“I’ll join you then,” Swayze admitted, “because I agree. They’re very, very nice.”
“And the man can move in them and didn’t spend a lot of time jacking with his shorts when he was playing earlier,” Wyett added her two cents.
“Speaking of playing,” Six said as she watched the men finish off their beers and then jump back into the water. “Guess they’re starting round two.”
They were, indeed, playing round two.
“You know that sand volleyball scene,” Beckham said from her lounger where she was holding her sleeping son, Hiro. “Where Maverick and Goose play volleyball, and Ice Man is all sexy as hell, too, covered in sand and looking fine?”
All of the ladies with me snorted, but it was Six who answered. “Yes. I think every straight female that was born in the last fifty years has seen that scene. And loves it.”
The boys started to play in front of us, and right off the bat, a bad serve had Zach diving for the ball in the shallow end, only to go under before he could reach it, and come back up dripping water and laughing.
“I think this is wayyy better,” Beckham said as she watched her husband move.
Not that he wasn’t very pleasing to the eyes—all of the men were—but there was just something about Zach that kept drawing my eyes.
“You got that right,” I agreed. “If I had my cell phone right now, I’d be taking a shit ton of photos.”
“Don’t worry.” Six pointed at her Go Pro that she’d set up off in the distance at some point. “I’ll be sending you some professionally edited photos, as well as some still action shots.”
I grinned widely at her. “That’s perfect.”
We watched the game go on in companionable silence, all of us enjoying the game way too much to ruin it with too much talking.
Zach was up next serving, and I watched as those muscles along his ribs bunched and flexed as he tossed the ball in the air with one hand and served it with the other.
The rippling effect on his abdomen and chest had my pulse all but pounding.
“I might have to use your pool house.” Swayze fanned herself as she watched her husband come up out of the water to set the ball to Lynn. “Holy shit, Batman.”
Honestly, it felt like we were on the set of a porn movie with how we were acting every time one of the men got a good stretch up out of the water. It didn’t even matter that they were playing miserably.
“It makes me really thankful that they all tied their suits really well,” Beckham mused. “Because the way they’re jumping out of the water? All that force might’ve had them falling off.”
Just then, a woman came out of the house hurrying toward us, she had an armful of pizza boxes in her hands, and Sin saw her coming despite the ball in play that was coming toward him.
He completely ignored the ball, jumped out of the pool with a fury of strength that surprised me, and hustled toward the woman.
“And that’s Blaise, Sin’s woman,” Wyett added, even though I’d deduced that for myself. “She was working a case at the office and wasn’t able to get here until now. She’s also pregnant, and Sin can’t allow her to do anything without knowing her every move.”
“I heard that,” Sin mumbled as he walked toward us with the pizza boxes.
“You were meant to,” Wyett replied, bubbly and sweet.
I grinned.
I really adored these ladies.
“It’s true,” Blaise admitted as she sat down and tossed open the first pizza box she came to. “Do you know how torturous it was to smell these? I wanted to reach in the box and eat a slice the entire way here.”
Even Swayze and Beckham were great.
Eventually the promise of food lured the guys out of the pool and away from the volleyball game.
When my man finally arrived, I was on slice number three of pizza.
He took the part of the lounger behind me, and then reached over me, dripping water all over me, to reach for a slice of his own.
When he sat back, my entire back was wet.
I tossed him a saucy glare over my shoulder, causing him to reach forward and squeeze my hip, acknowledging how he made me feel and promising without words that he would make it up to me.
“Anything on that little girl living next to you?” Sin asked Zach as he pulled out yet another slice of pizza.
I decided he was on slice number six. He and Blaise had been eating out of the first box that looked to be Canadian bacon and mushrooms. Blaise was on her second slice, talking to Beckham, leaving only one slice left in the box.
I, on the other hand, was itching for more.
But that would be bad, right? I shouldn’t eat that much?
Then again, today was my cheat day. My one day a week that I could eat whatever the hell I wanted and not think about the consequences of my actions at least until tomorrow morning when I got up to run.
And if anyone deserved to eat whatever the hell she wanted, it was me, who’d been poisoned. Right?
I leaned back slightly to alleviate the pain in my hips and lower back. Wearing heels was never conducive to feeling great the next day.
That, or the back pain was likely due in part to me running today, spending forty-five minutes hunched over a toilet, or a combination of the two.
I was wiggling in the chair in front of Zach, but when my hips met either sides of his thighs, he reached forward, spread his legs a bit wider, and all but plastered me to him.
And, let me tell you something, I wasn’t raised to be stupid.
So I took his new positioning in stride, pulling the beach towel that was the only thing between us out, and then laying it over us so that we were both mostly covered.
His big hand moved so that it was resting on my lower belly, just above the indecently low bikini that Six had loaned me.
“As far as I can tell, there’s not much going on.” Zach shrugged. “She came over yesterday and asked me to help her put the trash into the trash can. Sweet little thing. But I didn’t see any bruises. She was in shorts and a t-shirt, so none visible, anyway.”
“I saw her this morning,” I said. “She was with her mom, though. They were both getting into their car so the mom could take her to school. They were talking about going out for dinner tonight, and the mom said that she couldn’t do it because she didn’t have time off of work. And she’d have to fend for herself until she could get home.”
“She’s six, right?” Blaise entered into the conversation. “That’s a little too young to be fending for herself, right?”
“The law states that if your child has the mental capacity to stay home, then they can stay home by themselves. At least in Texas,” Lynn murmured before taking a bite of the pizza crusts that Six kept leaving on his plate.
“Hmm,” I said. “Well, I see her every day when the mom has to work. They come into the store and the mom purchases a coffee to go and a breakfast sandwich for Zakelina. I can start pumping them for information if you think it’ll help?”
Sin actually looked kind of relieved. “Thanks. I should’ve just taken this case and I would have the information by now. But now she won’t even talk to me.”
Zach then went on to explain the specifics of the case as far as he knew, and what they suspected.
“That’s awful,” I admitted. “I may have been neglected and all, but at least they didn’t hit me.”