"Toby and I are working together for a whole month as mother's helpers."

"Really?" I felt incredibly happy. A whole month! I'd be able to see Alex every single day.

Alex nodded. "We found two families who were vacationing together, and they wanted two sitters for all the kids." He glanced over at Toby, who was already deep in conversation with Stacey. I noticed she had tucked the Sun-Lite bottle out of sight and was trying to dry her hair with a towel.

"Nice kids," I said, eyeing a little red-haired girl who had wrapped her arms around Alex's tanned leg.

"This is Sheila," he said, swinging her up on his shoulder. "She's two years old, and those boys are her brothers. They're twins. The other three kids are their cousins."

"And this is Mal," I said. "You remember Mallory?" Mal and Alex smiled at each other.

Claire came out of the water just then and glared at Sheila. "What's that baby doing here?" she demanded.

"Claire," I said, "that's not very nice."

Claire put her hands on her hips. "Silly-billy-goo-goo," she said to Sheila, who stuck her thumb in her mouth.

Alex laughed. "Is that some sort of code?"

"No," I said, embarrassed. "Claire just says that when she gets in one of her moods."

Alex didn't seem the least bit annoyed and knelt down so he was on eye level with Claire. "I've got a great idea," he said very seriously. "Want to hear it?" (Claire didn't say anything and looked totally unimpressed.) "Why don't we all build a sand castle?"

Claire scuffed her big toe in the sand for a full thirty seconds before answering. "That's a dumb idea," she said flatly.

"Claire!" I was shocked. Maybe Claire was feeling a little jealous of Sheila, but that was no excuse to be rude.

I started to tell her so when the other Pike kids trooped curiously out of the water, and we introduced everybody.