“You and me can stick together.”JP grabbed his walker and headed out to the ramp to get down the front stairs.
“Okay…Are you scared, Dad?”
Ian scooped Tori up and put her in her car seat.Then he grabbed their gear.
Thank God he’d told everyone things started half an hour earlier than it really did.
“Not scared, but I haven’t been in the water since I got hurt, and I’m worried about how it’s going to feel, how it’s going to work.”JP put Peter in his car seat next to his sister.
“Oh.I will hold you and help you.”
Ian’s heart fluttered.His little boy was so sweet.Thank goodness, he needed one who was…
“Thank you, Peter, I appreciate that.”JP kissed the top of Peter’s head and closed the door before hauling himself up into the passenger seat.
“Thank you, love.You’ll have a good time.I know it.”
“We’ll see.”JP gave him a wink, though.
“Uh-huh.”He headed to the pool, tickled to see Michael already there.“Mike’s here, so we can all have family swim tine.”
“YAY!”Tori sounded utterly overjoyed.
JP chuckled and undid his belt.“Here we go.A new adventure.”
“Hey, fam.”Mike grinned at them.“I have my swim trunks on, and my towel.”
“We’re doing swims, Unca Mike!”Tori pumped her arms in the air again.
“I helping Dad in the water.”Peter held his hands up to be lifted out of his car seat.
“Are you?What a helpful boy.Thank you.Your daddy is going to keep your sister from drowning.”Mike shot JP a wink.
“Let’s hope so anyway,” JP cracked back.He grabbed his walker from Mike and followed the rest of them into the facility, Peter holding onto one of the legs of the walker.
Everyone had their suits on already, and Ian carried the bag with dry clothes and towels for afterward.
“It’s going to be so much fun, Daddy!”
“Let’s hope so.”
“Don’t worry about JP and Peter – I’ve got them.”Mike gave him a thumbs up and a reassuring smile.
“I trust you.”He held the door open for them.“Tori, stay here with me.”
Tori pouted at him.“But I wanna help Dad too.”
“Dad has Peter and Uncle Mike.How about you help on the way out?”
She frowned for a moment and then nodded.“Okay.Let’s swim, Daddy!”
“Yay!”
It was a thing, but Ian took both kids — it wasn’t as if he didn’t know how, after all — while Michael helped JP into the water.
JP laughed as soon as he was in the water, bouncing a little.“Oh wow – this is awesome!”
“Right?You’ve got permission to do up to an hour a day.It’s great and no impact.”Michael was explaining, and Peter was clinging to Ian, and Tori was trying to swim to the deeper end.
