“No.” Mr. Higgins slammed the door in my face.
I knocked tentatively. Katie’s dad opened the door again. “What?”
I held up the basket. “I made sandwiches. And brought a pasta salad. And I was hoping to share it with Katie.”
“You really like my daughter, don’t you?” he asked.
I coughed into my fist. “Yes, sir.”
“Do you have any beer in your cooler?”
I cleared my throat again. “No, sir.”
“Wine?”
“No, sir.”
“Alcohol of any kind?”
I opened my cooler and showed him the soda cans. “Just soft drinks, sir.”
He narrowed his eyes. “And you’ll treat my daughter with respect?”
“At all times, sir.”
He bellowed over his shoulder, “Katie!”
She appeared from the hallway and grinned at me. She waved and it was all fingers.
“Jake wants to take you on a picnic,” he said.
“Can I go?” She grabbed his arm and held on to it with two hands. She looked at him until he bent and kissed her forehead.
“You can go,” he said. “Be home by ten.” He stepped to the side so she could walk out from behind him.
“That’s it?” she asked. “That’s the worst you’re going to do?” She laughed. “I thought you’d make him beg.”
He snorted. “The boy already looks like he wants to shit himself, so I cut him some slack.”
“I wasn’t going to–” I stopped. “Never mind.”
“So, I can go?” Katie asked.
He nodded his head toward us. “Go.” He closed the door in our faces.
I took a deep breath for the first time in ten minutes. “Oh my God,” I said.
She patted my shoulder soothingly. “You did great.”
We walked down to the dock, where I helped her into the canoe. We rowed around the lake until we found a quiet spot, then we ate, and then we kissed until her lips were puffy and pink. When the sun went down, she laid down on my chest as I reclined in the bottom of the canoe. She snuggled under my chin and I stared up at the stars.
And we fell asleep like that.
I woke up to a light shining in my face as someone pulled Katie off my chest. My arm was asleep, and I couldn’t wiggle my fingers to grab her back.
“You’re an idiot,” Pop muttered to me as he climbed carefully into my canoe. I could see Mr. Higgins and Adam rowing Katie back to the shore in their boat.
“I really messed that up,” I said.