"And why do I need a pool?" he asks through an exhale as he bends his legs pulling the ball closer to him,
"Because then Coop and I can hang by the pool in the summer while I weed through your three thousand charity request emails."
He chuckles.
"Oh," I say. "That reminds me, you got an email yesterday asking if you'd talk to a youth support group? Something about parent-child re…fuck I don't remember, hold on."
"Reunification," he says. "Those are always a yes."
I type Mateo Hayes reunification into google.
It's the second time I've googled him. I know if I asked, he'd probably tell me, but it seems too personal for friends with benefits. There's a line there, and we've already blurred it enough.
Addie wasn't exactly thorough when she told me about her family or Mateo. I know they had adopted grandparents, and Mateo changed his name in high school. But that's the depth of what she gave me.
I click on the first link and instantly regret it. I'm on Mateo's laptop, and I'm not savvy enough to delete search history. Opening the browser on my phone, I search again.
"I didn't meet Dad until I was ten," Mateo says, startling me. "Mom spent a lot of her late childhood in foster care. She and Dad met in high school, and she got pregnant at seventeen."
"I didn't ask."
"It's not a secret, Jade." He stands and holds out his hand to me, helping me up. "Dad was a pitching star, even in high school. The short story is Mom didn't tell him about me and left so he could keep being a star."
"And the long story?"
"That's a whole ass book. One we don't have time for right now."
"Why's that?" I ask, taking his hand and getting to my feet.
Mateo pulls me to him. "Because I have to make up for four days of not kissing you."
He leans forward, brushing his lips lightly across mine. I could get lost in him like this, but I fight it with everything in me.
My phone saves me. Mateo groans.
"Hello?"
"Ms. Bennett?"
"This is her."
"Hi, this is Carla Mansfield from Triumph Art Institute, how are you today?"
Mateo presses his lips to my neck, and I swat him away.
"I'm good, how are you?"
"Wonderful, thank you. I'm calling to congratulate you. You've been awarded one of our Keep Art Alive scholarships."
"You're joking," I say.
She laughs. "I'm not. You'll be receiving an official email shortly with all the details."
I thank her and hang up.
"I got it," I say more to myself than to Mateo. "I got the scholarship."
Mateo's face lights up, more so than normal. "We need to celebrate."
