Page 116 of What Started In Deception

“I get to see the animals,” Everly told him.

“What animals do you think you’ll see?”

“Um, unicorns.”

He raised his brow as he blinked at her. “You’ll have to let me know if you find one.”

Lydia laughed as he grinned. “Ev, you should tell Ty that we’re going swimming later.”

Everly frowned. “I don’t like the pool.”

“I’m definitely going swimming,” he told her, remembering his conversation with Lydia about Everly and the water while they’d snuggled on his couch in DC. “I love the pool.”

Everly’s eyes grew wide as she held his gaze. “You do?”

He nodded. “Heck, yeah. Maybe you can swim with Lyd and me.”

She shook her head. “I can’t.”

He shrugged. “Maybe you’ll change your mind.” Then he moved over, so he and Everly sat much closer to Lydia, making a point of capturing her hand and intertwining their fingers as he held her stare. They would get things back on the right track. “So, what are we looking for in the book?” he asked Everly.

“You have to pick stuff out. Then I’ll find it.”

“You’ve got it.” He opened to a random page, happy to be part of the cozy picture he’d craved only minutes before.

Lydia stood in the shallow end of the big pool, wearing her black bikini and sunglasses, watching Everly sit on the lounge chair with her mom while Mac nursed Maverick in the shade. Top 40 music played through the outdoor speakers as the sun and warm breeze kissed her skin. “Do you want to come play with me?”

Everly shook her head in her pink-striped one-piece that was covered in sparkly hearts. “Nope.”

Lydia snagged her lip with her teeth, a little surprised that she hadn’t been able to persuade her miniature partner in crime to come into the water.

Ty walked out of the pool house in his black swim trunks, looking just as delicious as he had when he wore the same outfit on the Fourth of July. He headed for the diving board and dove in, coming up seconds later at Lydia’s side. “Hey.”

She smiled. “Hi.”

“What’s going on around here?”

“We’re swimming. Or I am anyway.”

She and Ty had spent the last couple of hours apart. Ty had been in the gym, doing his thing with his “client” while she’d been chatting with Mac during Everly’s nap.

He looked at Everly. “Are you coming in with us?”

Everly shook her head, in full-on stubborn mode. “Nope.”

He shrugged. “Okay.” But he started to move his head to the beat of Justin Bieber’s “I Think You’re Special” as the playlist rolled into the next song. “Lyd, I think we should have a dance party.” As he said so, he wrapped his arm around her waist as he held her opposite hand in his, moving with her in the water.

She tried to ignore the brush of their bodies and how amazing he looked while water droplets still trailed down his excellent face. “This was a little easier when we were on the side of the interstate.”

“Psh,” he said as he snagged her under her legs and scooped her up, spinning her in a circle.

She laughed, forever finding Ty to be a ton of fun, even as they tried to navigate their way through the remnants of a regrettable situation.

He chuckled as they smiled at each other. “I love that sound, Lyd.”

“You’re going to make me dizzy.”

“We don’t want that.” He set her legs back under her, holding her like he had in their original dance, staring into her eyes as he walked them farther away from Mac. “Are we okay?”