Chapter 11 #2
“Really. I was in one of the good foster homes then, and I got invited to a birthday party at a pool. I told my foster mom I didn’t want to go, and she pressed me as to why.
I had to admit I was scared. That I didn’t know how to swim.
She brought me to the pool the very next day, and she spent a whole month teaching me how to float and how to move through the water.
It wasn’t pretty, and it took me many more years of practicing to be really good, but I did it.
It’s never too late to learn something, pretty girl.
And swimming will be a piece of cake for you. I’m sure of it.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re good at everything you do.”
“I’m not good at painting,” she protested. “Or coloring books.”
This girl. She was hilarious. “Okay, true. But you know what? You don’t need to see to swim.”
Bowie scrunched up her nose. “Yes, I do.”
“Nope. You just need to move your arms and legs through the water. You’re really good at counting steps to know where you’re going, and swimming is the same thing. You can count strokes to know how far it is to the wall.”
Pyro could tell she was really thinking about what he was saying. Then she said, “I want to learn how to swim.”
“Good girl. So you want to go to the beach tomorrow?”
“Yes!”
“Awesome. We’ll stop by the store on the way to get you a pretty suit to wear. You and your mom.”
Bowie perked up at that. She wasn’t materialistic, but she enjoyed shopping like a lot of other girls and women. “Cool! You wanna help Mommy and me make dinner? We’re having chicken nuggets!”
This girl and her chicken nuggets. “You’re going to turn into a chicken nugget one of these days if you don’t eat anything else.”
Bowie scrunched up her nose. “I like chicken nuggets.”
“I know you do, Bowie-Bear. And yes, I’d like to help you and your mom make dinner.”
With that, Bowie threw herself into his arms again, making Pyro almost fall backward on his ass, only Penny’s hand on his back preventing it. She’d inched behind him while he spoke to her daughter. He’d felt her there as he’d told Bowie about how he’d learned to swim.
Little did she know, he was always aware of Penny, wherever she was. He was more in tune with her than he’d ever been with another human.
Bowie tore out of his arms and ran to the refrigerator. It was one of those with the freezer on the bottom, so she could easily open the drawer and take out the bag of chicken nuggets.
“We’re having bacon ranch chicken,” Penny told him with a smile. “It’s been marinating all day in the fridge. I just need to pop it into the oven.”
“I mean, I like chicken nuggets,” Pyro told her. “But bacon ranch chicken sounds even better.”
Penny smiled at him, and Pyro decided right then and there that this woman’s smile could make even the worst day shine a little brighter.
That night, after dinner, and after practicing braille with Bowie, and after reading her two chapters of Little House on the Prairie, and after sitting on the couch making out with Penny while pretending to watch whatever was on the television, Pyro reluctantly walked with her to the apartment door.
The kisses they shared while standing there, procrastinating instead of saying goodbye, were more intense than even the make-out session they’d had earlier.
Pyro didn’t want to leave. He’d never felt this way before, desperate for every minute he could get with a woman.
Usually he was the one hightailing it out of the hotel or apartment as fast as he could, so as not to give a woman the wrong idea.
But now? He wanted to stay. Wanted the right and privilege to sleep next to Penny.
To check on Bowie in the middle of the night.
To start the coffee pot in the morning when he got up for PT, so it would be ready when Penny awoke.
With those feelings in his head, he took a risk by saying, “I’d love for you and Bowie to spend the night at my place tomorrow after the beach. She doesn’t have school the next day. I can sleep on the couch and you can have my bed. I just…I really hate saying good night to you at your door.”
He took a breath to continue to put her at ease, to try to convince her, but to his shock and delight, she simply said, “Yes.”
“Yes?” he questioned, wanting to make sure he’d heard her right.
She gave him a small smile. “Yes. I’ll be sure to pack overnight bags for both of us.”
“You could always leave some stuff over at my apartment. You know, to make things easier.” He was pushing his luck but couldn’t stop himself. He’d take whatever he could get.
“We’ll see,” she hedged.
He mentally shrugged, too excited about the prospect of her and Bowie staying the night tomorrow to be bummed that she hadn’t immediately agreed. It wasn’t as if he was asking her to move in with him…was he?
Before he could go any further down that train of thought, she kissed him again, and Pyro was once more lost in the overwhelming feelings this woman evoked when he was around her.
He wanted to be a better person. Wanted to be the kind of role model for Bowie that he’d never had.
Wanted to be a man Penny could depend on and trust.
After another few minutes of kissing, Pyro forced himself to step back and open the apartment door. He needed to leave now, before he did something he’d regret. That would ruin the trust he’d built with Penny.
“Drive safe,” she said softly.
“Always. I’ll let you two sleep in tomorrow. Is ten o’clock okay for me to come by and pick you up?” He wanted to say he’d be there at six, but he didn’t want to seem completely deranged. And it was late. Penny would want to sleep in.
“That sounds perfect. It’ll give me enough time to pack beach bags and overnight bags. And I got my first paycheck deposited today. It’s not a lot, as I’ve only been working for a week, but it’s more than enough to buy suits for us.”
She wasn’t paying for bathing suits. Especially since going to the beach wasn’t her idea. But he’d fight that battle tomorrow. “That’s great, hon. I’m proud of you.”
“Thanks. I’m proud of me too.” Penny smiled.
It took every ounce of self-control not to take her into his arms again, back her into the apartment and carry her to the bedroom. But Pyro managed to take a step backward. Then another. “See you in the morning.”
“Okay. Please text me when you get home.”
“I will.”
The words were there at the tip of his tongue.
Almost desperate to be said. But Pyro swallowed them down.
He wouldn’t do or say anything to make Penny second-guess their connection.
But he couldn’t stop himself from stepping back toward her, taking her face in his hands, and kissing her on the forehead gently.
Then he let go, spun around, and walked down the hall. He turned at the stairwell and looked back. Penny was still standing in the doorway watching him. He smiled at her and she blew him a kiss. Then shut the door.
Pyro closed his eyes for a moment, almost trembling with the need to go back. To stand guard. To see her one more time. Instead, he opened his eyes and entered the stairwell. He’d have twenty-four hours with Penny and Bowie all to himself tomorrow. He couldn’t wait.
* * *
Around four o’clock the next day, Pyro was pleasantly exhausted.
The beach day was a huge success. Bowie had been uncharacteristically clingy at first. Needing to hold either his or Penny’s hands.
He supposed it was the newness of the entire beach scene.
The way the sand felt under her feet, the sound of the water lapping at the shore, the seagulls screeching overhead, looking for someone not paying attention so they could swoop down and steal food from their hands or blankets, and the playful shrieks from other people as they discovered a pretty shell or missed a thrown ball.
But thankfully, little by little, and with time and patience, she began to relax. Pyro couldn’t imagine what it was like for her. To enter completely new experiences without the advantage of sight. The sounds were probably confusing and overwhelming, especially to a six-year-old.
Penny, of course, understood, and she took her time explaining everything to her daughter.
Letting her feel the sand in her hands, putting a shell into her palm and describing it in such vivid detail, Pyro could picture it without seeing it himself.
The first time he and Bowie walked toward the water together, they’d held hands as the gentle waves lapped at her feet.
Bowie looked adorable in her pink and black one-piece swimsuit.
It had bows at her shoulders but was otherwise free of adornments.
Penny pulled her hair back so it was out of her face and had slathered sunscreen all over her arms and legs.
The sun was shining, and it was warm but not hot, which made for a perfect beach day.
They’d set up three chairs Pyro had picked up at the store that morning, and a large umbrella.
They had buckets and spades, a cooler with food and drinks, and towels galore.
It felt as if they’d packed for a group of twelve instead of the three of them, but Pyro had wanted their first beach experience to be perfect.
He’d about swallowed his tongue when Penny had finally taken off her coverup to take Bowie into the water. He’d had to sit in his beach chair for a while because getting up with his dick as hard as it was would’ve surely resulted in some sort of indecent exposure charge.
The suit was black, and plain, but it hugged every one of Penny’s curves.
She was slender but not skinny. Her tits were probably a solid C cup, and seeing her ass in the bathing suit made Pyro’s palms itch to squeeze it.
Her thighs were thick for such a small frame, and he couldn’t help but imagine how they’d feel wrapped around him as he eased inside her body for the first time.