Page 25 of Love At The Shore
If Lucas didn’t know better, he would have thought the boy looked up to him. It wasn’t possible though, was it? He hadn’t given Nick any actual help.
Yet.
“All right, we’ll figure it out.” Lucas held up his hand.
Nick slapped it in a high five.
Lucas didn’t know what to add at that point. He’d already said more than he’d planned to, and honestly he wasn’t even sure he was up to the task of helping Nick. He’d be better off sticking to things he actually knew a little bit about, like surfing.
Plus, he had a feeling Jenna might not approve of his offer to give the kid a few pointers. He probably should have cleared it with her first, but it was too late now.
As he slid past Nick to head back to the water, the boy called after him. “Hey, Lucas?”
He stopped.What now?Lucas no longer trusted himself to think straight around the poor kid. Next thing he knew, he’d probably be volunteering to coach his swim team in the fall.
That wasn’t quite what Nick had in mind, though. “Can we maybe not tell my mom about this? I’m not sure she’d like it.”
Lucas followed Nick’s gaze as he shot a meaningful glance toward the spot on the beach where Jenna was half-buried in the sand. Lucas was so accustomed to seeing her pounding away on her laptop at the picnic table that he hadn’t noticed her.
She and Ally were just a stone’s throw away, surrounded by a colorful collection of plastic shovels and buckets. Jenna wore a bright green swimsuit and an elaborately crafted mermaid tail carved out of sand and covered in delicate shells. When she tossed her head back and laughed at something her daughter said, Lucas’s breath caught in his throat. Summer looked good on Jenna Turner.
Then she glanced his direction and the tender curve of her lips flattened into a straight, unimpressed line. Lucas looked away.
The kid had a point. After all, Jenna had disliked him so much at first that she’d put up a barrier between them…even if, sometimes, he got the feeling that her opinion of him was changing.
“Mum’s the word,” he said. “You get it?”
Nick rolled his eyes at the terrible pun.
“Sorry, I had to.” Lucas shrugged and it wasn’t until he walked away that he realized what he’d just done.
He’d made an actual dad joke.
Chapter Five
After thinking on it allnight, Lucas was convinced that the best way to help Nick with his swim times was to coach him while he was at day camp. Otherwise, Jenna was sure to find out.
He’d also determined that keeping her out of the loop was probably a mistake. Abigone. But he’d already promised Nick he wouldn’t say anything to her about it, and he didn’t want to go back on his word.
Lucas could help Nick. He knew he could. He also knew what it felt like to be smaller than the rest of the kids his age, to be slower. Always a step behind.
So even though he knew it was probably a terrible idea, he showed up at camp bright and early the next morning with a stopwatch around his neck and a plan to get Nick going a little faster.
“All right, now to strengthen your stroke you need to learn to swim like a surfer.” Lucas glanced down at the middle lane of the swimming pool and back up at Nick.
The boy’s slim arms dangled at his sides. “Seriously?”
Okay, maybe that wasn’t the most useful advice for someone who didn’t know how to surf. “Just focus on shortening the number of strokes it takes for you to get to the end of the pool, and I promise it’ll help you catch lots of waves.”
Nick shrugged one shoulder. “But I don’t surf.”
Maybe he should stop with the surfing analogies. “That’s not the point. Do you want to break 1:18 or not?”
Nick let out a defeated sigh.
Trust me, kid.“Go!”
Lucas watched as Nick dove off the starting block and began kicking his legs furiously as he made his way across the pool. He reached the halfway point in just four or five strokes.
