In the Fast Lane (Fast Series Book 1) (11 page)

“I know. I know, okay. I’m not...it’s not like that for me either. But, Jessi, it’s something, isn’t it?”

Dalton didn’t know if it was because he was asking her for once, rather than highhandedly assuming he knew the score, but for some reason, she cut him some slack.

“Yeah. It’s something. But it can’t
be
anything. It’s probably because we’re working together as adults who have history and haven’t seen each other in a long time. It’s just, I don’t know, the need for closure or something.”

He let go of her hand. He needed to. There was no good explanation for the way they were touching each other should anyone walk by. She was hands-the-fuck-off.

“I don’t think this has anything to do with closure. In fact, I don’t think this has anything to do with eight years ago. At least not for me.”

“Of course it doesn’t. Eight years ago, you didn’t give a shit about me.”

“Not true.” He held up a figure to emphasize his point. “I cared about you very much. Just not the way you wanted me to.”

“Can we not talk about that please?”

“I’m not wrong, am I?”

“It doesn’t matter, does it? You and I cannot have a relationship. We cannot mess around. We cannot...whatever.”

Dalton was pleased to see that she was struggling with defining things too. Jessi took a breath and looked like she was trying for something better to end on.

“Look, I don’t know what this is. I seriously don’t. It might just be close proximity and lack of better options, but there isn’t anything
real
going on here. Once this is over, we will go our separate ways and never think about each other.” Jessi turned and walked toward the locker room.

“Jess.” Yeah, he said it on purpose. This conversation was
not
over, but he needed to get her mind in the game. She wasn’t going to like this, but he was going to have to piss her off and get her focused. “Two things.”

She spun around. “What?”

Dalton had his back to her, already heading to join Sawyer in the observation room, but turned to look over his shoulder. “One: That is complete bullshit and we are going to address this little situation later. Two: I might have been a jackass, but you still want me. You’re gonna have to wait though, sweetheart, because we have a lot of work to do. So get your cute little ass in line and let’s get it done.” With a wicked grin he was happy as hell she couldn’t see, Dalton disappeared around the corner, leaving Jessi pissed off and hopefully ready to kick some ass.

Chapter 12

“Damn, that woman is fast!” Sawyer was looking down at Jessi from his and Dalton’s perch in the observation deck. A slow smile spread across his face. “She’s back, isn’t she?”

“Looks like.” Dalton was staring at the same dark figure in the water but thinking about something completely different concerning the woman they were watching.

Sawyer grabbed his shoulder and squeezed. “Good job, man. I’m serious,” he added when Dalton tried to brush off the compliment. “You’ve done a great job with her. She needed something, and you gave it to her.”

Dalton laughed nervously. Oh, if Sawyer only knew what he’d wanted to give her. “Honestly, man, I just pissed her off a couple of minutes ago. That’s all this is.”

“Whatever. I don’t care. It worked,” Sawyer replied.

“Yeah, it did,” Dalton sighed dubiously. “Look, I gotta go down and stop her to see how she feels. It’s that second fifty that starts to wear on her. I’ll talk to you after practice.”

“Cool. Listen, let’s give the adult swimmers a break tonight. Nothing big, but maybe an extended curfew and lifted restrictions on where they can go.”

“All right. They do need a break. How lifted do you want to go?” Dalton asked.

“They can go out. Can’t drink, of course, but we’ll raise the curfew to eleven o’clock.” Sawyer paused, then added, “In that regard, why don’t you and I do the same, but let’s disregard the no drinking part. I could use a break. And a drink.” He smiled at Dalton.

“Yes. I think that is an excellent idea, Coach.” Dalton felt his body relax as he headed down the stairs. If he needed anything, a night out was it.

Dalton’s aim was damn near perfect. You had to lead the swimmers
just
a little bit so that you didn’t actually hit them, but close enough that the water bottle distracted them out of their stroke. More often than not though, he hit them. Kinda on purpose.

He didn’t think, given his previous encounter with Jessi, that hitting her was wise. First, she was already seriously pissed and might come after him. Second, that would kind of be like a third grader kicking the girl he liked. He liked Jessi all right, but she’d probably call him on it and that would seriously ruin the effect he was looking for by throwing the water bottle in the first place. Hard to look tough if he was accused of flirting.

Problem was, Jessi was really fast. He hadn’t realized how much her stroke was improving and didn’t account for the added speed. Plus, she was in lane two, so he had to work the extra distance into the equation. The water bottle—it was only half filled; he wasn’t a tyrant for crying out loud—hit her right on the ass.
Damn, damn, damn
!

“What the hell, Dalton?” Jessi sputtered as she brought her head out of the water, distracted mid-stroke and fumbling for footing.

“Oh, shit...I’m sorry. Bad aim.” He seriously hadn’t meant to hit her, but was still trying really hard not to laugh. She looked ridiculous stopping mid fly, and it was really freaking funny. Now, she just looked pissed...and damn cute.

She swam over to the side of the pool, ducking under the lane rope and coming up to the side. “For someone supposedly attracted to me, you sure have interesting ways of flirting.” Jessi hissed through clenched teeth. “Real mature, Dalton.”

See, he knew she’d call him on it. “I seriously did not mean to hit you. But now that you mention it, yeah I’m probably flirting. Since I can’t do what I really want to do to the girl I like, I might as well get some kicks, eh?”

“If you don’t knock it off, I will give you all the
kicks
you can handle,” Jessi pitched back.

“Promise?” Dalton gave her an evil grin and winked, just for good measure.

“I don’t even know what to say to that.” Jessi had a strong desire to hate Dalton. She had an even stronger desire to shield herself from unneeded drama...and butt trauma. She rubbed the offended spot on her bottom.

Unfortunately, she also really wanted to know what he wanted to do to her. The smoldering look in his eyes hinted at things Jessi would really, really,
really
like.

“What do you want, Dalton? If you hadn’t noticed, I was swimming there.”

“I told you I’d check on you halfway through your warm up. How do you feel?”

“I’m fine, actually,” Jessi said, a bit surprised. She hadn’t expected to feel this good so early in the practice.

“Yeah, you really are.” His voice was soft, and his eyes had lost some of the edge they usually carried. She blushed a little, looking quickly down to inspect the pool’s drain.

“Thanks. I mean, I wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t worked me through it.”

“Yeah, you would be.” Dalton smiled at her. “It might not have looked as good,” he added quickly. “And it certainly would have taken a lot longer, but you would have worked it out. Now we can get down to the real workouts.” He turned to leave.

“Real workouts? You mean these haven’t been real workouts?” It wasn’t a serious question. Jessi was more or less teasing. She was well aware that she’d been doing lighter workouts to help get her shoulder back in shape. She really just didn’t want Dalton to go. Okay, fine, call it flirting. She was nothing if not masochistic.

Dalton eyes were smoldering. “Believe me, you’ll know when I give you a full workout.” He didn’t wink this time. Instead, another slow and wicked grin spread across his beautiful mouth. He turned away, barely acknowledging the deliberate double-entendre.

Jessi watched as Dalton made his way down the poolside. “Crappity, crap, crap,” she mumbled.

“What? Did you say something?” One of the other swimmers in her lane, Tanner—a cocky little son-of-a-bitch that Dalton loved to pick on, had stopped his lap to see if she needed anything.

Jessi took stock of her situation. She was just hanging out on the side of the pool, looking like something might be wrong. Well, it kind of was, now wasn’t it?

“Oh, sorry. I just got a cramp. Didn’t mean to stop you up.”

“I hate it when that happens. Coach should know better than to stop you so fast,” Tanner said, glancing at the water bottle still floating in the lane. “I hear older people really gotta cool down before they get out of the pool.”

Jessi fixed him with a stare and took an uncharacteristic indulgence afforded by her seniority on the team. She picked up the water bottle. “Take this to the end of the lane and make sure it gets thrown away.” She pushed off the wall and swam back to the end of the lane to start her set over before Dalton could think of new and creative ways to torture her, both mentally and physically.

“Tanner, you weren’t wrong in your assessment of the elderly.” Jessi pulled herself out of the pool with the last bit of strength she had.

“Huh?” The kid was dragging himself out of the pool, just like her. Dalton had been relentless on all of them.

“Nothing.” If this was Dalton’s way of projecting his sexual frustration, he’d been successful. She hurt, her lungs were bursting, and as she took her first steps on land, her legs wobbled. She was thoroughly worn out.

Jessi took off her cap and grabbed a seat on the bleachers. She found her towel and proceeded to dry out her curls. A trainer came over and started rubbing her shoulder, which got immediate attention after each workout. She sat back and groaned with relief.

“Keep it moving, Jess.” Her trainer’s voice seemed far away, given the odd acoustics of the pool, the water that was still in her ears, and the blood pounding through her head. “You gotta keep the muscles warm. Don’t stop ‘em cold.”

Yeah, Dalton
, Jessi thought.
Listen to the trainer. Don’t stop a girl’s muscles cold
. She was pretty sure it was a “That’s what she said” moment, but was too tired to work the joke out. Instead, she took a breath and let the aching muscles move with the assistance of her trainer.