Daring the Bad Boy (Endless Summer)(27)

Reluctantly I went to join him, sitting close by but not right next to him, needing the distance. I didn’t want him to get any weird ideas. “How is this part of my lesson?”

“So impatient.” He shook his head, and I glared at him. “I’m not just going to push you into the water and expect you to learn how to swim, Annie. This is a gradual thing.”

I lifted my chin. “My dad said when he was little, his father tossed him into a lake and basically said, ‘Swim or die. It’s your choice.’” That story had terrified me when I was a little kid, especially since I’d adored my grandpa so much.

“Cold,” Jake said with a low whistle, his gaze meeting mine. “Tell me what you know about swimming.”

I shrugged, feeling inadequate. “Not much. I don’t really like the water.”

“You’re not even putting your feet in the pool,” he pointed out.

He was right. I was sitting on the edge of the pool cross-legged. “It freaks me out.”

“Let me guess. You don’t like to get your hair wet.”

I hated that he thought that way about me. I wasn’t some vain girl obsessed with her appearance. I could get dirty when need be. But could I tell him the truth and know that he wouldn’t reveal my secret? It was so…sad. It had happened so long ago, and I still wasn’t over it.

“That’s not it at all. Do I look like a girl who spends a lot of time on my hair?” I pointed at the messy knot on top of my head.

“Some girls spend hours trying to achieve that look.”

“It took Kelsey two minutes to twist my hair like this.”

“So if it’s not that, then what is it?” He peered at me, ducking his head a little so that our gazes were even. “Are you scared of the water?”

I sank my teeth into my lower lip and gave a short nod.

“Did something happen to you? A bad experience when you were younger?”

I hadn’t talked about what happened when I was a kid in a long time. No one really knew about it beyond my family, and it wasn’t like we talked about it anymore. “When I was four. Yeah.” I didn’t need to share any more details. That would have to be enough. “But I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Fair enough.” He looked down and swirled his feet in the water, churning it so little droplets hit my bent legs. “Why did you jump into the lake last night? If you’re that scared and had a past bad experience?”

“I don’t know…” My voice drifted. How could I explain I’d been seized with this need to prove to myself that I could do it? I’d wanted to impress Kyle and my new friends. I hadn’t thought about the consequences or anything else and just…jumped. I’d always lived such a quiet, boring existence that for once in my life, I was actually dared to do something totally out of my comfort zone, and I’d wanted to shake it up.

He wouldn’t understand. I had a feeling he knew nothing about boring existences or feeling the need to shake things up.

“It was a crazy move,” he said. When I lifted my head to defend myself, I saw that he was smiling. “A ballsy move.”

I shouldn’t be glad he called me ballsy, but I was. No one had ever described me like that before, and up until that very moment, I wouldn’t have considered it a compliment, either.

Now I did. “Ballsy” translated to “strong.” And though my feminist side was stirring, a little irritated that balls equaled strength, I couldn’t help but want to wear that word like a badge of honor.

So ridiculous.

“I’m hoping you can be ballsy again. I don’t want to push you, but we won’t be able to get much in with only a few lessons.”

“I’m okay with that.” At this point I had to take what I could get.

“Can I ask you another question before we get in the water?”

Oh, crap. We had to get in the water tonight? Why didn’t I think this through? No way could I hop into the pool and act like it was no big deal. It was a huge deal, even if we were only going into the shallow end. At least we weren’t in the lake, which was so cold and full of live creatures and the bottom was gross, sticky mud, but still.

“Go ahead. Ask me,” I said, trying to sound cool. Like the idea of getting into the water with him didn’t make my stomach twist and turn.

“Why are you pushing this on yourself so hard? Is there something you want to get over? A goal you have in mind? Do you want to go home and tell your parents you’re a swimmer now? What’s the deal?”





Chapter Ten


JAKE

I waited for her answer, still swirling my legs through the water, watching it spin and splash. I really wanted to kick water onto her just to ease the tension, but she’d probably freak. She’d looked scared out of her mind earlier when I asked if something had happened to her in the past. Whatever it was, it must’ve been awful. And she wasn’t in the mood to share that old memory, either.

More like she didn’t trust me with it. Fine. I didn’t trust her, either, so we were even.

Kyle and his group of friends had smuggled in the booze, and he’d given me the details on the meeting place info, so I’d try to find them later once Annie and I were finished. I’d probably need to get my buzz on after dealing with teaching Annie how to swim.