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welcome to join you on Friday afternoons?”
    â€œNo problem,” we chorused.
    This was hardly what I had in mind when I’d planned on getting more friendly with Drew Jamison. Still, helping him with his English reading was at least a start. I sneaked a look at him. Was he really behind in English or was it just an excuse to get to know me better?
    Suddenly he caught my gaze. The dimple appeared again. He stood up and pulled me to my feet. “What about a quick swim to cool us down before I go back on duty?” he suggested.
    I smiled my agreement. Perhaps Drew was as attracted to me as I was to him. Everything seemed to be working out nicely. I saw Julie shed her glasses and hat and get to her feet.
    â€œYou keep an eye on our stuff until I come out,” I suggested. She gave me a resigned nod and sat down.
    Drew and I ran down to the water, plunged in together, and swam out past the sandbank.
    â€œYou’re a pretty strong swimmer for a girl,” he said as we bobbed up and waited for a wave. “I watched you swim out after that silly kid on the rubber mat. Do you train during the week?”
    â€œOnly on Saturday mornings,” I admitted.
    This was almost true if I woke up early enough and there was nothing better to do with myself. However, if Drew trained on Saturdays as well, I promised myself to be more conscientious about my swimming. Just then the wave swelled behind us and we put our heads down and swam like mad. The wave lifted us and we cascaded down its steep slope, tumbling over and over in seething foam right up to the shore.
    The wave sucked out again, rolling us against each other and back into the water. Drew flung an arm around my waist and pulled me against him to stop me from moving. His arm was warm despite the coldness of the water, and the sand hollowed under us as the water receded. I shivered and not with cold. My knees had gone all boneless on me.
    â€œThere’s a disco next Friday at Tootles,” he murmured. His head was close to mine and his mouth tickled my ear. “Interested?”
    I didn’t have time to reply because the next wave rolled up the beach like a solid wall. Coming right at us like a missile in the front of it was a yellow surfboard. I acted almost instinctively, pushing Drew back hard and spinning away so the big board slid between us.
    â€œWow!” Brat shrieked exultantly. “Did you see me surf in?”
    â€œYou shouldn’t be using the board among swimmers,” I snarled.
    I looked around for Drew but he was gone. He had overbalanced when I pushed him, and had presented sufficient purchase for the receding wave to spin him back into the water, but he wasn’t wading out again. When I stood up to look for him he was swimming fast and strongly out to where Louise, distinctive in the pink banded wetsuit, waited past the breakers.
    I just couldn’t believe what he was doing. The two heads were together now, clinging to the board. He was going to surf in with Louise. Geordie had already caught a wave and sailed to shore with the effortless grace that didn’t seem to belong to such a heavily built guy. I walked back up the beach to Julie, giving Brat such a glare that he backed away and tugged the yellow surfboard up the beach in the opposite direction. I felt like taking Brat out and drowning him like the pest he was.
    Geordie ran past me with his board, sprinkling cold water impartially on all the prone bodies. “That Louise is something, aye,” he yelled at me.
    He left his board by Julie and I quickened my pace to help her strip off his wetsuit, and then he ran towards the clubhouse. I dried myself and reached for the sunscreen. I was so miserable I almost couldn’t talk. The spunkiest guy on the beach had asked me for a date and I had muffed it! Did he really think that my shove meant no? Surely he realized that if I hadn’t shoved him away so hard the board would have hurtled into