Skinny Dipping Read Online Free

a decade later and forthwith produced two more bright little girls who, unlike their older half sister, not only wanted Solange’s encouragement but actually seemed to benefit from it. And substantially, too. Mary and Sarah, Birgie recalled the girls’ names.
    Not that Mimi talked much about them. She kept her relationship with her Charbonneau relatives strictly separate from that with the Olsons. Or more specifically, her relationship with Chez Ducky. Since her dad had disappeared, Mimi had been living pretty much like she had a terminal disease. She had no responsibilities to anyone but herself and didn’t owe anyone anything. Owning nothing of value, she had nothing to protect.
    Except Chez Ducky.
    That, Birgie thought sadly, was the hell of it. You couldn’t get out of life without at least a few things sinking their hooks into you. And the fewer things that got to you, the deeper they set their hooks. For Mimi it was Chez Ducky. For Birgie, too, damn it.
    She cleared her throat. “Mimi. You…ah, you got anything going on in your life?”
    “Nope. I’m free as a bird. What do you want and when?”
    “That’s not what I meant. I meant, do you have a boyfriend? Or a girlfriend? Or anyone?”
    “You are acting so weird today,” Mimi said, wiggling her way up onto her elbows to peer at Birgie. “You feeling all right?”
    “I just…you know. I want to you to be happy,” Birgie muttered uncomfortably. Mimi’s peer turned into a stare. Birgie understood. She was a little surprised to hear such maudlin crap coming out of her mouth herself.
    “The thing is, things are changing so fast,” she said, carefully feeling her way. “And, ah, they could change even faster.”
    “Birgie, I realize this is rough for you,” Mimi replied, looking nauseatingly sympathetic, “but no one expects you to replace Ardis.”
    “Good. Because I’m not going to.”
    “And no one wants you to. You know that, right?”
    “Right.” She took a deep breath. “Look, Mimi, there’s something you maybe ought to know—”
    “No, there isn’t,” Mimi said quickly. Mimi had always seemed to have a sixth sense when it came to uncomfortable subjects and a successful tactic in dealing with them; she simply blew right past them.
    “Really. I think—”
    “I think we should go skinny-dipping!”
    “Ah, geez, Mimi,” Birgie burst out in strenuous objection, secretly relieved. At least she could tell herself she’d tried to warn Mimi of the way things looked to be heading. “You’d think you were a goddamn nudist. Look at the sky. It’s broad daylight.”
    “So what?” Mimi said, dropping off the side of the inner tube into the water. “I’m suggesting skinny-dipping not nude sunbathing. We’re a hundred yards from shore and our lady parts will be discreetly hidden by the water. Come on. You can strip underwater.”
    Suiting action to words, Mimi disappeared beneath the surface of the lake, a circle of bubbles marking her descent. A minute later her fist popped out of the water clutching her blue Speedo. Mimi’s head followed, water streaming down her face.
    “See?” she said, flinging her sodden suit at the pontoon. It caught on the corner with a wet thwack. “Easy.”
    “Easy for you. Honey, I’d need a crowbar to get me out of this suit when it’s wet.” Birgie looked down. Shame. She liked skinny-dipping, too. It was a Chez Ducky ritual. Usually enjoyed after dark and for excellent reasons.
    “That sucks,” Mimi said.
    “Yeah, well—”
    She caught sight of the missile a second before it hit the side of the pontoon and exploded green tempura paint all over her. “Damn it!”
    Birgie heaved herself to her knees and lurched to her feet, setting the raft rocking.
    “What are you going to do?” Mimi asked.
    “I’m gonna go find those little bastards,” Birgie said grimly.
    “I’m in,” Mimi said. “Just let me get my suit back on.”
    “No. You stay. You’d only cramp my style by trying to keep me