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“Yeah, he likes the kids.”
“I told him they should have some of their own. I wouldn’t mind.” Still, her eyes didn’t open, but she smiled at her announcement.
“I think he will have a lot of work in front of him convincing her to start over with a baby.” After knowing them for years, he didn’t think Faith wanted more kids. Three boys alone were a lot to handle. And no matter how much work Natalie had been as a teen, Faith’s boys were going to be worse.
“We’re going to get together so I can meet her when I get back. I mean, I know her, but not as Dad’s girlfriend. That’s different,” she said behind her closed lids.
“Do you think you’ll like her as his girlfriend?” He still watched her, mostly because he couldn’t look away.
She shook her head at him. “I already like her. I just want her to know that I like her with my dad. That I’m not some kid who doesn’t want her parent happy.”
Smiling, he asked, “Can you swim?”
“Yes, I can even save your life if I need to. Or if I want to.” Sitting up, she laughed at his pained expression.
He loved when he could get her to laugh. Watching her stand up and walk to the back of the boat, he started to follow. As she walked, she pulled off the shirt, revealing the teal swimsuit underneath. Dropping the shirt, she climbed onto the diving platform on the back of the boat and spun in a circle before diving into the water below. It was so quick he hadn’t even noticed any of her scars, just the perfect dive. As with anything sporty, Natalie could do it.
Hurrying, he climbed onto the diving platform himself and looked for her to surface. Panic rose up in him when she didn’t immediately come up. He knew the water was deep enough for her dive, but he still worried, searching the deep, clear water for any signs of her. He was so focused on finding her at the bottom of the lake that when she pulled his legs out from under him, he wasn’t ready and fell hard into the water below.
He was coughing when he surfaced, but she just laughed at him. Going after her, he realized that she was as agile in the water as outside of it, and he was unable to catch her. With that knowledge, he stopped and treaded water, waiting for her to come back to him. Like a fish, she would come back to the bait. She couldn’t resist.
Her head disappeared under the water again, and he couldn’t see her but knew she was coming for him. Laughing, he rolled in the water as she grabbed at his swimming trunks, trying to pull them off. Trying to catch her, he was unsuccessful again, and she darted away.
Before he could get himself back to treading water and looking for her, she bobbed out of the water, inches from his face. He watched her take a deep breath before she pushed him under. With her hands on his shoulders, she used all her force to push him as far under as she could and then slid her arms around his and went still.
Under the water, he opened his eyes and looked into her green ones as she held him suspended. His lungs were starting to burn with the need to breathe—he hadn’t gotten a good breath in before she plunged him underwater. Blowing out the last of his air, he thought that she would let go. Feeling her laugh, she didn’t let go of him but instead pulled him to the surface with a few quick kicks.
When they made it, he breathed the fresh air deeply—and then coughed once he was able to breathe again.
“I decided to save you, sexy Sam. Now I only owe you one more saving.” She wiped the water from her face.
“I don’t think it counts when you were the one trying to kill me, Beckett,” he grumped, using her last name like he used to when she was in school.
“I wasn’t trying to kill you. You were supposed to have taken a bigger breath than you did. Not my fault.” She was treading water not far from when he was, but at a bigger distance than before.
“Completely your fault,” he mumbled, still mad as he swam past her to the boat.
Her recklessness had bothered him. It had reminded him of the girl she had been before the accident. It reminded him that she could be impulsive and thoughtless. It had reminded him that she was still a kid, still his student.
Climbing back on the boat, he sat in the captain’s chair by the steering controls with a huff. The water had been cold, but the warm sun was taking the chill off his skin. Waiting for her to get back on the boat, he worked at getting control of his anger. This was her day to have fun; she didn’t need his emotions getting in the way. But she had put them both in danger.
Sliding on his sunglasses, he watched as she climbed up the ladder and out of the water. Her face appeared looking cautious, a little nervous about seeing him. Was it because of how he had acted or that she wasn’t wearing her T-shirt anymore? He watched as she set her resolve to not let whichever one it was bother her. As she came farther into view, he realized that her swimming suit was a size to small, barely containing her round breasts.
Ignoring him, she didn’t look at him from the time she got on the boat, slid her discarded T-shirt back on, and returned to the chair she had been sitting in before they went swimming. Sitting with her arms around her knees, she stared off at the shoreline, silent.
He stomped over and plopped down angrily across from her. “Don’t be like this, Natalie.”
“Like what?” She didn’t turn to look at him.
“Sad. We were having fun before you took it too far.”
“I know. I’m sorry I acted like that. I was really having fun. I wasn’t trying to hurt you. I sometimes just let her out, and I know I shouldn’t. Things don’t turn out right when I do. Things happen, people get hurt.” She was still looking at the shoreline.
“Who is she?”
“The person I used to be before. The one that caused everyone so much trouble all the time. I really do try not to be her anymore,” she whispered more to herself than to him.
That was when it hit him that he had not seen the real Natalie in years. The outgoing, fun-loving, bubbly, creative young girl who made his days miserable and so much fun was missing from the woman in front of him. He had seen hints of her: she was the one who ran out on her wedding, she was the one who sat in bed with him looking up her mom, she was the one in the water with him. That was not the town librarian she had become, the woman scared to let anyone see her scars and be hurt again.
