The man smiled. Without warning, Maddy felt a curious little squeezing sensation in her heart; at the same moment, she experienced another wave of deja vu.
"Hey," the instructor said, "my name's Zack. What's yours?"
"Theresa," the child whispered. She stared warily at the offered hand, but didn't relinquish her death grip on Maddy's. After a moment's hesitation the man reached out and gave the tail of the little girl's T-shirt a friendly tug.
"You look pretty tough to me," he said. "I'll bet you could handle this class all by yourself. What do you say you let your mom go over there with the other moms while we give it a try?"
In a barely audible voice Theresa said, "She's not my mother."
"Sister?"
A solemn head-shake rejected that. The instructor glanced up at Maddy, who was beginning to wish passionately that the concrete deck would open up and swallow her. He did a double take, then let his gaze travel slowly upward, taking in every single inch of Maddy's body, lingering on the place where her breasts made generous hemispheres and the nipples still stood out in merciless relief under the sleek black suit.
"Baby-sitter?" he ventured, frowning again.
"No," Maddy said miserably, and cleared her throat. "I'm not-I'm… uh… I think I'm in this class. You should have my registration card there someplace. Maddy Gordon?" She faltered in the face of the man's silence. "I signed up last winter… spring. I'm sorry, nobody told me. I did put down my birth date-right there on the card-and no one said a thing. I'm sorry. I'll-"
"You're… a student?" That wonderful smile was only a rapidly fading memory. The eyes that had flamed for one moment were a dark, smoky blue. "Are you sure you're a beginner?"
"Oh, yes," Maddy said, laughing nervously. "Absolutely." There wasn't a glimmer of response. Oh, Lord, she thought, why couldn't it have been someone jolly and friendly, like that boy in the office, or someone who might understand, like the girl with the braid? Why, oh, why did she have the bad luck to get stuck with Aquaman?
And why did he look so familiar? It didn't seem likely she'd have met him in the course of her job. On the one side, all the men she knew were either district attorneys, public defenders, or social workers- earnest, harried individuals with permanent worry wrinkles and paunches. And on the other… Well, no, certainly not. It was true that the people she faced every day came from all levels of society, but most of them had the characteristics she'd learned to recognize, the unmistakable signs of underlying anger and tension. No, she would stake her professional reputation that, for all his powerful build and forbidding expression, this man had no capacity for violence.
Admittedly, she'd arrived at that conclusion by completely subjective and unscientific means. She'd watched his hands. She'd watched him when he stood up, noticing the way he'd first placed a calm, reassuring hand on Theresa's shoulder, as if he understood instinctively that a sudden, violent movement would frighten her.
"Okay," he said now, raising his voice and turning to the other children as if Maddy had ceased to exist. "First thing we're all going to do is… drop everything. Right. Drop it right down on the ground, just like this." The clipboard clattered to the deck. The thumb-sucker stared at him with round, startled eyes. The two with towels dropped them and giggled nervously. Theresa clutched a handful of her T-shirt and glanced up at Maddy.
"Next thing we're all going to do is this." Zack raised his arms above his head and placed one hand over the other. Four pairs of childish arms followed suit readily, while Theresa gave Maddy a questioning look.
"Go on," Maddy whispered, squeezing the damp little hand. "Try it." Another pair of arms went up. Maddy started to lift hers, too, and then, feeling indescribably foolish, lowered them and cleared her throat. "Mr… Zack-"
"Okay," the instructor said, ignoring the interruption, "now we're all ready to dive right into the pool! Ready, set-"
Five pairs of eyes got big and round. One by one the arms came down. The thumb-sucker looked ready to cry again, and even the plump, happy girl looked uncertainly at that huge, empty expanse of water.
"Smart kids," Zack said solemnly, nodding his head. "You guys are absolutely right. You know you aren't ready to jump into the pool, don't you?" Five little heads moved slowly back and forth. "Okay, I want you to remember that. Rule number one is: Nobody gets into the water unless I, or one of the other lifeguards, is right here. Got it? Great. My name's Zack. Nice and easy. Now your turn. Your name is…"
As he pointed a finger at each child, a name would pop out, accompanied by the giggles, hops, and fidgets of suppressed energy. Zack's stern, no-nonsense manner didn't seem to daunt the children a bit, now that they'd gotten used to it. Even Theresa hadn't felt the need to reclaim Maddy's hand, and had moved timidly forward to join the others.
But it sure daunted Maddy. "Zack," she said hoarsely, trying again to get his attention.
"Yes?" His glance was determinedly polite, but somehow didn't quite connect with her. It kept sliding off her left shoulder and hitting somewhere in the empty middle distance.
Maddy was beginning to feel trickles of anger seeping in around the mental blocks of fear and embarrassment. Struggling valiantly to remain calm and reasonable, she asked, "What would you like me to do?"
His response was unexpectedly disarming-a smile that tugged at his mouth and managed to pull it attractively awry. "Why don't you stay for today? Might even learn something." His gaze moved as if beyond his control, sliding over her body and resting briefly on the golden waves of her hair. It was like a physical touch, and throughout her body her nerve endings shivered and contracted in response.
Then suddenly, almost as if he'd called it ruthlessly to heel, his gaze left her and the smile disappeared. His voice became cold and impersonal. "After this, we'll see if we can find you an adult class. Now," he said briskly, retrieving the children's attention, "everybody over here. I want you to sit right down here on the edge of the pool."
With one graceful motion he took off his shirt and jumped into the water. The muscles of his chest and torso jerked and rippled as he walked backward in the waist-deep water, skimming the water's surface with his hands. Maddy closed her eyes. It was a beautiful chest, and his hands looked almost as if they were caressing the water, but right now she couldn't really appreciate such things. She felt slightly seasick. Her throat was dry and her heart was pounding. Moving as if her head might fall off if she tilted it, she sat down and lowered her feet into the tepid water.
Something touched her thigh like a small wet kiss.
"It's all right," Theresa said solemnly. She gave Maddy an unblinking, unsmiling stare, then turned resolutely back toward Zack. "I'm not afraid. Are you?"
Maddy lied. "Nope." Her chest had suddenly grown too small for her heart. She lifted her chin, sniffing a little as she smiled down at the shiny black head. "I'm not if you're not."
"Okay," Zack said, "now I want you all to turn over-tummies down, that's it-and let yourselves into the water, nice and easy."
Maddy looked desperately at Zack, begging silently for an exemption. She only got a hard, commanding stare in return. She hesitated a moment longer, considering rebellion, but Theresa was watching her, waiting for her. Her whole body, and particularly her vulnerable backside, burned with embarrassment, but Maddy followed instructions.
"See?" Zack said approvingly. "That's the way I want you to get into the pool, at least until you've learned to jump in. Now, you're standing on a platform. That's so the water only comes to your waist. If you get off the platform, the water's going to come up to your nose. So rule number two is: Don't get off the platform. Okay?" There was a moment's silence while he studied the water lapping around Maddy's knees. "Except for you, Maddy. You can get off the platform." The gently teasing tone surprised her. So did the glint of humor in his eyes.