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“Oh, yeah. I forgot that your car was still downtown.”
“If they haven’t towed it by now.”
Dylan shook his head. “No, they wouldn’t. Look, let’s make a wager. If I can make a bigger cannonball, then we leave tonight. If you do, then we leave in the morning. Either way, we’ll get your car. Deal?”
“No. I don’t feel like getting wet. My suit just dried.”
Dylan stood up and called to the girls. “Hey, Lily, Lila! Who do you think can make a bigger splash? Me or Remi?”
“Oh, you for sure!” Lila answered.
“No contest!” Lily agreed.
“Are you sure? Let’s see!” Dylan said mischievously.
“Dylan, I told you I’m not—” I began.
Mid-sentence strong arms encircled my body bridal style, and I was being lifted off my lounger. He held me easily under my back and bent knees. His intentions were clear.
“Dylan! Dylan! Don’t you dare!”
He walked ten feet to the pool’s edge without arguing with me.
“Dylaaaaaaaannnnn!” I screamed as he hurled me through the air and in an instant, I was surrounded by the chlorinated water of the pool. I plunged under the surface and came up sputtering, blinded by the curtain of wet hair covering my face. I attempted to push it out of my face. The water felt cold against my sun-drenched skin, and I shivered.
“My turn,” Dylan answered, then took a running leap and threw himself into the pool beside me. Instantly, I was engulfed by another wave of water.
“Well, girls?” He asked the kids on the side of the pool when he came up for air. “Me or Remi?”
“Duh, you’re almost twice my weight. It’s physics you’d win,” I muttered.
Both girls gave him the accolades in unison. “You!”
“I’m going to get you for that, Dylan Jeffers!” I seethed at him, though, I had to admit it felt like old times. “I lost my sunglasses.”
Dylan looked through the prism the water created, located my misplaced glasses then dove down and retrieved them for me.
“Here you go,” he smiled and swam toward me, treading water within arm’s length so he could hand them over. “So, we leave tonight, then?”
“Okay,” I agreed and was rewarded with another bright smile.
“Dylan! Throw us in the pool like Remi!” Lily said.
“Yeah! Throw us in the pool, too!”
I moved to the edge of the pool so that I’d be out of the way. Dylan used his strong arms to hoist himself out of the pool and threw both of his cousins in the pool one right after the other. After a few more times of that, maybe he’d be too exhausted to drive three hours later in the day. Swimming always made me sleepy.
My sister sat on the edge of the pool near me and let her legs dangle over the edge. “What are you two planning?” Bliss asked knowingly.
“What makes you think we’re planning anything?” Bliss was only ten when I went away to college and after the first year, she hadn’t seen the two of us together, but she’d heard stories and there were loads of photos of us together around the house.
“You two have practically had your foreheads glued together all afternoon, that’s how.”
I had to give it to my sister. She might be young, but she was astute.
A slow smile slid across my lips as the implications of it sank in.
“Can you get Mace and Daddy to go downtown to pick up my car if I give you the address?”
