If I only knew then what I know now. It’s a pretty good thing I didn’t, though. I would have been dangerous. I had just turned sixteen, lived in Costa Mesa, California, only four miles from the beach. I had bought a pool cleaning route and was making pretty good money at it. The money I made cleaning pools was spending money too. Since I was on the swim team and water polo team and my parents thought I was pretty industrious they paid for clothes and all that. My dad and I split yard duties, which I thought was pretty cool. He could have just told me to do it but he didn’t. If we got behind, he hired a landscaper. My folks were cool. I had an old Chevy truck that ran great and worked well for my pool service and getting me and my Chuck Dent twinfish to the beach as often as possible.

My life revolved around water. I don’t think I had a single friend who wasn’t a surfer, competitive swimmer, or played water polo. There were days when I was in the water at sunup and left after the sun went down. We had a huge pool in the backyard. It was well lit and there was a firepit and grill next to it. My dad put in an outdoor kitchen and bar, which he wisely kept locked.

Our high school water polo team did pretty well. We were ranked third in the country but because we were in the same league with Newport Harbor and Corona Del Mar, we were also third in the league. I had friends at both schools. My best friends were also my toughest competition. I was good but some of my friends were better. I could have been better but it would have meant more time swimming and less time surfing and that wasn’t going to happen. Besides, who needed a scholarship when your folks would pay for college. I didn’t have much reason to be motivated in that department but I was. Both parents were attorneys in a good practice. They were both very competitive and I guess it got passed on to me. At 5’11” and only 180, I wasn’t one of the bigger players but I thought I had a good shot at varsity in my junior year. I was fast. I’d been on varsity swim since my freshman year. I was good enough at butterfly to compete in every event including the relays.

Swimming gave me a solid body, especially chest and shoulders. Since I practically lived outdoors, my blonde hair was well past straw color, my eyebrows were practically invisible and I had a decent tan by mid-March. Girls seemed to like me okay but I was busy and wasn’t really comfortable around them. They were mysterious and made me nervous. I figured I would have time for girls later. Like I said, if I knew then what I know now, I’d have been dangerous.

Chapter 1: Saturday

My folks owned a beach house they rented out fifty weeks a year. They advertised that it would sleep twelve and it was across the street from one of my favorite local surf spots at 22nd street in Newport. It was a great house they purchased in the middle of someone’s divorce. The rent made the payments and then some. Years later, they still have the house. My folks let my sister and me bring friends with us whenever we stayed. Sometimes we worked on the house during our vacations but if it was a lot of work, they hired someone to do it. We spent one week of the summer and one week at Christmas there and every now and then it would go un-rented for a week so we could use it then too.

Sometimes our friends would just spend the day with us but usually they’d spend the whole week, or at least most of it. The summer I was sixteen, every one of my buds was gone but my sister had brought her three closest friends. By normal standards the house was practically empty. I was fine with that because the house was big enough to get lost in.

My sister, Lisa, was pretty easy to get along with and her friends were too. Lisa and her friends were a year younger than me at fifteen. She was only about 5’4” but she was thin and when she wore heels, she looked like she was about 5’7” or so. That summer she looked better in a bikini than ever before. She was growing up and her bikini tops had a hard time keeping up with her.

Her transformation had seemed pretty gradual and I don’t think I really noticed until that summer. Maybe even that week. She and her three best friends, the Musketeers, used the pool at the house on a regular basis but until I saw them all in bikinis for the first time that week, I don’t think I’d thought of her or any of her friends as more than just my little sister and the Musketeers. Lisa had straight dark brown hair that she was always trying to make wavy. She had an oval face, brown eyes and hazel eyes. She smiled easily, especially since she got her braces off. When she smiled you could see her dimples from across the room. Her lips were dark, almost brown. Being thin made her boobs seem bigger than they were. Overall, she was pretty cute and she made friends easily but that didn’t matter very much because she had the Musketeers.

Most girls that looked like my sister probably would have been snobs but she wasn’t and she didn’t have friends that were snobs either. I really liked that about her. She never dogged either me or my friends. If she had junk to say about one of my friends, she would tell me and let me deal with it. A lot of my friends’ sisters practiced being regular witches but Lisa was cool. I was sort of glad my friends weren’t there that week. I really didn’t want them ogling her. If I looked at my own sister and sometimes got a boner, I knew my friends would and that seemed weird. As weird as it was, I could but they couldn’t.

She and the Musketeers, LuAnn, Tina and Fallon, were rising sophomores and pretty excited to be past their freshman year. The previous summer, I had taught them all the lessons I’d had to learn about high school the hard way and they were pretty appreciative. I had never seemed much older than Lisa or her friends but because of my one year of high school I was suddenly Mr. Experience, which was fine with me. Kind of an ego boost and the first time I’d ever felt even remotely comfortable around girls. I’d known the Musketeers for eight years but hadn’t seen them for a couple of weeks, maybe a month. When I noticed that Lisa had changed, I guess I noticed them too. They weren’t just my sister’s friends; they were girls.

I arrived at the house, early Saturday morning and picked a room on the third floor, just off the big TV room and stashed my stuff. My room faced the ocean and from the deck you could see from the Newport pier to the Santa Ana River Jetty. I scoped out the waves and could see surf building out of the south and suddenly my day was planned. I left a note on the fridge, grabbed my board, and walked across the street to paradise.

I spent a full day on mostly four to six-foot waves with an offshore breeze holding them up and giving them a great shape. It was a good day to be out. Blue skies with little wispy cirrus clouds, air and water temps the best you could hope for and just that little offshore breeze. On top of that, the beach wasn’t that crowded which was pretty unusual since it was the last week of summer vacation. I’d been out all day except for grabbing a bowl of chowder for lunch at The Crab Cooker. My arms felt like rubber, my nose was burned for the 10th time that summer and I was beyond tired. I came in late to an empty kitchen and ate a ton of lasagna for dinner by myself. I limped upstairs to crash on the reclining love seat in the rec room. The rec room was probably 15x25 with a pretty large TV at one end, a couch on either side and the loveseat directly facing the TV. There’s a Foosball table, a rollout ping pong table, a folding card table with a few other chairs on the side. It opens up to a long narrow balcony on the ocean side of the house and sliding glass doors run the length of it. It’s by far the best room in the house, except the kitchen, of course. My bedroom and the rec room faced the ocean and two other, bigger bedrooms faced inland.

The loveseat was one of those double recliners with leather so soft ... well, it was pretty soft. If I wasn’t surfing or eating, I was usually in that recliner for the entire week. That had been my routine since I was about nine or so. It was classic movie marathon week and I turned on To Catch a Thief with the sound down low and settled in. Lying in the most comfortable seat in the house I faded in and out of sleep. Every now and then Grace Kelly would dazzle me with her looks and I’d be wide-awake for a minute or two. My folks had worked late on Friday to get ready to take the week off and they had hit the sack by ten.

The forecast said the surf Sunday would come up with the tide and we might have some waves over ten feet by mid-afternoon. This was a once or twice a year rare event. Ten feet was the very edge of my comfort zone but I had been out in 12-15-foot surf once and lived so I was anxious for the chance to carve some giants. Life was good.

I woke up to find all four girls loudly playing Foosball. I opened my eyes and squinted at them. They were all wearing bikinis and jiggled as they played. I confirmed that my sister and her girlfriends had all grown up substantially. I closed my eyes and tried to go back to sleep. But a minute later, I opened my eyes to see if my earlier assessment was correct. It was.

Lisa might have grown the most without me noticing. She was probably a C cup and was too big for her bikini top from the previous year. Her bottoms were pretty modest but she had a nice ass. A tiny bit too large, perhaps, and she had a little baby fat around her middle. It wasn’t enough to make her look bad but she could lose a couple. I watched her play for a minute and enjoyed watching her jiggle far more than a big brother should.

I moved on to Fallon. Fallon was slender with shoulder length light red hair and green eyes. She had fair skin but unlike most people with fair skin, she didn’t burn. She tanned up quickly and stayed that way. She was the thinnest of the four. She had small tits but she also had a flat belly and that had always seemed attractive to me. She was generally pretty shy but when she got to know you, she would cut loose. She had the best laugh of anyone I’ve ever met. I couldn’t hear her laugh and not smile and she was laughing a lot as they played.

Tina was really pretty. She was seven when she first came to our home and I thought then that she was that cute little kid you just knew was going to grow up to be a heartbreaker. She was taller than the other three. She was slender with a flat belly with tits too big for her age but perfect for her body. She had sort of an exotic look, like she might be Polynesian or something, but she wasn’t. Tina had brown hair and eyes with lips that I thought were just about perfect. I thought they looked big and soft. She also had this smile that seemed to say, I-know-something-you-don’t know. I guess it was sort of a sly smile. I don’t think she got tan so much as she got bronze. Maybe she was Polynesian. She had a little butt and no baby fat. None. She was beautiful and I had just figured it out. She had grown up. She was untouchable. Way out of my league, even though she was a year younger.

LuAnn was the most outgoing. She made friends instantly and everyone loved her for it. Everyone smiled when she showed up and things calmed down when she left. She was definitely pretty and the older she got, the prettier she got. I think everyone knew she would be crazy beautiful by the time she graduated. Everyone knew it but LuAnn. She was also the straight A student and definitely the most daring. If the four of them were up to something crazy, it was probably LuAnn driving it. She had light brown hair that she had dyed blonde but with all the sun she was getting, it kind of blended together. She was built like my sister minus ten pounds. She had dimples when she smiled and she was always smiling. If the Musketeers were going someplace together, you could tell they were coming by the laughter and it was usually LuAnn’s. She was the only one with a nickname, Lu.

I tried to close my eyes and go to sleep but their laughter kept me up and I knew that with my eyes closed, I wouldn’t see any jiggling. I squinted to watch them jiggle and was entertained for several games. The longer I watched, the more entertaining it was. And then, as quickly as it started, they were done. I blinked and they were gone, having returned to their room. I pulled the blanket up and finally fell asleep.

Sunday

When I woke up the sun was shining and there was a note on the TV. “Gone sailing. If Frank calls take a message. Back in time for dinner. Mom.” My parents had both grown up sailing and had bought a 32’ Puma that might have been the fastest boat at the Newport Yacht Club. If they could get away for a couple of hours, that’s where they would be. I really enjoyed it too and it was pretty fun to work as a team with your own family.

Well, that made my day plans easy. I rinsed off, grabbed my board and returned to the sea in search of the promised surf. Unfortunately, the big surf never materialized and I spent the morning waiting. After a couple of hours in mediocre slop, I came home for lunch. The house was quiet and there were no messages on the machine. I ate a sandwich on the upper deck and looked out to sea. Still no sign of the promised swell. I grabbed my spotter scope and looked again. Dad had bought it years ago for watching whales but I used it to scout surf. With no luck in that department, I scanned the beach for the girls. There were plenty of them but not our girls. I was about to give up when I spotted Fallon walking in from the ocean. She whipped her red hair to get some water out and let it fall down her back.

I’d seen her wearing the same thing the night before and she’d been ten feet from me. But now, looking at her through the scope, it seemed different. I could stare at her without her knowing it. I zoomed in to fifteen times magnification and really enjoyed looking at her. I tried to imagine her naked but couldn’t. She looked good in her bikini and that would have to do. She found the other girls and fell forward onto the blanket they shared.

Tina and Lisa were both lying face down and they’d untied their bikini straps to tan without lines. They’d done it before, both at the beach and in our back yard and I hadn’t thought anything about it. That day was different. My hands were getting tired from holding the scope steady but I wasn’t about to quit. I’m glad I didn’t. Tina decided to adjust. She lifted up, just enough for me to get a quick glimpse of the side of her boob. It was glorious. But it was all too brief and it was clear she wasn’t going to do that again any time soon. I looked for LuAnn but didn’t see her so I put the spotting scope away and considered my afternoon.

Mom and dad wouldn’t be home until dinner. That meant we’d either have a rare late dinner, take-out or someone else would have to make it. Since mom and dad frequently worked late, Lisa and I had taken up a lot of the kitchen duties and I decided to cook. No surf and no friends with me so I was the obvious choice. I didn’t really mind. Whatever I decided to make, I’d do it with a clean kitchen. I hate working around dirty dishes so I started to clean up the mess from the previous night. I collected everything and stacked it in the sink to soak while I rummaged through the fridge for ingredients. I found four pounds of ground burger and a bell pepper and some celery. I knew we had everything else for meatloaf so I started setting ingredients aside on the clean counter.

I’d just gone back to the dishes when the door opened and LuAnn walked in.

“Hi, Mike. Whatcha doing?”

I looked over my shoulder at her and quickly looked back. She looked really good and I didn’t want to stare. She was wearing a different bikini than the night before and it was smaller. I might have groaned a little and checked myself. Sister’s friend, I reminded myself.

“Cleaning up. Going to fix dinner and I don’t like to work in a dirty kitchen.”

“That’s sweet. We saw your mom’s note.”

“What are you doing up at the house?” I figured she came up to use the bathroom.

“Filling water bottles. Everyone’s thirsty and I lost.”

She found them in a top cabinet and reached up for them. I turned to look and probably shouldn’t have. She had to stand on her toes and stretch. It meant that her ass was on display and her chest was thrust forward. My sister’s friend, my sister’s friend, my sister’s friend, I thought but it wasn’t working at all.

“Do you want me to reach those for you,” I asked.

“Would you. I can get two but the others are out of reach.”

I dried my hands and walked to the cabinet but she didn’t get out of the way, continuing to reach for them. Before I got there, she hopped and reached and her boobs jiggled and I was in agony.

“Let me,” I said and she backed away and slid behind me but when she did, she brushed her tits against my back. I’m pretty sure she did it on purpose and if she had it was a first. None of the four Musketeers had ever done anything like that before. I was Lisa’s big brother.

I handed her the water bottles with a smile and went back to the dishes. She filled them from the fridge and I washed and neither of us said anything. I was afraid to and couldn’t think of anything to say anyway. I could tell that she was finished but she wasn’t leaving. I pretended I didn’t notice and started loading the dishwasher.

She cleared her throat. “Mike. Can I ask you something?”

“Sure. What’s up.”

“It’s kind of serious and it has to be private. Like, you can’t tell anyone.”

I stopped loading and turned to her. “You have my complete and undivided attention,” I said, a phrase I’d picked up from my dad.

“It’s about Fallon.”

“Oh, oh. Is everything okay?”

“Yes. You’re going to think this is stupid.”

“I won’t. Well, maybe I will but even if I do, I’ll pretend I don’t.” I raised my eyebrows to encourage her to continue.

“This has to be just between you and me.”

“Got it.” She waited. “Just between you and me. Whatever it is, I won’t tell anyone.” Now I was really curious.

LuAnn could talk to anyone about anything at any time or any place but she was having a hard time getting started. “You really, really promise? And you can’t laugh.”

“I really promise and I won’t laugh.”

Satisfied, she gathered her thoughts and started. “It’s about boobs.”

“You have a question for me about boobs,” I asked, incredulous.

“It’s a question for a guy. Even if the house was full of your friends, you’re the one I’d ask. It’s not just about boobs in general. It’s about Fallon’s boobs.”

“Okay. I’m not sure I can tell you anything about Fallon’s boobs, though.”

“It’s about how guys see girl’s boobs. This last year, Lisa and I kind of grew and Tina was way ahead of us but Fallon hasn’t ... well, she hasn’t had a growth spurt.”

“Ah. I think that’s pretty normal, isn’t it?”

“I guess. But here we are at the beach and Fallon’s got smaller boobs than any of the rest of us and she’s self-conscious about it.”

“Okay. I guess I can see that. Is she worried she’s not going to get any bigger or what? I can’t believe I’m talking with you about boobs.”

She smiled at me. “Yeah. Me neither but here we are. Do you think she’s pretty?”

“Fallon? Fallon’s gorgeous,” I said, perhaps a little too eagerly.

“Even without big boobs?”

“Believe it or not, not all guys are fascinated by big boobs. Fallon’s very pretty and even if her boobs never got any bigger, she’d still be pretty.”

“I don’t think she thinks so. I think she’s pretty and sometimes she seems like she’s the prettiest but she doesn’t ever think that.”

“Well, I’m glad I don’t have to decide who’s the prettiest. I think you all are, even my sister, but don’t tell her I said so. This private thing goes both ways,” I said, smiling. “So, is that it?”

“No. That was kind of the warm-up question.” I waited for the real question. “Would you tell her that? I think she needs to hear it from a guy.”

“You want me to tell Fallon that she’s pretty.”

“Just like she is.”

“How is that going to come up in conversation. You three have always been around and now, suddenly, I’m going to tell Fallon she’s pretty?”

“Yes. You’re clever. You could find a way. You like her, don’t you?”

“Of course, I do. I like all of you.”

“But do you really like her?”

“Do you mean like girlfriend like?”

“I guess so.”

“No. I mean, yes. I mean, she’s my sister’s friend and so she’s my friend too.”

“That doesn’t really answer the question though.”

“Well, the three of you are my sister’s friends so you’re pretty much off limits. At least that’s pretty much the way I think of you.” That seemed to surprise her.

“What if she didn’t think you were off limits?”

“I guess that would make things different.”

“What if Tina didn’t think you were off limits?”

“Same.”

“What if I didn’t think you were off limits?”

“What if you didn’t think I was off limits,” I asked and I actually gulped.

She grabbed the water bottles and walked to the back door. I watched her walk away and my eyes went to her ass. It was a very fine ass.

She turned to look back at me and saw me staring. Caught, I quickly looked up at her eyes. “I don’t,” she said and smiled at me. “Find a way to tell her, please. This seems like something Tina would do too, so if she does, don’t tell her I already asked, please. And don’t wait until Friday. I want her to enjoy the week. Please,” she begged, then turned to leave but wiggled that cute little ass before she did.

My sister’s friends, my sister’s friends, my sister’s friends no longer had any power over me. LuAnn had said she didn’t think I was off limits and she wanted me to tell Fallon that I thought she was pretty. I wasn’t sure if I was glad I was the only guy there for the week or if I was in for trouble. If I knew then what I know now.

I went back to the kitchen window and watched Lu walk away for a while. When she was fifty yards away, she wiggled her butt and then turned back to face me and I could read her lips as she mouthed the words, “tell her.” I got the message.

Holy crap. As I loaded the dishwasher, I started to take a little personal inventory. I knew nothing about dating. Less than nothing. I didn’t have a girlfriend and had never had one, except for Susie Kennedy in the third grade but that didn’t count. I didn’t have anyone I was really interested in. I thought that if I needed a date for a dance or something I’d be in trouble. I wondered who I would ask if I were in that situation and couldn’t come up with a single name. Lu had said she didn’t consider me off limits and had wiggled her ass at me. I guessed she would be my first choice by default. I liked her. I liked all four of the Musketeers. I didn’t love any of them and until that week, I hadn’t thought of them in any way other than as friends of my sister. I wondered if Tina or Fallon thought I was or wasn’t off limits. I wondered what my sister would think.

How weird would it be if one of the Musketeers was also my girlfriend? I wondered if any of them would have me. I wondered what girls thought of me, if they thought of me at all. I dried my hands and walked into the guest bath and flicked on the light. I smiled back at myself from the mirror. I tried a half dozen different smiles and made different emotional faces at myself. It didn’t matter what I did, though. I looked like me. I had absolutely no way to know if I was cute or handsome or homely. I had a good tan and I didn’t have any obvious flaws. A lot of my friends battled zits but I’d been spared that nightmare. I thought I looked average but knew that’s just because I couldn’t be objective. After a couple more smiles and a muscle pose or two, I gave up on it and went back to work.

An hour later, I had a meatloaf ready to go in the oven, together with some potatoes. I put them in the fridge, together with a tossed salad and set the table for seven. It had only taken a couple of hours and would garner bonus points with mom, always a useful commodity.

I checked the surf again and it was trending the wrong direction. Instead of whining about it, I took my board on the back deck, scraped the old wax off and put a new coat on. I hadn’t done it in a while and made a mess and a half but by the time I was done it was closing in on dinner time. I put the meatloaf and the potatoes in so they’d be ready by six, set the timer and went upstairs.

I couldn’t leave the spotting scope alone. I watched the girls for a while and then scouted the beach. I tried to find average looking guys like me and see who they were with. There was no formula. I did see that there weren’t many good-looking women with out-of-shape guys. I had that part covered at least. I was definitely in good shape. I guessed that I swam ten miles a week or so and had been doing it for at least a couple of years.

I heard the timer going off just as the back door opened and I scooted down two flights of stairs to pull dinner out. I’d expected the girls but it was my folks instead. They were laughing and grinning, my mom talking ninety miles an hour. My dad dropped his kit bag by the back door. It was probably full of towels, snorkeling gear and a change of clothes. My mom sniffed and asked what was cooking.

“Meat loaf, baked potatoes and salad,” I answered as I pulled the potatoes out. I found a spot for them and pulled the meat out and set it on the stove to cool. “Good day?”

“It was. We went to Avalon. Haven’t been there in years,” my dad said.

“And?”

“And it hasn’t changed much. Lots more golf carts than before.”

“We had fun,” my mom said. “We rented bikes and rode around for a while.”

“We rode around the island about three times and couldn’t find the ice cream shop we liked so much last time.”

“Dad, that was when I was about ten. I’m sure a lot of things have changed.”

“Nope. Just the golf carts and ice cream shop,” he laughed.

“Have you seen yourselves,” I asked.

“Yes,” my mom said, laughing. “We look like raccoons. It’s okay. We have a week at the beach to get rid of our sunglass tan lines.”

“I’m keeping mine,” my dad said.

“Great. You have the Fillimore trial next Monday. I’m sure it will enhance your credibility.”

“Thanks. Girls still at the beach?”

“Last I checked.”

“They know the rules. Let’s eat.”

And we did. Mom and dad did all the talking, recount their day sailing and biking and failing to find ice cream. Fortunately, we had ice cream in the freezer. Mom scooped generous portions for each of us while I cleared our dishes and debated what to leave out for the girls and what to put away. They weren’t back yet and I decided to get some expert advice.

“I’ve got a question,” I said.

“Shoot,” my dad answered, taking a huge bite of chocolate.

“It’s about girls.”

He struggled with the bite he’d just taken and said, “That would be your mom’s department.”

“I don’t understand them,” I said.

“Join the largest club in the world. There are two billion of us.”

“What do you want to know, Mike,” my mom offered.

“I don’t even know what to ask. I’ve never been on a date before and now that I have my own car, it’s suddenly in the realm of possibility. But I don’t even know if any girl would want to go out with me.”

“Of course, they would. Who, in particular” my mom asked, realizing I might have someone specific in mind.

“This is a general question. I don’t have a specific scenario or subject. I’m just ... well, since you’re answering questions, how did dad get you?”

“Oh, you think he got me? What makes you think I didn’t get him?”

“Well, you’re gorgeous and dad’s a doofus, so I figured he must have been sneakier than you.”

“Nice. I’m cutting off your allowance,” my dad threatened.

“I don’t get an allowance. Ah. Got it. But that’s how it went down didn’t it?”

“I charmed her.”

“Right. I said ‘yes’ to shut him up. He was a persistent SOB.”

“Dead to rights,” my dad answered. It seemed like he was enjoying this too much.

“Let me ask it different,” I said. “I took the spotting scope and scanned the beach. There were babes with real dorky looking guys and then there were what looked like great matches and I don’t get it. It seems like handsome guys should end up with beautiful women.”

“Like your mom and me. I totally understand.”

My mom gave him the evil eye and he went back to his ice cream.

“Guys are attracted by looks, Michael. Women want a good-looking man too but women want other things.”

“Like what?”

My dad finally chipped in with something useful. “In my experience, women are attracted to men who are decisive and confident. Having a sense of humor helps but there’s one more thing that really matters. Might be the most important thing,” he said and took another bite of ice cream.

“I give up,” I said.

“So do I,” my mom added. “Those first things are pretty powerful though. What’s the important thing?”

“A woman wants a man that listens to her. When you meet a girl, you want to ask out, make certain you listen to her. Really listen. She might want to hear all about you but she wants to know that you’re interested in her. Not just trying to impress her. Keep those four things in mind and you’ll do fine.”