Chapter 14 #2
I bit my bottom lip and grinned at him. His eyes were shining under the fluorescent lights, and I could see the outline of his muscles through the water.
He was so beautiful... and I hated how weak that made my self-control.
Luckily, I didn’t have to make the next move.
Charlie’s arms came around me, and he pulled me close.
His lips met mine, gentle and persuasive.
I melted into him, my body responding shamelessly to his touch.
He deepened the kiss, his hands exploring my body as he pulled me closer.
I gasped for air as our mouths parted. “We can’t do this,” I said breathlessly. “Anyone could come back.”
“One more minute,” Charlie said. And who was I to argue with that logic?
When we finally pulled away, my brain felt foggy.
Was this what a good kiss was supposed to feel like?
I’d had many boyfriends in my day, but nothing had ever felt like this.
Not that Charlie was my boyfriend, mind you—I had to make sure I kept that straight in my mind. We needed to draw the line somewhere.
“I bet we can still go for another minute before somebody comes in here,” Charlie said. He took another step towards me, but I shook my head and took a step back, a grin on my face.
“Uh-uh. I am not risking getting fired over you, mister.”
Charlie pouted. “What? Am I not worth it?”
I pressed my tongue against my cheek, holding back a laugh as I looked away. “You’re too cute for your own good.”
“Exactly,” Charlie said. “We won’t get in trouble because I’ll just throw my puppy dog eyes around and make it all better.”
“Even if that would work,” I said, “it would only work for you. No way your puppy dog eyes are getting me out of trouble.”
“Fine,” Charlie said. “We can stop… that.”
“What do you—”
I didn’t have time to brace myself before Charlie dove at me.
He grabbed me around the waist, hugged me close to his body and spun around and around, making waves around us in every direction.
I threw my head back and laughed. It was a stupid game that shouldn’t have made me nearly as giddy as it did, but as I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my face to his, I found myself laughing harder than I had in a long time.
I wished I could laugh like this for the rest of my life.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Courtney’s shrill yell cut through the air.
Charlie and I both froze in place before he slowly put me down. I had to press my lips together to stop myself from laughing at what this must have looked like from her perspective. I slowly turned to look at her, where she had just come out of the women’s locker room.
“Well?” she demanded. “Do you think this is a playground or something?”
“Relax,” Charlie said. “We’re just messing around.”
“You’re not getting paid to mess around.”
“No, we’re getting paid to teach and lifeguard swim classes,” Charlie said. He looked dramatically around the pool. “And the crazy thing is... there are no kids here to teach.”
“Your point?” Courtney asked.
“I think my point is pretty obvious,” Charlie said. “But if you need me to spell it out for you… why are you making Madison stay here when there are no students?”
“I need—”
Whatever idiotic point she was going to make was cut off by the office door swinging open and Kelly walking onto the pool deck, eyes trained on her clipboard.
“Courtney, have you gotten the report cards for Nicole’s classes yet?”
“No, she said she’ll give them to us tomorrow,” Courtney said, not breaking eye contact with me.
“Okay, well, I...” Kelly finally looked up and took in the scene before her. She frowned as she spotted Charlie and me in the pool. “Where’s your class, Madison?”
“They aren’t here,” I said. I glanced at the clock. “And I’m guessing they’re not coming since the class is already half over.”
“So why are you still here?” Kelly asked. She looked at the clock, then, as if she didn’t believe the time on it, checked her watch as well. “That was your last class of the day, right?”
“Yes, but Courtney told me I should stay just in case they showed up.”
“You’re always welcome to leave after a third of your class has passed and no students have arrived.” She looked at Courtney. “You know that.”
Courtney flushed. “Oh, well, I just thought... we should err on the side of caution. Some people arrive really late.”
“Where’s Leah, then?” Kelly asked. She glanced at her clipboard. “According to the schedule, she also has a class right now too.”
“Oh… Leah…” Courtney looked like she was at a total loss for words while Kelly just stared at her.
She looked around in a panic—as if she thought Leah might just appear out of nowhere if she wished hard enough—and her gaze eventually landed on me.
“Madison, do you know where Leah is? Did she go to the bathroom or something?”
She was practically begging me with her eyes to help cover for her.
If she had been anyone else, or if this were some other situation, I probably would have.
There were so many easy excuses for why Leah ended up leaving that wouldn’t have raised any concerns from Kelly at all, but by making one of these excuses I would be helping someone who was trying to make my life a living hell, and I was not willing to do that.
“No, Courtney,” I said sweetly. “You said she could leave. Remember?”
“You said she could leave?” Kelly asked.
“Well…” Courtney trailed off, trying to find some way to spin this that would make her look good. Right then, one of my only goals in life was to make sure she looked as bad in front of her boss as possible, so I continued on.
“She said I was the only one who had to stay for the full hour,” I said. “Because Leah’s class was shorter.”
Courtney glared at me in a way that she probably thought was scary but didn’t faze me in the slightest.
“What she means is,” Courtney said, “that I thought we should have an instructor here, just in case anyone from the classes arrived. But we only needed one, and since Madison was on the schedule for fifteen minutes longer anyway, it made more sense for her to be the one to stay. I just thought this made the most sense.”
“Courtney, we went over this in your training,” Kelly said.
“If a class shows up that late, then you’re the one who has to jump in to teach them and one of us will come lifeguard for you.
You have to stay for the full shift anyway, but they don’t.
” She looked at us. “I’m sorry for the misunderstanding, guys.
You’re welcome to leave now. Thanks for staying so long. ”
She didn’t have to tell us twice. I tried not to look too smug as we got out of the pool and headed for the locker rooms.
“Make sure you’re on time tomorrow,” Courtney said snidely like she was trying to get a dig at us any way she could.
“We always are,” Charlie said loftily. When we reached the spot where we had to split up to go into the different locker rooms, he put a hand on my arm to stop me for a second.
With the way he was staring at me, I actually thought he was going to kiss me—which would not have been good for a variety of reasons, ranging from the fact that Courtney would probably murder us right then and there to it being inappropriate in the workplace.
But in the end, he just said, “Meet me outside by my car, okay?”
He glanced at Courtney so quickly that it was almost imperceivable, but it made me realize what he was doing.
He wanted to make sure that there was no doubt in Courtney’s mind that he and I spent time together outside of work.
He wanted her to wonder what was happening between us and make her as jealous as he possibly could.
And I was more than happy to play along.
“Slight hitch in the day’s plan,” Charlie said when he met me outside. I looked up from my phone and frowned in confusion.
“Was there a plan beyond driving home?”
“No, but that’s where the hitch comes in,” Charlie said. “I need to swing by Falcon High to pick up Flo from camp. Mind if I do that before dropping you off? Seems easier that way.”
As the second oldest of six siblings, Charlie often ended up being the chauffeur, especially for the three that were much younger than him.
“Of course,” I said. “But why do you only need to get her today? Hasn’t she been at camp for the past few weeks?”
“Yeah, but Elliot normally picks her up and he can’t today. It was a last-minute change.”
“What about Carter and Benjamin?” I asked. “Are they not at camp with Flo?”
Charlie’s mom got married about ten years ago, which was why he had three siblings so much younger than him. Penny always said it was like they were in two sets of kids—her, Elliot and Charlie, and then Carter, Flo, and Benjamin.
“Penny said she and Alexander will pick them up while they’re out since they’re at a camp across town.”
“Very organized,” I said.
“Yeah, well, we need to be.”
That was for sure. I had no idea how they kept track of everyone.
“Do you like being part of a big family?” I asked.
“I love it,” Charlie said.
“Really?” I tried to imagine what it would be like to have more siblings than just Matthew, but I couldn’t. He was annoying enough without adding four more kids into the mix.
I glanced at the football field as we pulled into Falcon High’s parking lot. A group of kids were running around, playing tag or some similar game, while the teenage counselors mostly just stared at their phones.
“I’ll just be a minute,” Charlie said, hopping out of the car.