The Ugly Duckling (Excerpt)

Uncomfortable

Even though I loved the water, I was never comfortable swimming with other people. Growing up, we never had a pool at our house, and it was just recently, when my sister moved into her own place, that she bought a house with a pool.

Why couldn't I make myself leave the dressing room?

I dreaded this scene all week, and Druscilla's vocal opinions on its inclusion only added to my insecurity.

A sharp knock startled me.

"May I come in?" Jeanette asked gently.

Although I didn't want to be seen like this, I couldn't be rude and unlocked the door, standing away from it and allowing her to slip inside.

"You've been here a while," she said, taking in the dressing gown I clung to for dear life.

"I don't want to do this."

Until those words escaped me, I hadn't realized how close I was to tears.

"You're shaking." Pity darkened her gaze. "Let me see, please?" she asked gently.

It took everything inside me to take off the fuzzy white robe to reveal a one-piece black costume with its discreetly narrowed waist. The top part pushed up my boobs but, thankfully, didn't have those horrible high leg holes.

"Mercedes, there's nothing wrong with the way you look. You're a little pale from hiding under the pool umbrellas and never going near the water. Trust me. Come."

She held out her hand, but I put on the robe before taking it and following her outside.

Dean lounged on a lawn chair in the shadows waiting for me, and the sight of him dressed only in his swimming trunks stole my breath.

He joined us, helping me out of my robe, and I wanted to hide, but it was too late. It confused me when he glanced into my eyes, and the heat in his gaze almost melted me into a puddle.

"Thank you, Jeanette," Pagliani said as Dean took my hand and led me to the dam, helping me up the ladder and down the other side.

The water was damned cold despite the heat, and I squealed as I settled in the water."

"All that cellulite will cost millions to hide," Druscilla snarked from somewhere outside the wall, and I avoided Dean's eyes as he helped me to the little platform they built on the bottom so I wouldn't have to tread water.

He was taller than me and still had to stand on his toes, drifting closer to me, and I could feel the heat of his body even through the icy water.

"You have no cellulite, and you're extremely sexy," Marcus Gianni, the Italian cameraman, said. "You no listen to her. She all skin and bone, like fish. You curvy like chicken. A real man no want fish when he can have chicken."

Heat crept from my cheeks to my ears at the tone of his voice, and Dean chuckled.

"Hands off, Giani, she's my leading lady," he warned, but something in the way he looked at me made the world dissolve away.

"Man can admire beautiful horse or luscious painting from distance, yes?" Gianni teased, and it was the first time he was so forward, but then again, Pagliani wasn't near, and the sound boom was still being adjusted.

"Don't listen to Druscilla. If you were not so obviously into this fine male specimen, and I wasn't so happy with my cuddly Evie Teddy bear, I'd throw my hat in the ring," Michelle Greer, the sound technician, said, and the heat on my cheeks spread to my neck.

What the hell was this? A joke? Were they trying to put me at my ease? Dean was definitely joking, a man like him wouldn't look twice at a woman like me, but he was a damn good actor to almost make me believe it.