“Your turn.” I wave my hand at his shirt as I get back in, sinking to my knees in the shallow end.
I’ve seen him bare-chested a million times, but I have never seen him stand in waist-high water, unbuttoning a pin-striped shirt that’s clinging to his skin. With every inch of tanned muscle that’s exposed, I feel hotter. It’s as though I’m standing in blazing sunshine rather than up to my neck in cold water.
The corner of his lip tugs upward as I stare. He’s looking straight at me. Is that heat in his eyes? Whatever it is, it’s toomuch: I tip my head back so my hair is underwater, but I still feel overwhelmed so I twist and kick away into deeper water.
It’s a good move. When I glance back, he’s on the steps, stripping his shorts down to his black boxers. I don’t think I could have handled being up close for that.
He meets my eyes so I quickly spin around, treading water with my back to him. When I look over my shoulder, he’s nowhere to be seen.
And then his hands wrap around my ankles.
I gasp as he launches me out of the water. The next thing I know I’m perched on his shoulders.
“You scared the shit out of me!” I exclaim, sinking my fingers into his hair.
He laughs, curling his palms around my calves to keep me steady. His head is between my thighs.
“Remember when we used to do circus tricks?”
His head is between my thighs.
“If you think I’m going to try to stand up on your shoulders—”
“Come on, Gracie, do circus tricks with me,” he says, putting on a high-pitched voice to mimicmyimpression ofhim. I crack up laughing, temporarily distracted from the fact thatHIS HEAD IS BETWEEN MY THIGHS.
“Come on, do it,” he urges, and just as I used to, I find myself getting swept away on a wave of his lovely boyish enthusiasm. Jackson’s energy has always been contagious.
“Fine.” I place my hands on his head as he simultaneously lifts me and the next thing I know, I’m standing on his shoulders, albeit wobbling precariously.
“Do a somersault.”
“Are you taking the piss?”
He laughs. “Go on, I’ll launch you.”
“I’m not ten!”
“No, you’re not.”
I hear something in his voice then, something warm and…I don’t know. But his low tone hits me in my solar plexus.
“Okay, count to three,” I reply shakily, determined to impress him.
“One…two…three!”
He lifts my feet off his shoulders as I tuck my chin and curl into a ball, splashing head first into the pool.
He’s cheering when I reemerge. “You fucking did it!” he yells. “You’re awesome—I can’t believe you did it!” He snags my wrist and pulls me into his arms.
My laughter dies down as our near-naked bodies collide. Suddenly I don’t want to be anywhere else.
You were the love of my life,I think.And you broke my heart.
As he presses a kiss to my temple, I lift my head to look at him, stunned.
He’s smiling down at me, sunlight bouncing off the pool water and reflecting in his forest-glade eyes.
“You’re still my favorite person,” he says.
