Tossing a cover-up on over my suit, I put on flip-flops and grabbed a towel. Downstairs, the girls were patiently waiting for me on the patio. I slung my pool bag over my arm and put on my sunglasses, sliding the door shut behind me. “Okay,” I said. “Let’s go.”
They scampered across the lawn like puppies, and I walked fast to keep up. Beyond the black fence, I saw where Dex was reclining in a lounge chair, the back propped all the way up so he could see all the way to my patio door. His feet were crossed at the ankle, his arms were folded over his chest, and he didn’t look all that thrilled as we approached. I wondered if he’d been hoping I wasn’t home.
“See? Told you he was hairy,” Hallie said to me.
Luna raced ahead. “We found her!” she cried, trying unsuccessfully to open the gate. “She said yes!”
Dex got out of the chair and came over to open the gate. “I see that.”
“Hi,” I said, ignoring the way my heart was thumping at the sight of him in dark blue swim trunks. His chest was every bit as magnificent as I’d imagined, and not at all too hairy, despite what his daughters thought. His six-pack abs were taut beneath golden skin, and my eyes immediately wandered to the trail of hair beneath his belly button and the V lines that showed above his waistband.
As the gate swung shut behind me, he hitched up his suit, as if he’d caught me looking.
I quickly looked up and tried to smile. “How was church?”
“Fine.” His dark hair was wet and messy, and I couldn’t read his eyes behind his aviator sunglasses.
“The girls got you in the water already, huh?”
“Yeah.” He ruffled his hair in a boyish gesture. “I keep trying to get them out of here, but it’s impossible.”
“Well, it’s a gorgeous day,” I said, walking over to where Hallie and Luna had dumped their towels on the cement, right at the foot of their dad’s chair. “And school starts in what, just over a week? Gotta enjoy this while you can.”
The pool was crowded and there were no other lounge chairs available, but Dex moved his towel and spread it out on the ground. “Here. You can sit.”
“Thanks, but I don’t think the girls asked me out here so I could work on my tan,” I said with a laugh. Hallie and Luna had already jumped into the shallow end and were shouting for me to join them.
“You don’t have to swim if you don’t want to,” he said. “I told them not to bother you.”
“It’s no bother,” I said, removing my shoes and sunglasses. After tossing my cover-up on the chair, I noticed him looking at my body but trying to appear as though he wasn’t. “I’m just going to put some sunscreen on real quick.”
I leaned over and pulled a can of SPF 50 from my bag, giving my face and shoulders and chest a quick mist. “Want some?” I offered.
“No, thanks.” He dropped to his towel on the cement and sat with his forearms draped over his knees.
After tucking the can back into my bag, I walked down the steps into the pool, conscious of his eyes on me.
“Are you coming in too, Daddy?” Hallie yelled. “We can have a tea party with four people now.”
“Nah, you guys don’t need me.”
As I played with the girls in the water—tea party, judging their handstands, proving I could still do three backward somersaults in the water without taking a breath—I was aware of him watching us, and I told myself he was just a concerned dad keeping a cautious eye on his children in a pool without a lifeguard.
But when I got out and dried off, I could sense him wrestling with his focus again—his gaze kept straying to my chest.
“Daddy, can we have another popsicle?” Luna asked, putting her towel over her head like a nun’s habit.
Dex checked his phone. “It’s time to go in.”
“No!” both girls said at once.
“Okay, you can go get another popsicle, but that’s the last snack before dinner, and we have to clean up soon. I have to have you back at five or I’ll get yelled at.”
Grinning, they tossed off their towels and took off toward their back door.
I smiled at him. “Softie.”
He made a noise, something between a growl and a grunt.
I glanced at the empty lounge chair. “Are you sure you don’t mind if I sit here?”
“Go ahead.”
I spread my towel on it and stretched out, disappointed when he kept his eyes straight ahead on the pool, although I did notice the way he had one hand clamped tightly around the opposite wrist, like maybe he was afraid of where that hand might wander if it were set free.
My knee? My thigh? My hip?
I liked that he might want me like that, even if it couldn’t go anywhere, especially after being dumped for the prospect of banging a New York model.
The guy was hot, and catching his eye felt good.
Really good.
Nine
Dex
She was so close to me I could smell her—Coppertone and chlorine had never been so sexy—and I considered moving away from her chair a little.
I kept my eyes straight ahead, but it took effort. She had an amazing body, and even though her swimsuit wasn’t revealing, I’d already seen what was underneath it. And no matter how badly I wanted to forget that kiss, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
She seemed comfortable with the silence between us, but I was squirming with guilt.
And other things I didn’t want to feel.
“I’m sorry again about last night,” I said quietly.
“It’s fine. No apology necessary.”
Which should have been my cue to shut up and move on, but it really fucking bothered me, how attracted I was to her. How badly I wanted to get my hands on her body. How I’d lain awake half the night thinking about all the things I wanted to do to her.
I had to make sure she didn’t want me the same way, or I was doomed. “I just didn’t want to give you the wrong idea.”
She turned her head to look at me, shading her eyes. “The wrong idea about what?”
I refused to look at her. “About me. I’m not, you know, interested in you like that.”
“I never thought you were.”
“Good. Because it was just a stupid mistake.”
She stared at me for another ten seconds, then dropped her arm and turned her face to the sun again. It had to be seventy-five degrees out here, but I swear I could feel an icy cold wind coming from her direction.
A minute later, she stood up, grabbed her things, and left without saying a word.
Stop her, you asshole, I told myself as she let herself out of the gate.
But I didn’t.
I watched her walk back to her place and disappear into her condo without a single backward glance.
And I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Mommy!” Hallie unbuckled her seatbelt and hopped out of the car.
“Hi, Halsy pal!” Naomi scooped Hallie into her arms and hugged her tight. “I missed you.”
“But you just saw me this morning.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Naomi rubbed noses with her. “I always miss you when you’re not with me. And oh my goodness, look at that sunburn.”