The Stranger on the Train

Chapter 52: Swimming lesson

Pov y/n

"Are you nervous?" I ask and ruffle Rose's hair a little. The little sunshine looks up at me and shakes her head.

"No because I know you will be there with me and once I can swim, I can explore the ocean with you." She says and grins at me, making me chuckle a little.

"Yes, that's true but if you also want to see the underwater world, you need to learn to dive as well." I explain and Rose hums before nodding.

"Okay, then I will also learn to dive and then you can show me all the animals. All the turtles, fish, dolphins, whales and sharks." She says excitedly and sways on her feet.
Her excitement is very cute and my heart feels so warm and full of love right now. Before I can agree though, Scarlett buts in.

"Maybe you two stay in the pool for now. One day you can go dive in the ocean but that requires a bit more knowledge and training." She says softly, smiling at Rose who pouts now.

"But y/n has the knowledge." She insists and crosses her arms. Scarlett looks at me for help but I just grin and raise my eyebrows. She sighs and leans her head against my shoulder.

"God, I'm discussing with two children." She mumbles and only I can catch it. I chuckle and kiss her temple.

"But we have good points." I point out and she gives me a short glare before looking back to Rose who still pouts.

"We can discuss this further when you can properly swim and dive." Scarlett ends the discussion and after a few seconds of thinking, Rose nods in agreement and turns around to look at the little queue in front of us that slowly moves.

We're currently at the local indoor pool because when her dad dropped her off this morning, Rose wanted to learn to swim very badly. She made her best puppy dog eyes and begged me to teach her.
Since it's almost December, we went to an indoor pool because the one in Scar's backyard would have been way too cold. Scarlett agreed as well but while I'll be in the water with Rose, she will go to the gym there to get her workout done for today.

On the way here, Rose told us that she watched a documentary with her dad yesterday that was about reefs and that she now wants to learn to swim to see them with her own eyes.

We get to the counter and Scarlett pays for us to enter.
Her and I quickly discussed this before and I agreed with her paying for me as well.
Rose waits excitedly before Scar nods for her to go further inside. The little girl takes my hand and tugs me towards the pool room but I keep her back with a little chuckle.

"I know you want to get into the water, little dolphin but aren't you forgetting something?" I ask and Rose looks at me confused.

"But I don't need floaties when you teach me how to swim." She says and looks from her mom to me.

"Well, that's not really true but that's not what I meant. I was referring to your clothes. We still need to change." I explain and realization overcomes Rose's face and she nods.

Instead of tugging me to the pool room, she now navigates us to the changing cabins. Scarlett's eyes shine with amusement at her daughters eagerness.
We arrive at the changing cabins and I let go of Roses hand to get changed while Scarlett will help her to get into her bathing suit.

A few minutes later, Rose approaches me with a huge excited grin. She wears her yellow bathing suit with white dots again and looks just as cute as she did the last time.
Her hair is braided, so it won't fall in her face. Scarlett is now in her workout clothes and hands me the bag with Rose's towels and floaties in it.

I appreciate a lot that she trusts me to teach her daughter how to swim.
Before she can go, I lean over to kiss her quickly. She returns it but it doesn't last long because Rose pulls on my hand.