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He walks toward me.
I push off the edge and motioncome hereagain.
He smiles, all ease and interest, and slips into the pool with me. The shock of the water registers on his face for a moment, then he dives under, swims to me, surfaces with another big smile.
“Hey.” He cups my cheek with his palm. “Are you okay?”
Do all the questions in the back of my mind really show? No. It doesn’t matter. I don’t want to think about them. Only about this. “Better now.”
He traces the line of my jaw.
“Is your grandma okay?” It’s not like her to check in, but then maybe he’s the one checking in. That’s his style.
“She’s probably cursing Fern and North for keeping her busy.”
“She needs time for her gentleman callers?” That’s what she always said, when we were kids.
“Probably.” Under the water, he brings his hands to my waist and pulls my body into his. “Do you want to talk?”
“Absolutely not.” My pelvis melts into his. Then my stomach, my chest, my lips.
He kisses me softly, with care and attention.
The rest of the world slips away. Who needs the rest of the world? Why do I care about it anyway?
What could ever feel better than this?
I dig my fingers into his upper back. “I’ve never had sex in a pool.”
He motions to the women in the jacuzzi behind me. Two of them, older, around Dad’s age, or maybe Ida’s, with that same mix of enthusiasm and grace Ida has. “Is it the audience?”
“And the security cameras.” I motion to the cameras in the lights. One to our right. One to our left.
“You noticed that?”
“You notice everything, too.”
“Different things.” He pulls me closer. “You sure you don’t want to talk?”
“Do you?”
“No,” he says. “I want to swim.”
“That’s not the s-word I was hoping for.”
“How about soon?” he offers.
I can live with soon.
Chapter Thirty-One
River
Deanna is at home in the water. For all her non-California girl qualities, she’s exactly where she’s supposed to be in an empty pool, at a fancy hotel in the desert.
She grew up with that massive pool in the backyard, but I rarely saw her there. Bits and pieces of memories form in my mind:
Deanna in a black one-piece, diving into the water.
