Learning To Swim For Real

Chapter 7: Don Juan

"Hips up, Kels!"

"I'm trying!"

"Try harder!"

"Asshole! You try harder!"

"I don't have to, my backstroke is perfect!"

Kelsey sat up in the deep end, treading water, and scooped up a mouthful of water, spitting a pure stream up at Jack, who stood on the deck in the bright sun. She nailed him, making it look like he'd wet himself. Plus, it was cold.

Jack howled as he jumped back. "Hey! Knock it off!" He looked down at himself as she smiled merrily up at him.

"You're a little old for that, aren't you?" she asked. "You know there's a bathroom right there? In the cabana?"

So Jack did the only thing he could, which was jump in and splash her. It wasn't very effective as a come back, since she was already wet all over. It did cool him off, however, and somewhat mitigated the small bit of cold and wet he had on his front.

She laughed and shrieked as he proceeded to use his hands to splash water liberally in her face, finally just swimming away from him. He chased after her, catching up easily in a few strokes. She was wearing the black work out bikini today, very professional looking. He was careful not to bear her under or anything like that, always mindful of the fact that she didn't swim as well as he did, and was nowhere near as comfortable in the water.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry!" she shouted, still laughing.

"And I lied," Jack said, shaking the excess water off his curly hair. "My back stroke actually blows a little." He smiled. "I do know to keep my hips up, though, unlike someone, who seems to want to let them drag under the water? And do the hula as well?"

Kelsey took her cap off, dipping her head in the pool to wet her hair and cool off a little. "It's hard," she responded. "I'm trying to remember to keep my chin up, and put my hand in pinky first, and bend at the elbow and whip it around or whatever, and while I'm thinking about my arms and head I forget about my legs, you know?" She looked at Jack plaintively. "I honestly don't see how I'm going to learn butterfly or breaststroke, Jack, I really don't."

Jack looked at her. She already looked different, just from the short amount of time they'd been working together. She already had more tone to her arms and legs, more tension to her back. And, even though she'd finally switched over to the SPF 50 that Jack used, her body bore the tan lines of her various suits, and she was almost nonchalant about wearing the caps and goggles she'd shunned as "too ugly" that first day.

"You're doing great," he finally said. "I thought we'd still be working on breathing to the side, on free style, but we're nearly finished with back stroke. You're actually a pretty fast learner, you know?" He didn't add that she was much less of a spoiled brat than he'd assumed she would be.

"Thanks," was all Kelsey said, but Jack could see by how she smiled that she was really happy with his words. "Shall we keep going, then?"

She grabbed her kick board and held it over her head, lying down in the water and kicking, trying to keep her hips up and propel herself through the pool. She was so used to seeing Jack's curly head looking down at her, his hazel eyes up close and personal, that she didn't realize how close they really were, until JJ had asked her one day if they were "more than professional."

"What?" Kelsey was shocked to hear her friend ask.

"Well, I saw you guys when I came outside, you know?" JJ replied. "He's, like, right there, practically giving you mouth to mouth, girlfriend!"

Kelsey had given JJ a playful shove in response, and the subject had been dropped, but her question popped back into Kelsey's head today as she saw Jack's face, as she felt his hands on her hips, lifting them to the surface of the water.