Rachel wore shades too. However, she was sitting next to me, because we weren’t banned from talking to each other, and we had no fear of McGillicuddy looking out the window and seeing us together. Behind her shades, she cut her dark eyes at me.
Lori didn’t say a word. She turned and gazed out over the broad lake. But I knew she was wondering how deep my relationship with Rachel went behind the scenes. is moved me a long way toward letting go of my anger at Lori about Parker. Now she had some idea how I felt.
After a pause, she gestured offshore. “I am going to swim out to that island. Adam is going to swim out to that island also.”
“I am?” I didn’t like being told what to do. But of course I would have swum across the Atlantic to see her. I pulled off my T-shirt, the first time my chest had been bare in a week.
She did the smallest double take but quickly looked away from me again, toward the girls, and pretended to ignore me. “is is all purely for calisthenics, you understand.”
“Of course,” Rachel and Tammy said.
“So I do not want you to look around, see us missing, and sound the alarm that we have been eaten by bryozoa.”
“Bryozoa eats plankton and microscopic stuff in the water,” Rachel pointed out.
“Clearly you did not watch the same space-alien movies I watched growing up.” Lori pointed at Tammy. “And as for you, missy?”
“Yes?” Tammy asked drily. It sounded like she was almost as used to Lori’s plans as I was.
“I can’t trust my brother to keep his mouth shut about this,” Lori said. “We have to make sure he doesn’t see me.”
“I have an idea,” Tammy said in the halting speech and overenthusiastic delivery of someone reading from a cue card. “Why don’t I entice your brother into a dark corner and make out with him to distract him?”
“That is a great idea,” Lori said in the same tone.
Tammy stood and dashed up the dock toward the house. At least some people didn’t have to be dragged into helping Lori with her plans.
“That leaves me with Sean,” Rachel said doubtfully, but I could tell she was trying not to smile.
“And Cameron!” Lori reminded her. “Knock yourself out. Or… I guess you want to get rid of them. I know exactly how to make them forget you exist, if they haven’t already with the Braves game on. Give them a bowl of Fritos and some dip. Always works for me.”
“Wow, it’s that easy? anks, Lori.” Rachel got up and walked toward the house more slowly than Tammy had, watching the windows, undoubtedly hoping Sean would appear, looking for her. No such luck. I knew she held out hope Sean would throw her a bone, and I knew he wouldn’t. I knew exactly how she felt.
“Race ya,” Lori said. Before I could respond, she was gone. She splashed into the water and crawled at a good clip toward the tiny island three hundred yards from the dock.
I dove in after her, caught up with her in a few strokes, passed her, turned over, and did the backstroke right in front of her, kicking up big splashes in her face just to piss her off. I righted myself, treading water, looking for her.
She wasn’t there.
“Sucker!” came from a long way off. I saw her wet blonde head halfway to the island already. She must have passed me by swimming underwater. Now she sank under the surface again.
I swam as fast as I could after her. As I moved nearer to the island, I saw what a genius Lori was and how brilliant a choice the island was for a place to slip away from McGillicuddy. It was possibly even more masterful than my secret make-out hideout. Rachel’s grandparents’ house was at the end of their neighborhood. Beyond it, the shore stretched around endless bends of red mud cliffs and pine trees, with not a soul in sight. e island sat in front of those cliffs, at the edge of the busy river channel, but a DANGER sign indicating shallow water was stuck between the island and the bank, so boats wouldn’t dare float through here. It was private. It was perfect.
I touched bottom and walked through the sand, stirring up bits of mica that glittered like stars in the water. Looking back toward Rachel’s grandparents’ house and their pier, I watched both disappear behind the trees on the island. Now Lori and I couldn’t be seen unless somebody came looking for us.
Lori sat on the sandy, glittery beach of the island, directly in front of the DANGER sign, waiting for me. I waded toward her.
“Why have you been ignoring me all week?” she called. Her voice sounded annoyed. However, she sat leaning on one hand with her long legs folded gracefully, the warm lake lapping at them. With a small wardrobe malfunction of her pink bikini, she could have been a model in one of the issues of Playboy she used to steal from McGillicuddy to study what kind of girl Sean was into, so she could be more like her. In fact, I thought at first that she was teasing me by pretending to be that girl. But as I waded closer, I realized she really was annoyed, and she was seducing me by accident. Hell, I would have been turned on no matter how she sat.
“I haven’t been ignoring you,” I said. “I’ve been obeying my parents.”
“ere’s a first time for everything, I guess.” She squinted at me and put up one hand to shield her eyes. A shadow covered half her face. e sun was peeking around my back and blinding her.
I held my ground, squishing my toes in the glittering sand, and made small movements back and forth, just to bug her. e sun was hidden by my body. en it hit her full force in the eyes. Then it went into hiding again.
She closed one eye. “I don’t buy it. You’ve been avoiding me. You’re still punishing me for going out with Parker. And that doesn’t make any sense to me, because I sent McGillicuddy over to tell you the Parker thing did not work with my dad at all. McGillicuddy came back and said you just shrugged!” I shrugged again. “How could you and I have talked about it without somebody seeing us?”
“You managed our trip into the woods okay.”
“And we got busted.” Since her eyes were watering, I figured she’d had enough of my game with the sun. I sank down in the water in front of her and leaned back on my hands in the sand.
“I guess I’ve been expecting more out of Mr. Daredevil, Mr. Devil-May-Care.” She sat up straight and looked me dead in the eye. “I’m so glad you finally called Rachel and arranged this excuse for us to see each other today.”
She knew there was more to this, and she expected me to sing. Who did she think she was dealing with here, Cameron? I hoped I played this cool, but I did look away. I wanted to keep her on her toes, wondering if there was something going on between Rachel and me, so she’d be a little bit jealous. But she was my friend, and I felt guilty.
After eyeing me silently for a few more seconds, she finished, “Otherwise, I might not have been able to tell you what I did for you until it was too late for you to take advantage.”
“Take advantage?” I looked pointedly at her cleavage. “What you did for me? It must involve underwear.” As fast as one of my brothers, she shoved me. I lost my balance and fell backward into deeper water. She jumped on top of me and dunked me. Yes, I got dunked by a girl, but only because we had trained her well, and she had surprise on her side.
As soon as I realized what had happened, I grabbed her arms above me in the water and lifted her whole body onto my shoulders. She bit off a squeal—remembering at the last moment someone back at the house might hear her. I heaved her as far as I could from the island. By the time she swam all the way back again, water spilling from her long hair, I was sitting exactly where she’d been sitting on the beach before. I was king of this mountain.
She walked up the beach until she stood directly over me. e water from her hair streamed into my eyes. “You are going to be so sorry when you find out what I did for you.”