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Emily scoffed. “As if that would help! You’re either a mermaid or part fish!”
Vanessa answered with a deftly aimed spray of water from her clasped hands. “How about you, Garth?”
“Not me,” he said. “I barely dog-paddle.”
Noah thought he saw a blink of disappointment before she turned her smile on him. “I’m game,” he said, his pulse picking up. “How many laps?”
“Are we racing?” Alec said, jumping up from his perch between the twins. “You’re going down! Water or deck start?”
Noah fought the urge to groan under the weight of Alec’s ego, thinking maybe he should bow out. Vanessa’s eyes flitted to Alec and back to Noah, her smile mischievous. “What do you say, Noah?”
Though the pool was a big one, Noah had no idea whether Alec could swim a straight line, let alone dive one. And since none of them had goggles... “Water start, two laps?”
“You’re on,” Vanessa said, pushing off toward the deep end.
Alec executed a running cannonball that set the twins squealing. Noah slipped into the water unnoticed during the uproar and positioned himself on Vanessa’s far side.
“Think you can take him?” Noah asked her.
Vanessa tipped her head to one side. “I’ve raced him before. It’s you I’m not sure about.”
Emily climbed out of the pool and took charge. “All right, you three, backs to the wall!”
Alec took his place on the other side of Vanessa. “You’re going down, mermaid!”
She laughed and shoved him farther away. “Only if you grab my ankles! Swim nice, beach boy.”
Noah let them banter, focusing instead on some deep breathing.
“On your marks,” Emily’s voice grabbed his attention, “get set, go!”
All three pushed off. Noah dove under, keeping his eyes open in the deliciously comfortable saline pool and watching his friends’ blurry figures rise to the surface and begin stroking. He stayed comfortably underwater, concentrating on his dolphin kick and maintaining an efficient streamline while they battled it out up top. He doubted he could beat Vanessa in a freestyle, but she hadn’t specified a stroke. Fortunately, he had always been able to hold his breath longer than the average person. He made the first underwater turn barely in front of the others, but by the time he made the second, he had them by half a body length. As he made the third turn, he could see Vanessa coming into the wall ahead of Alec’s longer form. Lungs begging for air on the final stretch, Noah kicked harder, rising to the surface as he touched the wall. Vanessa lunged in after him, with Alec a split second behind. The cheers of the spectators grew louder as the water drained from his ears.
“Epic fail, beach boy!” Vanessa laughed.
Alec took her ribbing in stride. “Well, I gave it my best shot. I’m not ashamed to take second to a mermaid.”
“Second?” Emily said from the deck. “Aquaman beat you both!”
Surprise registered on both his opponents’ faces, but Vanessa’s quickly changed to amusement. She challenged Noah to a strictly defined freestyle rematch and narrowly won, while Alec basked in consolation from Brianna and the twins. Jane strung a net across the pool for a rousing game of pool volleyball during which Alec successfully bolstered his ego. Noah couldn’t help but think how being six inches taller than anyone else in the pool was a distinct advantage. All things considered, though, Alec seemed to be a nice enough guy. Noah wouldn’t hold it against him that he was many things Noah was not.
As he laid down on his sleeping pad that night, he found himself grateful for Jane’s pushiness. He never would have sought out or agreed to this trip on his own. Things had started out a little awkward, but his sneaky swim victory had established him as an accepted member of the group. Initially, he had regretted allowing his competitiveness to show, but with most of them calling him Aquaman for the duration of the evening, he had to acknowledge that it had been a good move.
It had been a long time since he’d felt he belonged.
Chapter 29
Prickles
The next morning dawned brightand hot. Successful integration notwithstanding, Noah dreaded another day in the van.
Jane’s aunt and uncle treated them to an amazing breakfast of waffles and fruit, with a cheesy egg casserole Noah had difficulty not claiming entirely for himself. His full stomach combined with the previous night’s short sleep on the floor rendered him nearly comatose once they passed the southern border. He awoke a couple of hours later to a painfully dead arm and a barren stretch of Mexican highway that looked the same as when he had fallen asleep. The group was quiet with the exception of Chad and Jane talking quietly in the front.
Arm prickling awake, Noah stared out the window and thought back on the previous night. How long had it been since he had fun like that? Too long. He wasn’t sure when he’d fallen back into the habit of isolation, but it was becoming clear to him how deep he’d been. Apparently, he wasn’t maintaining his mental health as well as he’d thought. Looking back, he felt he could trace his backslide to Thanksgiving.
He’d gone home for the long weekend on a high from helping Grace. It was obvious to him that she was better at math than she gave herself credit for and that her confidence grew each week. She had teased him more than usual during their session on dimensional analysis, her hair taunting him with its unruliness. He’d come dangerously close to craving a taste of her mom’s brownies, wishing he could meet her brother or go to the pizza party they had hypothetically planned, tempted to throw out his resentments and touch one of those tantalizing brown curls... He had even allowed himself to lean a little closer than usual to check her calculations, but she had leaned away as if his proximity were disturbing. That had gone a long way to restoring his defenses, reminding him to keep his distance.
But a new thought struck him. What if it had been agooddisturbing?
