“Of course.”
“Okay then. I will.”
Without any delay, Zac pulled his cellphone and car keys out of his shorts pockets, tossed them over into the grass, and then took off his shoes and socks. He left them on the pool deck and then pulled his t-shirt over his head, leaving it on the deck, too. It wasn’t until now—seeing him bare-chested—that I realized he had a tattoo above his heart. It was of tiny footprints along with some kind of writing beneath them. I didn’t ask Zac about the black ink on his skin, though. That would come later. At this particular moment, I was more interested in letting my eyes wander over his tall, lean, and well-defined body.
After doing exactly that, I looked up to see Zac staring straight at me. He was grinning. I started grinning and then the two of us chuckled. I didn’t care that he’d caught me checking him out again. I really liked what I saw and was still looking at, and Zac seemed to really like the fact that I did. After a few more lingering moments of eye contact with him, he dove into the water and swam up to Malcolm and me floating in the middle of my pool.
“Daddy, you’re swimming with a mermaid too!” Malcolm cheered.
“I know, buddy! I’ve been wanting to swim with her just like you have. Isn’t this so much fun?”
Malcolm shook his head in agreement and then I stretched out onto my back, holding him on top of me while swaying my tail back and forth. We began moving around in a wide circle. I could feel Zac watching us. Less than a minute later, he swam up beside me, stretched out on his back, and then started moving his legs—all three of us synchronized, going round and round together while swimming, talking, and laughing.
Something that Malcolm couldn’t see was his daddy’s arm wrapped around me beneath the surface of the water, but I definitely felt it and his hand on my skin. Zac was gently holding onto me, keeping me steady.
After about twenty minutes, he suggested we take a break, so the three of us swam over to the shallow end of my pool and I set Malcolm down on top of the steps.
“I wanna swim to you, Stevie,” he said, holding out his arms toward me.
“I would love for you to swim to me!”
I backed up a few feet and then Malcolm jumped into the water, going beneath it. And just like Zac said—he swam like a fish and he did it with ease all the way to me. After catching him in my hands, pulling him above the water, and then telling him what a great job he did, I looked over at Zac to see him smiling so big. Big enough to make his eyes squint and crinkle around the corners again and big enough to make that dimple in his right cheek appear once more. This time, I couldn’t help myself and reached out to touch it with my fingertip.
“What do you think about my boy’s swimming ability?” Zac asked, grabbing my hand with his as I was pulling mine away from his face. Then he lowered them beneath the water—privately continuing to hold onto me with his fingers laced through mine. It was the first time a man had held my hand in years and I really liked the way that Zac’s felt.
“You were right. He’s like a fish in water and it really does come naturally.”
After telling Zac that, I glanced down at the tattoo on his chest and then looked right back at it, keeping my eyes glued to the writing beneath what I could now clearly see were baby footprints. I took a deep breath and asked Zac what I already knew the answer to.
“Those are Malcolm’s, aren’t they?”
“Yes.”
“And that’s his birthdate, right?”
“It is.”
I looked at the date again while shaking my head to myself.
“What is it, Stevie?” Zac asked.
“Malcolm is a Pisces like I am and that explains why he’s so drawn to anything aquatic.”
“I thought about that, too, after you and I had our talk about zodiac signs in the Whole Foods parking lot.”
“There’s something else that I wanna tell you, though,” I said, stealing another glance at the date inked onto Zac’s skin.
“Okay.”
“Let’s all go swim around in circles again and then I’ll let you know what’s on my mind.”
Zac’s eyes filled with concern. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah. I will be.”
As soon as the three of us reached the middle of my pool and began our synchronized swimming all over again, I began telling Zac aboutmyMalcolm and how I lost him. The last thing that I told him was something else that he wasn’t expecting to hear: that my son died on the same day that Zac’s Malcolm wasborn. After I revealed that fact, he remained quiet and just kept searching my eyes with his.
“Stevie, I had no idea about any of this,” he finally said.