Teddy ran right up to her. “Nora, Nora! This isn’t band practice. It’s to see if we like you. Leo isn’t sure you’ll work out.”

My stomach dropped, realizing I shouldn’t have said so much in front of Teddy earlier when I’d been talking to Sebastian.

Nora laughed, her eyes dancing. “Teddy, I can tell already that you and I are going to be best friends.” She gave him a big smile and me an amused smirk. “Tell me what else Leo says,” she said, walking over and tentatively crooking her arm through his and heading out through the patio doors to the pool area. I found myself pleased at her reaction. With Teddy, you had to get that he didn’t hold back when it came to what he said. You had to roll with it ’cause social cues and niceties meant nothing to him.

As soon as we stepped out into the hot August sun, Sebastian yelled for her to get in the pool with him and Vixen. I stood there not sure what to do now that she was here. I hung back, watching as she pulled her dress off, revealing a bright orange bikini. It wasn’t too revealing; it covered her full breasts and her pert ass, yet I couldn’t keep my eyes off her. I thought about the piercing she’d gotten last week. I wondered how it would feel in my mouth, how I could use my tongue on it to make her hot and wet. Pissed at my wayward imagination, I forced my eyes back to the pool, where I caught Sebastian checking her out, too. Fuck. Stupid, asinine idea to be around Nora in a bikini. Maybe we should have just had a band session. At least then she would have decent clothes on.

Teddy’s bony frame jumped back in, and she dove in after him, her body knifing through the water. While they swam, Sebastian and Vixen set up the net for a volleyball game as I sat and played my guitar, working out the beat to a new song I was working on. I stared at Nora while I strummed the chords, wondering what had happened to her to make her snap. Just looking at her, you’d never guess she had problems. She seemed confident, poised, and perfect, even though I knew from her list she hated that word.

Sebastian called out for me to play volleyball. I grimaced, dreading the thought of being too close to Nora. Whatever. I could stay away from her in the water, right?

“Who plays who?” Teddy asked, clutching the ball, his eyes darting between us, never landing too long on one person.

Before I could make a suggestion, Sebastian gave me a little grin and said, “You take Nora and Teddy, Leo. That way it’s the old geezers versus the babies.”

“You’re only a year younger than me,” Nora told Sebastian, her smile infectious and just for him. Had she ever smiled at me that way? She shrugged and swam over to my side though, and I tried to keep my eyes from caressing over her exposed skin. It was a normal reaction to a beautiful girl in a wet bathing suit.

Nora and I played, working well together, me covering the long serves and her guarding the front of the net. We kinda made up our own rules, being lenient with Teddy who would sometimes get upset if his balls didn’t make it over. Nora fell right in with us, encouraging Teddy to keep on trying, laughing good naturedly when we made a mistake.

I thought I might get out of this unscathed. Then everything fell apart when Sebastian served the ball, and it went up and over, heading for the vague area between me and Nora. Neither of us called it, yet both of us rushed toward it until we were right on top of each other. We both jumped at the same time, the waves of the water pushing the front of her body tight against my chest. I tried to get the ball while at the same time pull away from her, but I only fumbled it, feeling it tip off my fingers and veer off somewhere behind us. I grunted and fell back, my hands reaching out to keep her from falling, but I only tugged her down with me. We both went under with her on top of me, our bodies pressed together and our legs intertwining. It probably only took four or five seconds for the whole crash to play out, yet it seemed to move in slow motion. And as we both sank down to the bottom, I kept my eyes open, even though the fresh chlorine burned like hell. I wanted to take her in without her knowing; I wanted to see her face. She was as mind-blowing underwater as on top, looking like a real life, long-haired mermaid that I’d like to push up against the pool and kiss the hell out of.

We both came up gasping for air and she laughed, and I laughed too, and whatever anger we’d felt at the park drifted away. The sound of Sebastian and Vixen trash-talking us faded away, and I couldn’t see or hear anything but Nora. And with that came a feeling of being trapped and suffocated by something beyond my control. I got scared.

“I’m getting out,” I said, abruptly, swimming past her, trying not to notice her confusion.

Her face dropped, but I didn’t let it stop me. I left her there in the pool and went back to my lounge chair. Sebastian pestered me to get back in, calling me a baby for going under and getting water up my nose, but I ignored him. I dried off and picked my guitar back up, getting back to my song. After a while, they got out, and Nora announced she was leaving.

“Why are you leaving?” I blurted out, not sure why. I wanted her to leave.

“I have a Princeton application I’m supposed to have filled out. I need to work on it,” she said, nibbling on her bottom lip, like the thought of doing it made her anxious.

I nodded, but it was automatic, just going through the motions, because when she’d said Princeton, I saw how vastly different we were besides the age thing. She had a big future ahead of her at some ivy league school while I’d never finished because I’d been busy turning a run-down gym into a profitable money-maker to support me and Sebastian.