Swim Coach: A Novel

by Sam E. Kraemer

  I turned to him and planted my elbows on the side of the hot tub deck. "Oh, really? I don't remember you being there when that bastard did what he did. What, exactly, did he take from you?"

  I was so fucking mad I couldn't be civil so I was keeping my distance. I was breathing deeply to try to keep from losing my temper at the news he'd had some random girl blow him in a bathroom of a club. What the fuck was he thinking?

  "He took the beautiful, shy boy I met and fell in love with away from me. He took the light out of your eyes. He took away the opportunity for us to figure out how to be a couple. All the awkward exploring of each other and me being able to surprise you in your dorm room for a quickie between classes, that's something we can't do because you won't go near that room if Nick's not inside.

  "He took away the hard thumping of our hearts as we went on dates and kissed until our lips were swollen. He took away the way we'd learn each other's likes and dislikes. He took away the Sunday's we'd wake up and make love instead of doing homework. He took away the sexy texts we'd have sent each other because we were busy and couldn't get together.

  "He took away the desperate stripping we'd do when we finally got to the weekend and couldn't wait to be together. He took away the first time we'd make love and how worried we'd both be, but it would be fantastic. He took all those things and a hell of lot more I can't even begin to articulate. He deserves to pay for that, and I plan to make him."

  Andre was very firm in his conviction and he was crying, which didn't help anything. My anger dissolved when he reminded me of all the things that prick had taken from us, and the one thing that settled into my brain was he'd said he loved me. I didn't know if it was just the heat of the moment, but I was going to take it and hold it inside me. I didn't feel lovable, but maybe he saw something I didn't?

  I shook it all off and turned back around to look at him. "Andre, don't mess with them. They're evil, trust me. I don't want you anywhere near that sadistic fuck."

  "I'm coming over there, okay?" God, I hated he had to announce his intentions, but I was so fucking thankful he understood it, so I nodded.

  He slipped up next to me and placed his hand over my heart. "I don't plan to let him get anything over on me, love. He's going to lay low for a while and then he's going to come after me. That's what I'm banking on. He got his buddy, Kamal to drop the charges just as I thought he would because he wants a clear path to me. He doesn't want anyone, most of all me, to think he's going to come retaliate for that picture so he’s not making a big deal of it. He’s the kind of person who will wait, just as he did for you, and then he'll try something. When he does, he'll regret it."

  I could see Andre believed he had it figured out, but the thought of him caught unawares and enduring anything like what I’d gone through made me sick to my stomach. "You don't have to be my avenging angel, Dre."

  I could see he wasn’t having it. "I do, Colton, because he took my angel from me. I owe that mother fucker, and I'm going to get my revenge."

  He was definitely steadfast and I wasn't sure anything I said would sway him, so I had to look out for him. I couldn't let anything happen to him like what I'd endured. I refused to consider Andre would put himself in harm’s way for me, so I’d have to think about it because I wouldn’t let anything happen to him.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Another Baby Step

  "Colton?" Andre whispered as his bright green eyes opened. I was in bed with him, and I could see he was surprised. I was lying on my side in my boxers and a t-shirt, having awakened an hour before and not able to go back to sleep.

  After hot-tub confessions, I couldn't get to sleep easily which wasn’t a surprise to me. Unfortunately, when I did doze off, it wasn't restful because my head was full of all the ways Jamie could do Andre bodily harm. Instead of continuing to stew on it, I decided to get into bed with the man to keep him safe in person.

  I walked over to his room and climbed in with him, holding him in my arms so I could finally fall asleep. I'd awakened just when the sun came up, and I'd been watching the cute contortions his face made as he slept. I was actually enjoying myself more than I'd anticipated.

  "The one-and-only," I joked as I leaned forward and kissed his cheek.

  "What…" He looked around to see he was in his room and he looked at me with confusion.

  "I couldn't sleep for shit so I came in here to see how you were doing. You weren't sleeping any better than me, so I spooned up behind you, which was pretty great, and we fell asleep together. I woke up a bit ago, and I was just watching the cute little faces you make when you sleep."

  He looked at me and I saw a little bit of pink on his face. "Fuck you." He smiled shyly, and I loved it.

  I laughed and placed my hand on his chest. "Naw, I think I'll fuck you first, but I'll take it under advisement."

  He looked at me with apprehension, and I had to give the guy something. "Not today or tomorrow, but I hope someday. I hope someday I can get…over it."

  He leaned forward and kissed my neck. "You do know, don't you, that if you can't, it's not a deal breaker. We'll figure it out."

  I pushed him onto his back and hovered over him, looking into his gorgeous eyes. "You'd want to figure it out with me? You know how fucked up I am. You don't have to answer now, but don't make a commitment you're not able to keep."

  He gently eased his hands up my biceps to my shoulders and rested them there, gently kneading the flesh and muscle. "Colton, I'd never do that. If I wasn't in this for the long haul, I'd have just walked away and left you alone. I can't. I…I…care too much for you."

  I looked into his eyes and saw his hesitance at saying anything he thought might scare me. Even without my issues, I'd probably have been scared, but with everything… yeah, I was hesitant to put too much weight into his words. I was going to be nineteen at the end of the year, and he was twenty-one. The chances…well, under the best of circumstances, the odds were against us. I have to remember that or else I'll dive in with both feet and lose myself in him.

  "You're just caught up in the gushy feeling of the holidays, but I care for you, too. Now, what do you want to do today?" I asked, trying like hell to deflect the conversation from its serious path.

  "We're too late for surfing until later this evening, so let's go sightseeing. You're in LA, baby. Let's go find the beautiful people." I laughed at his words, and I went to my room to grab clothes.

  After a shower and shave, we left the house and went to a '69 Corvette in the garage that had me tripping over my fucking tongue. It was a custom gold, and I looked at him. "Is this yours?" The boy was so far out of my league it wasn't even funny. I had a beat up old Bronco of my dad's I'd driven in high school, but it died over the summer which left me on foot. It wouldn't have made the trip to Seattle anyway.

  He laughed. "No, sweetheart, this is Jean-Luc’s but he left the keys on the counter for me, so we're going to use it."

  Oh, use it we did. He took me all around Los Angeles. He took me to the Hollywood Walk of Fame where he took pictures with me and my favorite stars'…stars. He took me to Rodeo Drive where I couldn't even walk into the stores because I couldn't afford to buy a toothpick, so we window shopped while I kept a vigil for celebrities. I didn’t see any but I recognized the stores from television. When Bryana and Amanda were your best friends, you got familiar with brand names.

  Andre drove us to the Santa Monica Pier where we had lunch at a place called "The Lobster." He took out the T-tops of the car and drove us up the PCH, as it was called, and when we got back to his parents' house on Friday evening, I was still in awe of seeing the sights in person.

  "That was a hell of a tour," I teased as we walked inside. He went to the fridge and grabbed the pitcher of water, pouring two glasses. He looked up at the clock and smiled.

  "We're going to Manhattan Beach, okay? I'm going to grab my board and you should change into shorts. We'll leave in a little bit," he instructed.

  After I changed, I went down
stairs to find him in that fucking wet suit I'd dreamed about with the top of it loose around his hips. He was wearing a t-shirt and he was apparently packing a cooler, which surprised me.

  I slipped up behind him and he jumped as he stood in front of the refrigerator. "I didn't mean to scare you. It's just that you look pretty fucking sexy in this. I like how it defines this," I whispered as I grabbed that gorgeous ass with both hands. I sort of sounded like a sexist pig, but damn, he was sexy.

  He laughed as he slowly turned. "Well, maybe seeing me on a surfboard will be enough to coax you to want to plant your flag."

  I laughed with him. "Oh, baby, I've wanted to plant my flag for a long time."

  "What's stopping you, Colton? I told you, and I meant it, I'm ready when you are."

  I took a deep breath. That confession wasn't going to be easy, but it needed to be out there. "Well, with my inexperience with that sort of thing, aside from… I’m afraid I won't be good at it. I want to be good at things for you, Dre."

  He smiled. "Considering nobody else has planted a flag there, I'd say your chances of staking your claim and leaving a big smile on my face are damn good, Columbus." He leaned forward and kissed me. I was giddy because I was pretty fucking surprised at his admission.

  Could it be the fuck hound had saved something of himself he was willing to give me? That wasn't something I ever thought possible.

  "Columbus, huh? Well, we should make a stop on the way back from the beach," I taunted.

  "Oh, yeah? Where?" He closed the cooler and grabbed a backpack, handing it to me.

  "Being a responsible adult, I need to buy condoms and lube. What's in here?" I asked as I followed him out to a black SUV with a surfboard strapped to the roof. How many fucking cars do these people have?

  "Who's is this?" I asked as I hopped into the passenger side.

  "Actually, it's my friend, Gia's. I called her and asked if I could borrow it for tonight and tomorrow so she dropped it off a few minutes ago. Tomorrow night, we'll pick up her and Chels at her parents' house. They're going to a fucking spa or something all day tomorrow and Chelsea's driving so Gia didn't mind the loan."

  I nodded and fastened my seatbelt as he pulled out of the driveway and onto the street. It didn't take too long to get to our destination, and when he stopped the car, I grabbed the cooler and the backpack while he wrestled the surfboard off the roof.

  We walked to the beach, and Andre kicked off his flip flops, so I did the same. We struck out over the cold sand, and he helped me spread a blanket so I could watch him. There were other surfers already in the water, and it was thrilling to watch. I’d seen people surf on television, but I’d never seen it in person. I was actually excited about seeing him out there.

  Andre placed the board on the sand, upside down from what I could tell, and he turned to me. "Sweetheart, can you get in that bag and get out the fin and the wax?"

  I opened the bag and pulled out what I assumed was the fin. It was bright green and black striped and it was shaped like a shark's fin. I dug around a little, finding two towels, a small first-aid kit, a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, and a small round thing that looked like soap. I grabbed the fin and the "soap" and crawled to where he was kneeling in the sand. "Is this it?" I asked.

  Andre leaned forward and gave me a peck on the lips. "Mr. Zog's Sex Wax," he informed as he flipped it over and showed me the top of it where the label indeed read "sex wax." I cracked up.

  "I didn't think sex and wax were compatible unless you were into some sort of dripping wax on someone's body from a candle. What's it do?"

  He explained how it made the board more hydrodynamic as he rubbed it over the back. I listened, not understanding much of what he was saying, but happy to see him so excited to be explaining it all to me. He fitted the fin in the double slots, and then he walked over to the bag and pulled out a long cord. It looked like a bungee cord with a Velcro strap on one end and some sort of clip on the other.

  He clipped it to the board and wrapped the strap around his ankle, standing up to pull up the top of the wet suit as he reached for the long blue cord at the back to zip it up. He was pretty fucking graceful at everything he did, and I was sure surfing would be no exception.

  After he was ready, he picked up the board and turned to me with a bright smile. "Okay, wish for waves."

  "Whose name is that at the top?" I asked as I looked at the surfboard closely. There were a few brand name decals on it, and a red signature at the top.

  "This is a Dane Reynolds' pro board. I got it for my twenty-first birthday this summer. It's great, isn't it?" It looked a little beat up to be new, but I didn't know anything about surfboards, so I simply shrugged.

  He laughed. "Sweetheart, Dane Reynolds is a professional surfer. He’s been inducted into the Surfer's Hall of Fame a few years ago. He's like a legend in the sport. I usually don't use it, but I'm kinda trying to impress my boyfriend, and it's a great board for that sort of thing."

  He was so sincere I simply smiled. "Well, hot shot, show me what ya got."

  He took off toward the water, and after he was out so far, he hopped on the damn thing and began paddling out, guiding the board under the incoming waves until he got out to where the hand full of surfers were sitting on the boards, appearing to chat and bump fists.

  After a few minutes, he was bobbing in the water with them as he looked out to the horizon. The sun was low in the sky, and the scene was incredible. I wished to hell I'd have brought a pair of binoculars so I could see his face because his body language gave me the impression he was quite happy to be on the water.

  Suddenly, there was a lot of scrambling as all the surfers laid on their stomachs and began paddling like crazy. I grabbed a towel and my phone and walked closer to the water's edge. Andre kept looking over his shoulder and quickly moved so he was standing up on the board, guiding it along with his companions. His arms were extended in mock-airplane fashion as he moved forward and backward, dipping his knees to guide the board as he rode the wave, or whatever the fuck it was called.

  People were falling or diving off left and right, but he stayed vertical. I pulled up the camera app and took several pictures before he slipped down and sat on the board again as it neared the shore. A guy nearby high-fived him, and he waved to me, which I enthusiastically returned. He was definitely in his element, and he was sexy as hell.

  As he paddled out again, I flipped through the pictures and found a good one wherein you could actually see it was him. I forwarded it to my contact list with a text.

  This is *my* boyfriend. Eat ur hearts out. CW

  I was so fucking proud and in awe of him, I couldn't wait to tell him the same when he came back to me.

  I went to the blanket and sat down, enjoying the show for another hour before the sun was nearly gone. I saw him starting toward the shore, so I grabbed a towel and went to meet him. I had to kiss him before my cock shot off in my pants in protest for me keeping him away from it. I hadn't been so fucking turned on in a very long time.

  He walked up to me with a bright smile on his face, his hair hanging over his forehead, longer than it had been when I first ran into him at the beginning of the school year. "That was hot as hell. You're incredible," I told him as I smoothed it back out of his eyes.

  He actually fucking giggled. "So, you're impressed with my mad skills?"

  I placed my hand on the side of his face and stroked his cheek, feeling the salty water on his skin. "Baby, you've got a lot of mad skills. Based on what I just witnessed, I might have to beg you to unleash another set of mad skills on me after we get home," I taunted. I leaned forward and kissed him, hoping he didn't mind it was in front of other people, but when he placed his hand on my shoulder gently and pulled me closer, I knew he didn't give a shit either.

  He pulled away after our tongues tangled, getting both of us worked up. Well, I was already worked up, but that wet suit didn't offer him any cover. "I think we need to get back to the house and shower. My cock is bei
ng suffocated in this thing," he joked. I laughed and handed him the towel.

  I leaned over and unstrapped the Velcro thing from his ankle, taking the board from him. We walked back to where our things were on the beach and he reached into the cooler, grabbing a soda. I'd already had two bottles of water and a small container of cut-up fruit while I watched him, so I didn't want anything.

  I reached up and pulled the zipper on the back of his wetsuit as he turned to smile at me. "Thanks, Colt." After he peeled the top off, he pulled on the t-shirt he'd brought. He slipped the rest of it off, standing there on the beach in his "Squids" red and black Speedo.

  Oh, sweet baby Jesus. It took me back, that's for sure. "You, uh, you still have that?"

  He looked up at me and smiled cockily. "I found it in my dresser and thought you might appreciate it. Anyway, maybe next time you come home with me, I can teach you? We don't have enough time this visit, but maybe next time?"

  He was pulling on his shorts over the Speedo, and my eyes were glued to his hard cock under it. I barely registered he was talking, and it took a minute for his words to sink in. He wanted me to visit with him again? That was good news, even for my sexually charged brain.

  "That, uh, yeah. I think I'd like that," I responded as we grabbed all our shit and headed toward the SUV. He leaned the board against the side and began wiping sand off of it with one of the towels while I situated the cooler and the blanket on the floor of the back seat.

  When he was finished, I helped him secure it to the top, and we drove to his parents' home, me holding his hand the whole way. We were listening to music, and I hadn't felt so happy in a long time. Things are definitely looking up.

  Chapter Twenty

  Another Brick…

  "Boys?" It was Leslie calling from the kitchen, and we were trying to be quiet so we could sneak in and head upstairs. A shower and orgasms were on the agenda because he'd determined we'd have the house to ourselves, but based on the smell of things, that wasn't going to be the case.