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I changed, the butterflies continued, and I wondered if they had less to do with the lesson I was about to have, and more to do with who was giving it.
    He’s just a guy , I reminded myself. And the lesson is no big deal .
    I slammed the beechwood locker closed and padded on bare feet to the outdoor pool deck, just beyond the girls’ locker room.
    I stopped short when I saw Will, not wearing his wetsuit, or even the skintight t-shirt he’d been wearing at The Dunes when I’d gone after my keys—the night his tongue had done a little diving of its own.
    Today, he wore only his swim trunks, and if I’d thought Lucas was the Chiseled Abs titleholder of LA County, I’d been sorely mistaken. Chiseled didn’t begin to describe Will’s defined torso. I tried to tear my gaze away, for my own good—it was like looking at the sun, too much intensity in one white-hot package. I didn’t want to go blind.
    “Hey, Brown Eyes!” he called, and I felt my cheeks get hot when I realized he’d totally caught me staring. “You made it. Go ahead and get in the pool with the rest of the class; we were just about to get started.”
    I heard the raucous sound of laughter and splashing coming from the pool beyond him, and could hardly believe I hadn’t noticed right off the bat. Seriously, when did I become the girl who was so easily captivated by a nice piece of man candy?
    Kids. The pool was filled with a bunch of kids.
    My jaw tightened as I marched closer, not wanting prying ears to hear what I had to say. “What on earth made me think you were trying to be nice? So, you what, brought me here to…humiliate me?” I never should have trusted Will in the first place. My first instinct about him had been right—he was a Grade-A jackass. “I get it, jumping in the ocean was a dumb move. You didn’t have to be a jerk about it.”
    I turned to storm back to the locker room, but Will caught my arm. “Hey. Hold up a sec.” His voice was low the way mine had been, and his head dipped closer to me. “This isn’t some plan to humiliate you. You’re right—what you did was dumb, but my offer was completely serious. I teach people how to swim—I thought that’s what you wanted.” I didn’t want to look into his eyes, but I couldn’t help myself, and the earnestness I saw in them had me believing what he said.
    My shoulders sagged as I peered past him, my brow furrowing. “Okay, yes, but…” I grimaced, not even sure where to start. “Not like this. Not with them.” I nodded toward the pool, to the kids.
    His voice grew even lower. “Don’t be that way. It’ll be okay. Come on, let me show you,” His hand slipped around mine, and before I could object, he was leading me toward the water.
    I wasn’t sure he was right, but I really needed this lesson. When we reached the pool’s edge, he made an announcement. “Class,” he said, while ten kids stopped what they were doing to stare up at him. “I have a special surprise for you.”
    I wanted to slink away, but Will dragged me forward, until I was standing right next to him, and suddenly I felt like there was a spotlight shining down on me. It was bad enough that all ten kids were watching, but I knew the parents in the bleachers were as well.
    “We’re going to have a helper for these classes.” His hand settled on the small of my back as he pushed me to take a step closer to the pool. “Say hi to Lauren.”
    The kids did their best to greet me in unison, waving spastically and showing me their gap-toothed grins.
    I turned to Will, not quite sure what had just happened. “Thank you,” I mouthed as the butterflies erupted all over again.
    ‡
    The hour went fast and wasn’t nearly as torturous as I had imagined it would be.
    Will spent the first several minutes coaxing one particularly terrified little girl off the top step. “Gracie,” he told her in the kind of gentle voice I would never have expected to come from him. He stretched his hand toward her. “How