“Not college.” Ford turned to meet their gaze. “I’m going to join the Coast Guard.”

Marty stared. “Wow. That’s…that’s so awesome.”

Ford grinned. “Yeah. Hey, it’s sailing, right?”

“So, um, did you tell anyone else?” Like your parents?

“Not yet.” Ford looped an arm through Marty’s. “Come on. Let’s go find Suwallia.”

The memory still made Marty smile as they ambled down the trail to the lake. Like they’d figured, Ford was swimming off the end of the dock. Marty plopped down on the end and called out, “You know you’re not supposed to swim alone.”

“You know all those rules and regulations clogging up your head are going to break something,” Ford called back and swam with strong firm strokes over to the dock. She flung the hair out of her eyes and smiled up at Marty. “Give me a hand?”

Marty leaned over and stretched down, then hauled Ford up onto the dock. “I brought your pack down.”

“Thanks—I’d have had to go to breakfast in my suit.” Ford grabbed a towel and T-shirt out of the pack to dry off. “Why are you awake?”

“I wanted to get down to the lodge early to check the weather radar online,” Marty said. “If there’s a lot of cloud cover we can’t go today.”

“Oh right,” Ford said with mock sarcasm. “We’re hiking up a mountain, then we’re climbing up a big-ass tower, all so we can look at birds. Have you ever glanced around this place? There’s a bird in every bush.”

Marty grinned. “Uh-huh. But they’re not ospreys, and they don’t have fledglings. And if we’re lucky, there might be a peregrine falcon. They’re endangered but that’s a raptor sanctuary up there.”

“Right. I’m rapt.”

Marty groaned. “That’s really bad.”

Ford laughed. “I know. Come on, I’m starving.”

Ford swung her pack onto her shoulder and, as they walked down the end of the dock, asked, “Have you heard from your dad?”

“Yeah. End of the month at the earliest.” Marty shrugged. “That’s okay. He’ll be stateside for months this time. I can wait.”

“So how are you getting home?”

“Oh, I’ll be fine.”

“Marty,” Ford said with exaggerated patience.

“Bus?”

“Um, no.” Ford snorted. “You know, if he’s not going to be back until September, you could come stay with me the rest of the summer. I could teach you to sail.”

Marty stumbled to a halt. The invitation was so outside their realm of possibility they didn’t know what to say. “Seriously?”

Ford rolled her eyes. “No, Marty. I’m used to saying things I don’t mean. You probably noticed that.”

“True. And, um, I’d really like that.”

“Great.”

“What about your parents? Will they care?”