Page 34 of The Love Haters

The love hater himself. And also the guy with the saddest eyes I’d ever seen.

Looking very much like he might be… our swim instructor.

I looked around in panic. Because Hutch the rescue swimmer wasthe one personin Key West who I couldn’t take swim lessons from.

Beyond how embarrassing it is to be neara person that beautifulwhen you are feeling the exact opposite, and beyond the weirdness of being not-that-far-from-naked in front of a person you’re about to work with in a professional capacity…

Hutch couldn’t know that I didn’t know how to swim.

Because I’domittedthat to get the job he didn’t even know I had.

It was bad on so many levels. But especially: once Hutch knew I was making the video promo, he could probably get me fired. For the lying, if nothing else.

Given all the secrecy around my taking Cole’s place, it wasn’t hard to intuit that Hutch might not be too thrilled to find out I was his new videographer.

Was there a way to escape?

Because the less he knew about me, the better.

“Morning, ladies,” Hutch called.

Today, I got a good wide-shot gander at him. Yes: he was the perfect amount of tall. And wearing board shorts, and flip-flops… and nothing else. Also, and I’m not exaggerating:a specimen of human perfection.

But in a normal way—if that’s possible?

Like a person who just happens to really put his body to very good use.

His muscles were solid. His calf muscles were—I don’t know—like something out of an anatomy textbook? I would swear he’d been sculpted out of marble by some very attentive ancient Greek if his skin tone wasn’t so… buttery? As if he’d been baked to perfection in some mouthwatering oven?

I shook my head to reset. This guy was my job.Get it together!

But I hadn’t even adjusted to the visual of Hutch himself before I got another shock.

Hutch was followed through the gate by the most enormous horse-sized dog I’d ever seen.

“Hutch!” the ladies all started calling. “Come meet your new student!”

What were the options again? Fight, flight, or freeze?

Flight would have been a great option. Fight could also have worked in a pinch.

But I must have been a herd animal in a former life, because—once again—I froze.

I froze hard.

No method acting required today. Iwasa mannequin.

What was happening? I felt like I’d been tricked. I never would have signed up for any class within a hundred miles of here if I’d knownPuppy Lovewas the instructor!

And yet, here we were.

Mentally, I braced for impact.

At some point, this sea of old ladies was going to part, and he was going to behold the sight of me—and I’ll just pause here to cry a little bit—in a bathing suit.

I blew a mental kiss to my beach towel for being the last thing standing between me and utter despair.

I don’t actually know how to put into words what I was afraid of in that moment. I didn’t really think that this man was going to do anything weird when he saw me. He wasn’t going to slap his hands over his eyes like he’d just seen a cyclops, or bend over and start retching, or turn and run screaming from the pool.

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