Take a dip

by Lacey Wallace

  Take A Dip

  ADAM Williams laughed as his seven-year-old daughter skipped ahead, but he quickly sobered as a female lifeguard glared at him. He caught up to his daughter Denise and said, “Walk.” She pouted but followed his order nevertheless.

  Denise was young, but he could already tell that she would be a heartbreaker in her teenage years. Although she had her mother’s odd, reddish-brown eyes and waiflike bone structure, she had her father’s full lips, wavy black hair, and scattered freckles that only added to her charm. Her enjoyment for life also came from him.

  Adam’s curly black hair fell below his ears. His sapphire eyes usually held a strange intensity, especially when he was concentrating. He wasn’t overly muscular, but it was still obvious that he took good care of his body. Years of jogging in the mornings had strengthened his leg muscles, and his arms were shaped from lifting weights twice a week for the past five years. Adam knew he looked good in swim trunks, so he wasn’t shy at all about taking his shirt off and letting the appreciative eyes of people in the pool vicinity wander over him.

  Seeing his daughter hopping, impatience showing on her face, Adam turned on the poolside shower. “In you go.” After Denise obediently ducked under the spray, she stepped into the pool, ignoring what Adam knew to be cold water from his earlier experience with it.

  Grinning, he took a seat on one of the poolside chairs and kept an eye on Denise as she played in the public pool.

  Adam watched Denise dunk her head and attempt a handstand. With her legs flailing as she tried to find her balance, it definitely didn’t look like one. Adam chuckled as she came up spluttering. Denise waved wildly before going back under; she truly was a little fish. In fact, his daughter’s numerous pleas finally convinced Adam to save up money so he could enroll her on the swim team.

  Denise’s giggles as she came up for air were infectious. Times certainly had changed; Adam remembered when he’d resented her for existing, but now she was the most important thing in his life.

  He had become a teenage father at the age of sixteen; a girl named Cynthia was the mother. Although he didn’t want a kid, he had decided to do the responsible thing and be a real, involved father. Cynthia had brought their daughter to his house for an afternoon. Supposedly, he was only going to watch her for the day so she could look for work.

  Cynthia never came back.

  Adam later found out that she had moved away with her parents, leaving Denise with Adam. His parents had demanded he take the baby to an orphanage, but Adam refused. They threatened to kick him out of the house. Adam still refused, believing it was only a bluff. They followed through with the threat, leaving Denise and Adam homeless.

  Luckily his aunt, who was estranged from the family, stepped in. Aunt Belinda was wonderful. She taught him how to care for Denise properly and baby-sat while Adam worked and finished his high school education, and then earned a B.A. in Business.

  Aunt Belinda had married a wealthy man who had died in a car accident, so she didn’t need to work and had a lot of free time on her hands. Thanks to his aunt, when Adam finished school, he had an apartment to live in with his daughter right away. Against his aunt’s wishes, Adam paid back Belinda for the down payment. He and Denise were truly blessed to have such a caring woman in their lives.

  Denise meant everything to him, and Adam was happy that he hadn’t given in to his parents’ demands.

  Adam discarded his shirt as he stood up from the chair and went to sit on the ledge near the lifeguard seat. He playfully kicked water into his daughter’s face. She ducked underneath the surface to avoid his splashing feet. Denise turned around so her back was to him as she was forced to come up for air, wading through the water in the opposite direction to get away from him. “Don’t go too deep,” Adam warned his exuberant daughter.

  “You have a cute sister,” a voice murmured from above him.

  Adam tilted his head back and his breath caught in his throat. Sitting in the lifeguard’s chair was a man with windblown chestnut hair that stopped right below his ears. The bangs didn’t quite hide his smoky gray eyes, and his plump lips were curved in a smile. The sleek swimsuit he wore displayed a muscled torso. It was obvious that he worked out.

  Adam shook his head. It wasn’t the first time he had found himself admiring a guy’s appearance, but like all of the previous times, he would ignore it. He focused instead on the lifeguard’s statement. “Thanks, but she’s my daughter.”

  The lifeguard’s eyebrows rose as he looked down. “Really? She must be close to eight, and you can’t be older than twenty-five.”

  Adam frowned in annoyance. “Not that it’s any of your business, but she’s seven and I’m twenty-three.”

  The guard held up his hand in a placating gesture. “I meant no offense, seriously. My friends always tell me that my curiosity is my worst trait. I’m Mark and, since you told me your age, I’m twenty-one.”

  Adam was still a bit annoyed, but he realized Mark truly hadn’t meant to be offensive. “I’m Adam.”

  “What’s your daughter’s name?”

  “Denise. Her mother named her.” Adam couldn’t help the distaste in his voice when he said the word “mother.” Cynthia wasn’t anything like a real mother—not that his own was a shining example. They had both abandoned their children.

  Mark smiled and Adam felt something flutter in his stomach, but did his best to squash it down. “Denise is a beautiful name. How is your relationship with her mother? You don’t sound like you’re fond of her.”

  Adam eyed him suspiciously, but Mark’s expression was innocent. Of course, it could have been an act. “Your friends were right; you’re too curious.”

  “I’ll take that as, ‘Mind your own business’.”

  Smart decision. Adam nodded. “That would be for the best.” Mark smiled again and Adam found it sexy as hell. He resolutely ignored that thought. “You must be a university student.”

  Mark nodded and said, “Yeah, going for English with a minor in Business.”

  Adam shrugged and decided turnabout was fair play. “Dating anyone?” Adam acted as if the question were no big deal, while wondering why it even mattered.

  Mark smirked as if he had heard Adam’s thoughts. “No, I haven’t found the right man to go steady with yet.”

  Adam’s eyes widened as they locked gazes. Mark’s eyes were hungry as they roamed appreciatively over Adam’s shirtless body, and Adam felt himself burn up. “Y-You’re g-gay?” he managed to stutter out.

  Mark chuckled. “Yes, I am. What about you?”

  Adam quickly stood up. “I’m straight.” It was blunt, but he didn’t want to give Mark any ideas.

  Mark opened his mouth to respond, but a female lifeguard, the same one who had glared at Adam when he and Denise first arrived, came to take Mark’s place. Adam backed away to give the two of them some room. As she watched the pool, Mark turned around to climb down the chair. Adam couldn’t help but notice Mark’s very nice ass.

  He felt himself harden slightly and squeezed his eyes shut, thinking of unpleasant things to make his arousal go down. It took a while, but he finally succeeded. When his eyes opened, he was standing nose-to-nose with Mark. Despite being two years older, Adam was slightly shorter and felt a bit intimidated. He gulped, trying to dissolve the lump that had appeared in his throat.

  Mark’s eyes hungrily raked down Adam’s chest to his tanned stomach. “Are you sure you’re straight?” With that, Mark left Adam standing still as a statue, the question resonating in his head. Are you sure you’re straight? Are you sure you’re straight? Are you sure you’re straight?

  A squeal of “Daddy!” brought him back to the present time and place. He knelt down as Denise held up her arms imploringly. Resigned to Denise not giving up un
til he joined her in the water, Adam slid into the pool, the temperature a bit warmer than he had expected, something that he was grateful for. Adam did not do cold.

  Denise swam back and forth from the wall into Adam’s arms. As he watched her smile gleefully, he felt his chest warm. Denise was his whole life, and her happiness was the most important thing to him. As Denise left his arms again, he glanced up to see Mark walking away from the pool area. A man met him at the exit and Adam sensed the heat between them. The two of them caressed and no imagination was needed to know what they wanted. The lifeguard had said he wasn’t dating anyone right now. They could be fuck buddies, Adam surmised.

  He felt a slight stir of jealousy as their bodies touched intimately, something Adam didn’t remember ever feeling. They hadn’t even done anything yet, but the raw need was evident, and Adam felt the slight stir in his loins. Adam’s breathing became shallow as he caught the chaste kiss between the two, wondering what it felt like to be kissed by another man.

  Mark looked in his direction and the gray eyes seemed foggy with desire. The lifeguard must really want that man. Adam wondered how it would feel for someone like Mark to wear that look due to his ministrations. It had been so long since he’d had sex. That’s all it was. His body needed sex so badly that anyone would do, even a guy. It didn’t mean Adam had to give in to the desire. He saw the two men walk hand-in-hand to the bathroom, and could only imagine what would be going on in there.

  For the next few minutes, Adam couldn’t stop himself from trying to get another look at Mark. The younger man seemed satisfied when he left the bathroom and walked to the break room. After awhile, he came out with his belongings. It had obviously been the end of the lifeguard’s shift. After a heat-filled glance in Adam’s direction that made the twenty-three-year-old shiver, Mark disappeared from the pool for the rest of the day.

  ADAM did everything he could to stop thinking about the lifeguard with the seductive smile that set his body on fire in a way he had never felt before—not with any of the girls he had ever been with or anyone else.

  When Denise began begging him to take her to the pool again, Adam was more than happy to go as he desperately wanted another glimpse of Mark. He knew there was a chance that Mark wouldn’t be there, but Adam was going to take that chance anyway.

  Once they arrived, Denise pulled him to a chair with a beaming smile on her face. She quickly got underneath the shower spray to wash. When she ran back, a lifeguard blew a whistle at her. Adam glanced up and nodded toward the male lifeguard. Unfortunately, it wasn’t Mark.

  “Don’t run, Denise. Otherwise you’ll be forced to sit out of the pool for a while,” Adam warned her.

  Denise nodded with a sullen look on her face. She hated when Adam was mad at her, as it didn’t happen as often as it did with her friends and their parents. Adam did her hair up into a ponytail and helped her get her new goggles on, making sure none of the bangs from her long, black hair were caught in them.

  She skipped to the stairs and stepped down them while holding the railing. The pool wasn’t that busy, and there was only one lifeguard watching it. Adam toed off his shoes, took off his shirt, and went to sit on the top stair. It was a good place to keep an eye on his daughter.

  Adam heard an airy laugh and looked towards the sound. A voluptuous redhead was smiling in a flirty way at Adam’s lifeguard, who had just exited the breakroom. He shook his head at the thought—Mark wasn’t his. Adam watched closely as Mark frowned; it was obvious he was annoyed with the girl. Adam pondered the situation before making up his mind.

  Rolling his eyes, Adam walked over to the duo. “Mark,” Adam said in greeting. He nodded dismissively at the clueless girl. “Can I speak to you over there?” He noticed the redhead’s eyes raking over his body, but ignored it. He gulped as Mark turned a smile on him, leaving him aching. Aching for what, Adam didn’t quite know.

  Mark nodded casually. As soon as they were out of earshot, Mark thanked him. “I don’t know what I can do to prove how grateful I am. She’s my sister’s friend and doesn’t seem to understand that chicks are not my thing.”

  Adam nodded while trying to think of something to say. Now that the two of them were alone, he was clueless. “How was your week?” It sounded dumb, even to him, but he was desperate for something to dissolve the silence.

  Mark chuckled, making Adam believe he was being laughed at. Adam frowned and made a move to leave, but Mark stopped him. “I didn’t mean to upset you, but you’re delightfully awkward. I couldn’t help myself.”

  “You think it’s funny that I’m a bit awkward?”

  Mark shook his head. “No, I just think it’s unbelievably cute.”

  Adam’s brow furrowed. “First of all, I don’t do cute, so wipe that thought out of your head. Secondly, are you hitting on me? Because I made it perfectly clear to you that I’m straight.”

  Mark smirked in a very infuriating way. “Or are you just in denial? My gaydar is almost never wrong; considering you checked out my ass the last time you were here, I don’t believe it’s one of those odd times that it’s off.”

  Adam chose to ignore Mark’s accusation, even though he couldn’t stop his cheeks from reddening slightly. “I have a child that I got the old-fashioned way. That would be pretty difficult to do if I was gay.”

  “You’re using your daughter as evidence? At that age, you might not have realized it yet. Even if you had, teenagers can get hard and have sex with just about anyone or anything. When I was sixteen and pretty sure that I was gay, I experimented with a girl. I had no trouble getting it up with her, even though the experience was nothing compared to when I was with a guy.”

  Adam looked away as Denise came to the surface, coughing. She had most likely gotten water up her nose as she attempted a flip. It wouldn’t be the first time. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Adam mumbled as he turned back to the lifeguard.

  Mark’s eyes showed compassion for the first time. “I probably know better than you realize. Do you ever get hard from staring at guys? Instead of acknowledging it, though, you ignore it, thinking that it’s a phase and it will pass.” Adam’s silence was answer enough. “I did the same thing when I was fourteen and my first crush was a male substitute teacher. I didn’t want to believe it, so I simply pretended it didn’t exist. That doesn’t work forever. I was forced to face the truth, and eventually you’ll have to as well.”

  Adam pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t think I’m strong enough to deal with this on top of everything else.”

  Mark’s words were soft. “You don’t give yourself enough credit. Many guys in your position would have abandoned their child, but you stuck it out. I’m sure you had help, but you were there and now you’re a single father. You do have strength; you just need the courage to use it.” The silence that followed wasn’t comfortable, but it wasn’t tense either.

  How does Mark know that I’m a single father? Adam wondered as they stared at each other. He thought back to the only other conversation they’d ever had, and he knew he’d never mentioned raising Denise alone. Of course, he’d had some bitterness about Denise’s mother in his voice, and it was definitely plausible that Mark had made his own assumptions. That couldn’t be right though. Mark sounded way too sure of himself for it to be a mere assumption.

  Maybe Mark asked around about me, Adam thought in awe. He was bewildered when a thrill went down his spine. Mark acted like his interest was purely physical, but if he cared enough to investigate, there had to be more to it. Adam wasn’t sure why that idea made his heart feel like it was expanding.

  A cry of “Daddy, watch me!” broke through it.

  Adam turned in time to watch his daughter attempt a back flip but fail miserably. She coughed and spluttered. Adam chuckled. “Keep trying, Denise; it takes practice.” His answer was a thumb up from his darling girl.

  He turned back to find the lifeguard’s eyes assessing him. “You think it over,” Mark said. “If you want to tes
t out what you said about being straight, which I truly don’t believe, come find me. If you’re ready to accept the fact that you find guys attractive, still come find me. I definitely won’t mind showing you why being gay is a pleasure.” Mark squeezed his shoulder before walking away.

  ALTHOUGH Adam needed to think about what Mark said, Denise getting sick took precedence over everything else. Her coughing at the pool turned out to be more than just swallowing water, and since her immune system wasn’t the strongest, it was easy for her to get bronchitis. Adam worked tirelessly to make sure her head cold didn’t turn into something worse. After a week of TLC, her cough was almost completely gone. Then his Aunt Belinda offered to allow Denise to stay over at her house for a couple of nights. Although he initially refused, Belinda convinced him that he needed a break after the hectic week as well as a little “Adam time.”

  Adam spent some of the rare free time doing things he never really got to, including reading for pleasure. He got so into a new mystery novel that the first time he took a break, he realized it was past midnight. He had been reading for over four hours. Adam rubbed his neck to ease the tension and then decided to call it a night.

  When Adam woke up the next morning, his cheeks felt hot to the touch. It was the first time in a long while that he actually remembered any of his dreams, and part of him wished he hadn’t remembered this time. It had been a pleasant enough dream, if the sticky substance coating the inside of his boxer shorts was anything to go by.

  Unfortunately, it brought Mark’s words back to his mind. Adam knew he was denying the truth, but he was ready to keep believing it was a phase, just something he had to work out of his system. Mark was undeniably sexy and Adam wanted him. He would be perfect for the job.

  Adam sat up in bed, a determined look on his face. Denise was gone for the day. It was the perfect chance to get Mark and this whole gay thing out of his system, and he was going to take it.

  Adam was cleaned, dressed, and out of the house in record time. The drive was quick; he made it to the pool in less than ten minutes. He knew there was a chance Mark wasn’t working that day, but he had nothing to lose by going.