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Sandy grabbed the note and read it. “Tell him yes,” she instructed Diego.
I waited until Diego had left to argue. “Don’t I get a vote?”
“It’s just dessert. I’ll drag you over there if I have to.” And she meant it too. “I’ll watch from here.”
I sipped the last of my green liquid courage before hefting my purse and grabbing my phone off the table. “Here goes nothing.”It’s only dessert.
His smile mesmerized me, even from this distance.
I decided on the poolside long way around the family with loud kids—more time to chicken out.
My phone rang with a number I knew too well: the county jail.
I slowed my walk and answered the call. “Hello?”
My cousin Lara’s voice came over the line. “I need you to bail me out.”
Not again. I thought this was behind her…
The big kid shoved his smaller sibling right at me.
I dodged left. “What happened?”
Bad idea. I moved too far and tumbled into the water. I never got to hear Lara’s answer.
I came up sputtering. “Hey!”
The little kid had also landed in the pool, but at least notonme. His big brother laughed his head off.
I set my drowned phone up on the cement.
“Jimmy, what the hell did you do?” yelled the dad of the out-of-control family. He started toward us.
Looking behind me, I located my purse on the bottom of the pool. Seeing no other options, I dove down to retrieve it.
Moving toward the edge of the pool, I heard a crunch as Bad Dad stepped on my phone when he extended his hand to me. “Sorry about Jimmy,” he said.
I grasped the side of the pool. “You should control your kids.” I picked up the poor phone—cracked all right.
“You should be careful where you walk,” he shot back.
Mr. Studious appeared next to him. “Back off.” He pushed Bad Dad to the side, leaned over, and offered me his hand.
I took it.
“Both hands,” Studious said.
I put the phone down and added my other hand, only to be yanked up out of the water like he was Hercules.
Sandy arrived and took my soaked purse from me. “It was your damned fault,” she yelled at Bad Dad.
I leaned over to get the carcass of my ruined phone.
“You owe the lady a phone,” Studious told Bad Dad in a commanding tone.
“Says who?” the dad asked.
Mr. Studious was in his face. “Says me.” With more than six inches on Bad Dad and a scowl that wasn’t to be messed with, he grabbed the other man by the collar and backed him to the edge of the pool.
