Page 51 of Enchanted to Meet You

I took two fast steps and leaped off the edge, curling into a tight ball mid-air and hitting the water with a heavy splash. The cold swallowed me whole, a shocking, glorious rush that washed away the lingering heat of the driveway and the heavy knot that had been sitting in my throat since breakfast. I let myself sink all the way to the blue-tiled bottom, opening my eyes underwater to see the shimmering yellow tube of Landon’s float and the dark silhouette of Rhys standing on the stone above.

When I broke the surface, slicking my hair back from my eyes and gasping for air, a huge wave of water caught Rhys directly across his broad chest and face. He stood there at the edge, dripping wet, blinking back water with an expression of stunned betrayal. Landon threw his head back and let out a bark of laughter that echoed off the high wooden fence.

“Ten out of ten!” Landon cheered, kicking his legs to splash water in the air. “Perfect execution! A direct hit!”

“That was unprovoked,” Rhys said, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand, though a dangerous, sharp little grin was already spreading across his mouth.

I wiped chlorine from my eyelashes and treaded water in the deep end. “Are you coming in, or are you just going to stand there looking like a wet cat?”

“A wet cat?” Rhys repeated softly. He took a single step back, took a running leap, and hit the water two feet away from me. A wall of blue water came down over my head. I came up sputtering, laughing so hard I swallowed a mouthful of pool water, only to find Rhys breaking the surface right beside me, his hair plastered against his forehead, eyes bright and laughing.

“Still think I look like a wet cat?” he asked, wiping water from his jaw, standing on the shallow bench near the wall so he towered over me.

“Worse,” I wheezed, splashing him straight in the face with both hands. “Much worse!”

“Oh, you’re going down,” he warned, lunging forward.

What followed was two hours of absolute, unfiltered chaos. We played every game known to man, from shoving each other under water to a lawless game of pool volleyball using an old, half-deflated neon ball Landon found behind the shed, where the rules changed every three minutes based on whoever was losing. Landon declared himself official referee, player, and commentator, narrating every play in a ridiculous voice that had me laughing so hard my stomach hurt.

When Rhys tried to spike the ball over the imaginary line, I threw myself across the water to block it, catching him off guard and sending the ball ricocheting off his shoulder and into the bushes near the patio.

“Out of bounds!” Landon shouted, blowing a high-pitched whistle through his teeth using his fingers. “Point to Ainsley! The crowd goes wild!”

“It hit the line!” Rhys protested, pushing his wet hair out of his eyes and looking over at Landon with fake outrage. “Landon, you’re blind!”

“Ref’s decision is final, number seven,” Landon said smoothly, floating lazily on his back. “Accept your defeat with dignity.”

Rhys turned to me, his bright eyes sparkling with playful menace. “You bribed him.”

“I didn’t bribe anyone! It was a clean block!”

“Come here,” he said, taking two fast, heavy strides through the chest-deep water toward me.

I shrieked, kicking my legs and trying to swim toward the shallow end, but Rhys was faster. He caught me by the waist, his hands warm and dripping against my bare skin, and hauled me under before I could get a full breath. We both went under, a whirl of bubbles and cold blue water, my hands scrambling for a grip on his shoulders. When we surfaced, I grabbed him by the back of his neck and dragged him down with me, taking him by surprise so we both came up gasping, wiping water from our eyes and laughing uncontrollably.

“You’re terrifying,” Rhys gasped, shaking his head like a dog and spraying water everywhere.

“You started it!” I laughed, resting my hand against the edge of the coping to keep afloat, my chest heaving.

He stayed close, hovering in the water just a foot away, his arms resting on the stone edge behind him. His green eyes were bright and soft as he looked at me, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. I looked at him, feeling the warm sun beating down on my wet shoulders, listening to Landon loudly arguing with an imaginary spectator from the deep end, and a strange quiet settled over my mind.

Out here, in the sun, dripping wet and breathless from laughing, none of my problems existed. I wasn’t pretending to be his girlfriend. I wasn’t pretending to be okay. I was just me and he was just Rhys, and for two solid hours, the rest of the world didn’t matter.

I was in the middle of splashing Landon as he tried to perform a high-dive off the side when the sharp, metallic click of the side gate echoed across the yard.

“Hey! Hope we’re not interrupting!” Justin’s voice carried across the concrete, loud, cheerful, and entirely uninvited.

I froze in the water, my hand dropping to my side. Beside me, I felt Rhys go still—a subtle stiffening of his spine that happened before he even turned his head.

Justin strolled onto the patio, wearing a pair of expensive branded swim trunks and carrying a cooler. Right behind him was Kelcey. She wore a pristine, sheer white tunic cover-up over a black bikini, those same oversized designer sunglasses she’d been wearing to the soccer game perched on top of her head.

The shift in the air was so fast that it felt like someone had dumped a bucket of ice into the pool.

The effortless warmth that had filled the yard for two hours vanished. Landon’s loud commentary sputtered out as he paddled himself slowly toward the edge. Rhys didn’t stop moving, but the boy who had been laughing with me two seconds ago disappeared. In his place was the Rhys I’d been used to seeing since starting this fake relationship—guarded, overly confident, and jaw set into a firm line, using his indifference like armor.

“Justin,” Rhys said, his voice flat as he pushed himself up onto the stone edge, water streaming off his muscles. “Didn’t know you guys were coming out here. I thought you were going out.”

“Plans got cancelled,” he said. “And you know how much I love the pool.”