Lucky Lifeguard (River's End Ranch Book 28)

  Lucky Lifeguard

  River’s End Ranch Book Twenty-Eight

  by Amelia C. Adams

  With many thanks to—George, Laurie, Lorena, Mary, Matt, and Meisje.

  And special thanks to Kristi for middle-of-the-night deliveries, and Amy for bending over

  backwards. I am blessed with friends.

  Copyright©2017 Amelia C. Adams

  Cover design by Erin Dameron-Hill

  Table of Contents:

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter One

  June

  “Joey! Can you come down for a second?”

  Joey Peterson looked down from his lifeguard tower and saw Will Weston, head of the aquatics department at River’s End Ranch, walking toward him across the concrete that surrounded the pool. Will was a pretty chill boss and didn’t usually seek out an employee unless something was wrong, so Joey immediately started thinking through everything that had happened in the last week—he hadn’t played any practical jokes on anyone, so he should be in the clear.

  He motioned to Catherine, one of the three Kates who also worked at the pool, and she came over to take his spot on the tower.

  “What’s up, Will?” he asked as he pulled on his T-shirt.

  “We have a guest with some particular requirements arriving tomorrow. An injured Olympic hopeful who needs some rehab. I’m putting you in charge of her,” Will said.

  “Sure. What’s her name?”

  Will reached into his pocket and pulled out a sheet of paper. “Chelsea McAllister.”

  Joey blinked. For a second, it felt as though the solid concrete pad where he stood was crumbling beneath his feet. It couldn’t be a coincidence—there wouldn’t be two world-class swimmers with the same name. “Chelsea’s coming here?”

  “Yep, arriving with her parents tomorrow morning. They’ve asked that one lane be blocked off for her exclusive use, and they’d like the pool to open at six a.m. so she has two hours of private swim time before the other guests are allowed to enter. She’s paying for all this, and of course you’ll be compensated for those two extra hours in the mornings, if you’re willing to take this on.”

  Joey rubbed his face. Of course he was willing—he was saving up for his next semester of college, and those two hours a day would help out. But Chelsea . . . wow. That was a blow right to the gut.

  “Are you okay?” Will asked. “I know I kind of sprang this on you—should I ask one of the other lifeguards?”

  “No, I’m fine,” Joey replied. “I have some past history with Chelsea, but nothing that will keep me from doing my job. I’ll take care of it.”

  “Okay, but only if you’re sure. I don’t want to put you in a position where you’d be distracted.”

  Lifeguards couldn’t afford to be distracted. That one moment when their thoughts wandered could be that one moment when a little three-year-old fell in the deep end. “I promise that if it’s too hard, I’ll turn it over to someone else.”

  “Sounds good.” Will handed the page to Joey. “I don’t know if you need this, but here you go just in case.”

  Joey glanced at it. It was just a list of requested pool times and whatnot. “Thanks, Will. I’m on it.”

  “Glad to hear it. That’s a load off my mind.”

  Something in Will’s tone of voice made Joey look at him a little closer. “Hey, what about you? You’re looking kind of stressed out.”

  Will sighed. “It’s that wife of mine. She’s due in a few weeks and she’s supposed to be taking it easy. So she made me all these charts and stuff so I wouldn’t lose track of what’s going on with the aquatics department, but I think I’m even more confused than I was before she got here to run things. Type A personalities make great employees, but complicated wives. Just remember that.”

  “Um, okay,” Joey said. It would be a long, long time before he started thinking about wives, regardless of their personality types.

  “Thanks again for taking care of the McAllister situation. I appreciate it.” Will clapped Joey on the shoulder as he walked away.

  Chelsea McAllister. Joey leaned up against one of the fence posts surrounding the pool and exhaled. He hadn’t seen her for two years. No matter how long it had been, though, he knew he’d never forget the face of the girl who had broken his heart.

  ***

  “Are you sure there’s nowhere else, Dad? I’d even take a community center.”

  Derek McAllister looked at his daughter over the top of his newspaper. She couldn’t believe he still preferred a physical copy of the paper rather than reading the news on his tablet like every other human being on earth. “You’d rather swim in some strange community pool than go to River’s End Ranch? Why?”

  “It just . . . I don’t know.” She fished around for some reason—any reason—he’d listen to. “It can’t be as nice as the website looks,” she ended lamely.

  Her dad shook his head. “John and Linda were there just three weeks ago and said it was fantastic.”

  John and Linda . . . her parents’ best friends, and the experts on absolutely everything. Chelsea was getting tired of every decision in their family being dictated by the whims of John and Linda.

  “Besides,” her father went on, “your mother and I deserve a nice trip for our anniversary, and this is where we want to go. You need to train, we need a trip—perfect. Unless you can give me a solid reason why we should cancel, we’re leaving tonight.”

  Chelsea stared down at her plate. She’d eaten all the bacon, but the eggs were cold, and she hated cold eggs. She hated mornings. In fact, she’d been feeling pretty hateful in general since tearing the meniscus in her right knee. “All right,” she said at last. “I’m almost packed anyway.” She’d been willing to go when her mother proposed a trip and had been getting ready to leave—until she learned the destination. Now it seemed she really had no choice without making a big deal of it, and she didn’t want to make a big deal of it.

  She waited until her dad finished his coffee and left the table, then pulled out her phone and sent a quick text to her friend Sandi. Didn’t you say Joey works at a place called River’s End Ranch in Idaho now?

  When Sandi replied with a yes, Chelsea shook her head. Great. Just great.

  Chapter Two

  “Hey, Joey,” Joni called out when he entered the diner at lunchtime. “Anyone drown today?”

  “Nope, not on my watch. You know they wouldn’t dare.” He took a seat at the counter and waited until she was done refilling coffee cups at her tables. Then he ordered a BLT and a stack of onion rings.

  “I wish I could eat whatever I wanted and stay fit,” she commented as she jotted down his order. “But then you do something crazy like swim for seventy-two hours a week, right?”

  “About an hour a day,” he corrected with a smile.

  “See, I don’t think I could do that. It takes . . . oh, I don’t know. Willpower and commitment and all that stuff.” She passed his order off to Bob, got him an ice water, then leaned on the counter. “Can I tell you something? It’s been a whole month since I graduated, and I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. How do you even figure
that out? I mean, how did you know that sports medicine was what you wanted?”

  Joey took a sip of his water so he wouldn’t have to answer immediately. Some questions required a minute. “I did have other ideas once upon a time,” he said, “but when those didn’t pan out, I went with my second love.”

  Thankfully, she didn’t push him for more details. “I don’t know what my problem is—whether I have too many loves or not enough loves. Oh, there’s your food.” She stepped over to the window, grabbed his plate, and set it in front of him. “There you go. Sorry—I’ll stop jabbering and let you eat now.” She gave him a smile and walked away, leaving him with hot, delicious smelling food and a lot to think about.

  His first love? Swimming. Always had been. His mother had taken him to the pool for the first time when he was three. He remembered the inflatable water wings she made him wear and their distinctive smell. They were green and had frogs on them. She carried him around in the water, bouncing on her toes so he could get used to the feel of it. Then she took him over to the kiddie pool and started showing him how to stay afloat. Those were some of the best memories of his life.

  “Joey? Are you okay?” Lindy, the other waitress on shift, stopped and glanced at his plate. “Nothing wrong with your food, is there? Did the Almighty Bob get something wrong?”

  “I’m not almighty,” Bob called out from the kitchen. “I’m just extremely close.”

  Joey laughed. “No, everything’s fine. I was just thinking.”

  Lindy smiled. “Good. I’ll leave you to it, then.”

  Truth was, he didn’t want to be left to it. Some things shouldn’t be dredged up again after so many years. He picked up his sandwich and took a big bite, more than happy to let bacon soothe all his ruffled feelings.

  ***

  After he finished eating, Joey paid and left, walking across the parking lot toward the UPS Store. He needed to print out some signs, and Abby was the perfect person to help him with that.

  “Sure,” she said after he explained what he needed. “So, a big sign that says ‘Pool Closed: Private Party.’ Is yellow cardstock all right? It’s kind of bold, eye-catching. Says ‘No Touchy’ even without words.”

  “Sounds good. And can you laminate it? I’ll need to use it over and over again.”

  “No problem.” She jotted all that down on a Post-it Note. “And then you said some ‘Private Lane’ signs?”

  “Yeah. Two of those would be great.”

  “I’m on it.” She moved over to her computer, generated the text, had him approve it, and then she printed it out. Within minutes, he held three still-warm laminated signs, and he nodded.

  “Thanks, Abby. These are perfect.”

  “That’s what I do. So, who’s this private party? And why do they get their very own signs?”

  “My ex-girlfriend, who is coming here unexpectedly to throw a monkey wrench in my life,” he replied.

  Abby raised an eyebrow.

  “Okay, I don’t think she’s purposely coming to throw monkey wrenches, but she’s definitely unexpected, and . . . yeah. Sorry. I didn’t mean to blurt like that.” Joey pulled his credit card out of his pocket and swiped it through the machine. “I should let you get back to work.”

  “I enjoy blurting. I also enjoy being the recipient of blurting.” She grinned. “It’s all good. Here’s your receipt—you know the ranch will reimburse you for those signs, right?”

  “Oh, right. I probably should have put it on the pool account before I swiped . . .” Chelsea was already messing with his head and she wasn’t even there yet.

  “I can void it and we can do it again,” Abby offered.

  “No, it’s okay. I’ll just turn in the receipt. Thanks, Abby.”

  “You’re welcome. You aren’t driving, are you?”

  “Huh? No, I rode in with Jamal today.”

  “Good. You’re spacey enough that I wouldn’t trust you on the road.”

  “Ha, ha. See you later.”

  As he left the building, though, he couldn’t help but wonder if she had a point.

  ***

  “You’re going to be gone for how long?” Sandi asked, her voice sounding a little whiny through Chelsea’s cell phone. But then again, Sandi’s voice sounded a little whiny in real life, too.

  “Three weeks, probably,” Chelsea replied.

  “But you’re going to miss all the good parties.”

  Chelsea looked out the car window. They’d be pulling up at the airport soon, and she’d have to be ready to jump out and grab her bags. “It’ll be fine, Sandi. Gotta remember, I can’t party when I’m in training.”

  “That sounds like such a bore. All right, I’ll fill you in when you get back. Don’t get stepped on by a horse or anything.”

  “Okay. I promise.” Chelsea said goodbye and hung up, shaking her head a little even as she smiled. Sandi had never really understood what it meant to be in training or why it was so important to Chelsea. They’d been friends long enough that it should have been obvious, but sometimes, the most obvious things in the world went right over Sandi’s head. She was the kindest, most loyal friend Chelsea had ever had, though, so she was willing to put up with a few quirks along the way.

  And it was Sandi’s cousin Nick who had told Sandi that Joey worked at the ranch so Sandi could tell Chelsea. Funny how that all came about, what a small world it could be sometimes when people got to chatting about their lives and seeing what they had in common. Chelsea was glad she knew he’d be there before she got to the ranch. It gave her time to steel herself, and that meant she’d be in control, and she needed to be in control. Things were just better that way.

  Chapter Three

  Joey stood outside the main house, waiting for Frank to arrive with the newest guests he’d just picked up from the airport. He rocked back and forth on his heels, his hands in his pockets, wishing he didn’t have to do this. But it was his job, and he needed the money, and he was loyal to Will and had said he would take this on . . . and so he waited.

  When he finally heard the crunch of the ranch’s shuttle on the gravel road, he pasted a smile on his face and tried to look just as pleasant as he possibly could. Kelsi Weston Clapper, who was walking past at the moment, paused and tilted her head to the side.

  “Are you okay, Joey? You look like you have food poisoning.”

  “Nope, I’m fine.”

  “Are you sure? I can find you a bucket if you need one. Or those bushes over there would work too, but maybe on the far side so no one would see.”

  “It’s okay, but thanks for caring.”

  As she smiled and walked away, he wondered if he shouldn’t have taken her up on that bucket offer. He was feeling a little nauseated, now that he thought about it.

  The shuttle pulled up in front of the main house, and Mr. and Mrs. McAllister stepped out first. They looked as chic and elegant as ever, even coming to a ranch in Idaho. They gave Joey the faintest nod as they went inside, and he knew they didn’t recognize him. Why should they? He’d only been a part of their daughter’s life for eleven months—that wasn’t long enough to get to know someone, was it? Not that he was bitter or anything.

  Then Chelsea climbed out, and he held his breath. He could see now why she’d been held up getting out of the shuttle—her purse strap was tangled with the seatbelt, and it took her another second to be free of it. Then she was standing there and Joey was standing there and everything stopped moving, and he couldn’t think of anything to say.

  “Hi,” he managed at last.

  “Hi,” she replied.

  She stepped forward and gave him an awkward hug-thing, which he returned just as awkwardly, and then she mumbled something about needing to find her parents, and she disappeared inside.

  Frank shook his head as he came around the front of the van. “That was painful to watch,” he said.

  “It was painful to live through.” Joey ran a hand down his face. “She’s only going to be here a few weeks, right? I can do th
is for that long?”

  “Ex-girlfriend?”

  “Yeah. It was ugly. Oh, man, it was ugly.”

  “I can tell that just from where I’m standing,” Frank said, nodding toward the main house.

  “I’m supposed to be on hand to show her the pool,” Joey went on. “She’s going to come back out and I’m going to need to use words and stuff. I should have told Will no when he asked me to do this. One of the Kates would be a lot better suited for this.”

  “You’ve got this,” Frank replied. “I know you do.”

  Mr. and Mrs. McAllister came back outside. “We’re in the Copper Cabin,” Mrs. McAllister said to Frank. “If you could please take our luggage over there, we’d appreciate it. We’ll walk over in a bit.”

  “Of course,” Frank replied. He got back into the van and drove off, and the McAllisters turned to Joey.

  “And you’re the lifeguard who’ll be working with our daughter during our stay?” Mr. McAllister asked, shaking Joey’s hand. “We appreciate it. She’s our pride and joy—wouldn’t want anything to happen to her.” He paused. “Do I know you? Have we met?”

  “Chelsea and I dated for a little while,” Joey replied. No sense in saying more than that—Chelsea probably didn’t want it brought up any more than he did.

  “Oh, that’s right. I remember now.” He shook Joey’s hand harder, but Joey knew the man hadn’t remembered him at all. He looked just as mystified as ever. That was all right. It was just as well that they weren’t starting out this little adventure with Chelsea’s parents already hating him.

  “Would you like to see the pool?” Joey asked.

  “Yes, and if you wouldn’t mind showing us to the spa, we’d like to see it too,” Mrs. McAllister said. “We’ve arranged for some massages with the therapist here, and we’re told you have an excellent chiropractor available.”

  “Yep. Dr. Michelle’s the best I’ve ever seen,” Joey replied. He held out his arm. “The pool’s this way. There’s an indoor pool attached to the spa, but I assumed you’d prefer the outdoor pool because it’s bigger. More length to your lap.”