Or is he just an ass?
His smile says he’s not being an ass. His smile saysyou can trust me, I’m goading you to remind you who I used to be, but I’m not him anymore, and I know you’ll do a great cannonball.
Or possibly that’s also the mai tai talking.
Doesn’t matter though. What matters is action.
I take seven giant steps back from the pool. Then three more. And then I take off at a dead run, leap as I reach the edge of the pool, and do my very best to tuck my knees up as I hit the water. “Cannon—”
I misjudge and am yellingball!as I go underwater, fully aware that this was the weakest of weak cannonballs.
There wasn’t enough splash.
I canfeelit.
And that’s not some sense of needing to make a bigger splash than Theo talking.
Not completely, anyway.
It’s more that I can’t evencannonballright enough to have fun with it.
Also?
I totally swallowed a mouthful of water. Which I willnotcomplain about, by the way.
It’s part of thefun.
I kick to the surface, feeling weird in the bikini. Like, even weirder than I thought I would.
And as I surface, I realize why.
I shriek.
I cross my arms over my breasts and cover them, which makes me dip below the surface.
And I consider staying here.
I do.
Bikini?
It’s a stretch, but I’ll do it.
Losing my bikini top after a cannonball that didn’t even make a splash?
Take me now, pool. Just take me now.
I kick back to the surface and do my best to cover my breasts while I half-swim to the edge, looking desperately around for my bikini top. It has to be in the pool.
How am I going to get it without baring my breasts?
“I see it!” Decker yells from the side of the pool.
There’s a tremendous splash—almost as big as the splash Theo made, but not quite—and then Decker swims past me, in his khaki shorts and Hawaiian shirt, and snags something off the bottom of the pool.
Sabrina squats beside me at the edge of the pool, her face a study in not laughing when you want to. “I amso sorry,” she whispers. “I should’ve double-checked the tie.”
Decker surfaces next to me with a gasp. “Here you go, Laney. Your sunglasses.”
