Page 203 of The Chosen One Universe: Volume One

Henry

“This is the life,” Henry sighed. “I’m so glad we’re getting a pool at our house.”

Sawyer laughed and nudged him. Pool water splashed over his face, causing Henry to sputter and lose his grip on the float he was precariously balanced on.

“Not cool!” Henry splashed Sawyer back and they wrestled around the shallow end of the pool for a minute until they were both half-drowned and gasping for breath.

It hadn’t taken long after Cecil’s suggestion of a swim for them to change and dive into the pool behind Eduard’s cottage. Draco, having eaten three burgers and about a pound of potato salad to protest the finger food Bebe had given them for lunch, was passed out on one of the lounge chairs. His snores were truly epic.

Sawyer on the other hand was quiet, too quiet, and it had Henry worried. Ever since Eduard had left, he’d been thinking about something he hadn’t shared. Sawyer normally grinned a lot and Henry had a partner in crime when he wanted to get up to a little mischief.

Henry kicked away from the pool wall and floated over to where Sawyer was laying across a similar float to his. He faced him and snagged the edge of the plastic. “You wanna talk about it?”

Sawyer laid his head on his arms and smiled. “Just feeling a little nervous.”

“About?”

“Meeting the griffins.”

“Yeah, I get that. I’m kinda worried about meeting them, too.”

“Yeah?” Sawyer asked.

“Yep. I mean, the other guys have kind of made a big deal about it. We should have just taken you to meet my pack first.”

Sawyer grinned. “That would’ve been good. But I wouldn’t want to put your family at risk. Eduard said they had security here, you know?”

Henry shrugged. “We could have made it work. Still can. Want to run away? You drive the bus. I’ll be the lookout?”

Sawyer laughed and pulled himself up higher on the float. He reached across and kissed Henry before settling back down. “No way am I driving that monster. But if we need a plan B, I’ll keep it in mind.”

At least he’d managed to get a smile out of him. Henry counted it as a win. “So what’s plan A?”

“Well, I guess I need to win over the griffins. But what I really want is to figure out what I’m supposed to be doing and why someone keeps trying to kill me.”

“Research montage?” Henry quipped, drawing another laugh from Sawyer.

“Exactly how many books did you manage to bring?”

Henry gasped and tried to put his hand over his heart dramatically. Of course, it made him lose his balance again and he ended up flipping off the float and splashing into the water. When he made it back to the surface, Sawyer had fallen off his own float from laughing and he was hanging off the edge of the pool.

“All the books,” Henry sputtered as he spit out a mouthful of pool water. “All of them.”

“Excuse me,” a quiet feminine voice said from nearby.

Henry wiped pool water from his eyes and looked up. Two beautiful women were standing at the edge of the path coming from the garden with vampire guards on either side of them. One of them looked absolutely disgusted, her nose wrinkled up and turned away from Henry and Sawyer. The other was smiling sweetly at them.

“Hello,” Sawyer said. “Can I help you?”

“Oh, I was looking for my cousin, Eduard?”

“He’s not here right now,” Sawyer said. “I can tell him you came by? Or you can hang out with us until he gets back?”

She glanced at the other woman, whose scowl had deepened. “That would be lovely.”

Henry followed Sawyer to the pool steps and climbed out of the water behind him. Cecil had given them big fluffy towels to dry off with so they both used them then pulled on T-shirts. Cecil had left a tray of drinks on the table, so Henry poured them each a glass of lemonade.

“You said you were Eduard’s cousin?” Henry asked.