Page 48 of He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

‘Iknowthe moves, Mom. I’m your daughter, remember? That said, no thanks.’

‘Stop being uptight and get your tiny little ass over here and have some fun.’

‘Yeah, Hols,’ River says. ‘Pull the stick from your ass and loosen up.’

‘I don’t have a stick up my ass.’ She looks at me, eyebrows raised. ‘Do I?’

I pinch my fingers together. ‘Usually, when Justin Timberlake is singing, you’re singing with him. When we dance, you dance. Right now, you’re pretending you’re too cool to be this dorky.’

A gasp leaves her lips, but the smile on her face says she’s not mad. I dance towards her, getting even more animated the closer I get, my recent flower boy performance flashing through my head. She’s going to see that video at some point, and I doubt I’ll ever hear the end of it.

‘You know you want to,’ I say, exaggerating the moves even more.

‘Sometimes I hate you,’ she says through a grin. The same smile that’s always saidyou’ve lost your ever-loving mind,but I don’t hate you.

‘It’s fun. You should try it. Very stress relieving. Like having sex,’ I say, waggling my eyebrows.

‘You’re the expert on that, aren’t you?’

‘Wouldn’t you like to know.’

‘I feel like I’m at a high school dance,’ she says as River makes his way to us.

‘You can’t admit we’re a little good?’ River asks.

Hollyn walks his way, her arms crossed over her chest as she watches him bust a move. After a minute, when she’s close enough, she shoves him into the pool behind him, then she turns her attention to me.

‘You sure you wanna do that?’ I ask, doing the sprinkler enthusiastically.

‘Pretty sure,’ she says. ‘You’re goin’ in.’ She runs at me, prepped to shove my ass into the pool, fully clothed.

What she didn’t expect was me wrapping an arm around her and pulling her in with me. The squeal as we hit the water makes it all worth it.

‘Ha!’ River yells as I pop out of the water. He raises a hand for a high five. I meet his hand with mine as Hollyn watches, brushing her hair from her face.

‘You two will kill me,’ she says, bobbing in the water a few feet from me.

Penny’s now dancing around the pool, singing her lyrics, the only one still dry, a glass of wine in her hand that I’m sure isn’t her first of the day.

‘I miss being on tour,’ she says. ‘Hols, you shook your three-year-old booty on stage in front of thousands of people once. Don’t you remember how fun it was to break out into a dance party when you were kids? You loved it!’

‘I’m still fun,’ Hollyn says defensively, a bit unsure of her answer. ‘You think so, right?’ There’s that missing self-confidence I want to help her find again.

‘You keep me smiling.’

She flashes me an unsure grin.

‘Come on,’ River interrupts. ‘The funnest thing you’ve done since you got here was throw bigfoot here into the pool. Otherwise, it’s been all tears and whining. I vote for more of the pool thing. Who’s with me?’ Both River and Penny raise their hands.

Hollyn’s eyes widen as she looks at me, waiting for my vote. Slowly, I raise my hand, and she splashes water my way as though she’s trying to drown me. I swim over, as if I’m going to climb out but dunking her under as I pass. She flails around as I hold her under for a second before releasing her and swimming to the side.

‘Funny!’ she says when she emerges, glaring my way.

‘My wallet votes for no more of the pool thing.’ I pull it from my pants as I stand at the edge of the pool, removing everything and lying it all in the sun to dry. I’ve had to do this many times over the years as throwing one another into the pool was each of our missions when we were younger. The less the other person expected it, the better.

‘Sorry,’ Hols says as she swims over to me. ‘Did I ruin anything?’

‘No need to be sorry; it was all in good fun. Water dries. I may have even liked it.’ I wink as she holds onto the pool’s edge next to me. ‘I almost saw the Hollyn I remember there.’

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