Always Tell Her You Love Her

"Hm..."

Jacob held his chin in thought.

"A tropical getaway... I don't see Chiru passin' that up at all. Maybe a week or two of fun and sun. That could work. I suppose that'll mean I'll have to get my beatin' stick to keep all the boys off of her too. But that's just a father's job, right?"

There we go. Jacob was starting to lighten up and joke about the whole ordeal. The vacation idea did sound very feasible and just ordinary enough to use as en excuse to have her around. He wasn't kidding about beating the boys off of Chiru either. If he knew young men--and he did because he WAS one of those kinds of young men many years ago--they would be on his sweet little girl like bears on honey. If the pictures he had her held any truth, she was a pretty girl that had inherited some of her mother's looks, but with his attitude.

Hell. If she really was anything like him, Jacob might have to pry HER off the boys...

For once, Jacob's face didn't redden when Ania brought up the idea of getting private lessons from him. When he had first started coaching swimming, he had blushed and even gotten a little flustered when a pretty young thing would ask for private lessons form him. There were even a handful of occasions where a young woman would ask that question with that... familiar ulterior motive in mind. For the record, Jacob never indulged that particular kind of lesson while he was married. At this point, however, he was used to the real and semi-real requests.

"I'd love to give you some one-on-one time, Ania. Maybe I can request some time in the indoor pool so I can give you some of the basics before the season start. How does that sound?"

"Erm, sneak in?"

He was caught off guard by Ania's assertion to do a bit of under-the-table swim-learning after enjoying her endearingly cute wiggling and giggling. She seemed like such a sweetheart, the kind not prone to less-than-safe behavior. But then again, sneaking into the pool was not exactly dangerous and he would be there so she had very little risk of, say, drowning. And the more she giggled and wiggled, the less resolve Jacob could muster to resisting her enthusiasm. Ania just had too much cute and pretty to throw around/

Jacob sighed and chuckled. He had been convinced. Only a few days into his job and he was getting into mischief with one of the students. It was more wholesome than it actually sounded. Even though he was sneaking into a building, alone, with a female student, and they would probably getting wet and disrobed.

"... Ahem. Well then!"

He jumped to his feet before he got too flustered, then held his hand out to Ania to assist her to her feet.

"You convinced me. Go get yourself a bathing suit or something, and I'll meet you in front of pool building. Deal?"

"Meet me in an hour or so. I'll be waiting for you at the sports field. The pool building is located there."

He gave her a firm, reassuring pat on the shoulder before moving towards the stairwell.

"Don't forget your towel!"

As Jacob descended the stairs from the roof, already planning his private lesson in his head, he felt more elated coming down than he had coming up. Only a few days into his new job and he was already giving swimming lessons long before the actual season came along, and it was to a really cute student to boot.

Things were not guaranteed to be all well and good. He and his daughter were still estranged and he still needed to finalize moving on from Yumi, but his life here on the island was not going to be so bad either. The students he had already met were interesting and fun to be around for the most part, just with an extra helping of the supernatural. And Ania's sunny disposition was doing wonders in smoothing over his bumpy feelings about his family. At least now he would have a swimming learner to help take his mind off of what he left behind on the main land.