Stef Ann Holm by Lucy Back (books to read in your 30s TXT) 📗

“What’s that?”

“You put your other foot in front—the one that feels funny,” Jason explained.

“How do ya’ll know what that is?”

Jason stood in front of Mackenzie, put his arms out without touching her. “Okay—do this. Fall forward like you’re going to go flat on your face. Don’t worry, you won’t. If you do, I’ll catch you.”

Mackenzie giggled. “I don’t know about this.” She smiled, leaned toward Jason, then her left foot came out in front of her so she wouldn’t fall.

Matt said, “Your right foot is your goofy foot. So if you wakeboard goofy, you gotta put your right foot in front.”

The kids went to round up Drew to ask him if he’d take them all out. He got Dave Lawrence to ride along as flagger.

As Lucy pulled herself out of the water using the stair handles, she watched Drew and Mackenzie. The two seemed to have synchronized moves, a testament to their father-daughter relationship. Jason and Matt sat on the back leather seat, and Matt waved to her as Drew fired up the loud motor.

Drew had a camera with him. He took a random snap of the kids on his boat, then aimed toward her. She gave him a roll of her eyes, a parade queen wave and shake of her head. He’d been taking a lot of pictures lately. He said seeing Roger Lewis on his mantel wasn’t exactly the way he liked to start his morning. He’d admitted to getting used to all the personal touches, though. He wanted current photos of family who meant something to him. Already, many of him and Mackenzie were placed throughout the house.

As Drew motored away from the dock, the sight was one that Lucy wouldn’t soon forget. Drew and his daughter. Mackenzie elbowing him when he was sifting through CDs to play and she didn’t like his selection. Lucy’s two boys checking out the high-tech wakeboard. Smiling. Happy. Innocent.

There was no other way to define it: Contentment in the purest form.

Mackenzie was leaving on Wednesday morning, and school started that coming Monday for Jason.

This summer had probably been the best of his life. It hadn’t started out good at all. Him being hacked off at his mom for making him move up here. But he’d figured out that Red Duck wasn’t all that bad. In fact, he kind of thought it was rad now.

He missed Brian and the guys, but he’d made a couple of new friends here. Nutter was a dumb-ass, but he was the funniest guy he knew. Ryan and Brownie were fun to hang out with. His boss at Woolly’s wasn’t too bad, but he’d quit that now that he was going to start school. His mom wanted him to focus on getting better grades this year. He was gonna try.

One thing that he decided not to change was taking food to the Sunrise. Jason hadn’t seen that one coming. He liked it over there. He’d gotten used to the old people, liked a guy named Beansie. He was an old cowboy and he told Jason cattle drive stories.

His mom had said they could go car shopping this week and get him a cell phone. Badass! He was getting another truck he could fix up. He couldn’t wait.

They’d packed up everything from the dock, and Drew’s boat was back on the trailer hitch. Everyone stood around in the ramp parking lot, saying, “See you next year,” even though they’d still see each other in town. Funny how this place was like one big family.

At first, Jason hadn’t liked that about Red Duck. But now he though it was neat that people cared about each other. Even that gorilla-hairy guy who talked so much—Lloyd. He’d brought a plastic grocery bag filled with garden tomatoes to the Sunrise just because he had extras. And Opal, she was real nice to Ada, the dog groomer. Spin was funny when she’d sometimes swear. Jacquie was okay, too. She’d been hanging out at the Sunrise a lot. At first, he hadn’t liked her, but he’d seen her with Spin, and Spin was real happy to have the company.

As Drew and some of the dads got talking, Jason went up to Mackenzie, who stood by the Hummer.

“So…hey,” Jason muttered, unable to really think of anything good to say. He wanted to give her a hug goodbye, but there were people around and he was self-conscious.

“Hey,” she replied, smiling back at him.

She had the best smile ever. And he could listen to her talk for hours.

“So what are you gonna do when you get home?”

“I’m going to take a semester off before going to college. Me and my dad are going to take some trips together and get to know each other better.” The pink sunglasses she wore covered her eyes. He wanted to look into them in the worst way. “He wants to take me to California. I’ve never been. We’re going to Disneyland.” Her smile was perfect, just like a chewing gum commercial. “I’m going to college in January. I told him I would. That’s what my momma wanted.”

“What are you going to be?”

“I don’t rightly know yet. Maybe a photographer.”

“You’d be good at it.”

She laughed. “I don’t know about that. I’ve only been messing around with my dad’s camera. It’s fun to doctor the pictures up on the computer.”

Jason looked at his feet, the chunky rubber sandals and his big toes. He felt awkward and clumsy. Lifting his chin, he said, “Well, I liked hanging out with you this summer.”

“I liked it, too. We should call each other sometime.”

“Yeah. I think that would be cool.”

“Or e-mail.”

“We’re getting the Internet. My mom figured out the house can be wired for it.”

Mackenzie slipped her glasses off her nose. She stood barefoot, her feet perfect and toenails painted pink. He tried to put her out of his head because he knew that they probably would stay in touch for a while, then stop.

Sixteen and seventeen might have only been