Disclaimer: I don't own anything hereand am just doing this for fun and to pass the long months until Season 4.

Author's Note: So, I started looking at my notes for Volume 5, the last of the series, and decided it's going to warrant multiple chapters. I swear I'm not just trying to drag this out. :)

This story starts shortly after Volume 4 left off. It's the summer between S3 and S4.

Thanks for the reviews, favorites, and support. It means so much to know that people are reading and enjoying the stories.

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mid-July

Julie climbed on top of the lifeguard stand, settled down with the red rescue tube in her lap and looked out over the chaos that was the Dillon Community Pool. She spotted The Swede on the other side of the pool, standing on the walkway with his hands on his hips. She noticed him smile and wink at her, but she pretended she hadn't seen him.

The whole Anton thing was so awkward now, she thought, rolling her eyes from behind the safety of her sunglasses. She'd avoided any discomfort the prior summer, since he hadn't worked at the pool. The rumor was that he'd been touring with his band, but Julie wasn't sure how much of that she believed.

Two years had passed since her Summer of Swede-Induced Stupidity, as she privately called it, and he hadn't changed much at all. Still constantly needed a shave and a shower, still shared a crappy duplex with guys that had names like Banksie and Jonesy, still drove a falling-to-pieces van. It all made Julie wonder what the hell she'd been thinking.

She could see Anton moving along the other side of the pool and she sincerely hoped he wasn't headed in her direction. She tried to avoid him as much as possible and hated when he was able to corner her when she was up in the chair. Sighing, she tried to look on the bright side. Or at least, think of something worse, to put it all in perspective. It could be worse.....he could be her boss.

Julie let her eyes travel across the pool, over the swimmers, looking for anyone in potential trouble or any breaches of the swimming pool rules. Most days, she just felt like a glorified babysitter who happened to know CPR. Not that she was complaining about the boredom. She knew from the terrifying experience of having to save someone last year that there was definitely such a thing as too exciting.

The pool was fairly full, mostly with teenagers and kids, splashing and messing around. The serious swimmers, the middle-aged moms and retired people, tended to come in the early mornings to take advantage of the lap swimming times. You'd have to be either foolish, stubborn or ridiculously patient to try to swim laps during an afternoon open swim.

So Julie was surprised to see a guy trying to swim laps, on one of the busier days of the season so far. The guy was good at swimming, his arms keeping an even rhythm and his form was disciplined. She'd lost track of the number of people she'd seen who picked their heads up to breath during the crawl stroke. It drove her nuts, in fact, and was a big part of the reason she didn't teach swimming lessons any more. She didn't have the patience to repeatedly correct the same mistakes.

She kept half an eye on the lap swimmer, partly because he had nice arms and partly because he was at risk of either crashing into someone or getting crashed into. But he was elegant, graceful, and seemed to have good awareness of his surroundings. Julie decided to nickname him Fish Boy, since she was bored and any bit of novelty and amusement could make the time go that little bit quicker.

Julie's hour-long shift in the chair was nearly up when she noticed Fish Boy stop near the wall at the deep end of the pool. She watched him brace his hands on the pool ledge and waited to enjoy the show as he hefted himself out. It was shallow of her, she knew, but if he could swim like that, he had to have spectacular back and arm muscles.

As soon as Fish Boy was half out of the water, Julie realized he wasn't just some random guy. She'd actually been gawking at Tim Riggins all this time. She looked away, feeling mildly embarrassed, but then couldn't resist the urge to look back and watch him drying off his arms and chest.

It's just like looking at art, remember, she thought. Nothing more, nothing less.

"Hey, Julie, you can relax, your replacement has arrived," said Kevin, one of the new lifeguards. He was fifteen and lived in Barton. With his big feet, goofy grin, and persistent manner, he reminded Julie of a puppy that hadn't yet grown into himself.

Julie mumbled an appropriate response and climbed down. She decided she might as well walk over past Tim and say hello. She hadn't seen him much since school let out. Her father had been deadly serious about her being grounded for a long time after that whole English speech debacle. She'd missed all the end-of-year parties, all the graduation parties, and the Fourth of July thing at the lake. About the only thing she'd been allowed to go to was Matt's graduation party and that was just because her mother had lobbied hard on her behalf.

"Hi, Tim," said Julie as she walked up behind him.

"Taylor," he said, giving her a lazy smile as he squinted into the sun. He had the slightly raccoon-eyed look that can come from wearing goggles too long.

"Um, what are you doing here?" asked Julie, kicking herself as heard the dumb question hanging in the air. She was going to attribute the decrease in her conversational skills to the fact that she'd been out in the sun most of the day. That was definitely the problem. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she was eye-level with Tim's bare chest.

"Well, Taylor. It'sJuly, we're in Texas and this is the public pool....should be obvious."

Julie felt flustered but tried to press on. "No, I mean why were you trying to swim laps....during open swim?"

"Oh. I just finished physical therapy on my shoulder, and the guy said I should try swimming."

"Okay," said Julie, nodding. "But don't you have your own pool?"

"Yeah, but Billy won't fill it and it doesn't really matter because I moved out."

"For real?"

"Yeah. I moved in with Herc. It's a pretty good deal because he's traveling a lot with rugby."

"Herc. Wow. That's got to be interesting."

"You have no idea," said Tim with a grin. "But like I said, he's gone a lot, so it's almost like having my own place, most of the time at least."

Julie pushed her bangs off her forehead and then looked up at Tim. "Look, it's going to be awfully crowded and it'll be hard for you to swim laps unless you come early in the morning....which I know isn't going to happen. So why don't you come to after-hours?"

"After-hours? What is that, like some secret lifeguard thing?"

"Sort of, yeah. I work Tuesday through Saturday, and we close the pool at 8.30, but then usually stay for an hour or two, depending on who's around."

"Isn't it dark by then?"

"Yeah, Tim, but we do have lights. You know? They do a great job keeping the dark away," said Julie. "Why don't you come by tomorrow night as my guest?"

"Taylor, that's really sweet of you, but I don't know, you probably got someone better to ask, like maybe Seven?"

"No, Matt's the manager now for the closing shift at the Alamo Freeze, so he wouldn't be able to."

Tim's eyes narrowed and zeroed in on a spot past Julie's right shoulder. "What about The Czech?"

"The Czech?" she asked, casually turning her head to the right. "Oh, The Swede. Honestly, you'd be doing me a favor. Maybe he'd leave me alone if I had a friend to hang out with."

Tim nodded, an expression of understanding settling onto his face. "Yeah, sure. As long as you're sure about it."

"I'm sure. Unless you're just trying to find a polite way to turn me down?"

Tim grinned. "When am I ever polite, Taylor?"

"Good point. I'll see you tomorrow tonight then," said Julie, lightly touching his arm before she turned to walk back to the pool's office.