Kim raised her eyebrows. One of them had a little hole in it where she normally wears a gold stud. Caitlin makes her take it out before work, though.

"Tell," Kim commanded.

I glanced involuntarily up at Sleepy, dozing in his lifeguard's chair. Kim let out a little shriek.

"Eew," she cried. "Him? But he's your - "

I rolled my eyes. "No, not him. God. Just . . . Look, I just like somebody else, okay? But it's like ... it's a secret."

Kim sucked in her breath. "Ooh," she said. "The best kind. Does he go to the Academy?" When I shook my head, she tried, "Robert Louis Stevenson School, then?"

Again, I shook my head.

Kim wrinkled up her nose. "He doesn't go to CVHS,does he?"

I sighed. "He isn't in high school, okay, Kim? I'd really rather - "

"Oh, my God," Kim said. "A college guy? You dog. My mom would kill me if she knew I was going with a college guy - "

"He's not in college, either, okay?" I could feel my cheeks growing warm. "Look, the thing is, it's complicated. And I don't want to talk about it."

Kim looked taken aback. "Well, all right. God. Sorry."

But she couldn't leave well enough alone.

"He's older, right?" she asked, less than a minute later. "Like way older? That's okay, you know. I went out with an older guy, like, when I was fourteen. He was eighteen. My mom didn't know. So I can totally relate."

"Somehow," I said, "I really don't think you can."

She wrinkled her nose again. "God," she said. "How old is he?"

I thought about telling her. I thought about going, Oh, I don't know. About a century and a half.

But I didn't. Instead I told Jack it was time to go inside, if he was going to have a bath before dinner.

"Jeez," I heard Kim say as I got out. "That old, huh?"