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Chapter 65
The days were noticeably getting shorter now; it was already dark as Josh and the others drove back toward Spearfish Lake from Albany River.
It had been another late-starting date. Football conditioning had started the first of the week, in the mornings, and then Josh had had to make a Kremmling turn, while Danny had done the way freight to Camden. Bud Ellsberg, the president of the Camden and Spearfish
Lake, had been a football player once, and a pretty good one for the Marlins at that, so he knew the drill. He tried to cut Josh and Danny as much slack as he could with the scheduling, and had had a couple of words with Coach Hekkinan, an old teammate, about the times that
the boys couldn't make it to practice.
"I don't know what I need conditioning for, anyway," Danny complained from the back seat. "It's not like I've been sitting on my dead ass all summer. All that up and down off the engine, and all the volleyball I've been playing with Marsha, I'm already in game shape."
"It's a pain in the butt," Josh agreed. "He's got me scheduled for a night run tomorrow night, and I'll get back just about in time for morning practice. After I've been up all night, I'm really going to be in great shape. Maybe I can con Bruce into running about an hour late."
"Fat chance of that," Danny said. "Bud wouldn't mind, but Diane would be all over him if he ran late for the hell of it."
"Yeah, you're right," Josh agreed. "But, I'm going to have to try and sleep during the day as much as I can, tomorrow. Then, before I go to work, I promised Mark I'd go out and work the dogs with him. I tell you, that's going to add up to one long potlicker of a night."
"How's it going with the dogs?" Marsha asked.
"Oh, pretty good," Josh told her. "Mark let me take them out around the field trails by myself yesterday, and I can say that I walked away from it."
"All four dogs?" Danny asked.
"No, just Cumulus and Red and Midnight," Josh said. "Mark and Mike have given up on trying to get Red to run in double lead with Cumulus. They're talking about getting another dog or two."
"That'll speed things up a little," Danny commented.
"Yeah," Josh said. "I read that book that Mark gave me about the Iditarod race, and in there, it talks about a guy taking off out of Anchorage with a twenty dog team. I can't imagine trying to hold that many dogs down when they're hyper and wanting to run."
"Quite a ride, I bet."
"Yeah, it'd be an experience," Josh agreed. "Look, I kind of hate to bring this up, but it's too early to go home, and too late to start much of anything. Anybody got any ideas?"
"Well, I suppose we could cruise around town a little," Danny suggested.
"Big deal," Marsha said from her position, cuddled up under Danny's arm. "How about if we sneak out and go skinnydipping again? We haven't done that in a couple of weeks."
"Yeah," Amy said. "That worked pretty well the last time. We go in the back way, and down to that beach at that little bay. Nobody's likely to see us there."
"I'm willing if everybody else is," Josh agreed. "The only thing is, that means that everybody's going to have to ride back to town, if you're going to ride back with Danny."
"Big deal," Danny said. "We can just leave the girls off, and I'll ride back with you. I told the folks I might stay in town tonight, what with early practice."
"All right with me," Josh said.
There wasn't a lot of talking for the next few miles. Once or twice, in the lights of an oncoming car, Josh could see that there was a reason for it: in the back seat, Marsha and Danny had found something else to do with their mouths, and it looked like they were
enjoying it. Amy was aware of what was going on, too; she lay her head on his shoulder, and he pulled her tight. The world seemed very fine, just then.
It felt very daring still for Josh to drive in the hidden back entrance of the West Turtle Lake Club, then down the access road across the golf course to the hidden little bay up the beach from the club proper. The route was totally out of sight of the main club, and at the
end wasn't much more than a faint trace of a grassy two-rut. Even so, Josh turned his lights off as soon as he dared, and backed the car into a patch of heavy brush.
When he shut the engine off, he turned to Amy to say "We're here," but the words never got out; her lips reached for his, instead, and it was more than just the little kiss on the lips that they had been sharing for a month or more. Her mouth was open, and Josh found
his was, too. They shifted their bodies a little, to give each other a little better reach, and their hands started to wander.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, Josh wondered if Marsha and Danny were aware, but he realized that the two in the back seat were too preoccupied with the same thing to care much. For that matter, Josh didn't care much about what they thought, either; he was
too busy touching, fondling, kissing. His hand came to rest on Amy's breast; though cool to the touch through her blouse and bra, he felt his hand warming at the softness and firmness of it. As they kissed, he cradled it, played with it, and some unknowable time later, he became
aware that the blouse had become unbuttoned.
Knowing somehow that he shouldn't, but helpless to resist, his hand reached around to unfasten her bra, and in what seemed like an instant he felt the firm, soft warmth of her bare breast, the delicate softness of what he knew to be a small, pink nipple. He had plenty
of time to explore its wonder before Amy shifted her position, to press those wonderful warm breasts up against his own bare chest -- bare, because somehow, his shirt had become unbuttoned. Still they kissed, as inseparably as ever, his incredible readiness pressing against
her bare belly through his pants. She reached down, touching him through his pants, and he thought he was going to explode with wonder.
She pulled her mouth away, finally, and in a voice so low he could hardly hear it, whispered, "I think we'd better go swimming."
"I think so, too," Josh whispered back, not wanting to let go.
She took her hand away, and they kissed one last kiss before she broke away, opened her door, and got out, with Josh piling out the far side.
In the dim light, he could see Amy peeling her clothes off the rest of the way, and he did the same, standing naked before her in the darkness as she came around the car and took him by the hand. Together, they walked the few yards down to the beach, where she
stopped. In an instant, they were in a clinch, arms around each other, naked flesh pressing against naked flesh, his hardness pressing up against her -- not kissing, but just holding on to each other. "I don't think we should," she whispered, "But if you want to, I will."
It was the opportunity he had dreamed about -- not just this summer, but for years. And yet, he knew he shouldn't do it. Not believing he could actually say the words, under the circumstances, he heard himself say, "Maybe we'd just better go swimming."
"I'm sorry, Josh," she whispered back, "But thanks."
