Feels Like Summertime Read Online Free PDF Page B

that was the first time I ever held hands with Katie Higgins.
    Katie followed me into the house, and I saw goose bumps erupt on her arms when she came into the cooler air. I motioned for her to follow me to my room. She followed, her tread light and wary.
    I tried not to be too light on my feet, but the thought of having a girl all alone in my room was doing funny things to my guts. I gave Katie a t-shirt and a pair of running shorts, and I pointed toward my bathroom. “I’ll just go in there.”
    I stepped into the bathroom and closed the door, leaning all my weight on it. “Holy shit,” I murmured. I looked in the mirror and ran my hands through my hair. Then I gargled with some mouthwash that was strong enough to steal my breath.
    Katie knocked on the door. “You can come out now.”
    Her sopping-wet clothes were piled up on my floor, and I could see the pink edge of her panties, which she’d tucked under her wet t-shirt. Panties she was obviously no longer wearing. The thought of Katie with her bare bottom touching my running shorts did funny things to my insides, and then those funny things shot straight to my dick.
    I sat down quickly on the little futon along the wall of my room and shoved a pillow into my lap.
    “Are you all right?”
    “Fine,” I croaked.
    “You’re not going to be sick, are you?” she asked, approaching me, her feet as soft as whispers on the carpet.
    “Oh, no, I think I’m over that.”
    She crossed her arms. “Then what’s wrong with you?”
    “Nothing,” I muttered.
    She nudged my knee with hers so I’d scoot over, so I did, and she gingerly sat down next to me. And my mind went back to the thought of her not wearing panties under my shorts. Shit. I’d never get rid of this boner with her here.
    “You want to go back to the dock?” she asked.
    “Why don’t you go ahead?” I replied. “I need to do something for Pop.”
    She tilted her head at me. “What do you need to do?”
    She leaned a little closer to me, and her eyes fell to my lips, then they darted back up to my eyes.
    “I…I don’t remember,” I said.

9
    Jake
    “ Y ou put your tongue in my mouth,” Katie says.
    I grin. “No finesse whatsoever. I just stabbed you with my tongue. And then I did it again.” I shrug. “I thought that’s how it went.”
    Katie grimaces. “I was pretty awful too.”
    “We got better at it with practice,” I remind her.
    Her cheeks flush. “We got better at a lot of things.”
    The air grows warm around us, and I almost need to reach for the pillow again.
    “When is your husband going to be joining you?” I ask, clearing my throat.
    Her face clouds. She starts to pick at a fleck of lint on the leg of her maternity pants. “He’s not coming.”
    “All summer? At all?”
    “No,” she says softly.
    Suddenly, my dog runs around the corner, and he’s pulling Katie’s youngest child. She has a crease on her cheek and her face is rosy. She climbs up onto the couch and my dog puts a paw on her leg, like he’s making sure she’s still in place. Katie pulls her daughter into her lap.
    “Trixie, this is my old friend, Jake,” she says. Trixie buries her face shyly into Katie’s neck, so I’m not sure if I’m supposed to say anything to her.
    Pop bellows from the porch, “Those steaks aren’t going to cook themselves!”
    “I better go get that,” I mutter.
    “Sally can stay with me?” I hear Katie’s daughter say quietly.
    “Of course he can.” Katie brushes her daughter’s hair back from her face, her fingers tender. “You don’t mind, do you, Jake?”
    I don’t think I could pry the dog away from the girl if I tried. “No, you can keep him for now,” I say.
    I go out onto the porch, and see that Gabby and Pop are using rocks from the driveway as betting chips. Pop has a stack of five. Gabby has a big pile. “She’s kicking your ass, huh?”
    He grunts at me.
    Gabby smiles. “I’m going to win his hat if he keeps on going.”
    “I’d like to see