She shot me a saucy grin. “Soon enough, Lex.” She took off running and shouted, “Cannonball!”
I waited for her to come up to the surface before I dove in after her - just a normal dive, no cannonballs for me.
When I came up for air, Jasmine was hanging on the edge of the pool watching me.
“The only thing that sucks about this is that we can’t talk about our sex lives.”
I chuckled. “Like we did that anyway.”
Her hand landed squarely on her chest. “I did. You always held back.”
“I was a virgin,” I blurted.
Her eyes went wide and she dropped her hand into the water. “What? You’re joking.”
I shook my head. “No, I’m not. I don’t know how it never came up, but after a while I figured it was worth keeping to myself. Then, with Rafferty and what he said to me, I really couldn’t talk toyouabout it for obvious reasons.”
“Yeah,” she drawled, her lips stretching out into a grimace.
“Anyway… we should—”
“Was it worth it? The waiting?”
I shrugged. “That’s hard to say, don’t you think? I know being called a tease and all the other shit from my prior boyfriends wasn’t any fun. And I always felt like I should have given it up sooner.”
Jasmine nodded. “Yeah, but you’ve always done your own thing. I admire that about you.”
My head reared back and I shot her some side-eye. “You are the same way…Miss Coleslaw Wrestling Queen.”
She wheezed out a laugh. “That’s a great example. That isn’tme. That’s me following in my mom’s footsteps.”
I wagged a finger at her. “Nah. You’ve got a flair for it that comes naturally to you. I mean, you garnered alotof attention your first time out - even when you didn’t win.”
She splashed water at me. “I couldn’t win that time… I lied on my application about being eighteen, and that lady I wrestled probably knew it. Killed me to let her pin me. And that attention wasn’t exactly the good kind, you know.”
I flicked water back at her. “I do know, but you still went back again. That’s doing your own thing, no matter what you say.”
She leaned into the water to float on her back. “You’re right. I just wish I knew what I wanted to do. Waiting tables is all right, but that’s not a career.”
“I can’t help you with that.”
“You always knew you wanted to be a dentist?”
I stared out across the backyard toward the dock. One of my earliest memories was going to the dentist and how much I’d loved it. I shifted my gaze to Jasmine. “Yeah. From like first grade or so, every time I had to go to the dentist, I knew I wanted to work there. Not at Mom or Dad’s dentist, butmydentist, and help other kids not get cavities.”
“Who did you know who had cavities? It wasn’t like me, Raff, or Simone had cavities.”
“There was a girl in my school who talked about it in second grade. Plus, the hygienist and dentist both emphasized how important brushing and flossing was… so I don’t know. That stuck with me.”
Jasmine shifted to an upright position. “Guess I’m not that ambitious.”
I shoved my hand through the surface of the water, sending a plume of water at her. “Don’t be like that. It’ll all work out for you, honey.”
“Alexandra! You’re gonna pay for that.”
“As if! I’m going inside or you’re gonna be late.”
Rush-hour traffic wasn’t that bad for a Friday evening, and Jasmine decided to follow me into the clubhouse to shoot the shit with some of the brothers.
