Mascen’s eyes narrow across the table at Teddy. Unfortunately for me, I can’t stay and chat because I have to finish out my shift. Hopefully they can argue it amongst themselves and figure it out.
Forty-five minutes later, I’m sliding into the passenger seat of the Porsche since Teddy refuses to let me follow in my own car to wherever he’s taking me. His easy smile is back, but his eyes are still a tad troubled.
“What did you get figured out with your friends?” I pull the seatbelt across my chest and snap it into place.
He pulls out of The Burger Palace, turning in the opposite direction of the one that will take us back toward campus.
“We’re going away this weekend,” he sighs, running his fingers through his hair, mouth tight with irritation.
“You don’t want to go.” It’s a statement, not a question.
A few minutes pass in silence before he answers. “It’s not that I don’t want to go, it’s just…” His eyes narrow, and he glances at me. “Are you comfortable playing this game all weekend?”
“I’m going to be doing it with your parents all spring break.” I blanch at my word choice. “Not doing it, but you know, faking it—pretending.”
Teddy chuckles, and the grip around my heart eases the tiniest bit because it’s a normal, carefree type of laugh. “So, you’re cool with it, then?”
I shrug. “This is why you paid off my tuition.”
“Right.” His shoulders sag, and I have the feeling I’ve said the completely wrong thing. I bite my lip, holding my hands tightly in my lap. I hate feeling awkward and out of place, but I have no idea what to say to make this better. I didn’t think I said anything bad, but I can tell he doesn’t see it that way. His fingers tap against the wheel in a way that I know he’s irritated, and the worst part is I know it’s with me. “There’s something in the back for you.” His voice jars me after long minutes of awkward silence.
I turn around, finding a shopping bag sitting upright in the back. Picking it up, I set it in my lap. “Should I open it now?”
“Might as well.”
Apprehensively, I remove the contents of the bag, my brows furrowing in confusion at the bundle of fabric. “A swimsuit?” I hold up the high waisted light blue bottoms with white daisies on them. “I told you I can’t swim.”
“I remember.” He throws the car into park, and I look at the building in front of us to find that it’s a gym. “That’s why we’re here.”
“At a gym?”
“They have a pool.” He unsnaps the seatbelt, looking at me expectantly. “We’re going to Greece in a few weeks. You have to know how to swim.”
I clutch the swimsuit to my chest. “No, I don’t. I don’t have to get in the water. I like the land just fine. You know, rocks, trees, squirrels. Do they have squirrels in Greece? I—never mind—don’t answer that because it’s not important since I don’t need to be in the water.”
“We’re going to be on a yacht for a week in the ocean. Forgive me if I’d feel better if you knew how to swim. Not that I won’t have you strapped in a life vest, because believe me I will, but you need to know the basics of swimming.”
I look out the side of the passenger window, fear crawling up my spine with sticky fingers. “It scares me,” I admit slowly, each of my words seeming to take an extra-long time to come out of my mouth.
Warm fingers grip my chin, urging me to face his too knowing green eyes. “I’ll be with you. Do you think I’d let anything happen to you?”
No. I know he wouldn’t. I hate admitting it to myself, but with Teddy, I feel safer than I have with anyone else.
“I feel stupid that I’m twenty-one, and I don’t know how to swim.”
He chuckles. “Remember, I don’t know how to ride a bike.” I giggle at that, the vice around my heart lessening a smidge. “I’m not expecting you to turn into an Olympic swimmer overnight. It’s going to take a few lessons, and honestly, I just want you to learn the basics.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?” He waits for me to agree again, and I know, without a doubt, if I told him I didn’t think I could do this, he would turn the car around and take me back to The Burger Palace.
I nod, setting the bathing suit in my lap and trying to smooth out the wrinkles my monster grip put into the fabric. “You won’t let go of me, right?”
His eyes warm. “Never.”
I tiptoe out of the locker room and over to swimming pool that’s separate from the gym—though the row of girls on the elliptical machines have a clear view through the glass, thankfully they seemed more engrossed with a rerun of Friends playing on the TVs than the pool.
Teddy sits on the edge of the pool in a pair of light blue board shorts, his tan freckled shoulders on full display. I hate that there’s a part of me that wants to dive right into his arms and let those wide shoulders close around me, protecting me from anything and everything.
I do my best to reinforce the steel bars around my heart. It’s one thing to like Teddy, it’s another to fall for him, especially when he’s made it clear he has real feelings. I can’t risk this … risk us.
I clear my throat, alerting him to my entrance, and he turns around. Vibrant green eyes rake over my body from head to toe and back up again. A shiver courses down my spine. Normally if someone looked at me so intensely, I’d feel embarrassed by the scrutiny. I’d worry about the stretch marks on my thighs, stomach, and arms. The cellulite on my legs and ass. My less than perky boobs. But the raw desire in his eyes makes me feel like the goddess I truly am in body and soul, because nothing about me is a flaw, and Teddy knows that.
“Nice color,” he murmurs, looking at the tips of my toes painted a vibrant hot pink.
“Thanks.” I wiggle them and take a measured step forward, closer to the pool.
Teddy’s hand closes around my ankle and he dips his head, indicating I should sit down beside him.
“We’ll take this slow. Start by putting your feet in the water.”
I do as he says, watching my pink painted toes and then my feet and legs glide into the water.
“It’s warm!”
He laughs, brushing my hair off my shoulder. “Did you think it would be cold?”
“Yes,” I admit shyly.
“They keep it heated,” he explains evenly, not trying to make me feel bad for not knowing.
“Is a teacher going to … um … show me the ropes?”
He grins, eyes wrinkling at the corners. My breath catches in my chest at the sight of it.
You can’t do this to me heart, you can’t fall for Teddy McCallister. Anyone but him.
Because I know deep down Teddy would have the capability of breaking me in a way not even Tristan did. There would be a part of me I’d never get back.
“You’re looking at him,” he says, and it takes me a second to remember what I asked.
“Oh.”
He drops into the pool, standing easily. The water barely touches his hips. “Now come on,” he encourages, “you have to actually get in the water to learn.”