Harry tilted her head back as she came to the surface in front of John. "I saw you watching me!" Water streamed down her glistening face and hair, and she spewed water from her mouth as she spoke. "Your head was submerged." She wiped her face. "So your skin turned sort of pasty or floury."
"Think of that," John chuckled.
"I should already know your name, I realize. "You--"
"Dawes," he said.
"That's right. I should have remembered, but I was under pressure . . . . Cynthia shouldn't say I was impulsive," Harry said. "I didn't do anything impulsively. Three is a crowd in our little boat. Those guys shouldn't needle someone they don't know well." She beamed at him. "Have I met you somewhere?"
John could hardly keep a straight face.
"Does this lake freeze over during the winter?" she asked.
"Yeah, it does sometimes. Lakes higher up do a lot."
"You mean at higher elevations?"
"Yeah. Some guys I was talking to said they'd climbed up Mount LeConte during the winter and liked to froze."
"They did?" she grinned.
"Yeah, they didn't have any business fooling around up there if they couldn't, uh . . ."
"You guys always say 'fooling.' We say it for a different reason in New England." She hinted cutely at the reason.
"They were wearing cheap old fiber-fill jackets that will hardly keep you alive if they, uhh . . ."
Harry frowned at the missed opportunity.
