Free Caitlin by Jade Parker

me that I couldn’t put Juliet on my shoulders.”
    “I can yell at people. Don’t make me yell at you.” Just before I turned my attention back to the swimmers, I caught a glimpse of his grin. He had such a cute grin.
    “Romeo! Hey!”
    That got my attention. I looked over my shoulder. It was Jasmine. She was holding a large cup of ice cream.
    “I’m on break. I brought you some ice cream,” she said.
    He looked surprised. “You brought that for me?”
    “I thought we could share. Come on.”
    “Since she can talk and you can’t …” he said, his voice trailing off as he headed back to his lounge chair.
    Since she was on break and I wasn’t …
    Not that it mattered. I wasn’t going to flirt with him. He was kind of like a bee, flying from flower to flower. Only for him, the flower was whatever girl was available. He wasn’t a Michael. He really was a Romeo.
    And Jasmine. How had she even known that Michael was still here? Did she have some sort of guy radar? And what was it with her going after guys who talked to me?
    I didn’t think I knew her from school. Maybe she got bored easily. Maybe that was the real reason that she went from the souvenir shop to slides. I didn’t want to think about her feeding ice cream to Romeo. But when I glanced over my shoulder, I saw that she was doing exactly that. Then giggling as though she’d just told him a joke.
    “Morgan, what are you doing?”
    I jerked my head around. Trent was standing there, with his hands on his hips. I’d been a perfect employee for almost a month. And because of one little incident yesterday, he’d lost all faith in my abilities. It was annoying and I didn’t know how to regain his trust.
    With his first two fingers, he pointed at his eyes, then he pointed out toward the pool. “That’s where you’re supposed to be looking.”
    I swallowed hard. “I know.”
    “Then do it.”
    “I am.”
    “Looking away, you miss seeing things.”
    I knew what he was thinking. “I didn’t look away yesterday.”
    Shaking his head, he walked away. I was mortified. I really, really hoped that Romeo didn’t see me getting into trouble. I wanted to look over my shoulder to see if he’d noticed. But I forced myself to keep my eyes on the swimmers.
    I concentrated on the whistling breeze going over the roaring waves. The screams and laughter of the swimmers. The shrieks as kids threw sand at one another. When I did all that, I didn’t hear Jasmine’s light laughter or Romeo’s deep chuckle.
    I wasn’t like Jasmine. When I laughed, people heard me. My mom said I had a joyful laugh, and I didn’t laugh loudly on purpose, it’s just that when I thought something was funny, I laughed first and then thought about what I sounded like later. I really hated that having Jasmine near was making me look at myself critically. So what if Tannerhad kissed her instead of me? So what if Romeo was sharing ice cream with her?
    So what? So what? So what?
    I spun around and blew my whistle as loud as I could. Jasmine shrieked and jerked her arms and legs like a puppet that had all the wrong strings pulled. She dropped the cup of ice cream in the sand — - upside down.
    I almost burst out laughing, but that would be so uncool.
    “Sorry,” I said. “I saw kids running.”
    “Well, duh, it’s a play area,” Jasmine said.
    “But they aren’t supposed to run. They could trip and hurt themselves. We could get sued. It’s my responsibility to protect the swimmers, the guests, and the park.”
    “And it is rule number one,” Romeo said as though he was conspiring with me. “I don’t understand how people cannot see that big board with all the rules.”
    “Kids can’t read,” Jasmine said.
    “Which is why I have to blow my whistle.”
    “Whatever. You made me drop my ice cream. You owe me.”
    I owed her? Yeah, I did but not for the ice cream.
    I tapped my watch. “Shouldn’t you be back at your post?”
    She stood up, patted Romeo on the shoulder, then