Tequila And Tingles: Turtle Pine, Book 2 (3 page)

Jason blinked Beth and her incredibly shapely backside out of his mind for the rows and rows of pool chemicals and testing strips. “I noticed your chlorine smelled a little strong.”

Brandon sighed and rubbed the back of his head. “I didn’t know what I was doing and tried to make do until you got here.” Heaviness had settled in under the man’s dark eyes, and the flap of his hand signaled he was about at his wit’s end with the chemicals. “I read up on pH, alkaninny something and hardness until my head was about ready to explode.”

Jason chuckled and pulled out a basket filled with samples for testing. “I’ll take a look at this after class ends and start getting it fixed back up. It’ll take a couple of days, so I hope you don’t think it’ll be right in the morning.” He picked through the few things and flicked dust off testing strips. If he was going to fix the water, he needed new and updated supplies, but Brandon didn’t look like he was prepared for much more. “And I may have to flush some water from the pool and add fresh to straighten it.”

Brandon pulled his clipboard back to his chest. “That’s fine. I’m just glad I don’t have to deal with it anymore. I’ve inhaled enough of the stuff to burn all the hairs out of my nose.” He pulled a set of keys from his pocket. A corded green wrist strap served as the chain. “Keys for you. The one with the white end is for the pool. It fits all the doors leading to the pool from the outside and the ones coming from inside TPC. The other fits all the doors. It’s a skeleton, so don’t lend it out to anybody.”

Meaning it was okay to lend out the key leading to the pool? Definitely not on his watch. He wasn’t about to be responsible for some dumb kid getting in here in the middle of the night and drowning. “Got it. I appreciate it.”

“Hey, I appreciate you taking the job. I know everyone’s real excited to have an Olympic medalist working here—and now teaching their kids to swim. It’ll be great for us.”

Even after all the years, slight heat landed in Jason’s cheeks. “Happy to be here.”

He retraced his steps through the narrow halls and found himself back to the pool, where there was more chlorine swimming in the air than there were people in the water. Adults who hadn’t been there before were now gathered on a small row of bleachers. A row of seven kids sat along the pool edge with their feet in and kicking as much water out as they could manage. Three more were on the steps, sitting in the water. They giggled. And laughed. And poked each other’s life jackets.

A happiness he hadn’t felt in a long time as he walked into work filled him. One he hadn’t expected. He found himself standing there, taking a moment to watch their big grins. A smile pulled on his mouth.

He checked the clipboard and found there were ten students in this class. Names were listed on the board, but they didn’t come with pictures, so it wasn’t like that was going to get him anywhere. He tossed the clipboard aside and stopped in front of the parents, only to have his breath taken away from him.

There in the back, in dark sunglasses and with hair as wild as he remembered it in a knot on the top of her head, was his Beth. Immediately, visions of her swaying in sexy heels in front of him landed in the forefront of his mind. The feeling of her sliding her hands up his arms in the elevator. Her lips on his neck. Breath like tequila and limes before she closed her mouth over his and swept in her tongue, filling him with a salty tang. Heat spun through him and he cleared his throat. She turned her head away, cutting through his thoughts. Right. He had a job to do here, and he was trying not to make a scene and have a lot of talk stirred up about him. Plus, swim trunks weren’t the best for concealing what she was doing to him.

He took a deep breath and knew it wasn’t an option to try ignoring her. He just had to survive her. “Hi, everybody. I’m Jason, and I’ll be teaching your kids swim lessons for the next six weeks.”

The hand of a young girl in the front went up in an instant. He braced himself for whatever the girl might have to say. Teaching kids? He’d thought through that. Teaching kids who had older sisters who were just as aggressive as the many other teens he’d known? Never crossed his mind. “Yes?”

“What happened to Jackson?”

“I’m not sure. I was just asked if I could teach the class.”

She lowered her hand and…was that a pout? “Oh.”

Oh for him too. And a breath eased out. He scanned the group of women. “Anyone else have any questions about the class before I get started?”

A couple of women glanced to each other, but nobody volunteered a hand. He nodded to them all and faced the pool, where his charges waited. Half the kids had stopped playing in the water as their gazes met his.

The other half? He wasn’t even sure if those kids knew he stood over them. “Who’s ready to swim?”

Chapter Three

If there had been any way for Beth to slither off her seat, crawl under the bleachers and escape out the side door, she would have done it the exact moment Jason’s gaze landed on hers. The corners of his eyes had widened. Fuzzy images of them dancing together last night had gone through her head. Moments when his gaze had been all hers, just like in that very brief moment.

Had he even realized his lips had parted just a touch? Her mouth tingled, as if in instinctual recognition to something she couldn’t remember. The desire to escape grew with every second, but at the same time, she wanted to know what in the hell he’d been remembering that caused him to make that face. Because she didn’t remember a thing, and by the looks of him, that was a real big damn shame. Not that she’d ever ask him what happened, since that would require talking to him. And verbally admitting to someone other than Tina that something had happened.

Then her favorite part—facing the man she’d run out on so fast she could have picked up a gold medal in the hundred-meter dash. Or she could just sneak out of here and hide in her house for the rest of her days.

Sneaking out wasn’t an option. Mainly because her daughter was in the swim lesson, and Beth wasn’t supposed to leave the pool area during that time. In all honesty, that was the only real reason she stayed put. She settled for texting Tina.

“He’s here. At TPC!”

She could die. Just die. When you literally run out of someone’s hotel room so fast you leave your shoes behind, facing your one-night stand should never happen. Never. It wasn’t fair.

Her phone buzzed, announcing a response from Tina.
“You didn’t know? He’s taking over as the pool manager.”

Hell no, she hadn’t known. She never would have…they never would have…done whatever it was they’d done last night if she’d known she’d be seeing the guy again. She certainly would have been more dignified this morning if so. Or at least attempted to be more dignified.

This wasn’t just someone she could make a point to avoid. She texted Tina back.
“He’s Katie’s new swim coach!”

After nearly an instant, Tina’s response came while Jason talked about whatever to the kids. Hopefully, it wasn’t important she listen too.

“Oh. I didn’t know that. That’s new.”

Yeah. Definitely new. Definitely, definitely, and holy heck, what was she supposed to do?

Her phone vibrated, announcing another response from Tina.
“On the upside, maybe he has your shoes.”

“That is not an upside.”

Jason headed to the pool steps, his trunks snug on his backside. Now that was an upside. Curvy and wow. How hard had her fingers dug into that last night? She dropped her face in her hands and willed the next hour to fly by.

He got all the way in the water, dipped down to his shoulders and then stood. Water drizzled down his chest and slithered over his abs…the way her tongue had? Surely if she’d had that option, she’d have taken it. That, along with about three hundred other options spinning through her mind and flushing heat through her face. He splashed a handful of water on the kids, getting giggles from them all. She could really go for a dunking in the deep end right now to cool off.

He approached the kids. “Are y’all ready to swim today?”

A scream of “Yeah!” was his answer, and he chuckled in response. “All right. I’m ready to see y’all swimming too. But we have to talk about one thing first. Can anybody guess what that is?”

Mindi Sloan’s little boy’s hand went up in a lick. “The water!”

Tucker’s hand was next. “I have a new kitten!”

“Diving!” announced Jessica.

Jason took all the answers in with a grin for each of them. “Close, but first we’ll talk about pool safety.” He pointed at Katie. “Can you tell me if it’s okay to get in the water by yourself?”

Beth’s heart held as Katie just stared. It wasn’t that she didn’t know the answer. Beth had covered this well. Every time a new person entered Katie’s life, this was her response. And every time Beth saw it, she got the overwhelming desire to track her ex-husband down and make him see what his cowardly desertion in the middle of the night had done to their daughter. Make him see with a baseball bat. Beth’s dad had assured her that she’d just end up in jail, but Beth still wanted to get a grip of the wood and swing for all her worth until there was nothing but splinters. Splinters of the bat and her ex’s bones.

“No?” Jason finally said and moved on to the next kid, who did answer. He continued with the lesson, but Beth didn’t pay much attention as she watched her daughter draw imaginary pictures on the concrete. Her poor baby was starting kindergarten soon, and the main reason Beth wanted her in this class was to help her social skills. Instead of engaging, she pulled away.

Put her in a room with her grandparents, uncles and cousins, and Katie was an outgoing child who could tell you about anything you wanted to know. And if she didn’t know the answer, she could come up with a whale of a tale to suit.

Surrounded by people she didn’t know, and the damage from her father’s desertion rose to the surface like the many tears Beth had wiped away over the last year.

Jason gave the signal and all the kids hopped in the pool. They floated like little bobbers in their snug life vests. Katie was the last one in. While the rest splashed their way closer to Jason, she hung to the back and kept her distance.

He handed out kickboards and took time with each kid to show them how to fit the boards under their chests and how to kick across the pool and back. With Katie lingering behind, a couple of the kids reached the opposite end before Jason even handed her a board. Worry backed up in Beth’s throat.

If Beth could, she would be in that pool in a heartbeat, even with Jason standing right there. Katie had to learn to do this by herself though. By the skin of her fingertips pinching the bleachers and keeping her there, Beth was going to let her.

Katie held her arms over her chest. She reached out only far enough to snatch the board. Jason started to move closer to assist her on the board like he’d done with the other kids, but Katie gave him the stare down women everywhere had perfected to signal one should keep one’s distance or risk a limb. Jason didn’t reach farther. Instead, he pulled his hands away and smiled for her. Beth couldn’t breathe. Either this was about to end in a wail of terrified screams or Katie was going to turn her nose up and do it by herself. It always seemed a toss-up. If Beth had any idea which whim caused Kate to flee and cry, she’d dash it out of her daughter’s life.

Jason eased back a step and rested his hands on his sides. “I bet you can get up there all by yourself, can’t you?”

At once, her daughter hopped on the board and kicked away from Jason and down the line to the opposite end like the other kids. A sigh of relief started through Beth, but it was cut short as Jason turned and glanced at the parents in the bleachers. His gaze locked on hers for what was realistically less than half a second.

What a half a second though. All things were not created equal. Being pinned under his stare for even such a short moment was enough to burn him in her memory and last forever. There was a slight squint of his eyes when his mouth pulled into that perfectly charming grin. She cleared her throat and kept watch on Katie for the remainder of the lesson.

She was honest to goodness ashamed of herself for thinking and looking at the man like the tall drink of water he was. Not quite ashamed enough to get him out of her head, but she was a little embarrassed to be ogling.

Katie kicked her way back and forth across the pool, keeping her distance, but thankfully participating in all the exercises with the rest of the class. Jason gave her a wide berth and that no doubt helped. Hopefully it would be a while before they ditched the life vests and he would have to get close to her for anything else.

A cold chill started over Beth. When that time came, Beth couldn’t get in the pool to help either. Her daughter would cling and it would ruin the whole point of taking lessons. But if Katie screamed her way out of the pool, there would be no lessons either.

Beth hadn’t figured a way across that bridge by the time Jason pointed them all to the steps with praise given to each of them. Somehow an hour had already passed and class was dismissed. Beth wasted zero time and had her purse over her shoulder and Katie’s towel over her arm before Katie was even out of the pool.

Banking on the single moms and older sisters there to take up Jason’s attention, Beth collected Katie and set a record in heading to the doors.

“Did ya see me, Momma?”

“I did! You did such a good job.” She pushed open the door, and Megan called out to her.

“Beth!”

She stopped and pasted on a smile as the other mom ran to catch her. “Robert brought home those loan papers Friday, and you’ll never believe it, but he didn’t sign in all the places, and now he’s gone out of town for the next week on a fishing trip.” Megan winced. “I know I said I’d bring them back to you Monday, but it’ll be next Monday now. Is that okay? It’s not going to mess up anything with our loan, is it?”

“That’s fine. It’s no big deal.”

Beth looked over and saw Katie had taken an interest in the trophy display case. Of all the times for her daughter to not be in a hurry for a snack or to get to Nana’s or one of the other hundred places that were often on her mind.

“Great! I didn’t want you to wonder where we’d gotten off to when I wasn’t there tomorrow.”

“Thanks for letting me know.”

Megan leaned in and gave her a little nudge. “Can you believe the new swim coach?”

“Shocked me.” That was the honest-to-goodness truth.

“I’ll take him any day over Lydia’s boy. Not that Jackson isn’t a sweetheart, but he’s barely twenty.”

“I know what you mean.” In far more ways than one.

“If I weren’t married, I’d be over there in that swarm hanging on his every word.” She raised her brow in the biggest hint-hint-nudge-nudge way possible.

The center of that swarm took that moment to lift his blond-topped head and find her gaze. Like they were magnets. She couldn’t find her own children that fast, yet he’d knocked gazes with her twice in a speedy instant. Beth cleared her throat. “Yeah. Too bad I’m not ready to start seeing anyone yet.”

Megan tipped her head to the side. The woman clearly saw right through her. “Uh-huh. Looks to me like you should make an exception.”

“Momma.” Katie tugged on her arm and finally rescued her. “I’m hungry. Nana said I couldn’t have a big lunch before my lesson.”

“Nana was right.” She took Katie’s hand, said her goodbyes to Megan and almost made it out the door without looking back.

It couldn’t be helped. Beth gave one last look over her shoulder. It was done in time to see him face the very single Rebecca. That flirt. With a disgusted noise meant for herself, Beth left the center, swinging her hand clasped with Katie’s all the way to the car. “What did you think of swim lessons? Not as bad as you thought, huh?”

Katie gave a whatever shrug more fitting for a fourteen-year-old, not her five-year-old little girl. “I liked when he didn’t talk so much at the end.”

Chills went over her. You had to watch out for his talking. He had a voice that could spin a grocery list into something entrancing. Too good at talking, that one. Not that she could remember what he’d said, but she had clear pictures in her head of his mouth. An endless loop of his lips moving in a tantalizing seduction, saying things like
kiss me
.
Make out with me
.
Lick me
. Perhaps that was exactly what he’d said to her. Or he could have been reciting his grocery list. With a mouth like his, it didn’t matter what was coming out of it.

Katie looked up and Beth let out a breath. Right. Mother-daughter moment here. She yanked her mind out of the gutter. “Well, just think, after a couple months of swimming with him, you’ll be able to jump off the diving board without your life jacket.”

“Really?”

“Really.” Even though the very thought sent Beth’s heart running terrified into the dark corners of her chest. “But you have to pay attention and do everything he says and try your best.”

Katie tipped her head to the side as she climbed in her booster seat. “I can do that.”

Beth ruffled the top of her head. “I think you can too. Now let’s go find Kent.”

“No! Lunch first!”

Beth laughed. “All right. Since Kent already had lunch, we can do that first.”

“Can we see Aunt Tina today too?”

“You bet.” Because Beth would like to do a little cornering of Aunt Tina.