“Excuse me?” He shook his head because, as expected, it made no sense to him. It still made no sense to me.
I was the daughter of two Olympic swimmers. Granddaughter of a gold medalist diver. A descendant of pro-athlete after athlete… who was terrified of the water.
“What do you mean, trying to learn how to swim?”
“I don’t know how,” I confessed with a stiff jaw as if it physically pained me to speak.
“I’ve seen you swim.” There was surety in his tone. Like he’d die on that hill if it came to it. Thank goodness it wouldn’t come to that.
“Have you?” I asked with a tilted brow.
He opened his mouth, faltering for only a moment. “Yes, of course. You were at the party last weekend. Marissa’s party. You dove in to get the pool noodles when she asked for help cleaning up.”
I blinked, surprised he remembered such a minute detail. I’d been the only one who went out to Marissa’s screened-in pool to clean. Everyone else stayed inside with the air condition and cold drinks.
“I waded in,” I corrected. “And walked over. It was only four feet deep.”
“What about your swim meets?” He snapped his fingers, ready to be right. “You won some of those. I’ve seen the photos in the community center.”
I snorted. “That was years ago. I doggy paddled against the other five-year-olds. I never graduated from doggy paddling. It’s actually gotten much worse.”
Leo scratched his head, still scrambling to figure out something that would debunk me.
“I can’t swim,” I promised in a sure voice. “Not enough to save myself.”
He blew out air. “Well, damn. How did I… how did any of us not notice? Your parents are legends. Nate’s going to be the same.”
“I’m real good at faking.” I shrugged. “And people are real good at not watching closely enough.”
He stared at me like he was trying to figure something out. I tried to stare back, but it was hard to hold eye contact with a guy who you regularly dreamed would give you the time of day. In fact, saving me from drowning was one of my favorite scenarios in the fantasy world I’d created where Leo was into me.
“Don’t look at me like that,” I whispered.
Leo frowned. “Like what?”
“Like you’re… I don’t know. Just stop.”
“How can I stop when I don’t even know what I’m doing?” He sounded amused.
“Figure it out,” I muttered and pushed myself up. I had to get out of here before I started confessing other secrets. Secrets that had more to do with him.
“Where are you going?” He got up too, following at my heels.
“Home.” I turned to him before I got too far. He stopped barely a foot away from me, and I had to tilt my head up a bit.
There had been a time when I was taller than Nate and Leo. It was when we first met Leo. They were sixth-graders without a care in the world. I was a fifth-grader with a desire for friends, but the inability to make them without my brother’s help. I’d trail behind them like a lost puppy during the summer, and they let me—that is, until some kids from the coast started teasing them about being shorter than me. After that, Nate banned me from hanging out with them in public. Leo didn’t protest because, when it came to Nate, he never did.
The summer before high school, the two of them shot up like weeds, and I stayed the same height. I was allowed to trail behind them again, but I couldn’t bring myself to do so considering Leo’s voice had changed, and it made me feel all kinds of different. I couldn’t explain it then, but now, I was all too familiar with horniness.
“Don’t you dare tell Nate about this,” I warned, and pointed my finger at him. “He always has something smart to say. I can’t deal with him right now.”
Leo held up his hands. “Your secret’s safe with me.”
“Really?”
If Leo was anything, he was loyal. I learned as much from watching Nate lie to Mom and Dad about being at Leo’s, when in actuality, he’d been sneaking out to see his girlfriend, Claire. Our parents always called up Leo, and he talked their ear off with bullshit, covering for Nate until they gave up searching for the truth.
“I swear it.” He held up his pinky. I eyed it curiously before hooking mine around his.
