And the view outside? Good Lord. The pool was in the foreground, but beyond it rose a wall at least eight feet high. Fashioned from white brick, it was almost completely hidden under thick green foliage that made it appear the walls were fashioned from leaves. The wall surrounded the whole patio area, which was large and floored with stone. Lounge chairs, a seating area around a fire pit, and two dining tables, one round with a striped umbrella covering it and the other a long oblong glass-topped affair with seating for at least a dozen, made the pool area true outdoor living space. It was all done in bright white with orange accents.
Rob had pointed out a few of the plants strategically placed around the backyard. A couple of ocotillo trees rose, spire-like, near the pool’s edge. There were barrel cacti and prickly pear. Torch lily and pencil cactus. All of them grew out of a rocky, boulder-strewn landscape in which Jasper would have assumed nothing could flourish.
And yet it did. Hummingbirds floated magically around the plants. Rob had told him to keep his eyes peeled for roadrunners, who were common but very quick to come and go.
As if all of this wasn’t enough, beyond the walls the mountain range of San Jacinto rose up to an infinite sky.
“Fuck it,” Jasper whispered to himself. “In for a penny. In for a pound.” He didn’t remember where he’d heard that phrase but thought it fit.
He wriggled out of his Levi’s and shirt and stood for a moment near the screen door in nothing but his plaid boxers. Then he hooked his thumb in the waistband of those too.
Clothes simply seemed too confining for the desert.
As he stood naked by the glass doors, he took a deep breath, ready to take both a literal and metaphorical plunge.
“Go on,” he heard Lacy urge in the back of his mind. “We only regret the things we didn’t do….”
He eased open the slider and emerged into brilliant sunshine. He had next to no confidence, but that didn’t have to show, now, did it?
With squared shoulders and chin up, he strode to the deep end of the pool as though he’d done it a thousand times. The truth was the only pool he’d ever swum in was the public one up the hill from his childhood home in Haddonfield.
He dove in and imagined himself parting the waters with a splash worthy of a David Hockney painting. Kicking, he swam the length of the pool underwater, then emerged, gasping for air, at the other end.
The first thing he saw when he broke the surface was a small white table. Rob had very stealthily left him a present—a clear plastic tumbler filled with crushed ice and liquid the color of cactus.
He pulled himself out and sat his ass on the hot stone next to the table. He took a sip. Tequila, jalapeno, cucumber, all danced across his tongue in one of the most flavorful libations he could honestly say he’d ever imbibed.
He looked around for Rob, wanting to express his appreciation for the drink, but he was nowhere in sight. All the oblong windows facing the pool were dark, throwing back reflections of sun and sparkling water.
Jasper shrugged, picked up his drink, and took another sip. He set it on a small white glass-topped table next to one of the orange-and-white mesh lounge chairs. He ducked back inside to grab a towel and spread it on the surface of the chair, where he reclined with his drink, reveling in the sun’s heat and the slight breeze that blew down from the mountains.
He figured Rob would join him soon enough. In the meantime he wondered what a sunburned dick would feel like. He imagined it would hurt like hell.
When twenty sunny minutes or so had passed, Jasper wandered to the other side of the pool and found the bathroom Rob had mentioned earlier. It was large, with a walk-in shower paved in subway tile. Across from the shower were floor-to-ceiling shelves and arranged on them were an assortment of towels and bathing suits, not one of which was made for a female to wear.
Jasper wondered what kind of parties Rob had around this pool, how many naked men had dived into its waters.
Am I just another conquest?
He found a pair of Andrew Christian bright orange board shorts and slid into them. He wasn’t brazen enough yet to wander around the house naked. Skinny-dipping was one thing….
Then he went into another pair of sliding doors that led into the kitchen. On the quartz-topped center island sat a glass pitcher of the margarita-like drink he’d enjoyed. Alongside the pitcher was a note:
Ran over to Jensen’s to get supplies. Hope you’re not a picky eater. Be back soon!
Jasper figured Jensen’s was a local grocery store and wondered what Rob would come back with. He refilled his glass and went back outside. This time he chose one of the seats around the big rectangular table.
He’d barely taken a sip when the doorbell rang. It sounded like Big Ben chimes, and Jasper laughed. Then he wondered who could be here. Had Rob forgotten his keys?
He got up from the table and made his way to the massive white double front doors. The doorbell sounded again before he could turn the doorknob.
When he opened it, a woman stood outside. She looked vaguely familiar, but Jasper couldn’t immediately place her. She appeared to be about Rob’s age, maybe a few years younger, and was almost painfully thin, dressed in a blousy satin top and palazzo pants, both in infused aquas and teals. She wore yellow espadrilles, and her hair was hidden under a big floppy straw hat. Most of her face, too, was concealed by a pair of dark Jackie O sunglasses.
“Who are you?” she asked. There was a grain of indignation in her tone.
Jasper assumed she was a neighbor but thought the query was a little rude. No hello or how do you do?
“I might ask you the same thing,” Jasper said, softening the statement with a smile. Even though he wore a pair of swim trunks, he suddenly felt naked standing before her.
