Chapter 1

In 2010, I turned 40 and my daughter Kate turned 17. I was still a single mom back then and I wanted to do something special for me and for her. I realized that this would be her last year living with me before she left home for college in the Fall. I was beginning to fear living alone in an empty nest. So I wanted to something memorable for the two of us.

My birthday is in early February – an awful time of year in mid-winter. Looking for winter get-away. I saw a lot of ads for cruises. But they were typically for a week or more, and they would be filled with older retirees (boring) and likely no kids Kate’s age since this wasn’t during a school break.

Then I saw an ad for “Le Sport” which was an exclusive beach resort on the island of St. Lucia in the Caribbean. St. Lucia is a British possession and the resort catered to Americans and Brits, with a few other Europeans as well. It offered a package for long weekend at the resort – with a spa treatment and swimming in the warm sun. It seemed like a perfect holiday away from the winter. Kate would miss a Friday and Monday of school but that was no big deal.

I told her about the planned vacation at Christmas and she was thrilled. During January we went shopping together looking for cute two-piece bathing suits, and shorts and tops. Kate had a great teen body, smallish but full breasts and long legs. She picked out a bikini while I picked out a more age-appropriate bathing suit and a matching cover-up that I intended to wear most of the time.

Early on Friday of the vacation weekend, we flew down to the island. We were met by the beach club’s private car for the 40-minute ride from the airport to the northern tip of the island where Le Sport was located. We shared the car with a young newlywed couple from Leeds, England. The road went past fields of sugar cane with native workers who stopped to look up as we drove past. The temperature was in the mid-80s with blue sky and passing clouds – a perfect island weather system.

At the club we unpacked. We had a king bed in the room. Kate and I had shared beds before in visiting relatives and in motel stays so it was not a big deal. Although in the past we dressed and undressed separately in the bathroom, I thought that this time I wouldn’t be so modest and would just change in the bedroom area (hoping that Kate would pick up on that and change there too). As it turned out, being nude with Kate was not going to be so unusual on this weekend.

Friday afternoon there was still time to hit the beach as the sun was up and warm. As I planned, I undressed to change into my swimsuit in the bedroom in front of Kate. Kate glanced at me in surprise as I stripped down, but then she paid me no mind. Kate did the same and I had a chance to take in her lovely body. Kate has dirty blonde hair and my coloring. She was trimmed for her bikini but not shaved smooth and I was the same also. I tried not to pay special attention to her, but I did look enough to make mental notes. Kate was beautiful. She wasn’t dating anyone special at the time (there had been a boyfriend in the previous year but it ended). I know she looked forward to college and the freedom it offered, including no more parental supervision of her nights out and no curfews.