Page 13 of Life After Levi

* * *

I groanin pleasure as the water soothes my aching leg. When Vinnie asked me what happened, I kept it age appropriate, but told her that I got hurt while I was working. Dale moved the kiddie pool closer so Bonnie could watch Vinnie swim, which I thought was hysterical. She would walk up and down on the deck as the little girl swam laps, then jump into her pool and cluck up a storm.

“Go on, swim some laps, I know that’ll probably help,” Emerie says, a gleam in her eye.

“Wanna race?” I ask.

“What does the winner get?” she retorts, egging me on while swimming to the deep end.

“Winner’s choice,” I tell her.

“How many laps?” she questions, stretching and making me think things I shouldnotbe with her daughter nearby.

“Ten,” I decree. That’ll help stretch my sore muscles out enough that my pain meds should work. When they’re this tight, it takes too long for any sort of relief to hit.

“I can count!” Levinia shouts, getting out of the pool. I watch her scoop up Bonnie, uncaring that the chicken is completely soaked and stand at the end of the pool. “Can I say go?” she asks.

I look at Emerie and smirk. “You ready, sweetheart?”

“Eat my dust, sailor boy,” she sasses. “Go ahead when you’re ready, Vinnie.”

“One, two, three… go!” Levinia screams, jumping up and down.

ChapterEight

Emerie

I honestly didn’t expectto win our race. Even still recovering from his injuries, Damien’s quick and in fantastic shape. The scars don’t detract from his overall good looks either. It’s obvious he’s worked hard to rebuild the muscles that were damaged, so like I said, I wasn’t expecting to win at all.

Instead, I hear, “Mama wins!” from Levinia as she does a little jumping dance at the end of the pool, seconds before Damien’s hand reaches out and touches the side.

“Did you go easy on me?” I ask. “Because there’s no way I should’ve beaten you, Damien.”

“I promise, I didn’t go easy on you, Em,” he replies, slightly out of breath. “So, as the winner, what do you want?”

I can feel a slight blush cover my cheeks as my mind veers down a track it has no business driving on at all! “Um, I’ll think about it and let you know,” I finally reply, ignoring his foxy smirk. “Now, I’m gonna go get some Vitamin D while you continue your workout, okay?”

“I’m gonna swim with Mr. Damien,” Vinnie decrees, plopping Bonnie back into her pool. She then heads to the deep end and does a perfect dive before swimming across the bottom to come up alongside Damien, who has a look of astonishment on his face.

“Holy sh-smokes,” he says. “You weren’t kidding when you said she swam like a fish. She’s definitely her daddy’s daughter, Emerie.”

“I know,” I softly reply. “We both learned at an early age like I told you, and it was a comfort to me to be able to swim so I did it throughout my pregnancy, especially when I was really missing him. It’s no wonder she’s able to move through the water like she does since she ‘learned’ while she was still in utero.”

“Dale’s putting some burgers on the grill,” Miriam calls out. “Vinnie, come get dried off and changed and help me, please.”

“Okay, Memaw. I need to put Bonnie up first.”

“You do that, child. Pappy will empty the pool for you, though. You two just keep enjoying the pool. Oh, and Damien, I went ahead and turned the heat up in the hot tub for you. There’s an outside shower for you to rinse off the pool chemicals before you get in.”

“Thank you, Miriam,” he says. To me, he continues, “I’m going to do about twenty or so more laps, then utilize the hot tub. Do you want to join me?”

Again, heat courses through me. While I never thought I’d spend the rest of my life alone, I also didn’t think I’d have such a visceral response to someone who was Levi’s best friend. Does that make me a bad person? Because I still love Levi down to my core and with all my beating heart; I just know he’s never coming back home to me. His ramblings in the notebook indicate that he doesn’t want me to spend the rest of my life on my own, he wants me to find love again.

But could it be with Damien? Or would that be too weird? I have no one I can really ask, either. Most of the girls I went to high school with are long gone. They either went off to college or moved away from Possum Creek. Me, however? I love my mountains. They’re home to me, but I was willing to travel with Levi to wherever the Navy sent him because when we were together,hewas home. Now that he’s gone, I have no real desire to travel.

“Emerie? Are you okay?” he softly asks when I delay answering him.

“Sorry, yes, I’ll join you. Just wake me up from my sunshine nap when you’re done,” I tease, trying to smile my way through the awkwardness I’m currently feeling.

---