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“I take it you’re not here to bust my balls about Ms. Callahan?” Cypher looked away from his screen long enough to watch his president’s reaction.

Hex narrowed his eyes and looked for a second as if he wanted to pound on Cypher. Cypher wasn’t worried. If Hex needed to work out some aggression, he could head out to the gym and either use one of the bags or someone would spar with him. Even if it was Cypher he was pissed at, and determined to take it up with him, Cypher could hold his own.

“No.” Hex scrubbed one hand down his face. “Elle’s miserable. She says she’s huge, it’s hot and she can’t find anything comfortable. I’m thinking about putting in a pool so she can float and take some of the weight of the baby off her joints, and it would help with the heat too.”

“You know, it would be a lot easier of we could swim in the lake. Especially with our lake front property.”

“It would be. Do you know anything about putting in pools?”

“Not really. You looking to do something permanent or temporary?”

“Why would we bother with temporary?” Hex said pacing the room. “If we’re going to go to the expense, we might as well go for something we can all enjoy.”

“I get that but a permanent pool, either in ground or above, takes time. A temporary one you can pick up for a few hundred dollars and set up in an hour or two.” Cypher turned back to his screens, pulled up a new browser window, and did a search on above ground pools. Then another quick search on how long to install an in-ground pool in their area.

“See?” He showed his results to Hex. “If you want to do an in ground for all of us, I’d say talk to Slide about the budget and go ahead and get started on it. But it will take time and won’t do Elizabeth much good now. What I’d recommend for that, is this.” He clicked on another tab. “They only cost a few hundred and can be set up and filled in under a day.”

Hex pulled a face as he stared at the screen.

“How long do those things last?”

“I don’t know,” Cypher scanned the listing. “I’d guess with average care, a couple of years. It would be long enough to get us through the rest of the summer. Then, if that’s the direction you decide to go, we could have the big one done by then.”

Hex frowned, then went back to pacing. Cypher waited for a moment to see what Hex would say next, when he didn’t say anything but kept walking, Cypher went back to the research he’d been doing when the president came in.

His phone vibrated. Since he was waiting for a message from Lauren he picked it up and found a message from her.

Lauren: Patient is gone. I’m fine. I’m going to do a little paperwork here, then head back to the house.

Cypher: Thank you for doing this. I’m working on a system, so you don’t have to do this much. Mind if I come by tonight and explain?

He sent the message then glanced back at Hex, still pacing, as he waited to see if Lauren would reply.

“What you thinking?” Cypher asked.

“I’m trying to decide the best places to put them, both the temporary pool and the bigger one.”

“I’d put the in ground behind the clubhouse. We could add a roof, maybe build a big grill, make it an expansion of the clubhouse, somewhere we can all gather, even when it’s too cold to use the pool.” Cypher tilted his head to one side. The phone in his hand vibrated, but he ignored it for the moment while he finished this. “As for the inflatable? Put it close to your house. We’re already working on clearing a couple of places to put houses in. Use one of those. It’s only another few weeks until she’s due, and even after that, only a couple more months until it will be too cold to swim. We can focus on the other place until it’s time to take it down. Plus, back there, it’s close to Jenna and Squirt too. They’ll probably be happy to have a place to cool off and play some.” He didn’t say he would be trying to convince the therapist to come out too. That didn’t matter right now.

Hex looked thoughtful for a minute then he nodded.

“You’re right. I’ll go talk to the prospects about picking up the temporary one and getting it set up and started filling, then I’ll find Slide.”

“Might check with Sledge, maybe Burnout in the planning on that pool. They’ll have better ideas of where to put it and what complications we might find. Also, if we’re going to that expense, might as well make it big enough for the whole club.” Cypher wasn’t dumb enough to think that if they had a big cool body of water that it wasn’t illegal to swim in, that the brothers wouldn’t spend their share of time in there too.

“Yeah. You’re probably right,” Hex said as he headed from the room.

Lifting the phone still in his hand, Cypher checked the message. As he’d suspected, it was from Lauren.

Lauren: You don’t have to do that. But yes. You can come by. I’ll be around after about five.

Cypher checked the clock then frowned. It was only a little after one. Was she planning to be at the office that long? Or maybe she had something else she wasn’t telling him about.

She’s not yours and you don’t need to know where she is every minute, he reminded himself. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling of unease.

Cypher: I’ll come by after that. See you then.

He set his phone aside and turned his attention back to the computer. He had a few things to get taken care of for the club, and one of his contacts had just gotten back to him this morning with a lead on the human trafficking ring that had nearly gotten away with Squirt. He needed to chase that down if they had any hope of putting an end to that.