Page 66 of Elusion

“She might have said your name once.” Shayna’s attempt to hide a smile suggests the number’s plenty higher, but she quickly redirects. “Is Cate taking swim lessons? They start in about a month.”

“What are they charging for Saturday classes?” Callie asks. “You know Lauren won’t bring her during the week.”

Shayna rolls her eyes, familiar with the song and dance of shitty parenting. “Regular costs forty-five for six lessons and…” She leans back to look at something. “Damn, the bitch charges double for the weekends.”

Callie thinks for a second and shrugs. “We’ll see.”

Shayna nods. “I’ll put her name down to keep a spot open.”

“Thanks, Shay.” Callie turns toward me. “You ready to be assaulted by a six-year-old in swim floats?”

“Absolutely.” I follow her to the stairs, but a nagging feeling in my chest keeps me from going any farther. “I forgot my phone in the car. Meet you down there?”

She hands me the keys, and I go outside. I wait until she and Shayna finish a quick exchange. Once she descends the steps, I head in again.

“That was fast.” Shayna sits back in her chair behind the desk.

I lean on the counter. “What are the chances their parents pay the extra for weekend lessons?”

She snorts. “None. She or Connor will end up paying the difference, if not all of it. They always do.”

Of course they do. I fish out my wallet to pay for Cate’s swim lessons, succeeding at what Graham nor Lauren seems capable of—giving a shit.

“Well, aren’t you a knight in shining armor? Not that she needs one or anything. Henders can handle herself.” Her eyebrow arches. “Me, on the other hand…”

I shake my head and walk away while she laughs.

The stairway brings me out in the middle of a hallway. At one end, I locate the men’s locker room. Connor sits on a bench in his swim trunks. Without looking up from his phone, he tosses me the backpack with mine in it. I hurry up and change, and when we’re ready, he leads the way.

One door on each end allows for easy access from both locker rooms to the pool area. A standard-sized pool with lap ropes fills most of the space with a hot tub and a plastic table and chairs on the same wall as the doors. Far from the pool at the country club.

Connor throws our towels on the table and steps behind a corner near the door closest to the women’s locker room. He motions for me to join him. I step out of sight as Cate marches in, wearing her goggles and arm floats with her towel and flip-flops on. Connor lunges at her, and she shrieks. He hands off her stuff to Callie before dangling her at arm’s length over the water, and a strange mixture of screams and giggles echo around the room.

Callie goes to put their stuff down without seeing me, but holy shit, Callie Henders in a two-piece will be my undoing. Memories pale in comparison to the real deal in front of me. All flawless skin and the freckle on her shoulder and those legs, and this will become a noticeable problem for me the moment she turns around.

I steal a page from Connor’s book and sneak up behind her. Cate alerts her to my location with a screeched version of her name. Callie turns just in time to see me before I grab her up and launch us both into the pool.

We surface, and I smile at her. “Sorry, but to keep it PG, you need to stay submerged from the neck down.”

I swim in a circle around her like a shark, ready to attack if she defies me.

She wipes the wet hair away from her face. “Were you one of those boys who pushed girls they liked in the pool?”

“I wasn’t until right now,” I say, splashing her.

“Jordan has to race Connor.” Cate taps her foot on the pool deck.

Securing Callie around the waist, I drag her through the water with me. “I will win this race in your honor.”

She laughs, and I deposit her before shaking hands with my competitor. Cate counts us down from ten. She repeats four twice, causing confusion about when to go, but we figure it out and push off the wall. Once I surface, I quickly remember Johnny, Gavin, and I have fallen out of our workout routine the past few months.

I hit the wall and flip around, and there’s fucking Callie up on the ledge at the opposite end. Each time I take a breath, my eyes want to search for her perfect cleavage.

When I reach them, instead of starting my second lap, I stand up and glare. “Do you want me to lose? Get in the damn water and stop distracting me.”

Her eyes roll as she hops down. I kiss her—because why wouldn’t I?—and resume my race. Connor’s pulled ahead, but by the fourth and final lap, I close the distance and slap the wall first. Cate crowns me the winner while my chest heaves, and my lungs burn. We need to start running again but not for a few weeks. I’ll require at least that long to recover from this.

Connor and I shake hands again per the request of a bossy six-year-old.

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