Summer Lovin'

Chapter Twelve

J.R, and Jesse's nieces and nephews, dragged Jesse and Summer in a game of volleyball. The team of Summer, and Justine's children, Katie and Ryan, had won. With a lot of her help, she proudly thought. She hadn't played volleyball since high school gym class, but Summer was happy she remembered how to play and was still decent at it. She would hate to embarrass herself or Jesse.

After hanging out on the deck for an hour, Jesse tugged on her hand and led her down to the lake. Summer pulled her hair out of her ponytail and put the band around her wrist as she admired the view.

Jesse admired the view of Summer in her bikini. He'd seen the view of the lake plenty of times and the view of her was much more appealing.

Summer climbed down the ladder to the water and put a toe in the water to test it. It was not very warm. He climbed down behind her and Jesse pushed Summer in when she complained that it was too cold.

Jesse was exceptionally good at swimming though he would slow down when he saw she was falling behind.

Summer had given up after awhile and laid back to float, while he did a few laps. When he returned to her side, he finally admitted that he had been on both high school and college swim teams.

Jesse slipped his arms around her and showed her some strokes. Summer loved the press of his body against hers.

They swam back towards the ladder of the dock when it started getting dark and colder.

"Summer, hold up," Jesse called breathless, taking her by the arm as she reached out for the ladder to climb up.

"What?" she asked just as breathless.

"You're a mess," he said with an amused smile.

He pulled a few twigs and leaves out of her hair. Summer would have panicked about the state of her hair, but she froze when his smile slowly faded as he tugged the last of the twigs out, and he just stroked his fingers through her hair.

She couldn't pull her eyes away from his, which were looking at her so intensely. Summer felt him looking over her face, her eyes, her nose, her cheeks, her mouth. Jesse lingered too long at her mouth.

Summer nervously licked her lips and his eyes quickly went back up to her eyes. Jesse had come too close to her. His wet chest was pressed up against her cold body. His heat warmed the length of her front.

Summer's heart pounded. Bats pounded in her stomach, her chest. If there was any blood left in her head, she didn't know where it was.

His hands slowly fell from her head to her shoulders. His hands slid across them gently. Jesse's head slowly lowered towards her.

Summer trembled from his touch. She couldn't wait for him to press his lips against hers. He took her trembling as a sign she was cold and sobered from his drunken trance of her, easing back from her.

"Um, let's, uh, let's get you inside, you're freezing," he muttered.

Jesse wrapped a hand around the ladder and swung himself up to what he hoped would be sanity.

He helped Summer over the ladder when she emerged on the deck. He tried not to look again at her in her pink and orange striped bikini. He wrapped a towel quickly around her shoulders and dried himself off.

They walked back to the house quietly and he led her through a sliding glass door of the lower level of the house. Jesse led her to a bathroom and turned on the light.

"You can take a hot shower, here. There are plenty of towels in the bathroom closet. I'll bring your bag and leave it outside the door."

"Okay, thanks, Jess." She managed to reply. Her heart was still racing and pounding.

His eyes flickered over her face and Summer for a moment caught a glimpse of regret in his eyes. His gaze dropped to her lips again.

She took a step forward wrapping the towel more firmly as it slipped. "Jesse?"

His eyes had dropped to her chest as she secured the towel around herself. Summer glanced down noticing the goosebumps across her chest. She didn't mind Jesse checking her out at all, but there was nothing more unsightly than goosebumps when you were trying to get a guy's attention.

And now, Summer wasn't sure if Jesse had been looking at her chest because he liked what he saw or because she looked like a plucked goose. He put his hands on her upper arms above the towel and rubbed. "Go warm up."

She nodded at him dumbfounded. He smiled and walked away.