Pen shakes her head. “Never say never.”
“I can. I’ve been there, done that, and got the t-shirt, Lottie is my priority now,” I say. “I thought you were going to make me feel better, not wind me up.”
“Just pointing it out. You got away with it the first time around, unlike poor Gabriel and Caleb.”
I did. Darra was the perfect shield. Thesocietymothers and theirhusband huntingdaughters left me alone. But the last laugh was on me. I ended up married to the biggest social climber of them all.
And now here I am, divorced.
As Pen pointed out, it’s going to be free season on my ass. I grimace at the thought.
I turn back to face the water, my elbows resting on my knees.
“I forgot how much of a know-it-all you are.”
She leans forward and pats my shoulder, withdrawing her hand almost instantly.
I turn my head again.
“What are you really doing out here?”
She purses her lips, biting the skin where her lip ring used to be.
“Taking a break,” she says, and I incline my head.
Pen huffs. “From all thecongratulations, let me see your ring, to how are your wedding plans going.”
It’s my turn to chuckle, my eyes drop to the enormous rock Pen is sporting on her engagement finger.
“It is a wedding, after all,” I parrot.
“Touché,” she says.
“No Kristophe?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “He’s inside talking toThe Boys.”
“I wish I could go for a swim,” I say suddenly.
“Nothing changes. There are a lot of memories tied up with this pool.”
We both turn and face the water.
We spent every summer around this pool. It was in the timebefore, a time when responsibility was nothing but a word, and laughter filled the air. My friends and I returned here every holiday. Zach and Jaxson were on the university swim team with me and would help me train in the holidays. Darra, my girlfriend, and some of her friends would tag along, and eventually, I convinced Pen to join us. I was different then, sociable. Focused on making the Olympic team. I had my whole life ahead of me.
“We had fun during those summers.”
“Including you and Jax teaching me to swim after I nearly drowned,” she says.
My breath catches at the memory. I’ll never forget that day. No one knew Pen couldn’t swim. No one but Kat, and she’d gone inside. We were messing around, childish horseplay, when Darra pushed Pen into the deep end. We all thought she was messing around. It was only when Kat returned and plunged in, pulling a half-drowned Pen from the water, we uncovered thetruth. My sister ripped us all a new one that day, and her ongoing friendship with Pen was formed.
“The guys and I swore, by the end of the summer, you’d be swimming.”
“And I was. You were all very bossy if I recall, but great teachers. If not for you, I wouldn’t have swum off the Great Barrier Reef or been surfing in California.”
My heart swells. “You always were one to make the most of something.”
After my initial panic, I’d been so angry with Pen. Water safety was my number one rule. It was ingrained in me from childhood.
