Page 92 of A Fool's Game

“What was it like?”

I have no idea how to answer, so I just shake my head again. “When I figure it out, I’ll let you know.”

I take my coffee out to the patio where Ainsley’s setting himself up with a towel and music on the Bluetooth speakers. Reggae.

I walk over to where he stands next to the pool. He sees me too late and can’t escape without making a scene, and I know he’s not going to do that.

“We cool, man?” I ask, trying to make this as easy on him as possible.

“Yeah,” he says, giving me a quizzical look. “Why wouldn’t we be?”

Our gazes lock for a heated moment, and I can see him daring me to bring it up.

I almost do. I almost ask him what the fuck that was, him touching me for the first time right after telling his own goddamn father I was his boyfriend.

Instead, I lift both hands and give him a hard shove backwards.

Right into the pool.

His surprised cry brings a smile of satisfaction to my lips.

“Pool party,” Gem cries as she tosses her own towel on a chaise and takes a running leap into the crystal blue water, swimming over to where Ainsley’s still recovering.

Her arms around his neck bring a smile to his lips, and he turns from me, dragging her along as he swims to deeper water, stretching his long, lean body athletically as he kicks.

And so the day goes.

We swim, we tan, we nap.

Gem looks as relaxed as I’ve seen her in weeks. I know she’s stressed about her program coming to an end and having to make decisions about her future. It’s not something we’ve talked about as much as I’d like, but we’ve been distracted.

I shield my face from the splash of said distraction taking a cannonball from the low diving board. When I look back up, he’s surfacing, grinning and tossing his wet hair to one side of his face. Gem swims over to him and locks her arms around his waist. I watch him spin her around in the water and then take them both under.

This is the happiness we were searching for. It took me alittle while to get on board, but I’m sure of it now. Whatever Ainsley is bringing to the table—it’s what we needed.

Just as they surface, laughing and thrashing, a voice comes from behind me.

“Mind if we crash your party?”

Chapter 32

Gemma

Iturn to look at the voice approaching us and find a tall, athletically handsome man approaching, grasping the hand of a woman in a short dress I can’t quite make out under her giant sun hat.

“Ave!” Ainsley calls, leaving me in the shallow end and swimming over to the side of the pool.

He reaches up and the man reaches down. They clasp grips and together heave Ainsley to his feet on the side of the pool in a move so smooth, I’ve no doubt they’ve done it a million times.

“I was wondering when you were going to show up,” Ainsley says over the man’s shoulder as he pulls him into a tight embrace, apparently unperturbed by the fact that he’s dripping wet.

They turn as one unit and face me in the water. I almost laugh aloud.

Where Ben is the dark to Ainsley’s light, this man could be his twin. They’re both tall and fit in that effortless way I know many other men, Taylor included, are jealous of.Shaggy hair and easy smiles, hands on each other in shifting slaps and pats and shoulder rubs.

In a line-up of strangers, this is the man most people would have chosen for Ainsley’s father.But I guess that’s how it goes often enough. People don’t raise their twins, they raise their opposites.

I swim over to the stairs and climb out, not wanting to be dragged up the side like Ainsley was. Once I have my towel, I head over to join the newcomers.

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