Page 42 of The Catch

“Good choice,” Minnie said, holding up a blue plastic cup and indicating it had been hers as well.

“I’ll be right back,” Josh said to her.

Dylan and Shawn were both watching them, so she stood on her toes to give Josh a girlfriendy kiss goodbye, expecting to feel him cringe. The audience didn’t seem to faze him in the least, though. He kissed her back as if he’d done it a hundred times, then took off for the bar with Shawn and Dylan, Mattie tagging along beside him.

“I like your earrings,” Minnie said when they were left alone. “And you are as gorgeous as Josh said you were.”

Cat flushed, fingering the silver teardrops hanging from her ears. “Thank you.”

“So, you two met when Josh and Dylan were at their conference?” Minnie turned toward her, indicating she was going to keep Cat company, and she was grateful.

“We did. I was there for a pre-wedding celebration for a friend. She gets married next month.”

As they chatted, a couple of guys came barreling out of the house, charging the pool and cannonballing into the deep end. Minnie rolled her eyes and turned back to Cat. “Did you bring a suit?”

“I did.” Minnie wore hers under the black and white striped dress she had on.

“I told Josh inviting a girl to a party where she had to put on a bathing suit was a big ask, but he said I hadn’t seen you in a bikini. Come on. I’ll show you where you can change.”

When Cat returned from Dylan’s bathroom, Josh was waiting with her drink. He handed it to her, his eyes flicking to her outfit change as he touched the rim of his cup to hers. “How about we cool off?” he said, gesturing to the pool. “You wanna go in?”

“Sure.” She was feeling a little exposed, and getting underwater sounded like a great idea. Josh pulled his t-shirt over his head, tossing it onto a lawn chair, and led her to the concrete stairs.

He paused before he stepped in. “Are you the type of girl who doesn’t get her hair wet when she swims?” he asked.

She was.“Why do you ask that?”

“Just wondering.”

He had a mischievous smile on, and she planted her feet. “Josh…” Before she could protest, he scooped her around the waist and placed her over his shoulder, carefully enough that she didn’t spill her drink.

“I won’t drop you,” he said when she started kicking her feet, giggling despite herself. The two men who had dived in while she was talking to Minnie were still wading around, and he walked past them and set her down on a neon-green lounge float. She was side-saddle, so her weight dipped just enough so that her butt and thighs were in the water, but her top half stayed dry. She set her cup in the built-in cup holder, relieved at not having been tossed in.

“Thanks for the lift.”

Josh settled his arms on the float beside her, causing it to dip further and the cool water to rise past her hips. He watched it rise, then pulled his eyes back to her face and took a sip of his drink.

“So tell me who everyone is.”

Josh pointed around the yard, naming people he knew from work and a few college friends. A neighbor or two. As people came in and out of the pool, he introduced her, each one of them taking the first opportunity they got to tell her what a great guy Josh was. Everyone she met gushed about him, women and men. They had stories of favors Josh had done them or professional accolades he’d won that she knew instantly he never would have mentioned himself. It was like being at a meeting of the Josh Rideout Fan Club. Josh, for his part, was exceedingly humble, waving them all off.

By the time she’d met most of the guests, she realized she’d been holding his hand in her lap the entire time without even realizing she was doing it. Josh didn’t seem to mind one bit.

Fifteen

Asalty breeze rode in withthe sunset, calming the temperature and purifying the thick summer air. The back of Cat’s neck prickled with the wind, and it sent a shiver through her shoulders.

She’d changed out of her bathing suit and back into her clothes by then, adding a long-sleeved henley over her tank top, but goosebumps still freckled her arms and legs.

Josh was still in his swim trunks, shirtless beside her and looking stunningly immune. He’d been sucked into some shop talk with Dylan and a couple of other men Cat guessed were contractors, given their contribution to the conversation. Cat sipped her drink, trying to follow along as they bounced around a current project. When Minnie approached her, however, and invited her to a picnic table where Mattie was coloring quietly, she was glad for the conversation she could participate in.

“You looked bored,” Minnie said, as she poured herself another drink from the bar cart behind her and took a seat.

“No,” Cat replied, not wanting to seem rude. “Josh seems to enjoy his work.”

“He does, but that doesn’t mean you want to listen to them go on about it.”

Cat laughed. She hadn’t really been able to follow much. She’d been using the time to enjoy the view of Josh—the way his biceps flexed as he augmented the conversation with hand gestures and the way he would flick his eyes toward her or touch her every so often to remind her she hadn’t been forgotten. She probably should have spent the time testing him like she planned, but she was enjoying watching him and hearing about him so much, it hadn’t even occurred to her. She wondered what that meant.

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