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She takes it without a second thought, but looks a bit unnerved now.
“I told you I don’t know how to swim.”
“That's okay, Val. We'll teach you,” I tell her in earnest.
“Okay.” She smiles at me, making me feel ten feet tall. “But no way am I jumping off that rope.”
“Baby steps. First let’s get your feet wet.”
She nods and begins to unbuckle her jean shorts.
I instantly turn away but Quaid doesn’t, so I slam my fist to his shoulder so he can turn around and give Val some privacy.
“Don’t be a dick,” I warn under my breath, side eyeing him.
“Bite me,” he counters disgruntled, taking off his t-shirt.
When we are all fully undressed and only in our swim gear, we turn around and see that Val is still wearing her t-shirt over my sister Megan’s yellow bikini. The shirt comes just short of her thighs, leaving her long legs bare, but covering everything else.
“Take your shirt off,” Carter orders, and he's lucky he's too far away from me, or otherwise, I would have punched him. If Val kept her t-shirt on, she must have had a reason.
“I don’t want to.”
“It will get in the way.”
“So it gets in the way,” I retort, pissed and glaring at him to let it go or else.
“Whatever,” he clips back, and starts walking over to the edge to make his way down.
I throw Val a wink and take her hand so she has someone to grab onto as we climb down the rocky terrain. It’s not a hard climb and in less than a minute, we are just at the river’s edge.
I dip my foot into the water, and it feels cool on my skin. A blessing since the July heat even at this early hour is hell.
Val walks in, and giggles with excitement when the water crashes into her legs.
Quaid being Quaid of course runs to the water and begins splashing her about. More of her joyful laughter rings in the air, and that feeling I had yesterday returns. It’s like her laugh triggers an urgent need in me—a need to have her laugh like that every time I’m near her.
Carter silently walks into the water and dives in, breaking the calm further out.
“Okay, so you all promised to teach me how to swim. Let our first lesson begin,” she commands, focusing on how Carter swims elegantly through the water, and seeming envious of each perfect stroke.
Quaid and I teach her how to doggy paddle in shallow water first while Carter keeps vigilant watch, making sure we don’t take Val into the deeper water. Before we know it, a mobile phone rings, reminding us that the outside world exists.
“That must be my dad.”
I can’t hide the disappointed look in my face that we only had these few hours together.
“Can we do this again tomorrow?” she asks hopefully, turning her head over her shoulder to look at us.
“You’re damn right we can. We can’t stop your lessons now. Trust us, before the summer is over, you will be swimming like a pro,” Quaid replies enthusiastically.
I really could kiss the asshole for being the way he is, guaranteeing that our summer days will be filled with Valentina.
“I’d like that.”
Yeah, me too.
As I look at the other two faces of my best friends, I know they feel the same. Valentina Rossi coming into our lives feels like it was always meant to happen. Somehow, she was our missing link and now we are finally whole.
