2 Chapter 1.2

   On the first day of her summer vacation, Jane Doherty sighed happily and wiggled her brightly painted toenails, letting the sun soak into her mostly bared skin. She wouldn't stay out long, she promised herself, thinking of all the damage excessive exposure could do to a woman's skin. But it felt so good to just sit and soak up rays for a few blissfully lazy moments.

   In the end, it was vanity that forced her to move into the protective shade of a poolside awning. A few months away from her twenty-ninth birthday, she planned to fight aging as long as modern technology made it possible.

   She slid a pair of sunglasses from the top of her head onto her nose and glanced around, taking stock of the others who were enjoying the neighborhood pool on this Monday afternoon in early June. There weren't many, since most People worked on week days—unless, like Jane, they were fortunate enough to have summers off. Five or six children made use of the shallow end of the pool, some in inflatef arm-bands, others showing off swim-class skills. Three women sat in chaired nearby, chatting as they kept watch over their kids.

   A little boy of four or five sat on the edge of the pool about halfway down, splashing his feet in the deeper water. His blond hair was dry, and he didn't look as though he'd been in the pool at all. He didn't seem unhappy or bored, Jane decided. Just thoughtful. There was only one adult in the water, a young woman playing with squealing toddler in a floating plastic seat. The little girl was blond, and reminded Jane of the boy sitting on the side of the pool. Siblings?

   And her attention wandered again.

   At the deeper part of the pool, near the diving board, half a dozen teenagers postured for each other, though most of the local teens hung out at the more popular new pool on the west side of town. A young lifeguard slouched in an elevated seat, his attention focused more on a couple of pretty teenage bodies than on his duties.

   Stretching out in her shaded lounge chair, Jane smiled as she remembered the long-ago days when she and other girls her age had worked so diligently—but so subtly, they had believed—to distract buff young lifeguards. Her smile deepened as she fondly recalled how often they had succeeded.

   "I know that smile. It always means you're up to mischief," a familiar voice observed.

   "Just remembering mischief." Jane nodded toward the bikinied teenagers posing for the lifeguard's benefit.

   Sandy Fidler groaned as she lowered her very pregnant body into the chair next to Jane's.

   "Oh God. Was I ever that young and thin?"

   "Hey, we were hot stuff." Jane pulled her gaze  away from the girls to smile fondly at her longtime friend.

   Sandy glanced pointedly at Jane's hot-Pink bikini. "One of us still is."

   "That's very nice. Thank you."

   "Just stating facts." Sandy lay back in her chair and rested a hand lightly on her bulging belly.

   "How are you feeling today?"

   Since Jane had asked, Sandy launched into a detailed analysis of her condition and how impatient she was to reach the end of it. Most of her attention on her friend's words, Jane allowed her gaze to wander again. The teens had stepped up their flirting, she noticed. One of the girls had accidentally positioned herself so the lifeguard could look straight down her bikini top. With a frown, Jane realized that he was taking full advantage of the silent offer.

   While she had identified with the kids earlier, it perturbed her that the lifeguard was allowing his concentration to be drawn away from the pool. Jane has worked as a lifeguard for three summers, and she knew the young man had been trained to resist distractions.

   She glanced again at the shallow end, where children were still splashing and squealing. The young woman still played with the toddler in the floating seat, and the three women in the poolside chairs were heavily into gossip session. Murmuring a response to something Sandy said, Jane turned her eyes to the spot where the little boy had been sitting. He'd moved, she noted. He probably given in to the lure of the cool water. She looked at the shallow end again, casually searching for his golden head among the other kids. She didn't see him. Was she simply overlooking him? Kinda looked differentiations, of course.

*A/N: Hi, full story is available in my Patreon page, please look for creator Zetar086. Thank you for the support.