“Why would Jazz know?”
“Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. She is your biggest fan. She almost fainted when she found out about you this morning.”
A shadow passed over his face again.
I rolled my eyes. “Seriously, you don’t know her, but trust me, she’s been my best friend since almost the first day I moved here, she’ll keep it to herself. Besides,” I added, “if she tells anyone, she’ll have to share you.” I suddenly remembered Jazz was going to come looking for me at my place that afternoon. “On that note, I told her she could meet you, is that okay?”
He slunk down and dunked his head under the surface. When he popped back up, with water streaming down his face and body, I had to quickly look away before I embarrassed myself by drooling or something. He flicked the water from his dark, glossy hair with a quick shake of his head and leaned forward on his forearms again.
“Uh, yeah, I guess so.” He fixed me with a dark look. “But that means I have to share you. That’s not fair.”
Wow. I gulped.
“Do you know how many times a day you blush?” His dimple made an appearance.
I ducked my head in mock chagrin. “Yes,” I mumbled, but I couldn’t help returning his smile. “I can feel it.”
“It’s sexy as hell.”
“Uh ... um,” I stuttered, my cheeks even warmer. “Thank you? I think?”
He shrugged, like it was no big deal. Inside, I was dancing.
“Sooo back to the topic at hand,” I said, when my voice was steady. “You ... you sang in musicals? I’m not sure I can picture that.”
“Yeah, well, I wasn’t some flamboyant Broadway wannabe. I was shy and young. Mr. Chaplin was always trying to build confidence in kids, not that I recognized that at the time. He was so passionate about getting the kids you least expected and putting them in these parts that built character and confidence and respect from our classmates. I look back on that and realize what he did for me. In fact, what that school in general did for me.”
“Wait,” I said, doing the math and watching Jack carefully. “You said you left England when you were nine, so how come you were in boarding school at such a young age? How long were you there?”
Who put their kids in a boarding school in second or third grade ... or younger? My heart squeezed. There was such a slight tightening of his jaw I almost missed it.
He left the wall and stretched his body back doing a couple of strokes into the middle of the pool. “Oh well, it was just what some people did in England back then, and I wanted to go. We had some family friends whose son was there and loved it. He raved about it one summer, and I begged to go.” He shrugged as if that’s all there was to it and slipped under the water again. Something didn’t ring true about that last part, but I decided to let it go.
I waited until he emerged and circled back away from that line of questioning. “So, this principal of yours, Mr. Chaplin, must be proud of you. Does he know how much he inspired you?”
What an amazing gift to give a teacher, to know how you changed a kid’s life, and even more that the child had grown up to become world famous. I shook my head with wonder. I couldn’t remember any teacher having such an impact on me, although I’d liked my English and art teacher in high school. But it was mostly Nana who had inspired my love for the written word and allowed my creativity to flourish. She and I, with all of the art projects we would work on all summer long, and look what I’d done with it ... a big fat nothing. Yet. My heart squeezed as I thought of Nana. I missed her so much. I wondered what she would think of Jack. If she would approve.
“Mr. Chaplin, as far as I know, has no idea.”
“He must know, I mean surely you are as famous over there as you are here.” In fact, the Erath saga was a global phenomenon. There was no way he wasn’t recognized the world over.
I was obviously straying into dangerous territory again. I hadn’t meant to. Jack turned without answering and broke into a powerful stroke. Though we’d only known each other a few days, I was already picking up cues for when he was uncomfortable. When he turned at the other end, I quickly moved to the edge of the pool where he was headed and slipped my feet into the water.
“I’m sorry,” I said as he came up in front of me. “It’s none of my business. I’m not trying to pry, I was just curious about you. What makes you ... you. But, as I said, it’s none of my business. I’ll stop.” I smiled. “Sooo, how about this fall weather we’re having? Hmm?” I waggled my eyebrows trying to lighten the mood.
“Yeah,” he said, going along with it for a moment. “Gorgeous.”