Things with Leah and Nick had been tense for a few weeks since he'd talked about loving her for the first time since the first. They hadn't talked much and Leah had been trying to keep herself busy with friends and Freddy, while Nick was trying to keep himself busy with work and his own friends. In Nick's mind, the less time spent with Leah, the closer he'd get to getting over her, romantically speaking.
"Nick, you wanna go swimming with us?" Freddy asked one evening as he and Leah were getting ready to go swim outside in Nick and Leah's pool out back. He had made an agreement with Leah to try and be extra nice to Nick, in hopes of winning over his approval. It was sort of laughable to him -- it wasn't like Nick was Leah's father -- but he was her best friend, and he meant a lot to her, and for that reason Freddy would take it seriously.
Nick looked at Freddy skeptically from across a newspaper. Freddy was starting to think that Nick was going to decline his offer and was surprised when Nick answered.
"Sure."
Freddy's eyebrows rose and finally he smiled, "Cool, man. Leah's already out there. Just come out when you're ready."
"Yeah," Nick nodded before heading upstairs to get a pair of swimming trunks. He didn't really know why he had agreed, but at least he'd be able to keep an eye on Leah and Freddy, although he didn't really know if he wanted to watch them together ... it wasn't a sight that he really enjoyed.
They all swam around for about twenty minutes, making small-talk, until Freddy's cell phone began to ring.
"It's one of the guys," Freddy informed, referring to one of the other baseball players that he was on a team with, as he walked up to the edge of the pool where Nick and Leah were still floating around. "I gotta go to a meeting. I may be by later tonight, Lee, but I don't know yet."
Leah nodded, "Okay ... be careful, and call me."
"'Course." Freddy leaned down and planted a kiss on her lips before straightening out, waving to Nick, and leaving.
A few minutes of silence followed as Nick and Leah floated about the water in awkwardness.
"Sorry he had to leave," Nick apologized as he swam to the steps and sat down on the bottom step, the water seeping up his chest.
Leah watched him with curiosity. It wasn't like Nick to apologize unless he meant it, though she didn't understand why he would be sorry for something like Freddy having to go home early. "You are?" she inquired, wading over to him and treading water in front of him. "You surprise me every day, Carter."
"You know, I was tryin' to be nice, and you have to go and-"
"You know what, Nick? Why try to be nice now, huh?? For weeks you've been ignoring me-"
"And you haven't been ignoring me?"
"-because you can't stand the fact that I love you as a friend! Well you know what?! I'm sick of this, Nick ... it's childish, ridiculous, immature, infantile, infantine, puerile, silly, foolish-"
Leah was cut off by Nick's lips suddenly pressed firmly against hers. In moments she'd stopped trying to pull away and began to kiss him back, their arms wrapped securely around each other. Leah felt her heart thudding wildly against her chest as she wondered why she was doing such a thing and her mind was trying to tell her to stop what was happening. Nick was her friend and she had Freddy and she was completely screwing everything up. But her hands wandered to his hair and she didn't pull away.
