“Be careful.” Daniel shook his head so water sprayed around him in an arc, the drops slapped against my forehead. “Right now we’re even.”
I could hear the anticipation in his voice. I was still in the deeper end of the pool, my legs treading water to keep me up, but I felt my toes finally brush along the bottom as we moved, circling each other. I smiled at him, showing all my teeth.
“You look crazy.” Daniel laughed and lunged for me, but I pushed away, moving around behind him before he could stand.
I levered myself up on his shoulders and pushed down with all my weight, dunking him. I whooped out loud and made my escape to the other edge of the pool. “Now we’re eve—”
He grabbed both my ankles when my fingers were inches from the pool’s edge, pulling me back against his chest so that I sucked in a startled breath. His hands lowered to my waist and my pulse raced before he tossed me again into the deep end. His laughter filled my ears as I splashed back up. “I told you.”
He waited for me to move again, matching my direction when I swam left or right, closing the distance between us with each stroke. We chased each other, splashing and dunking and, in my case, swallowing at least half the pool. We made way too much noise and didn’t care in the slightest.
I got used to feeling his hands on me, his arms wrapped around me. And at the same time I’d never get used to them.
Daniel called truce before I did, releasing me when I tried to squirm around behind him. I dunked him again for good measure, then echoed his call for truce when he surfaced. I moved to the middle of the pool and was only a little disappointed when he didn’t pursue me. I was too waterlogged for any more.
“Screw your roof.” Daniel rested his elbows on the pool ledge behind him. “This is where we’re meeting tomorrow.” He sank lower and dropped his head back, eyes closed, a look of total contentment on his face.
While he soaked, I slowly swam the length of the pool, back and forth, fueled by a buzzing energy I couldn’t account for. I turned over on my back and floated so that the tips of my toes peeked out of the water.
When I felt the water roll against me as Daniel pushed off from the edge, I let my legs drop and watched him glide toward me. I had a weird but not entirely unpleasant feeling that he’d been watching me.
Neither of us could reach the bottom, so we bobbed. Occasionally my foot would slide against his, or his calf would brush mine. Only once or twice at first, but then with more frequency as we drew closer until I could count the drops of water on his eyelashes.
I was treading water, but my rhythm became less controlled and I was beginning to drift higher and lower with each movement.
Daniel moved closer, his arms stretched on either side of him, skimming over the water, like he was calming the ripples I was making.
He was so close. His eyes lowered to my mouth and I forgot to swim for a second. That was the moment where he was supposed to make a joke about me still having my baby teeth or offer to buy me training wheels for my bike.
Instead Daniel breathed my name. His eyes met mine for half a second before he dipped his head.
And that’s when the light flicked on.
CHAPTER 20
My stomach bungeed from my throat down to my knees, slamming into the kaleidoscope of butterflies created by Daniel’s mouth inches from mine.
One profane phrase zipped through my brain as I jerked around and saw a silhouetted figure pass through the window of the VERY OCCUPIED house behind me.
The porch light illuminated a host of panicked thoughts involving me being arrested, going to jail in soaking wet clothes, and Dad never letting me get a Spitfire—never letting me anywhere near Daniel again.
It took half a second for these thoughts to flood my body with adrenaline. I swear I broke some Olympic record crossing that pool and climbing out, and Daniel was right there with me.
He jumped up and straddled the wall before leaning down to help me. I grabbed his shoulders while his hands squeezed tight on my waist, lifting me up and over the other side.
If I thought my heart had thudded before, it was nothing compared to the way it raced as I took off again. I ran along the side of the house, ducking past windows, dodging a bunch of barrel cacti, and stumbling before nearly going into cardiac arrest when hands grabbed me from the shadows of an overgrown mesquite tree.
Daniel rolled me into his chest and held a finger to his lips.
In the sudden silence, I realized stealth had not been foremost on my mind as I’d torn through the backyard to the front. “Did they see us?”
Daniel shook his head. “I don’t think so. We weren’t making any noise and no one called out. Hey, maybe they were breaking in too?”
Breaking in too.I was fighting a losing battle with nausea just from thinking about us in that category.
The sound of his laughter startled me. “You look totally freaked-out. We’re fine. No one saw us.” He raised a hand and brushed his thumb over a few drops of water that clung to the skin on my cheek.
As comforting as I was sure he meant the gesture to be, it wasn’t until my own senses confirmed his words—no one was yelling and stalking around their yard looking for us—that I willed my pulse to slow. A minute later I heaved a true sigh of relief when I saw the patio light go out.
