Page 116 of It Should Have Been You

She chews her lip right before the upper half of her body jerks forward like she’s finally going to do it, but her feet remain planted to the ground.

She turns back to me, eyes wide. “What if I drown?”

Seriously, is she always this dramatic?

“You’re a great swimmer, and I’m right here.”

Isabel bounces on her heels, not hiding her growing frustration with her sister. “Jump, Hannah.”

“Shut up, Isabel,” Hannah pouts, crossing her arms.

This seemed like a great idea but now I have two sulking children, the sun beating on my back, and I’m ten seconds away from turning around and going back to our house.

“You cried because you wanted to jump,” I remind her.

She did.

I wasn’t keen on the idea, but she moaned until I relented.

“I do it.” Isabel bounces forward with far too much confidence. I grab her before she makes a dive for it.

“Not you. You need to put your floaties on.”

She growls at me like a dog.

Jesus fucking Christ, these kids.

“Can you come in with me? If I drown, you won’t be able to save me from there.”

I close my eyes and hold my breath for a beat. She’s two feet away from me. If I reach out, I can hold her hand.

“I’m going in. I need to sort your sister first before she takes off.” I swear, second children are born to test our patience. “You can do it.”

Hannah drops her foot. At least she gets to her ankle this time before letting rip a blood-curdling scream.

Progress.

At this rate, we’ll be in the water by tomorrow morning.

“Momma, I need to go potty.” Isabel tugs at my leg.

For the love of all that is holy.

“Okay, honey. Hannah you can’t go in now. I need to bring your sister inside.”

“But I really want to go in.”

I’m going to cry.

“There’s the ladies.” Logan’s voice startles me enough that I jump. “What’s going on?”

“What are you doing home so early?”

His eyes lick over me, and I’m suddenly all too aware of how little I’m wearing. The blue one-piece leaves far too much of me exposed. It’s already too hot out here. I don’t need his hungry eyes devouring me. I’ll dehydrate.

“The shop was quiet. The guys had it covered.”

Something in my stomach does a weird flip. I like to call it the flip of betrayal.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com