Diving In (Open Door Love Story) by Stacey Wallace Benefiel Read Free Book Online

although I don’t know why I never wore one. I guess this was back before my mom watched my every move.”
    He wants to sit through my stupid swimming class so that he doesn’t have to go home. I smile at him, understanding completely. We have the same small definition of freedom.
     

     
    Chapter Seven
     
     
     
    Despite the fact that I’m a full twelve minutes early for my class, I’m still the last one in the pool area.
    “Do you all get here at, like, three and hang out or what?” I say, sliding into the water.
    Mr. Cleveland scoots to the edge of the pool with his walker and sits down on the chair lift. “When you move as slow as we do honey, it pays to give yourself extra time.”
    “Makes sense. Guess I was always just rushing in and never thought about it.”
    “So, what gives? Why are you on time for once?” Mrs. Caswell asks, sidling up to me. She taps my arm with the tips of her fuchsia nails and nods her head in the direction of the bleachers where Gabe is parked at the end of the front row. “Have anything to do with the fine young man in the wheelchair?”
    I blush, giving myself away and dunk under the water to avoid the inevitable four hundred questions that are sure to follow. As I’m looking at all of their water and time distorted bodies, I realize that I’ve never told them anything about Andy. They have no idea there is an Andy.
    I surface. Mrs. Caswell shakes her head at me and laughs. “Like you can hold your breath for an hour?”
    “That’s my friend Gabe. He took pity on me and drove me here. End of story.”
    “Bull pucky,” says Mr. Cleveland, pushing the button on the lift to no avail. I go over to help him. “Any guy who looks at a girl the way he’s looking at you doesn’t want to be friends.”
    “Brynn, honey, I hope you’re not putting him off because of the chair,” Mrs. Benedetto says. “My third husband Doug lost both his legs below the knee fighting in Vietnam and he was still a tiger in the sack.”
    I fight the urge to see if I can hold my breath underwater for the remainder of the hour. “Mrs. Benedetto! Gabe is paralyzed, he’s not missing limbs.”
    She waves the comment away. “There are ways to work around everything. I would know.”
    “I’m sure you do and I’m sure I don’t need to hear anymore about it,” I say, chuckling. I remove the battery from the lift. Greg forgot to charge it again . The director should just give the job to me; my class uses the lift the most. “Looks like you’re going to have to take the stairs, Mr. Cleveland. The battery’s dead.” I set it down on the pool deck and climb out of the water to charge it in the office. “I’ll be back in a second. Think about whether we want to float or do kickboard work.”
     
    ~
     
     
    I retrieve all the errant kickboards and float them over to the edge of the pool where everyone from all of the classes dumps their gear. Somehow, along with the plum job of teaching senior citizens on a Friday night, I also got elected as organizer of the gear. It’s not a big deal, really, because I usually don’t have anywhere to be and I’ll even take a little extra time to swim some laps or jump off the high dive, but with Gabe here, I want to be dressed and away from the water.
    My foot is on the bottom rung of the ladder when his wheels appear at face level.
    “I want to go in.”
    “What?” I look up at him and am shocked to see that he’s in black trunks and got his shirt off. God, his chest and arms are fucking amazing. He’s pasty white and it’s kind of weird to see him with chest hair, just because he always shaved it before, but his shoulders are broad and muscled and he is strong .
    “So, you gonna help me out or are you going to gawk at my dead chicken legs some more?”
    My eyes meet his. He really has no idea that he is just as good looking as he ever was. “It wasn’t your chicken legs I was gawking at.”
    “Oh.”
    I finish climbing out of the water and he