Joey frowned at his phone, studying the map of wildfires that had just been updated by the forest service. Every single summer, they started out green and lush, and then by mid-June, things had dried out and the fires started. It would only get worse throughout July and into August. As a member of the local search and rescue team, he had to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice, so he kept the app on his phone updated at all times.
“You ready to head back to town?”
He looked up to see Jamal walking toward him, little bits of straw clinging to his shirt. Jamal worked in the small animal barn and also lived in the apartment one floor up from Joey, so it was easy to carpool together. Jamal’s roommates Nick and Reggie were pretty cool too, and they often grabbed pizza together. That sounded like a whole lot more fun than what he was about to do instead.
“I’m sticking around for a while—I’ve got lifeguard duty for a special guest.”
Jamal nodded. “No worries. Have you got a way to get home?”
“Yeah, I’ll figure something out.”
Jamal lifted a hand as he walked off toward his car, and Joey squared his shoulders. Time to go keep the ice princess from drowning.
She was already at the pool when he got there, sitting on the edge and dangling her feet in the water. “I saw that there’s another lifeguard on duty right now, but after your little speech this morning, I figured I’d better wait until you were here personally,” she said. “I don’t want to be breaking any of your rules.”
He lifted both hands. “They aren’t my rules.”
“Whatever.” She stood up and moved over to the side of the pool that he’d marked off for her, then started a series of stretches. He checked in with Catherine to see if there had been any emergencies or anything else he should know about, and then he climbed up the second lifeguard tower, tossing his T-shirt over his shoulder. The late-afternoon sun felt good on his back.
Chelsea finished her stretches and moved to the end of her lane. “I’m about to dive in now,” she called up to him.
“I see that.”
“I just thought I’d announce it.”
“It’s much appreciated. You wouldn’t want me to miss anything.” He figured she’d get tired of this silly game before long, and there wasn’t any harm in pushing her back.
“No, I wouldn’t.” She positioned herself on the edge of the pool, assumed a start position, and pushed off. He could see that her knee was stiff, and he wondered if she’d had surgery or if she was just being treated with physical therapy. He also wondered how long it had been since her injury, and how she’d gotten hurt. He couldn’t help it—as a pre-med student going into sports medicine, he was curious. It had nothing at all to do with the fact that he cared about her well-being because he didn’t. That was over and done with.
As he watched her slice through the water, he noticed that she did seem weaker on the right side, and he was glad that she’d arranged for extra swim time. She shouldn’t push herself, but she should swim often throughout the day to increase the mobility of that knee and to strengthen it. Heat packs would also help. But Dr. Michelle would talk to her about that, and so would Maddie, the massage therapist, and of course she had doctors at home. His opinion, which wasn’t even professional at this point, wasn’t important.
“Well, hello up there.”
Joey glanced down to see a well-tanned woman standing at the bottom of his tower, looking up at him. “Hello, ma’am. Was there something you needed?” He redirected his gaze back out to the water.
“Ma’am? Oh, honey, I’m not that old. I just thought I’d come over and introduce myself. It must get so boring up there all by yourself.”
“Actually, I’m quite busy, and I don’t have time to get bored while I’m on duty.”
“I suppose I really shouldn’t be talking to you, should I?” She giggled, which sounded so odd coming from a woman who had to be in her mid-forties. “When you finally get to come down from there, why don’t you come find me? I’ll be under that red umbrella right over there.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but it’s against policy to fraternize with the guests.” Not against ranch policy, as far as he knew, but it was definitely against his own policy.
“Oh. That’s too bad. Well, you have a nice day now.” She wandered off, and Joey fought the urge to shake his head—she was probably still watching him, and that would be rude. He’d just met too many women like her who were looking for some adventure and thought that flirting with the lifeguard might be fun and harmless. But it wasn’t fun, and it wasn’t harmless.
Chelsea swam several more laps. He noticed that she was kicking less and less and focusing more on her arms. She’d probably worn herself out and needed to rest. She finally pulled herself out of the water and wrapped up in a towel, then sat on one of the lounge chairs at the side. Because another lifeguard was on duty and Joey was primarily there for Chelsea, he climbed down, put on his shirt, and crossed the cement to sit on the lounger next to hers.
“Tell me about your knee,” he said.
She shrugged. “I was out jogging, hit some loose gravel, and went flying. It was very graceful, I assure you. Ended up tearing my meniscus.”
“Surgery?”
She turned her leg and showed him the scar. “I’m supposed to have a full range of motion by now, but it’s taking its time.”
“Did it keep you out of any important meets this year? I was told you’re shooting for the Olympics.”
“Just one meet, but I should be all right. I’ve placed in enough other meets that I’m in pretty good standing for the trials. I’ve just got to get back into condition.” She glanced over at him. “Who was your little friend just now?”
“My little friend?”
“That woman I saw talking to you. The faker baker. The oompa loompa.”
Joey tried not to smirk. Yeah, that tan had been something else. “I don’t know. A guest here at the ranch. She didn’t say her name.”
“She seemed pretty interested in you.”
“It’s the whistle.” He lifted it from his chest, where it had been dangling on the end of its cord. “It’s a chick magnet.”
“Or a cougar magnet.”
“Yeah, that too.”
She bent and flexed her knee a few times. “So, what are you doing these days? I mean, aside from lifeguarding.”
“I’m here all day, every day during the summer, and then I’m in college during the fall and winter. Pre-med.”
“You are?” She raised an eyebrow. He couldn’t tell if she was impressed or surprised. The idea that she might be surprised somewhat annoyed him, and he had to tamp down that emotion. He didn’t even know if that’s what she meant.
“Going into sports medicine.”
“That’s a good discipline for you.” She leaned back and closed her eyes. That seemed to signal an end to the conversation, so he stopped talking too. His gaze shifted back to the pool. It was a reflex. Even though he knew someone else was in charge, if he was by water, he had to be on alert.
The young families were starting to pack up for the day and go inside, so the overall noise levels of the pool became more manageable. With the new quiet, Joey wondered if Chelsea had dropped off, but then she stood up, placed her towel on the chair, and dove back in.
“No fair!” he called out, trotting back over to his tower.
She turned in the water and laughed at him. “Should I have announced it?”
“Yes!”
She laughed again as she lined herself up and began her next lap.
Joey wasn’t sure whether to be annoyed or amused.
***
Chelsea took a hot shower when she got back to her cabin, then called down for room service. She was a little stiff, which frustrated her, and she really didn’t feel up to being social, especially with complete strangers. While she waited for her food, she did some stretches, pushing herself until it was painful, then pushing even a bit beyond that. She was not going to let this beat her.
Her first appointments with the chiropractor and massage therapist weren’t until the next morning. She was both excited and apprehensive—maybe they’d give her better news than she’d gotten from her doctors back home, but then, maybe they’d just confirm that she might never compete at a world-class level again. She’d been at the doctor’s office by herself when she’d heard that news, and she hadn’t told her parents yet. It couldn’t be true. She refused to let it be true.
When her dinner arrived, she pulled up a movie on her laptop and sat down to eat. She had some new emails, but she’d check those later—she was pretty sure they were from Sandi, lamenting the fact that she’d been gone twenty whole hours already.
When she did open them after the credits rolled, she wasn’t expecting to find one from the university.
Dear Ms. McAllister,
Greetings from the office of the dean.
We were saddened to hear of your recent injury and subsequent surgery, and we hope that your recovery is going well.
As we must do from time to time, we have been going over our student files, and we noticed that as of this last semester, your grades have been falling off. It has been noted that you met with a counselor to discuss this a week before your injury, so we trust that it’s well in hand.
The difficulty we face is the fact that you’re one of our scholarship students, and with the decline in your grades and the injury, we are forced to reevaluate your standing. You were offered the scholarship because of your outstanding swimming skills, and you have maintained it academically. If both standards are not met, we will need to revoke the scholarship. It would sadden us to do this, and so we hope that both situations can be remedied.
You are invited to visit the office anytime to discuss the matter.
Chelsea didn’t bother to read the signature at the bottom. She pushed the laptop away and stared at the wall, numb. Yes, her grades had been failing. Yet another thing she hadn’t told her parents. Wasn’t part of being an adult learning how to solve your problems yourself? But it went deeper than that, and she knew it—she didn’t want to tell them because she knew how they would react.
Like she was a failure, a disappointment.
Her parents lived in a world where prestige was everything. It was one thing to say that their daughter was on the swim team at college—it was quite another to say that their daughter had been hand-selected by a scout from the college and given a scholarship. If she lost that extra edge of specialness, she would let her parents down, and that in turn meant that she was worth even less of their time. The better she performed for their friends and important colleagues, the more they valued her.
Again, she knew that’s how they were raised and so that’s all they knew, but that didn’t make it right.
And now she’d been injured on top of it.
She grabbed her tablet out of her bag and brought up one of her textbooks, then read it while she exercised her knee. She would fix both of her problems, and she would be just fine. And she would do it on her own without anyone being the wiser.
If they were the wiser, she wouldn’t get the support she needed anyway.