Page 85 of Forever Yours

Julien stopped and glanced our way, and I waved. He made a heart with his hands and held it up. I blew him a kiss. A couple of his teammates, the guys I’d seen at Fallon’s frat party, ran over, and Julien laughed at something one of them said. He pointed at me, and the guys waved like idiots before going back to kicking the ball.

“Dad’s dating someone. Jessi figured it out over breakfast pancakes.”

“About damn time,” Fallon replied, distracted by something on his phone. He stood up. “Got to go. Frat emergency. Stupid assholes. Drop by the house Wednesday after you get off work. We’ll start then.” His grin was diabolical. “Can’t wait to see Elijah Barnes learn how to fight dirty.”

CHAPTER 24

SexyBoyfriend: Dinner tonight?

Me: I’ve been craving biriyani. Meet at Agga?

SexyBoyfriend: I want to make you dinner. Come over here?

I switched my T-shirt for my swim shirt and sat down on the bench. Julien and I had been inseparable the last two days. He had slept over again last night. Ash didn’t care. We ordered pizza and hung out. It was good to see Ash again. I loved his crazy, and the shit that came out of his mouth, the guy was hysterical.

SexyBoyfriend: No pressure. Just wanted to treat my man to a homecooked meal.

Dammit. That was emotional blackmail. I was still avoiding Jayson and Ryder and hadn’t gone over to the condo or spoken to them yet.

Me: Let me think about it.

SexyBoyfriend: OK. Love you. And just so you know, the guys miss you.

With a guilty heart, I folded my clothes and set them on the bottom of the locker, then placed my wallet, phone, and keys on top. Shoes went on the upper shelf and my carry bag with my laptop and books got hung on the hook. First day of work jitters, but they were excited ones.

Mr. Winters walked past but didn’t stop. “Barnes, my office when you’re done.”

I slammed the locker closed. “I’m done. What’s up?” I asked, jogging to catch up with him.

He hadn’t said one word about the state of my face when I first arrived to clock in. It didn’t look so bad now—to me, at least. Maybe because I’d seen what I looked like before.

He pushed through the changing room door and held it open for me.

“Want to go over your schedule before your first session.”

We made our way down the corridor to his office.

“First, I want to know if you’re okay. If you’re in any trouble, I’d like to help.”

My feet stopped just as I crossed into his office. It was nice of him to offer.

“I’m okay.”

He gave me one of those ‘get-real’ looks my dad loves to throw at me when I try to bullshit my way out of stuff.

“I promise,” I added.

“If that changes, my door is always open.” He gestured for me to take a seat, then went over to the wall-length whiteboard. “You can double check your schedule here, and who you’ll be training on which days.” He took a binder off his desk and handed it to me. “After every session, you’ll update the athlete’s file, print it out and put it in here. It’s pretty much self-explanatory but if anything comes up, find me, Brett, or any of the other staff.”

Unzipping the padfolio, I scanned the contents. I’d be working with one of the football players today. Someone named Antonne.

Swimming wasn’t just for swimmers. Athletes from other sports enjoyed the benefits they got from being in the pool and used it as part of their cross training. It was low impact, and not only improved balance, coordination, and core stability but also increased muscle endurance and strength.

“Got it.”

“Check in with me before you go. Just a head’s up. Saturday, when you’re here, we’ll be doing mandatory in-service drills.”

Those were where we had to perform mock emergencies to make sure we knew what to do to save someone in the water. For the CPR part, we used a dummy. For other parts, someone had to play the part of the victim in the water.

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