Jack hung on to the edge of the pool as he caught his breath, reaching under the starting block for his water to take a good, long drink. He slid another plastic section of the red and white lane line over to count off one more completed part of the set. He looked at the markers. Sixteen down, four more to go. He glanced over at the clock, noting that he had forty more seconds of rest.

"LaGuardia, what's she really like, man?" Toby asked from the next lane.

Jack smiled, dipping his goggles into the water to clean them a little. The sun had just risen within the last half hour, and the green area around the pool still had a bit of early morning mist clinging to it, giving everything a slightly ghostly air. Things were still quiet on campus, and the few people who were up and about were wearing hoodies and carrying hot cups of coffee, even though it would be in the upper nineties later.

"I told you, man, she's just a girl. Not a good swimmer, has a lot to learn," Jack replied, adjusting his goggles and turning around to look at Toby.

Toby splashed a little water at Jack, smoothing his blond hair back before yanking his cap down, hard, around his ears. Toby's hair was really unruly, and he always had to wear a cap.

"Yeah, but you didn't tell any of the good stuff," Toby complained. "Is she, like, totally hot in person? Did she come on to you or anything?" At Jack's look Toby made a face. "And why did Coach give you this totally awesome job, anyway? I mean, Kelsey Carlisle? That's dope!"

"Maybe because he knew I needed the money?" Jack answered, splashing water back Toby's way.

"And maybe because he knew LaGuardia wouldn't wonder if she was going to come on to him," Zach added from the other side of the lane. Farther down, the swimmers were circle swimming, but at this end of the pool, the more elite swimmers were working out two to a lane, so they could just split the lane and not bother with circle swimming.

Jack watched the numbers on the clock, and when they hit "59" he pushed off from the wall begin the next set, focusing on keeping his angles straight, his streamline long and tight, and maintaining his stroke count. All thoughts of Kelsey and his job were pushed aside as he concentrated on the task at hand, namely of pushing his body to its physical limits without letting his form fall apart.

After they were finished and were all in the showers, Toby, who had the tenacity of a terrier, went back to the topic of Kelsey again.

"So Jack, you're actually living in her house?" he asked.

Jack shook his head. "No, dude, she has, like a guest house, a gardener's cottage or something out back, behind her pool? I'm living there."

"So you're like the hired help," Jeff interjected as he shaved. Jeff had a summer job at a men's clothing store, so he had to leave the pool completely pulled together and ready for the day.

"Exactly like the hired help," Jack responded. He toweled off his hair and started pulling his clothes on.

"So what's she like?" Toby asked again.

Jack took a deep breath, exasperated. "I don't know," he finally replied. "She's, um, pale. Not in very good shape. Kind of spoiled." He gave his friend a look, as if to ask if he was satisfied.

"Not in good shape?" Toby repeated. "Are you out of your motherfucking mind? Do you remember how she looked in that sci-fi thing we saw her in? She was hot as fuck, man!" He turned to Zach. "When she was wearing that space suit?"

Zach was nodding. "Yeah, but you know Jack. He doesn't look at chicks like that." He smiled at Jack.

"I do too." Jack was indignant. "I just don't think she's that appealing, that's all. What do you want me to say?

"Besides," he continued, looking at himself in the mirror to make sure nothing was sticking out or looked funny, "I couldn't go for her, anyway. I work for her, it would really mess things up, you know?" He picked up his bag. "So it's a good thing she's not my type."

"So who is your type, LaGuardia?" Toby asked. He ticked off on his fingers. "Not Camille Hayward, who'd let anyone ride her, not Kelsey Carlisle, the hottest piece in Hollywood--" he looked at the other guys.

"Ah, leave him alone," Zach said, patting Jack on the shoulder as he walked by. "Our Jackie boy's just holding out for true love or some shit like that, right, Jack?" And he leaned in and gave Jack a big, moist, kiss on the cheek.

"Knock it off, I gotta go," Jack said, wiping Zach's kiss off his cheek. The guys on the team had been teasing him about his love life for the last four years, he was used to it. He left the locker room, shaking his head and smiling.

***********************

"Good morning," Kelsey called, opening the French door to her patio and stepping out. She was wearing her cabana coat over her bikini again, though she did have her hair in a nice, tight pony tail braid, which was already twisted up into a bun.

"Morning." Jack smiled and lifted a bag onto the table.

"What's that?" Kelsey asked. It was a pretty big bag, canvas, in a pretty pattern of blue and yellow.

"It's your equipment bag," Jack replied, his smile growing wider. "I figured you can't feel like a real swimmer if you don't have the right accoutrements, so--" he gestured to the bag. "The bag is part of the gift, but most of the gift is what's inside. Open it," he encouraged.

Kelsey couldn't help smiling. She was a girl who loved presents. She unzipped the bag. Lying across the top, wedged in, was a colorful kick board in a multicolored splash pattern of purple and red.

"Normally that just gets stuck in the mesh on the side there," Jack explained. "I made it fit inside so it would be a surprise."

She looked at him, touched. It was so pretty.

"Keep going, keep going," he said, gesturing at the bag.

"Okay," she grinned, setting the kick board aside and reaching into the bag again. Next came a pair of fins, boot style, dark purple, made of rubber.

"I guessed on the size, based on the flip flops you have out here on the pool deck," Jack said, pointing at the sandals she had on her feet. "You about a size nine in ladies?"

Kelsey nodded, checking the size of the fin.

"Usually you want fins to be a little big so they don't rub, and it's best to wear a pair of socks with them, okay?" Jack said, looking at her earnestly.

Kelsey nodded again and reached in the bag, this time pulling out a plastic bag with three pairs of goggles in it. "Women's Vanquishers," she read. They were swim goggles, but sleeker than others she'd seen, mirrored, with straps in pretty colors. Maybe she wouldn't hate wearing these.

Hmm.

"I got you three pairs, because goggles always break, and they're the one piece of equipment you always need to swim, whether you're at a meet or at work out or whatever," Jack explained. "And they never break in your bag, you know? You don't pull them out and find them broken. They break when you go to put them on, so it's always an emergency when you need another pair."

Kelsey realized that Jack probably didn't give people gifts very often, and he was nervous.

How cute.

"So you think you wouldn't mind maybe wearing these goggles?" he asked hopefully.

Kelsey looked at them. One pair had mint colored straps. She looked at Jack and shook her head. "I wouldn't mind," she said with a little smile.

"Oh. Good."

Kelsey delved into the bag again, this time pulling out a piece of purple foam rubber that was shaped like a large packing peanut. She looked at it, and held it out to Jack questioningly.

"Pull buoy," he supplied. "You hold it between your calves to keep your legs afloat while you work on your arms."

Next, she pulled out four flat, roundish silicone things, again in a range of pretty patterns, from rainbows to smileys. And, like with the buoy, Kelsey was clueless. She looked at Jack, whose long-lashed hazel eyes held amusement as he watched her with them.

He finally took one from her, pulled it open, which she didn't know it did, and stretched it over his curly hair, pulling it down around his ears before letting it go, tucking the ends of his hair into it.

It was a swim cap. Oh.

It was pink, and had roses all over it. Kelsey was enchanted.

Jack left it on his head and gestured to toward the bag.

"There's more?" she asked.

He nodded, so she reached in, and felt something soft. She pulled out a handful of material which she laid on the table, which was by now covered with all her pool equipment.

Swim suits.

All different styles, from racer backs, to fast backs, solid colors and prints, even a work out bikini.

"I guessed on sizes for these, too," Jack said. "But I had a couple of the girls from the team help me out, and everyone knows what you look like, so I think we got pretty close, you know?

"Would you mind to work out in these?" he asked, looking at Kelsey.

She shook her head, saying nothing.

He nodded, smiling, then spread his hands. "That's it," he said self-deprecatingly, but Kelsey could tell he was pleased with himself.

"So okay, then," he said, taking a deep breath. "Go put one of these bad boys on, and let's get started, okay?"

Kelsey nodded and opened her mouth to say "okay," but what came out instead was a strange sound that was half affirmation, half strangled sob.

As Jack goggled at her in amazement, Kelsey turned around, still holding a couple of the suits, and ran back into her house, giving herself a pretty good whack on the hip on the side of the door on her way in.

She ran all the way to her bedroom, straight through to the bathroom, and shut the door and locked it, before finally just letting her tears come. She watched herself in the bathroom mirror, crying, still holding the suits.

Within minutes she'd stopped crying. Her mother had told her as a child that if she ever wanted to stop crying, she should just look at herself in the mirror, because people who did that invariably noticed how funny they looked while they did it, and ended up just making weird faces at themselves.

She looked at the suits she was holding, cut the tags off a pink and orange one and pulled it on. She examined herself in the mirror once more, deciding that she actually looked kind of okay. The suit was sort of flattering. It didn't show off her figure like the bikini, but she definitely looked more athletic. Her tummy was nice and flat, and her shoulders even looked a little bit defined.

Okay, she could work with this.

She splashed cold water on her face and went back out to where Jack was waiting.

He looked touchingly concerned, and jumped up from where he'd been sitting as soon as she opened the door. He'd taken the cap off.

"Uh, looks like it fits," he finally said, gesturing toward the suit, which he could see under her cabana coat.

"Huh? Oh, yeah," she agreed, eyes downcast, unaccustomed to being shy.

Jack bit his lip and looked out at the pool, which looked like a chunk of blue jell-o under the bright Los Angeles sun.

"Jack?"

He looked over at her.

"About what happened?" She gestured at the table, which was still covered with everything he'd given her. "I'm not used to people giving me things." She quickly continued talking as she saw him take a deep breath to disagree with her. "I mean, of course, people give me things all the time." They both knew that a Saudi Prince had given her a Rolls Royce for her last birthday. "But stuff like this, that someone actually put time and thought and effort into picking out, just for me, because they thought I'd like it, and find it useful, need it--"

They just looked at each other, gray eyes and hazel, over the brightly colored pile of pool accessories, for a few heartbeats.

Kelsey let her hand drop to her side.

"Thank you, Jack," she said softly, smiling.

"Welcome, it was my pleasure," Jack replied, tipping her a little wink. He gestured toward the pool again. "Shall we?"

Kelsey nodded.