Page 29 of Eat Your Heart Out
13
Gerard
Ali’s scars were deep. It was obvious she’d been cut, and they’d used Jaws of Life to save her. Elon and Cyrus had showed me pictures of their six months in the ER and what they’d learned.
I ached to touch her, but I held back. Instead, I shifted my head. “Let’s race.”
We went for a lap, then I waited in the deep end.
She grabbed the wall a few seconds later. “You win.”
I shrugged. Seeing her at peace would be a good step for us. I winked. “I get more practice than you.”
She held on to the side and gazed at the ocean around us. I came closer, as staying away became impossible. “You’ll get some pool time every day for a year, so I doubt that will always be true.”
She faced me, and for one second, it was like the brightest part of the day. Then her lips curved lower. “So swimming is part of the job now?” She swam off to the shallow end.
I followed, and once we stopped on the edge where we could stand, I said, “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want.”
She sighed. “I want to. Everything with you is good.”
My heart skipped a beat.
She then lowered herself in the water to float as she gazed at me. “Your mom raised you right.”
Not being near her felt like a loss. I lowered my body and head like I was about to pretend to be a shark as if we were still kids. “She’s wonderful, though I wasn’t always a good son.”
I followed her deeper and deeper into the pool as she said, “I doubt that.”
I popped my head up and swam next to her. “Elon and I caused her a few gray hairs when we jumped out of planes without her permission.”
She shook her head as we circled the pool. “You what?”
I came closer, and her eyes widened. I backed off, as the last thing I wanted to do was frighten her. “In Hawaii, there was a free-fall skydiving school, and we both asked to go. She said no, so we forged her signature and headed up the day she went to the spa.”
She covered her lips. “Oh no.”
I cocked my head. The fall had been the first real thrill I’d ever experienced. “Adrien was just a kid then, and he told her. We were midjump when she found out. We were grounded for a month after that.”
She laughed and nodded. “Good, because I’d have done the same or worse.”
I winked. “I can tell you’ll be a good mom one day.”
She stopped and lowered her hands to her sides. “Doubtful. Haven’t you noticed my scars?”
I lowered my voice. Her scars were beautiful, as they made her vulnerable and even more interesting. “Did they tell you that you can’t have children?”
She hugged her waist and lowered her head. “No, but I’m not blind. And sex hurts too much to ever let it happen anyhow.”
I kept my distance, as she seemed lost. “That doesn’t sound right.”
She twisted her hands, something she seemed to do when she was nervous. “Over a year ago, my ex insisted, and the second he touched me intimately, I screamed from the pain. We never tried again.”
If I pressed for information, I might upset her. And I wanted her to trust me. But as I floated, I couldn’t help but ask, “So you lived with a guy and didn’t have sex?”
“I don’t want to talk about this.”
We both floated in silence for a few minutes.
