LITMIR.BIZ

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manage to do was sit there and moan.

      “Not to worry. I have an idea,” Bunny announced—not for the first time.

      It was a good thing she did; I was considering turning myself in and facing the consequences.

      “You guys stay here while I sneak over to the parking lot,” Bunny instructed. “I’ll take that little cart path behind the eighteenth hole. As soon as he wanders off, I’ll hop in the car and sneak away. Then he won’t see me leave—and if he does, at least you guys won’t get caught.”

      “So what do we do?” Misty asked.

      “You guys walk back to the clubhouse and call someone dependable to come and get you. If anyone asks why my car was at the park, I’ll play dumb.”

      “That might work.” It sounded half-baked to me but at least it was a plan. And that surpassed anything I could suggest.

      “It’ll work. We just have to stick together. Skinny-dipping, are you kidding? We’re nice girls. That’s our story. Deal?” Bunny put out her hand.

      “Deal.” I slapped my palm on top of hers. This was one of the benefits of sisterhood. All for one, and one for all.

      

      “Do you think Bunny got away?” Misty whispered as we approached the clubhouse.

      I’d lost my shoes somewhere, and even worse, Misty’s bra had vanished. Add that to the fact her T-shirt was wet, and we had a big problem.

      “Before we go inside you need to pull your shirt out and fan yourself. Maybe it’ll dry a little.”

      “Aargh!” Misty apparently hadn’t noticed the way the cotton was molded to her chest. “I can’t go in there, not like this.” She made wild waving motions with her hands.

      “I agree. You hunker down over there in the lawn chair. I’ll see if they’ll let me use their phone.”

      “Who are you going to call?”

      That didn’t take much thought. I planned to call my best buddy. “Charlie will get us. He’s the only person I really trust.”

      Wasn’t that annoying? The one person I felt I could turn to in a crisis was my good friend’s boyfriend.

      

      “What have you girls gotten yourselves into now?” Charlie barely managed to control his chuckles when he asked the question.

      All I’d had to tell him was that we needed a ride and he was on his way to retrieve us. No questions, no comments, just a “hang on, I’ll be there in a few minutes.” Thank goodness!

      Misty’s wild red curls had dried into a mess that resembled a Bozo the Clown wig, and heaven knows what I looked like. The term “raccoon eyes” came to mind.

      “Is this gonna burn up the grapevine?” he asked.

      Misty and I answered simultaneously. Her answer was an emphatic no. I was a bit more circumspect with my “I hope not. God, I hope not.”

      Our answers brought another round of laughter from our chauffeur.

      “Here we are.” He pulled up behind Misty’s house. “Are you okay?”

      “Yep. Jaz, I’ll call you. Thanks, Charlie,” she said before she dashed toward her back door.

      Charlie turned to me, a serious expression on his face. “Is your daddy gonna meet us with one of those bad-cop looks?”

      “Not if we’re lucky,” I said with fervor.

      “Lord, you’re enough to give a guy gray hair.” He punctuated his assertion by rubbing the top of my head.

      “Do you remember the time in the fourth grade when Hooter Thompson knocked me off the jungle gym and you gave him a black eye?” I’d wanted to ask that question for years. It was the defining moment, the moment I knew for certain that I was head over heels in love with Charlie, and my feelings hadn’t changed much in the intervening time.

      He glanced at me and laughed. He was no doubt wondering why I’d brought up an event that occurred years before. “I remember. I was grounded for a week when the principal called my dad. Why are you asking?”

      “No reason.”

      Charlie hesitated, looking as if he was about to press the issue and then decided against it. “Okay,” he said before he started the car.

      On the drive to my house, our conversation was strangely stilted. I was contemplating how he was always there for me and how much I loved being around him. He was probably thinking I was a major-league nitwit.

      Charlie parked beside our guesthouse. “Let’s stroll down to the dock so you can tell me what happened. If I’m about to have another Hooter Thompson experience, I’d like to be prepared.”

      He was out of the car and around to the passenger side before I could get my butt in gear.

      “Come on, Sunshine. You’ve got some ’splaining to do.” He put his arm around me and for a brief moment I imagined what it would be like if we were a couple.

      That would be my idea of heaven; too bad Charlie didn’t feel the same way.

      

      A couple of days later, I was in the middle of one of my favorite fantasies when the star attraction pulled his boat up to the dock.

      “Hey, Sunshine, you want to take a spin?”

      Of course I did. I’d go to the moon with this guy.

      I was halfway in the boat before I bothered to answer. “Sure. Where are we off to?”

      He reached into the cooler and brought out an icy Coke. “I’m starving so I thought we’d head down to Slim Jim’s for a burger.”

      “Good.” Slim’s had the best French fries north of the Rio Grande. It was the best of all possible worlds; I could enjoy something fattening and also spend a couple of hours with Charlie.

      “Where’s Bunny?” Why did I have to ask that?

      “I don’t know. I have a feeling there’s something going on, but she’s not talking to me about it.”

      “Really?”

      “Yeah, really.” He paused, then grinned. “I guess you could say things are pretty dicey with us right now.”

      Chapter 5

      Our gang managed to dodge the bullet—sort of.

      Daddy kept giving me the “look.” I knew he knew what we’d been up to; fortunately he couldn’t prove it.

      Too bad! This was my last opportunity to be a carefree kid and I intended to take advantage of every minute. Yeah, I realized we were being childish, but our tiny bit of hell-raising was our version of asserting our independence.

      Summer in Meadow Lake had always had a magical quality—it was sun and fun at its best. And July was truly our summer, a time and place that could never be replicated.

      It’d been almost two weeks since our skinny-dipping escapade. I cringed at the thought of what would’ve happened if the patrolman had caught us butt naked. Darn it, I was not about to let Bunny talk me into another debacle. And if I believed that, I was delusional. She was charismatic, mischievous and irresistible to mere mortals.

      That’s how she managed to snag me for our next escapade. I protested, a little, but it was to no avail. We were heading off to toilet-paper Mr. Hargrove’s house, and that antic was guaranteed to land us in a pile of trouble. Not only was he our high-school principal, he was also one of the grumpiest guys in town.

      “I certainly hope you bought that stuff at different stores,” I whispered as I jumped into Bunny’s car. The backseat was filled with rolls of toilet paper.

      “Even

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