Woo another chapter this week! Yay I did it! :-D

I hope you all enjoy this one, if you do please vote or comment or follow.

Thank you!

Much love,

Robin

*

The Almost Swim

All week it seemed impossible to find real time to go to the beach and swim. Either Mitch or Dev would attach themselves to me the moment I stepped foot inside school and unless classes disallowed it stick close to me all day. It wasn't done in such a way that I really noticed what was going on right away either. But by the end of the week I realized they'd purposely been keeping me busy.

It was fun to hang out with them though and their two friends Jones and Cam were great too. So that by the end of the week it felt like I'd suddenly gained four friends plus Cam's girlfriend Kira who was incredibly nice too if a little more shy. Instead of eating lunch by myself I suddenly had an entire group of people to eat with and Jamie had noticed it too.

She was however by the end of the week no longer blue and had regained her previous confidence. She'd also decided I deserved payback I was certain but she hadn't really made any overt moves. I'd kept an eye on her to be sure, not liking the plotting stage she was in at all. Even Dev and Mitch agreed that I needed to watch out.

Each day after school either they dragged me along to the Stonefish to hang out there or to one of their homes. And then on Friday Mitch even suggested I should invite all of them over to my home, unless my parents would object. When I automatically responded that my dad was away on business I'd really done it and could no longer say no. Which meant all four guys plus Kira eagerly trooped after me that afternoon.

Whether it was on purpose or not, their extreme hogging of my time had virtually made it impossible to test out my fishtail in sea. I'd spend one glorious early morning on Wednesday in the water but though I figured out I could hold my breath for easily fifteen minutes, I hadn't been able to swim for more than half an hour and then only near the shore.

It was so utterly enchantingly amazing however that I wanted to go again and again and the itch to do so was getting stronger and stronger. Just taking a bath each night, no matter how roomy the bath was, it wasn't the same as actually swimming and discovering the beautiful reefs and sea life.

I hoped that at least the weekend now meant I'd be able to spend a few hours in the water. Thanks to Mitch and Dev taking me to the Stonefish so often I'd already finished all my homework and gotten a good start on the final exam prepping and reviewing. Though those exams were still almost an entire month away.

"Holy crap! You live here?" Jones said when they realized we weren't just walking through the more rich neighborhood, I'd now turned into our driveway. I shrugged, "My dad owns some big software company.... We used to travel all over the world." The side gate smoothly swung open when I keyed us in and they trooped after me into the garden and around the house so we could enter through the back door. They were all quiet and a little subdued, as if the beautiful, manicured lawn and modern, sprawling house deserved their respect somehow.

At the sight of the pool in the backyard various sounds of approval and excitement were heard however. "Oh that is nice, can we take swim in that?" "It's gorgeous!" "Yeah swim sounds great!" I took a look at the pool, in which I hadn't dared swim yet with my fishtail because I wasn't certain how well the neighbor could look into it from his top windows. "Sure you guys can swim if you like. If you don't mind me passing? I had a dive this morning before school."

Dev's shoulders went stiff when I said that but none of the others responded much to my statement. Did that mean Dev knew about the mermaid thing and how touching water would force the transformation? Or was it just a coincidence? I really wasn't sure.

In the end none of them went swimming after all, they'd discovered the large tv screen and the arrangement of comfy leather couches in the den. Since I never had a house full of people and found myself really enjoying it, the guys and even Kira all sort of crashed there and stayed until their various parents called them home.

I had great fun myself making finger foods and sort of playing hostess, an entirely new experience for me. When dinner time rolled around only Mitch and Dev remained and I told them easily they were welcome to stay. The two of them were sharing a corner of the couch, Dev sprawled out one way and Mitch on his back, head in Dev's lap. I thought it was nice to see how comfortable the two friends were with each other.

"I'll ask my mom, hang on," Mitch said and started texting on his phone. Dev shrugged, "My mom and dad have date night so I'd have eaten at the Stonefish. We can all go there if you don't feel like cooking." I shook my head, "Oh no I like cooking actually. Just don't usually have anyone to do it for."

"What about your dad?" Mitch asked, evidently done texting. I shrugged, "He eats anything and he works a lot." "You mean he's not around a lot?" Dev asked and when I did another shrug the two guys exchanged a look before turning back to me. "So what are you making? Can we help?"

Smiling, because I was relieved they didn't probe any further, I told them I'd take care of it and that I hoped they liked seafood. When Dev immediately assured me that he absolutely loved any seafood I went to work, certain I could leave the two of them in the den unsupervised.

By the time my creamy seafood linguine was finished, cooking was harder when you had to put on gloves to keep your hands from getting wet, I was really starving. Tossing out the gloves to hide the evidence I then hurried to prepare plates and set them in the dining room. Only to stall in the doorway to the den when I saw the addition.

"You! What are you doing here?" I asked, rather shocked. Matt, sprawled out in a lazy chair with his feet up on the coffee table grinned. "You have got to stop greeting me that way Dani, you made enough to feed me too?" I'm sure I did a pretty stupid impression of a fish, just sort of gaping at him for his audacity. Then when he started grinning even more I forced myself to say, "Well yeah, let me just grab an extra plate. You're just in time, food's ready."

Immediately all three of them trooped after me into the kitchen and while I was piling a plate with food for Matt, they grabbed what I'd set out and headed to the dining room. When I arrived with the extra plate I saw they'd prepared four spots at the head of the table nearest the patio. Mitch and Dev had already sat down but Matt was still standing and the moment I neared he took his plate and put it down. Then he slid back the chair at the head of the table, gestured for me to sit and pushed the chair in.

"Thanks for making dinner Dani," he said quietly while seating himself. "It looks delicious, I love seafood." Dev and Mitch were to my left, sitting next to each other and across from Matt and the boys both chorused, "Yes thank you Dani!" Then they dug in the way only teenaged boys could.

Dinner was a nice event. Matt and Dev got along great and Mitch and Matt seemed to have an easy going friendly relationship as well. I'd almost forget that Matt was eight years older than them, seven for me. There was a moment where suddenly Matt shifted and his knee was pressed against mine. I knew he'd done it on purpose and that I ought to move my leg away but his heat was nice so I didn't.

Then when they'd all had their fill and they seemed to conclude it was time to go Dev ventured, "Wanna come surfing with us tomorrow? We can borrow your kites can't we Matt?" Matt had his dark eyes focused solely on me, studying my expression. It took nerve to lie to them at that point, I really hated doing so and pulled my legs under my chair so I was no longer touching him.

"Uhm sorry, I can't my dad is coming home..." I didn't know that of course but I left my statement hanging there. Mitch was nodding, oblivious to the intense undercurrents I was sensing from both McLaren men. "Well if your dad's coming home of course you got to be here. Sunday maybe?"

I stood and started stacking plates so I had something to do with my hands while I answered. "Can't miss me for more than a day already Mitch?" I said, injecting a teasing note in my voice that hopefully hid my own tension. "It's probably better if I'll just see you guys at school again on Monday yeah? That way if I can't make it I won't disappoint you."

"Ah but Dani, you'd never disappoint me!" Mitch answered jovially but then stood and briskly took the plates from my hands. "We'll do the dishes since you cooked and then we'll get out of your hair. If you can't come surfing this weekend it's fine. Too bad, but hey family is important!"

Infinitely relieved that they'd do the dishes for me, though we had a dishwasher. I just gestured them to the kitchen and headed upstairs so I could quickly shrug on a thin sweater. When I came back downstairs the three of them had already plowed through most of the dishes and stacked the dry and clean ones on one of the counters. "We didn't know where to put them," Matt said when I picked up the clean plates and put them away. "Thought you'd appreciate not having to look for them later."

I smiled at him, "Yeah that's right. Thanks guys for doing the dishes." I tried to ignore how my belly got all tingly when Matt kept smiling at me. His eyes crinkled at the corners when he did that and I found myself thinking it was incredibly sexy and made it hard not to smile back.

When they were all gone I stood with my back against the front door, feeling sort of giddy and terrified. I didn't want to like Matt, had really meant it when I assured Dev I wasn't interested in him, yet I was totally attracted to him.

*

Anyone else think eyes that crinkle at the corner are just the sexiest? ^.^