“¡Agárreme, Nick! ¡Agárreme!”

Nick stood in the pool with Rosalie on the edge, swimming vest tied on tightly and chubby arms held out while she bounced. With body language alone, he knew what she wanted. But, “en inglés, por favor.” Nick was learning too.

“English, Rosalie…”

She let out a noise of exasperation and slapped her arms down…as down as she could with the vest on. It was time for a test. Arms up, big grin and a new try.

“No. ¡Agárreme!”

“I’ll come back when you’re speaking English.” She was a tough one to fight. Fiery eyes, curls bouncing, that stinkin’ vest eating up her entire mid-section. Too adorable. Too much like her mommy…stubborn as a mule.

“¡Agárreme!”

“English.” Nick ducked under the water and swam away from her, finding Jack and tickling his sides and he popped up behind him.

“¡Agárreme!” Now she was outright screaming. It’d surely bring Solana back in from cleaning up dinner. Nick had tried to get her to leave it, but she insisted. That woman could not sit still.

“What’s she want?” Kitty was almost comfortable now…after four hours, it was about time. She didn’t look down so much when Nick approached and she was starting to splash around with Ben more. She felt great.

“She wants me to catch her…which I’ll do when she asks in English.”

“Aw, go get her, Nick…she’s gonna have a fit.”

“Then she’ll have a fit. Solana’s firm on this…I’m gonna follow it.”

Kitty thought she’d give her shot at the little imp. Leaving the boys to work on Jack’s swimming, she made her way over to the screaming child.

“Whatcha need, Rosalie?”

“Nick. Need Nick.”

“Can’t Kitty help you?”

“Sí. Go get Nick.”

“Will you talk in English to him?”

“No.”

“Then I think you’re out of luck.”

“Get Nick, por favor.”

“Nope…sorry. Want me to get Mommy?”

“Nick.”

Hiking herself up to the edge to sit next to the orange vested child, Kitty pulled her hair around to squeeze out the water, purposely dribbling some on Rosalie’s toes.

“AH! Cold!”

“Yep…so you like Nick, huh?”

“Sí.”

“So do I.”

“No, no, no, no, no, no! Rosalie’s Nick. Mommy’s Nick. Not Kitty’s Nick.”

“Oh…you think he’s yours ?”

“Sí. My Nick. Get him.”

Shaking her head, Kitty slipped back into the pool and swam over to the wild boys. Water was everywhere and suddenly Jack didn’t seem to mind that his eyes were getting wet. Amazing. Popping up in the middle of their splash fight, Kitty brought back her arms and pushed a huge wave of water right to Nick, taking him completely by surprise.

“What the!? Kitty! You little shi-…” stopping himself, he just did the next best thing. Fought back. With no consolation for a “girl”…if you’re going to fight that hard, he was going to fight that hard back. And Kitty was a fight. And quick. Before Nick knew it, he was splashing water at no one. She’d snuck under water and swam away. The little cheater.

“Kitty…you…” Hearing the boys laughing and Rosalie’s squeals of delight, he had to pursue…this was too much fun.

Screaming when she saw him approaching from her spot in the deeper end of the pool, she quickly made her way to the edge and popped out of the water. Rosalie had since forgotten her initial request and was clapping and cheering in delight at their show.

“What, Mr. Carter…I’m too much for you?”

“You’re too much alright…you don’t play fair.”

“All’s fair in love and war…”

Nick pulled himself out of the pool and started chasing the teen until…

…she found Solana and hid behind her.

“Oh, not nice. She’s all dry and stuff.”

“Yes, I am…” Solana wrapped an arm behind her to hold onto Kitty, helping guard her, even though the girl was taller than the woman by a good four or five inches.

“That can be changed you know.”

“You wouldn’t.” The girls started backing up from a slowly approaching Nick, shaking their heads and never letting go of each other. He wouldn’t.

“I wouldn’t, would I? What makes you think I’m so nice?”

Ben and Jack had joined Rosalie on the side lines cheering on Nick. The girls were in this one alone.

“Uh…well…look at you…” They continued backing up, tripping over furniture and hose, trying to plead their case. “You’re cute…and…”

“Sexy…” Miss Romero, of course.

“Uh-huh…still doesn’t make me nice.”

“…and, and…you taught Jack to swim, and…and…”

“…uh-huh…”

“…and, um…Kitty, help me out here. I’m thinking he’s not so nice.”

“I’m thinking you’re right.”

With that Nick pounced, picking both girls up at the same time and smoothly tossing them into the deep end of the pool, brushing his hands with satisfaction. “No more Mr. Nice Guy.”

As his victory dance was beginning, he got the start of his life. Without warning, he heard two young male voices screaming as they ran toward him from behind and then…

**SPLASH!!!**

He was in, spitting and spewing, flipping wet hair everywhere, trying to figure out which way was up.

“I thought you were on my side!”

“We changed our minds, old man. You’re wet.”

“You’re dead.”

Looking around him, Ben shrugged his shoulders and plopped down on a chaise. “Nope. I’m feeling real good, thanks.”

"¡Agárreme! ¡Agárreme, Nick!"

Tired of the grown up's games, Rosalie was back on her warpath. Nick wasn't sure he could be so stubborn with her this time. So far, she was the only one who hadn't turned on him. "I don't understand you, Rosalie."

"You not nice, Nick…"

"Now, yesterday you said I was a good boy."

Putting her hands on her hips and leaning on one foot, looking way too grown up for her age, Rosalie finally caved. "Catch me, good boy."

"Ah…that's my girl. Jump!" He held up his arms and grabbed on tight as her body connected with his hands, only her feet skimming across the surface of the water.

Squeezing his neck one more time before pulling back to look at her new friend, she planted a big, wet kiss on him. "My Nicky. You catch me."

“Hey, Liz! Where have you been hiding?”

Little Liz scrunched up her nose and turned on her heel, storming to the back of the house without saying a word. Nothing. Not ‘hello’, not ‘I’ll get Ben’, not ‘kiss my ass’. What the hell?

Nick stepped in, even though he was officially uninvited by the day’s doorman and called into the house for Ben.

“In a minute…hang on!”

Nick took a look around, amazed at the job Miss Casey had done cleaning this room up. She was obviously going room by room because the dining room where the boys slept was still a pit, but this room was looking good…as good as it could anyway.

Ben appeared from the hallway, drying his hair with a towel, showing off a painful looking sunburn from their days together in the sun.

“Oh man…does that hurt?”

“Yes, like a bitch. Especially in the shower.”

“Shower, huh?”

“Shut up. You’re right…I like being clean. Sorta. I hate greasy hair anyway.”

“Good…did your mom clean up the bathroom too?”

“Enough. I think some of it is too far gone. Might need new tile or something, but at least we can get in there.”

“You almost ready?”

“Yep, lemme find a shirt and we can go. Just us today, right?”

“Yeah…just us. We’re due.”

Both blondes turned quickly hearing a loud groan of disgust and a door slamming further down the hall.

“What the…”

“Liz…she’s pissed at you.”

“I figured. What’d I do?”

“Took all of us swimming. She feels left out.”

“Oh shit…I didn’t even…” Nick walked down the hall and raised his hand to knock on her bedroom door.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you…she bites.”

“I’ll live.”

“No, I mean really bites. You’ll have teeth marks if she opens that door.”

“Oh…well, maybe I’ll let her calm down. We’ll get her next time we swim.”

“That’s what we all told her, but…she’s stubborn.”

“Ah, the oddball in the family. No one else here is.”

Ben tossed his towel at Nick, found a shirt and held the door open, waiting for Nick to convince himself that he’d wait to deal with Liz.

“Trust me, man…give her time.”

“But it’s already been days…almost a week.”

“I know. She’s gone 2 weeks without talking to me before. You’re not special.”

“No, I suppose I’m not…okay, let’s go.”

“Oooh! Oooh! Can we stop and watch here first?”

“Little league? Yeah, sure…” Nick pulled the truck into the gravel parking lot and found a spot while Ben gazed almost longingly out the window at the dusty boys and girls playing all varieties of baseball, t-ball and softball. “Have you played?”

“Nope. Mom can never come up with the registration money.”

“Well, that’s no good…it’s too late to join this summer isn’t it?”

“This season, yeah. This is tournaments I think. They start another season after the fourth.”

“Wanna play?”

“You serious?”

“Yeah…you have to get yourself to practices.”

“Oh wow…yeah. Jack would…mmm…nevermind.” Ben stopped himself. Miss Romero had talked to him about expecting Nick to be a money bag for him. Normally, he didn’t even think about it, but when one gift came it was really easy to quickly ask for another. He couldn’t believe that Nick had bought him that PlayStation 2 for his birthday, but before he knew it, he was editing himself to not ask for an Xbox. As much as Jack would want to play ball…this was Nick’s idea and Nick’s money. He’d wait.

“I bet he’d like to play too, huh?”

“Yeah…but…I mean…”

“It’s okay, Ben. You guys should be doing stuff like this. Keep you busy.” They walked up the paved path to a game of boys that looked to be Ben’s age and hiked up to the back row of the visitor risers. “You know anyone playing?”

“I think Steve’s team is red. Might be these guys.”

“Cool. I haven’t met him before, have I?”

“Nope. He couldn’t come to my party. His mom…well…” Ben looked down, and then around making sure the woman wasn’t there.

“What?”

“She thinks our house…I dunno what she thinks, but Steve’s not allowed over.”

“Oh…I’m sorry.”

“Yeah. Ron’s mom doesn’t care, but…”

“Doesn’t seem real fai-…woah! Nice hit! Dang…how old are these guys?”

“My age…shit…that was Steve!”

“Man…kid can hit.”

They continued to watch the game and after a few more nice hits from his teammates, Steve was crossing home plate, getting high fives from his friends and a traditional butt swat from his coach.

“Hey, Steve…great hit, man!”

“Ben! Hey!” Steve grabbed his water bottle and made his way to the side of the risers to greet Ben, genuinely happy to see him. “What have you been doing all summer?”

“Eh, not much. Hangin’.”

Checking out the older blonde, Steve took a swig of water, definitely unimpressed. “Who’s this? Your new dad?”

“No, asshole, this is Nick. He’s my ment-…” turning his gaze to Nick, he had to smile. Mentor, schmentor…it didn’t matter. “He’s my friend.”

“Oh.” Shrugging and seeing that it was time to take the field, Steve knocked Ben on the kneecap with his bottle. “I gotta go. Come over sometime…we’ll raise some hell again.”

“Yeah, okay…” Ben absent-mindedly scooted in closer to Nick as they watched Steve take his place at first base. “That was weird.”

“How’s that?”

“I felt like I was talking to a stranger. When did he go and change?”

“Maybe he’s not the one who changed, Ben…maybe it’s you.”