Daring the Bad Boy (Endless Summer)(29)

At the time, I thought he was full of crap. What did he know about the quiet ones? They were boring.

But now, staring at Annie, thinking about how she was sneaking up on me and she didn’t even know it, I realized that maybe he was right.

Which meant I was totally done for.

…

ANNIE

I didn’t like the way Jake was watching me. It was like I could feel his gaze on every part of me, like he was giving me a full examination with his eyes, and it made me uncomfortable. I’d never been so blatantly checked out before in my life.

Every time I got around Kyle, I was nervous. But Jake? He made me feel more than nervous. He made me feel all jumpy and weird and…excited.

I didn’t like it.

My feet were still in the water, and it wasn’t so bad. I’d rather jump in the way I had at the lake than continue to have Jake stare at me, so I did just that. Pushed myself off the edge of the pool and hopped in, the water coming to about my waist. I sucked in a sharp breath, shocked by the water’s cool temperature. Shocked even more that I was standing in the water voluntarily.

“Good job,” Jake said. “Now walk toward me.”

“I’m not going into the deep end,” I told him, shaking my head.

“I get it. Just…walk as far as you feel comfortable with. You can stop whenever you want.”

He was still treading water but he moved closer, until his feet must’ve hit the bottom, though the water was still up to his neck. He remained there, watching me, murmuring little words of encouragement as I hesitantly started to move forward. Taking it one step at a time, the water almost feeling like it wanted to drag me down, but I resisted.

I needed to do this.

So I pushed forward, taking a few more steps until the water reached just beneath my armpits. My breathing was shaky and my heart raced and this was as far as I could go before I’d lose it. “I’m going to stop,” I told him, and he drifted closer, so he stood directly in front of me.

Jake was much taller than I was, so when his feet touched the bottom, the water only hit him at rib level. Meaning I was getting an up-close-and-personal view of his lean chest. I could see the definition of the muscles in his arms, and he wasn’t even doing anything. He had a nice body, not too muscly or overblown. I bet he gave good hugs.

I blinked, pushing the thought out of my head.

“You went pretty far,” he said, his lips curved in a closed-mouth smile. “I’m impressed.”

The compliment filled me with pride. I really needed to hear that. “Thanks.”

“Can you put your head underwater?”

“No.” Just the thought filled me with icy-cold panic.

“Would you feel comfortable holding on to the edge of the pool and kicking in the water?”

I shrugged, struggling with embarrassment. He must have thought I was the most immature failure in the whole wide world. “I can try.”

He nodded. “Good. Let’s go.”

Jake was actually a really good teacher. I appreciated his patience, and he thankfully didn’t make me feel stupid. His gentle encouragement calmed my fears, and he stood next to me the entire time while I clung to the edge of the pool and kicked my legs in the water, listening to him count my kicks and telling me I shouldn’t give up.

It almost felt like he was my coach or something, which I knew was kind of stupid, but whatever worked, right?

“Okay, I think we’re done for the night,” he said after my fourth round of kicks. “I think you did pretty well.”

He stood next to me, my fingers still curled around the concrete edge and my body buoyant in the water. “You really think so?”

“Yeah. I do.” He nodded, then turned toward the small building that stood next to the pool. “We’ve already been out here for almost an hour.”

“How do you know?”

“There’s a clock right over there.” He pointed at the giant clock that hung on the side of the building, under the overhang where towels were stored and disbursed.

Oh. The clock I never even noticed. The clock he’d probably been staring at the entire time, dying to get this lesson over with so he could go hang out with his friends or whatever.

“Okay. Well, thanks.” I settled my feet on the bottom of the pool and waited for him to get out first. No way was I going to climb out of this pool just for him to catch me at a weird angle.

“One lesson down.” He waved a hand toward the short ladder that led out of the pool. “Ladies first.”

I sent him an incredulous look. Yeah right, he’s a gentleman. “It’s okay. You go ahead.”

He rolled his eyes. “Go, Annie.”

Ugh. He wasn’t letting me off the hook. I went over to the narrow little stepladder thing that led out of the pool and grabbed hold of the silver handles, hoisting myself up and out of the water. I silently hoped he wasn’t checking out my butt—what if I had a wedgie and half my bottoms were lodged between my cheeks?

I scurried over to the shelf where the towels were kept and grabbed one, wrapping it tightly around my dripping body. I needed to get back over to movie night. I hadn’t seen Kelsey, so I figured Hannah hadn’t noticed I was missing. Yet. “I should go,” I said as I turned around to catch Jake standing right next to me, rubbing his chest with a towel.