Page 7 of Axel

The sky above Arlo was blue, but in the distance he spied some dark grey clouds. That wasn’t great news. Far from it, in fact. But while the sun was shining, Arlo was more than happy to put any thought of bad weather to the back of his mind and continue romping around in the water.

Arlo dived back down underneath the surface and did his best to go all the way down to the bottom. Unsure precisely how deep the pool was, Arlo decided that it was better to play it on the safe side and came up for some air after realizing that the pool might just be too deep to make it all the way.

But as Arlo’s head popped back above the water level, he couldn’t believe his eyes. Taking a big gulp of air, Arlo’s cheeks flushed bright red and he momentarily lost the ability to tread water…

OMG. How long has he been there?

Who the hell is he?

And why is he so freakin’ hot?

Standing over on the opposite side of the pool was a tall, broad man with just about the most perfectly chiseled body that Arlo had ever seen. And not only that, but the man was wearing a pair of old school red Speedo trunks that left very little to the imagination.

It wasn’t just the man’s upper body that was on point. The slender nature of the Speedos made the man’s strong thighs and mountainous quads look even more pronounced. Put simply, this was the kind of man that Arlo spent many a lonely night dreaming of…

Don’t look.

Dive back down.

Don’t let him see you…

As flustered as Arlo was, he couldn’t actually do anything to avoid the man not only spotting him but rather awkwardly waving to say hello.

‘Hey,’ the man said, his voice a little on the gruff side, almost like he didn’t actually want to say hi but was doing it out of politeness.

‘Yo. I mean hey-yo. I mean…hey,’ Arlo said, swallowing a mouthful of water as he struggled to regain his composure.

‘Enjoy your swim,’ the man answered, evidently not interested in talking as he eased himself into the water and swam in the opposite direction to Arlo.

Fortunately, the pool was big enough so as Arlo and the handsome but grumpy stranger didn’t have to interact or even be in close proximity to one another. But even this wasn’t enough as far as Arlo was concerned.

It’s time to go.

He might be handsome, but he’s a stranger.

Swim time is over.

Arlo swam over toward his stuff and quickly clambered out of the water. Conscious that his butt cheeks were on display, Arlo very quickly grabbed his towel and dried himself as quickly as was humanely possible.

Unable to stop himself, Arlo kept glancing back toward the man as he swam in the water, hoping to catch a glimpse of more than his head and powerful, boulder-like shoulders.

‘Urgh. Stop it, Arlo,’ Arlo muttered. ‘He might see. I don’t want him thinking I’m interested in him or anything. And for all I know he’s a crazy woodland psycho-killer…’

And after putting his clothes back on, Arlo gathered his things and started on the route back toward his camp without even a backward glance.

It was time to get a fire on and then relax with his chunky cookies and trusty Kindle…

As Arlo made the short trip back to his camp, his mind was whirling with images of the mystery man in the Eagle Falls water pool.

Who was he?

Where was he from?

Was he… no, he couldn’t be. Could he?

‘Sass, what do you think?’ Arlo asked, arching his head and looking at his stuffie as he took pride of place in the side compartment of the backpack. ‘Was Mr. Sexy Swimmer a Daddy? Or I’m I justwishinghe was.’

Arlo allowed himself a little giggle.

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