Chapter 65

“You can leave your clothes in the baskets on those shelves,” Charles said, pointing. “And I think there are enough spare pairs of goggles for everyone hanging from hooks on the wall. Towels are on the shelves under the baskets.”

It was an ideal setup and could easily have accommodated twice our number. Charles must have read my mind, because he said, “When Philip’s nephew Steve was in high school, his swim team used to come here regularly for cookouts, and we were able to accommodate all of them.”

“Yeah,” Philip said, “but we never allowed them to swim naked when we were around.”

“Why?” I said.

“Fear of lawsuits, plain and simple,” Charles said. “All it would have taken was for one maverick kid to allege something improper, and you can guess the outcome.”

“Yeah,” I said.