excerpt

THE TEN-YEAR-OLD boy launched himself from
the high diving board in a perfect cannonball
and exploded the water a foot from his giggling
friend. Marcie Welch blew her whistle, summoned
the pair to her lifeguard stand and banished
them from the pool for two days.
“Aw, Marcie,” the human cannonball wailed, “we were just
havin’ fun.”
“You can come back on Friday, but if you have fun that way
again, you’ll be out of here for a week. Go on home.”
As the hot afternoon wound out and suppertime approached,
Marcie gave three long blasts on her whistle and swung down from
the lifeguard stand. Children climbed out of the pool and gathered
up their towels. She walked to the low end, where Poodie was
shepherding a handful of his charges to the ladder at the edge.
When the last of them scampered toward the dressing rooms, she
bent to offer him a hand. He took it, grinning, and pulled her off
balance.
“Oh, Poodie, you……”
Marcie rolled into the water, came up laughing, and met a spray
from the push of Poodie’s palm. She seized his hand, then his
head, and dunked him. He swam away, turned and surfaced
behind her. She felt his arms around her waist and the power of his
thighs against hers. A trembling warmth infused her. She waited a
few seconds to push away in confusion and giddiness. His trickster’s
grin modified into the gentleness of a smile,

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08W7SHCMV