Swimming Lessons

by Athena Chills

  Swimming Lessons

  By

  Athena Chills

  Also by Athena Chills:

  Rick & Owen Breathplay Series

  Breathless Prisoner (Rick & Owen Volume 1)

  It's a Gas (Mask) (Rick & Owen Volume 2)

  All Wrapped Up (Rick & Owen Volume 3)

  A Day at the Pool (Rick & Owen Volume 4)

  Standalone Novelettes

  Bound for Happiness (Coleen & Ron)

  Gay in Galveston (Mark & Eric)

  The Biker and Rose (Corndog & Rose)

  Dale’s Dunking (Dale & Bill)

  Swimming Lessons (Sam & Jean)

  Text © 2013 Sexyfic.com.

  Smashwords Edition

  Dedication

  To Kevin, who is hotter than any fiction

  Swimming Lessons

  By Athena Chills

  Sam stepped onto the beach from the sidewalk that ran from the parking lot. It was an early Friday in June and the place would be swarming with kids and families on vacation soon. For the moment, however, he was alone on the beach. He tiptoed carefully across the already-warming sand, cautious not to step on any of the jagged shells.

  He admired the beauty of the beach this morning. He took a deep whiff of the salty air and closed his eyes. Some days the air was full of the smell of decayed things, but today, everything smelled clean. He opened his eyes and continued his walk toward the guard station. He scanned the waves, paying close attention to the height of the breakers. The tide was coming in, not that it mattered on this stretch of beach. The waves themselves were unusually calm today. Sam sighed; it was going to be an easy day.

  Coming to the base of his guard station, Sam fished in his pocket for the padlock key. He climbed the steps up to the door and unlocked it. He hung the padlock and the key on a nail inside the shady refuge.

  He opened the cover that shut up the tower at night, giving him a full view of the coastline. He pulled a pair of binoculars down from a shelf and made a quick sweep of his section of the beach. There was nothing dangerous or particularly interesting out there today. It was just a matter of waiting for the inevitable crowds.

  He put the binoculars down and set up his folding chair. He sat back on the chair, propping his feet up in the window. He rested there for the next half hour as several families arrived on the scene, carrying blankets, coolers, umbrellas, and all manner of beach toys. There was a group of four teenage boys, all carrying body boards. Sam shook his head, as he already knew how that was going to work out. The waves were too calm for body boarding, at least too calm for his tastes.

  About a half an hour after he had arrived, a group of four college-aged girls walked past his tower. He heard one say conspiratorially, "he's pretty cute," as they walked past. Sam smiled. Most days, he could have his pick of the girls and young women who spent their days here enjoying the sun. Right now though, he was content to sit back in his chair and scan the beach and waves.

  The group of boys had their body boards out, but they were quickly finding that the waves weren't strong enough to push them anywhere. Instead, they were trying to splash each other by smacking their boards into the waves. Occasionally, one would jump on another and dunk him. Sam didn’t care, so long as they didn’t get carried away.

  The group of girls were mostly just standing there in the waves, squealing like children when the little foot-high waves broke against their butts or backs. Some of them were walking out slowly, seeing how far they could get and still touch bottom. The girls were in water up to their chins now, so Sam figured they would come back in soon.

  A family with two very young children had just set up their base right below Sam's station. One of the children wanted to run off into the waves, but was instead scooped up by the mother and placed into a playpen. "Who brings a playpen to the beach?" Thought Sam to himself. Apparently the child had similar thinking, because it immediately started crying uncontrollably.

  The boys with the body boards had come in and set their boards in a pile. Now they seemed to be digging for something. With no one else in the water, he was able to focus on the four girls.

  The girls who had been up to their necks had found a sandbar and had climbed up on top of it, since now it appeared the water only reached their waist. Some of them continued out into deeper water, while one girl remained behind on the sandbar. The other girls paddled around in the very-calm deep water for a couple of minutes, then they returned to the sandbar. All of them started heading back to the shore.

  Except for the one girl who hadn't gone off the sandbar. She had tried to come back with the other girls, but couldn't find a shallow path back in. The incoming tide had made the calm water deeper than it was when she'd gone out, and now there was no way to walk back in.

  Sam knew where this was headed; he’d dealt with this before. He grabbed his flotation device and started walking in her general direction. He'd have to swim out and tow her back in, no big deal. The water would probably feel pretty good by now. He waved to her to signal that he was coming, and that she shouldn't panic.

  She didn't see him. She was up to her chin with her head back, desperately trying to walk in. She took one slow, exploratory step at a time, each time going lower in the water. She understood that the tide was coming in, and if she didn't hurry, this was going to get worse. She took another step forward.

  The other girls saw Sam approaching them and started calling out flirtatiously, not even noticing their friend behind them was in trouble. Sam was almost to the water's edge when he saw her go under. Then he broke into a run. She was easy to spot, as her head was still breaking the surface occasionally. She was panicking, but still managed to jump up and down, catching enough breath each time. She must have misjudged a breath, because he saw her come up and then go back down without breathing: she was choking on the water.

  He reached her quickly. She couldn’t have been in real trouble for more than a half a minute. He pushed the life preserver toward her, and she grabbed it instantly. He started swimming back in, but after a couple of strokes, she let go of the floatation device and just lay there face down in the water, unmoving.

  He immediately went back for her, rolling her on her back and pulling her in. It wasn't long before his feet could touch bottom, and he carried her, running back to the dry sand as quickly as he could through the waves.

  He put her down and checked her breathing. Nothing. He rolled her over and shook her, hoping she would cough up water. He didn't think she'd actually inhaled much water, just enough to choke on to the point of passing out. He was right. She twitched and shook her head, and a mouthful of water came out. She twisted and pushed herself to her knees, retching and gagging. She was also breathing, so Sam knew she'd be OK now.

  Her friends were surrounding her now, patting her back, bringing her towels, and generally fawning and doting all over her. Two of them were apologizing for not helping or not noticing. Sam couldn't fault them; he'd seen this plenty of times. It was so easy to miss a drowning, since the victim rarely gets a chance to yell for help. He helped the girl to her feet. "What's your name?" He asked.

  She looked at him with thankfulness and relief. "I'm Jean. Jean Young. Who are you?"

  "Sam. Sam Peters. Are you feeling OK?" He still had her by the arm, making sure she could walk without falling. She was starting to get some color back, and he really did think she'd be fine, "You should probably still go to the hospital and get checked out. You were unconscious, and you could possibly have inhaled or swallowed something."

  Jean didn't argue. One of her friends took her arm and started leading her away from Sam, toward the parking lot. Sam made sure they all heard his advice about getting checked out, and watched them leave. He walked back to his tower a
nd started filling out the rescue report.

  The rest of the morning and afternoon were mostly uneventful, which was the way Sam preferred it. Later that afternoon, after he had finished taping up a child's cut foot, he returned to his tower to find Jean there.

  She had gone to the hospital, gotten checked over, and the doctor said she was fine. "Then I went home, got cleaned up and dressed, and it came to me that I hadn't thanked you, and that maybe you had paperwork for me to sign or something. I sure don’t want you to get into trouble because of me.”

  Sam smiled, "No trouble at all, that's why I'm here. The paperwork is fine. I already submitted it to my supervisor when he came through on his last circuit. As far as thanking me, you weren't really in any condition to talk then."

  “Well, I am now.”

  She smiled back at him. Sam had been too busy that morning to properly pay attention to her, but he looked at her now. She was wearing a tight striped t-shirt and very short little cut-offs with white tennis shoes. She was about his age, with long brown hair, and very pretty. He imagined she must have had her hair tied back earlier, since he'd have noticed that before.

  “One thing though,” he hesitated, but continued, “You should probably stay out of water that’s over your head if you can’t swim.”

  She blushed. “I know. My friends were going out, and I didn’t want to stay behind, so I went with them. I wasn’t expecting to get stuck out there.”

  “No one expects accidents, that’s why they’re…” he thought of the word he wanted, “…accidental.” The more he looked at her, the more attracted to her he became. He started to stammer when he spoke. “I could show you how,” he added, much more quietly.

  “Show me what?”

  “How to swim. It’s not hard, and you only need to learn enough to be safe.” Was he actually concerned about her safety, or did he just want to spend more time with her? He thought he had her best interests in mind when he started this topic, but now he wasn’t so sure.

  “I’d like that,” She said. “When?”

  “I get off work at five every weekend, or pretty much any time on Monday through Thursday.”

  “How about tonight?” She looked surprisingly eager.

  Sam looked at the clock inside the tower. It was 4:20 right now.

  “Are you sure you’re up to it? You had a rough morning.”

  “I feel fine. I’d feel better if I knew it couldn’t happen again.”

  “I have nothing else going on tonight. Let me get things wrapped up and closed here at 5:00, and we can get started.”

  “Cool, it’s a date then!” She sounded excited. “I have some time before then, I was thinking of grabbing some food. With my hospital visit, I haven’t eaten since breakfast. Can I bring you something?”

  Sam nodded, “Sure. Whatever you’re having.” Had she said date?

  She returned about twenty minutes later, just as he started getting ready to close up his tower. She parked out in the lot, and had a big bag of food, some drinks, and a bag of clothes.

  “Burgers OK?” She asked, yelling over the waves.

  It had been a long, hot day with nothing but water and soft drinks from the vending machine. He’d have been happy with pretty much anything right now. “Burgers are great. Come on up!” He indicated that they could eat in the shack. Jean was careful climbing the stairs with her load, but she didn’t fall.

  She unloaded the bags of food, handing him two small dollar-menu burgers and a giant serving of fries. “I got you water. I didn’t know if you were into soda or not. You obviously work out pretty seriously.”

  Sam smiled. He did work out regularly, and he was glad it showed when it was supposed to. “Thanks!” was all he could think of to say. He started in on the first burger while Jean talked.

  “How long have you been doing this?” She asked.

  “Two years. I started when I was still in high school, and I’ve kept at it. Mom keeps telling me I need to go back to school, but I don’t think that’s for me.”

  Jean nodded, unwrapping her sandwich. “Yeah, I’m going to State. This is my second year. It’s hard, but I’m getting through it. If you want a job that pays well, you need a degree.”

  Sam nodded, he’d heard that plenty of times. “What are you going to school to do?”

  “I’m taking English courses. I’m going to travel the world teaching English in poor countries.”

  “Like a missionary?”

  “Sort of, but with grammar, not religion.”

  Sam chuckled at that. “That sounds like fun, there must be lots of places that need teachers. You could go pretty much anywhere.”

  Jean nodded. “That’s the plan. Teachers don’t make much money doing it, but the travel opportunities are unlimited, and it helps people. You have any big plans for the future?”

  “Not really. I help people every day right here.” The truth was that Sam was terrified of college. He’d barely been able to graduate high school, but when he’d heard that even the Army wouldn’t take him if he didn’t finish, he’d stuck it out and survived.

  He’d always dismissed College as just out of his league though. Still, he got paid pretty well for lifeguarding, and he had his own apartment. He was getting by. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew it wasn’t a long-term career, but that was a problem for the future.

  As he thought about Jean’s words, he noticed her eyes scanning his shirtless chest. He was buff. He was smooth. He was tan in the way only a lifeguard can be. At one time, he would have been shy about sitting here shirtless eating dinner with an attractive girl his own age. Not anymore.

  Before long, the food was gone and it was time to walk down to the water. Sam closed the window to the tower, and headed down to the sand below. Jean stayed behind, in the tower, to change into her swimsuit. Moments later, she emerged, wearing a white two-piece swimsuit, and nothing else. She left her bag of clothes and things inside the lifeguard tower and put the padlock in place, but didn’t click it locked.

  Sam turned and headed down to the water. Jean hurried to catch up, grabbed his hand and held it all the way to the water’s edge. He never said a word. When he’d offered to teach Jean to swim, Sam was genuinely being helpful; he really hadn’t intended anything romantic. Now that they were holding hands on the beach, Sam started having other ideas. As they approached the water's edge, Sam asked, "Don't you just love way the sand squishes through your toes? That always just takes away anything that's bothering me.”

  Jean nodded, but didn't say anything.

  Sam continued, "How come you never learned to swim? Did your family move here from Alaska or something?"

  Jean laughed at that, "No. We've always been in the area. I had a broken leg the year we took lessons in school, and after that, I just sort of never got around to learning. After a while, it got easier and easier to just avoid the water."

  Sam looked her in the eye, and they both spoke the same words simultaneously, "...until today!" They both laughed, and stepped into the water.

  The water had warmed up a bit since that morning, and it felt good as it lapped at Sam's feet and ankles. "Before we go out into water that's a little deeper, let get used to the temperature and waves right here." He pointed down. The water was maybe a foot deep, barely covering their ankles.

  Jean said, "Sounds like a good idea. No point in getting carried away right off the bat." She chuckled. It was only a foot deep, but she was already visibly nervous.

  Sam bent over, put his arm down beneath the water, and lowered himself into a sitting position. He was sitting in the water, with his legs sticking out before him. Everything from his belly button down was underwater. He gestured to Jean that she should join him sitting there.

  She reached down and placed her hand on Sam's bare shoulder. His skin was still dry, warm to the touch, and nearly as smooth as her own. She lowered herself down into the water, on one knee, then twisted so her butt submerged beneath the gentle waves. Finally, she put both
arms behind her for support the way Sam had done, and relaxed.