Lean on me

Chapter 24

"Gen! Help!" She shouts but the brunette just laughs and shakes her head. 

"Sorry, Sloan." She says, not sounding apologetic at all. "You're on your own. I'm a little occupied." She adds, gesturing to Tom in her lap. 

"I thought we were friends." Sloan says just before Grayson starts tickling her sids.

Sloan squeals again and tries to wiggle out of Grayson's grasp, which only gets tighter from her efforts. The group hears a car door slam and Grayson stops tickling the girl. She uses that split second's distraction to push herself and manages to swim to the dock. 

"That must be them." Gen says, standing up as she switches Tom to her hip. "You two be careful. I'll be right back." The teenagers nod and Gen starts to walk away before turning back to them. "Gray, you watch out for her. If you can tell she's getting tired, make her get out." 

"I will." He says. Gen nods and walks away.

Grayson looks at Sloan with a smirk before he starts swimming towards her. Her eyes widen and she starts swimming away from the dock. She realizes that in order to get past him, she has to go around him and there's no way he's letting her go around him, so she dives under the water and starts to swim under him. 

She's almost past him when Grayson goes under the water and wraps his arm around her waist again, pulling her up with him. Sloan screams as she tries to pry his hand off of her waist but he simply laughs and holds on tighter. Sloan pinches his arm, making Grayson let go of her and she swims back to the dock quickly, seeing Gen coming back with the men behind her. 

Sloan looks behind her to see Grayson starting to follow her, a vengeful look in his eyes. She turns back around and starts to paddle harder, trying to get to the dock. She reaches it just as he reaches out to grab her ankle. Sloan kicks her foot, splashing water in his face, giving her the chance to grip onto the dock.

"Need help?" Jared asks. Sloan shakes her head. 

"She's gotten good at getting herself up." Gen informs them just as Jensen opens his mouth to tell her not to be stubborn. 

Sloan lays her arm flat on the dock and kicks her legs, giving herself some momentum to get up. She starts to pull herself up before leaning against it, the edge of the floating platform pressing against her ribs. She straightens our her arm and grips one of the boards, pulling herself the rest of the way up.

Sloan flips over on her back to catch her breath. Getting back up on the dock takes a lot of energy out of her, more than she's wiling to admit to anyone, especially her dad. After a few seconds, she stands up and smiles at the man. Before he can react, Sloan already has her arms wrapped around Jensen, getting him wet.

"Sloan!" He says as she pulls away, looking down at his now soaked shirt. "Great, now I have to change." 

"Good. So you can put on your bathing suit and join us." She tells him with a smirk. He rolls his eyes and shakes his head, pulling her into another hug. "I missed you, daddy." 

"You just saw me last week." He tells her with a laugh, kissing the top of the teenager's head. 

"I know." She says. "But it's not the same here without you." 

"Well I missed you too." He says and Sloan pulls away, looking at Jared while she keeps her arm wrapped around her dad. 

"You want a hug, too?" She asks and Jared shakes his head with a laugh, not realizing that Grayson had swam to the other side of the dock and was now sneaking up on his older brother. He throws his arms around Jared, making the man yell in protest.