Learning To Swim For Real

Chapter 32: Back To Basics

"I can't hear you," Jack teased, grinning.

Kelsey sat up in the water and splashed her coach. She smiled back, wondering how it was possible that there was ever a time in her life when she didn't find Jack swoon-inducingly handsome, just drop dead and go to heaven gorgeous.

The August sun beat down, turning his brown hair into strands of metallic gold that formed a curly halo around his head. In spite of his liberal use of sunscreen, his skin was the color of warm toffee, as if he'd been dipped in a pot of the sweet stuff in some heavenly confectioner's kitchen. As usual, he was medical textbook fit, looking like a drawing of musculature, every area tight and defined, his skin pulled taut over all of it as he moved.

His eyes seemed to get lighter in direct proportion to how tan he was, the golden flecks picking up the tones of his skin, his long, pale lashes giving him a perpetual look of wide-eyed astonishment. And he always seemed to smile and soften simultaneously when he looked at Kelsey, flashing the All-American guy smile that felt like it was melting the fillings in her teeth.

"PULL-BREATHE, KICK-GLIDE!" she chanted in his face. "There, was that loud enough? Coach?"

"Doesn't help to say it if you're not doing it at the same time," Jack retorted. "Come on, I'll do it with you."

And he swam along next to her, both of them saying the words, as he made corrections to her technique, reminding her how to position her hands and feet, and even her fingers.

"How in the world does it matter what my fingers are doing?" Kelsey asked.

"Trust me, it matters. In a sport where the presence of a zipper can make or break a race, fingers matter. Lip balm matters."

"It does not!" Kelsey laughed.

"Okay," Jack agreed. "Maybe not lip balm. But everything matters, everything creates drag, so you need to think about anything that the water can push against, and try to remove it."

They did a few more laps before Jack declared himself satisfied, but the truth was he was elated.  She had learned the breaststroke very quickly, and he suspected that she was one of the "natural" breaststrokers they'd discussed.

He had her dive in and do a few breaststroke starts, known as a pull-down, and she remembered it perfectly from the day before.

"Well," he said, boosting himself up on the side of the pool to sit. "I think we've done as much as we can in this little pool."

"Yeah." Kelsey agreed. She boosted herself out too, and Jack admired the fluidity of movement, the natural grace she displayed as she turned in midair to sit next to him. The marks on her body had nearly all faded, and she looked incredible. She pulled her cap off and shook out her hair.

"When we started all this, you got all offended when I said this pool was too small, remember?" Jack reminded her, nudging her shoulder with his.

Kelsey nodded.

"But you're right," she said. "By the time I do a decent dive, I'm half way across the pool, and I can't really practice my break out strokes or turns. And if I do a good pull-down on the breaststroke, I barely have time to do any actual strokes. Imagine if I could do pull-downs like you."

When Jack did pull-downs, he reached the far wall before he even finished them, and no room to begin swimming at all.

Jack smiled with pride at his pupil, who had come so far so fast.

"So," she continued, "what do I do, then?"

"Well, I talked to my coach, and we can use the UCSM pool for the next two weeks," he told her. "We only need one lane, so it's not a big deal," and there's always something going on there, so I think if you wear your caps and goggles and all that, no one will really know it's you." A few months ago he would've made some joke about how her body was so stellar that she might get recognized anyway, but not now, not anymore.