Chapter Twenty-Two

On Saturday, I borrow a bike and peddle to the community pool for Mar’s swim meet. About ten minutes in, I glance across the outdoor lanes to see Riel stroll through the gate carrying a crate of bottled water. I watch as he puts the crate down beside the coach, his arm muscles flexing, and then heads back through the gate out to the parking lot.

“Viola!” Mar yells, and I snap out of my staring.

She grins and excitedly waves, and I wave back.

“So you’re Viola, huh?”

I look over my shoulder at the brown-haired guy sitting behind me on the bleachers. He’s got one of those long, surfer hairdos. “Sorry, do we know each other?” I ask.

He points at the pool. “My brother’s on Mar’s team. I heard her telling everybody that her new friend, Viola, was coming today.”

I smile. “That’s sweet.”

He smiles back. “I take it you go to Ponce de Leon?”

I nod. “You?”

“I’m a senior over at Key High.” He takes his sunglasses off, giving me a shot of dark brown eyes. “Where you from?”

“Tennessee.”

“I’ve been to Nashville.”

“Yeah? You like country music?”

“I do, actually. My name’s Joe, by the way.”

I smile. “Nice to meet you.”

He leans back in the bleachers. “Ponce de Leon Academy, huh? You a rich one?”

“Hardly.” I scoff. “I’m here on scholarship.”

Joe slides me a slow, sexy smile. “Boyfriend? Single?”

I laugh. “You’re awful bold.” And he laughs, too.

I like him. He seems harmless enough.

“Hey, Joe.” Riel sits down right beside me, and all kinds of flutters zip along my skin. “I see you met Viola.”

“Yep, I was just about to ask her out.”

I get a little flustered as Riel shoots me a surprised look.

Joe leans up. “Well, what do you say?”

I adjust my sunglasses more to hide my discomfort than anything. “Um, thanks, but no. Not here to date. I’m here to study.” It makes me sound like a prude, but it is why I came here. Even if just being in the same proximity with Riel makes my body want otherwise.

“Oh.” Joe pauses. “All right then.” He slaps Riel on the back. “Think I’ll go say hi to the new assistant coach.”

He strolls around the pool to the other side and strikes up a conversation with a cute girl wearing a white visor and a whistle around her neck.

“Guess you didn’t hurt his feelings too bad,” Riel mumbles, and we both laugh.

A few seconds later he turns to me. “Mar said she invited you. Thanks for coming. I know it means a lot to her.”

“I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.” I nod to the pool. “How long’s she been swimming? She’s really good.”

“Forever. She surfs, too.”

I snap him a surprised look. “Get out!”

“Sails and scuba dives as well.”

“You, too, then?”

He nods. “I’m the one who taught her.”

“What about your parents?” I let my curiosity get the best of me.

Riel stands up then. “Go, hermanita!”

I glance back at the pool to see her dive in, and I jump to my feet. “Go, Mar!”

She cuts through the water, coming up for air every two seconds, reaches the end, and flips.

Riel applauds. “You got it!”

She digs in, heads back, and my whole body tenses in anticipation.

She flips again and shoots out under the water.

“This is it, this is it,” Riel chants.

Mar breaks away from the rest and I scream. She touches first and the coach calls it.

“Hell, yeah!” Riel yells and grabs me up in a hug.

Laughing, I hug him back.

Riel pulls away and looks across the pool at the digital clock. “That was her best time yet!”

Mar climbs from her lane and Riel leaps from the bleachers. Soaking wet, she launches herself into his arms.

I watch the two of them, smiling like a goof, so crazy happy I don’t know what else to do except keep clapping and screaming for them.

Mar looks up at me then, waving and grinning, and I excitedly wave back.

“Mar!” I hear a man call, and she and Riel both turn their heads.

Over by the gate stands a man in overalls and a red ball cap.

I look back to Riel and Mar to see them side by side, frozen, staring at the man. Mar looks up at Riel and says something, and he slowly nods.

Without looking at me, he comes toward the bleachers, grabs Mar’s gym bag, and walks straight toward the man. Mar slowly follows.

No one says a word to each other as they walk through the gate and across the parking lot. Right before the man climbs into his truck, he takes his red ball cap off, and I suddenly remember a couple days ago on the playground.

Mar had seen someone with a red baseball hat watching us in the woods.