“You’ve got this!” Asher yelled from where he sat at the pool’s edge, his legs dangling in.
For a moment, she was distracted by his bare chest. All those abs. Those glorious pecs. Perhaps she could put this off for just a second, no, better make that several minutes … Asher met her gaze and gave her a knowing grin that just about combusted her on the spot.
“Elly!” Cam yelled, snapping her out of it.
“Right. Sorry.” She blinked. Refocused. “Cannonball!” she yelled just as loud as Cameron had as she raced to the pool’s edge, tucked her legs under her, and slammed into the water with all the force she could muster. She tipped her head back to get her hair out of her face as she rose to the surface, and then looked to the judges—their grandparents—for their results.
The water rocked around them as they each held their breath.
Grandma Winnie gave her an apologetic smile.Dang it.Eliana slapped the water.
“Cameron is the winner,” Grandpa bellowed. “By a lot, Elly. You’ve got to work on your form.”
“I’m new to this cannonball business,” she defended.
“Yeah!” Cameron raised his hands over his head and cheered, then threw himself back into the water over and over again in his victory water dance.
Eliana laughed and splashed him, so he splashed back until it became an all-out splash war between the two of them, with a lot of casualties on the sidelines.
She’d win next time. Maybe. She’d keep trying, at least, because it turned out doing cannonballs into the pool was a lot of fun.
Asher jumped into the pool and joined in the splashing fray. “I’ll save you,” he yelled, grabbing Eliana by the waist and dunking her in the water in his pretend efforts to get her away from Cameron, which made Cameron belly-laugh. It was one of her most favorite sounds in the world.
Especially since Cam had been missing Julia since she and Logan left for Africa. They video called all the time, but those two were really close. Eliana was getting closer to Cameron, now that she lived with her parents, which was her favorite part of living at home. Probably heronlyfavorite part.
How three people could be so loud, was a mystery to her.
Plus, Cameron loved the camera, which was dangerous when it came to livestreams. Luckily, she’d curated her followers to people who were excited to follow her on her new adventures: Happily Me.
Except for a handful of miserable people who still couldn’t seem to leave her alone. Hypocrite was their favorite word of choice. But hey, that’s what the block button was for.
Over the couple months since she and Asher had shaken the entire Palms community by confessing their love (okay, so it was everyone else’s secrets that shook the community, but they’d contributed!) she had lost her book deal and had to borrow money from her parents to pay back her advance. She’d also lost half of her followers and several of her advertising sponsors, but the followers who remained were supportive and lovely. Plus, just this week, a new sponsor had reached out to her. It wasn’t what she had before, not yet, but she had hope that maybe she’d get there someday.
But she’d never been happier. Truly. Which had made her wonder … What really makes someone happy? Is it something so specific as having a dream job? Or having the perfect wedding? Or being single?
So she’d pulled out herHappily Singlebook, and realized that everything she’d mentioned that led to happiness had nothing to do with … wait for it … actually being single.
It was surrounding yourself with good friends and supportive family and loving yourself. It was watching Louisa May Alcott stare at Asher like he was her favorite person in the world—who could blame her? It was learning that Miss Havisham was an uncharacteristically social turtle and had charmed not only all the workers at the conservation center, but the other turtles too.
It was learning that a group of Beatles-named flamingos had attacked her because they were protecting an adorable baby flamingo no one had known about, and she’d gotten too close to it. The residents of The Palms had named it Jude.
It was seeing Grandma and Grandpa hold hands, and Cameron do flip jumps for the camera, and Asher come out of his shell and let more people into his life.
It was feeling this sense of pure joy, deep in her soul, that made it possible to have wet hair and streaking eyeliner in public, that allowed her to gracefully lose. That reminded her that she had inherent value and worth regardless of how she looked or what anyone else said, something she’d genuinely come to believe.
She ran her finger over Asher’s octopus tattoo as he pulled her into his arms. She wasn’t complaining one bit.
“You never did tell me why you got this.” He’d grown to love Louisa and Miss Havisham, but he was still on his guard with most animals, and she often wondered why this one.
He shrugged, but it felt affected. Like he was trying to play it off as no big deal. “After my parents died, I went to the ocean a lot to grieve. I did a lot of snorkeling, and one day, I met a tiny octopus.”
“Did you name him?”
“Jules Verne,” he said dryly.
She perked up. “Really?”
“No.” He kissed her nose. “Maybe if I’d known you then, I would have. But we just followed each other around for weeks. It was something to look forward to when I had so little to be happy about. Then we moved, and next time I went back to the ocean, he was gone. But I never forgot him.”
