She grabbed the arrow he had shot and went after him with it. He laughed, retreating from her in mock terror.

"Ned! If you do that again, I'm going to take you up on the wall to dry."

"God, I love it when you talk sexy!" he laughed.

She gave up. She just couldn't stay mad at him. Between the cornball lines and the ridiculous delivery, there was something about him that simply got to her. She didn't know what the hell it was. He was like an unruly little kid. She wanted to grab him, pull down his pants and spank him.

'Pretty kinky, Bren,' she thought, 'That, or the guy's bringing out your maternal instincts. Watch out. Could be trouble. The guys really dangerous were the ones who could sneak in past your defenses and Ned was already halfway there.' She felt strongly attracted to him in spite of herself. He helped her finish hanging the targets then they went back to the cabins to change into their bathing suits and finish working on the dock.

Ned kept them all in stitches, doing his impression of Steve Christy as the camp commandant, waving his arms around and barking out orders as they pushed the last piece of dock into the water and secured it.

"All right, move it out there! A little to the right! A little to the left! Move it out! Move it out! Okay! A little to the left! No—a little… no, no! You're okay… no, a little to the right. Okay, now a little to the left!"

Marcie gave him a push and he went into the lake with a scream. Alice jumped in as well, followed by Brenda and by unspoken communal consent, all work ceased as of that moment whether Steve liked it or not. They were going to take a break. All of them had been working nonstop since they arrived and they deserved some time to themselves.

The sun was high and the water was cool and Steve Christy was in town, probably cleaning out the hardware store again and thinking of more things for them to do. They had accomplished a lot in one day and the rest could wait. Might as well cool off and catch some rays before it started to get dark.

Treading water by the dock, Brenda stared out across the lake. She thought she had seen something move on the other side. She grabbed hold of the dock and squinted hard at a stand of trees on the opposite shore.

"What's the matter?" Marcie asked. She was lying on the dock and now she stared in the same direction.

"Do you see something?"

"No," said Brenda, turning away with a shrug. "No, nothing."