Flirting with Fire: A Summer Camp Swingers novel

“Sure. I can call her on my cell phone while you’re talking to Em and Suse.”

“Perfect. She’s next door, in 828. Here’s the number for the hotel…”

* * *

I stepped out of my office and surveyed the living room from above. It was empty, so I called toward the girls’ rooms. Emily yelled back.

“It’s your mom,” I said. “On the phone. She wants to talk to you.”

Emily stuck her head out of her room. I waved the cordless handset.

“Oh, that phone.” She disappeared and picked up her own phone a moment later.

“Hi, Mom. I made the dip. And I might’ve eaten some already.”

“I figured you would,” Christy said with a laugh, “so I bought extra. It’s pretty good, isn’t it? And you probably didn’t get enough at dinner.”

Emily sighed. “No.”

“I know, sweetie,” Christy said, “me too.”

“I’ll let you two talk,” I interjected. “Call us tomorrow after you finish for the day.”

“Okay,” Christy said. “I love you.”

“I love you too. Bye.”

I returned to my office and the notepad where I’d written the hotel’s number. I called Laurie on my cell phone.

She answered uncertainly, “Hello?”

“Hey, Flower.”

“Dad!”

We talked for fifteen minutes, and she told me about the pool and diving facilities. She sounded excited, without a trace of the anxiety from earlier.

“I can’t wait to hear about camp itself,” I said. “You can tell me tomorrow when you get back to the hotel.”

“I will. Do you need to talk to mom? I can go get her. She’s only next door.”

“No, but thanks. I talked to her earlier.”

“Oh, okay.”

“I love you, sweetheart. And I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks, Dad. I love you too.”

“Get some rest. And don’t stay up all night talking to Missy.”

“I won’t,” she promised.

We said goodbye and hung up. I picked up the home phone, but Christy had already finished talking to the younger girls. I went to check on them anyway. Emily was old enough to go to sleep when she was ready, but Susie needed prompting sometimes.

Sure enough, she was sitting cross-legged on her bed, drawing and listening to a CD. Spike and Buck lay sprawled on the floor beside her, quiet for a change. I listened to the song for a moment but didn’t recognize it.

“Who is this?” I wondered aloud. “Destiny’s Child?”

Susie shook her head without looking up from her drawing. “Beyoncé.”

“Is it new?”

“Yeah. Mom bought it for me. A couple of days ago.”

“Ah, okay.”

“She’s awesome, isn’t she? Beyoncé, I mean. Well… Mom too, I suppose.”

“They’re both awesome,” I agreed, “but it’s time for you to start getting ready for bed.”

“Unh! But, Dad—!”

“Ah-ah, no buts. Put on your nightshirt and brush your teeth.”

“Oh, all right,” she sulked.

“Chop-chop,” I added. “Then you can listen to the rest of the CD. But after that, you have to go to sleep. Fair enough?”

“I suppose.”

She set her sketchbook on the nightstand and left the colored markers scattered on the bed. Then she rolled toward the footboard, climbed over it, and disappeared into the bathroom. She shared it with Laurie, an arrangement that was better for everyone.

Laurie and Susie couldn’t understand Emily’s devotion to order, and Emily couldn’t keep her annoyance to herself. She had her own private bathroom instead. It was much smaller than the others’, but she didn’t care. It was clean, neat, and hers alone.

I chuckled to myself at how different they were. Case in point, Susie was the artist. She wasn’t a prodigy like Christy, but she had a natural eye for people and emotions. She’d been drawing Buttercup from the Powerpuff Girls, her favorite. She hadn’t mastered depth or realistic shading, but she’d captured Buttercup’s determination.

All of a sudden Buck leapt to his feet, and his tag jangled as he looked around. He wasn’t the brightest dog in the world, but he had a sixth sense about Susie. He scrambled over Spike in a rush toward the bathroom. Spike jumped up and ran after him, of course. Goofy dogs.

Don’t wanna miss the toothbrushing fun, I thought sardonically.

I stuck my head into the bathroom, just in case Buck had heard something I hadn’t, but Susie was fine. More than fine, in fact. She was quietly humming to herself as she brushed. Flecks of foam spattered the faucet, the mirror, and everything else within arm’s reach. I suppressed a shudder and empathized with Emily. Still, I needed to reward good behavior, no matter how messy it was.

“Thank you, sweetie,” I said, and Susie smiled through a ring of foam. “I’ll come check on you in a bit. I love you.”

“Wuv oo too.”

I crossed the hall to check on Emily. She was reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and Molly lay curled on the end of her bed. The dog cracked an eyelid but decided I was probably okay.

“Hey, Dad…?” Emily said. “Can we buy the new one tomorrow? The Order of the Phoenix, I mean.”

“If we have time. If not, on Sunday, for sure.”

“Awesome! And… um… thanks for today. Shopping, I mean. But also tonight, at dinner.”

“My pleasure, sweetie. Lights out soon?”

She nodded, so I headed downstairs to the kitchen.