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I answer her with, “To be fair, you stopped writing too.”
She nods slowly. “Fair enough. How come you guys never came back to the lake after that year?”
I look out at the water and hear a distant chugging. A freighter is about a mile down the coast. “When I was 14 I started on the JV football team and I had summer practice. So, basically, after that…bye-bye, summer vacations.”
“Football equals the end of childhood,” she replies.
“Something like that.”
“But then you couldn’t study engineering on a football scholarship?”
I try not to visibly wince, but she sees it.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t pry,” she says.
I cover her hand with mine to let her know I’m not offended by her curiosity. It’s been a long time since anyone asked me about my life, my hopes, and my dreams. “It’s fine to ask. Even with the modest scholarship I was offered at state college, I couldn’t afford the remainder of tuition, room and board, plus all the extra fees. Mom and I broke down everything and no matter how we looked at it, I’d still end up in the hole for decades, even if I got a job right away after school. Mom tried to convince me to start with community college and transfer later after I saved some money, but it was all so daunting and stressful. So instead I went back to my summer job as a lifeguard, worked my way up to pool manager, and now I run all the aquatics programs for my county.”
“That’s amazing,” she says.
I snort. “It’s mostly answering email and scheduling lifeguards and instructors and putting out fires.”
“Yeah, but that stuff is important too. You gotta keep a cool head.”
I don’t know if she’s being serious. Most people speaking to me like this would come off as pandering. But she’s sincere. She must be, because I have a sixth sense about bullshit, and people’s bullshit makes me clam up. She makes me want to keep talking. “Anyway, what I’d love to do is design pools and outdoor spaces. I’ve tried sharing my ideas with the planning department. They were nice about it but explained they can’t look at anything that isn’t designed by someone on staff with a degree. Of course, they promptly stole my ideas and passed it off as their own.”
For the second time this morning, Penny’s mouth falls open in shock.
Whoa. I’ve never said any of that out loud to anyone.
The low thrum of ship engines and the sound of seagulls are calling to me. I gotta get out of here. I grunt as I stand up on the dock. “Wait, Josh. I’d love to see your ideas.”
“Nah, they’re crap. I’m happier doing what I’m doing than working with a bunch of people like that. Anyway, the fish are calling. See you later!”
I feel her eyes follow me as I scurry back to the safety of the pontoon boat. The motor starts up right away, and I remind myself to ask her how she knows about outboard motors but not fishing.
When I steer away, I wait until I’m past the swimming buoys before I turn, wave, and smile.
Chapter 9
Penny
“What the hell is this?” Joshua’s voice cuts through my binaural beats playlist that I like to listen to when I’m reading. I’m sprawled out on the futon after dinner, belly full of fresh fish that Joshua very generously cooked for me over the fire.
He also offered to show me how to gut and clean the fish, which I politely declined. Not because I’m too girly to gut and clean a fish, it’s that I’m genuinely squeamish. I couldn’t make it through the frog dissection in sophomore biology class without ralphing.
The fish was great, and I’m so stuffed my eyes are starting to droop while I’m trying to stay focused on my reading of this mystery novel. “Penny? Could you please come in here?”
There’s no way it’s important enough for me to stop reading, but I go anyway. In the bathroom, I find Josh prodding a non-bristle end of a toothbrush at a lacy thing hanging over the shower rod.
“It’s a bra. Surely you’ve removed one or three in your lifetime on earth.”
He blushes deeply. “I’d rather not discuss whether I have done that or not. But I do have a mother, so yes, I’ve seen bras before. What I don’t understand is why they’re hanging on the shower rod.”
Seriously, he’s never seen a bra hanging over a shower rod before?
“Oh, because I came here straight from work last night and I’d been wearing it all day. I hand wash those things and I have to let them air dry with the fan on.”
“I don’t know if you know this, but there’s a clothesline outside.” I don’t point out that he’s gesturing in the wrong direction.
