I don’t know. Where are your parents?”
“Oh, my brother won’t mind.”
“What won’t your brother mind?” A male voice came from behind us and chills went up my spine at the sound of his voice.
