“Well, since I didn’t hear from you, I’m not sure you get to know.”
There was silence, and I panicked that maybe I’d gone too far. But I held my ground—something I probably wouldn’t have done before.
“You’re right. I don’t get to know.” I waited. “Listen, I’m taking Andy swimming today. They have open swim time until two, and I can take him now that I’m a Bribury employee.”
“That’s nice,” I said. “He’ll love that.” I was trying to figure out if he wanted tips on what Andy should be working on or what.
“Wanna come with us?”
“Swimming? With you and Andy?” I asked, surprised. “You mean as, like, his instructor or something?”
“No. Like…a…friend of mine who’s just hanging out with us.”
“Umm…” My mind was spinning with what this meant. Would he want me around Andy as Lucas’s “friend” if he didn’t want me in his life? At least as more than just a hookup against the side of a car?
“You don’t have—” he said at the same time I said, “Yeah, I’d like that.”
“Really?” he said. For the first time since I’d met him, there was uncertainty in Lucas’s voice. It made me even hotter for him.
If that was possible.
“Really,” I said softly, but firmly, trying to convey how much I wanted to see him in that one little word.
“I’m borrowing a car. I can pick you up.”
“Why don’t I meet you there? I can walk.”
“Okay. Like, eleven?”
“Eleven is good. I’ll meet you at the pool.”
“See you then,” he said.
“Okay,” I said. Neither of us hung up. “Lucas?”
“Yeah?”
“I wasn’t out that late,” I said. “And I thought of you the whole time,” I added, then quickly cut the call.
Chapter7
Lucas Kade was even moreimpressive in board shorts. He had one tattoo circling a well-defined bicep. Stark and black, it wasn’t barbed wire or a tribal symbol, but a chain of what looked like ivy. On the back of each arm was the number eight.
“Eighty-eight was my number when I played ball,” he explained when he caught me looking.
And look I did. My God, what a body. Lean and long, but strongly muscled. His back bore the ink “Andy” very small across his shoulder blade, and I smiled as I saw the name ripple with muscle while Lucas lugged Andy around the shallow end.
“You’re doing great, buddy,” Lucas said. Andy, of course, was in heaven.
And yeah, so was I.
We played a game of Marco Polo close to the edge so Andy could keep a hand on it if he needed to. By the end of our session, he was leaping—albeit with his eyes open—away from the wall a few times to Polo Lucas and me.
“That’s it for today, buddy,” Lucas said when Freddy, who was picking up a shift as the lifeguard on duty, called the end to the open swim time. For the last hour we’d been the only ones in the pool. And for the last half-hour I’d swum laps while Lucas worked with Andy on putting his face in the water.
I swam to a corner of the shallow end, where the two brothers were.
“You’re an awesome swimmer, Lily,” Andy said.
