Page 46 of Ocotillo Kisses
“It won’t happen again,” he promised, blushing a little, and Britt’s heart did a little twist in her chest.
She wasn’t jealous, really she wasn’t. She didn’t belong here anymore. She didn’t have any reason to feel jealous of the interplay between Poppy and Con. Poppy knew this version of Con better than Britt did.
But that kiss had opened up some proprietary sense in her.
Con didn’t deserve that, to be bickered over, so Britt kept her mouth shut, and he continued to watch Sophie every time she asked, until her father intervened.
“Sophie, why don’t you swim for a while and stop jumping in? Nobody wants to be splashed.”
Sophie shifted gears right away and started doggy paddling around the pool.
“We don’t swim much in Colorado,” he said with a shrug. “Our last apartment had a pool, but we weren’t there much when it was warm enough to swim.”
“Britt’s really the only good swimmer here,” Con said. “We don’t have much opportunity around here, either.”
A heavy silence dropped over them at that. The accident had revealed that weakness in all of them. Of course, even knowing how to swim hadn’t helped that much, the way the churning water had tossed them about.
“Anyway, it’s nice to be in the cool water,” Lacey said, her voice overly bright as she swished her feet around from her perch on the steps. “Beck bought me a stock tank pool, and I’m about ready to get it out for the summer, just to sit in a bit. Maybe the twins can splash around in it, too.”
“Just don’t let them out of your sight for even a minute,” Austin the doctor warned.
“I know that. I hardly do, anyway.” She set her daughter down on the step above her, and watched her wave her arms and splash in the water.
The babies were both outfitted with arm floats and a round float around their waists, so Britt didn’t see any danger. But she wasn’t really used to babies. Both of her sisters had kids, but Britt didn’t have much to do with them day-to-day, only holidays.
“Lacey, I don’t know if I told you but I saw your mom not too long ago at one of the events I planned. I don’t think she remembered me even when I introduced myself.”
“I’m surprised you remembered her,” Lacey replied. “She didn’t live here long.”
Britt had forgotten Lacey had moved to Broken Wheel during high school, and her mother hadn’t stayed too long before leaving with her two other kids, leaving Lacey and her dad behind. And Britt hadn’t actually lived here long after that.
“I remembered she married one of the big shot lawyers in town,” Britt said. “They go to a lot of events.”
“I imagine,” Lacey said quietly.
Britt should have just shut up then. “I guess I thought she would appreciate a Broken Wheel connection.”
“No, she didn’t care for it here. She got out of here as fast as she could.” Lacey leveled a look at Britt then, and Britt turned away.
She had done the same thing, hadn’t she? She hadn’t left a child and husband behind, but she’d left someone who loved her.
“Maybe we need to stop talking about the past,” Javi said, maybe a bit too loudly, because the boy twin that Beck was holding startled and started crying.
“I agree with that,” Sofia said whole-heartedly. “Now, about the Fourth—”
Her attempt at subject change was met with good-natured groans, and since she was sitting on the edge of the pool away from the babies, a few splashes, too.
Poppy slipped into the water, swam to the deep end of the pool, Javi went to the table where Britt had laid out the snacks they had gathered from the grocery store. Britt thought the clerk from the grocery store had been a little overwhelmed when the ten of them had descended on the store to buy chips, beer, cookies and the few pieces of produce Britt had insisted upon. The fact that the clerk had to ring each of them up separately hadn’t helped, and Lacey and Beck had added a few more things from home.
“What are you smiling about?” Con asked, floating on his back in the water.
She forced herself to meet his gaze and not let her eyes travel the length of his body, those loose long trunks sagging below his waist when he was standing, and making her a little stupid.
“I was just thinking about how we overwhelmed the grocery store clerk when we all barged in. We could have delegated.”
“And someone would have been unhappy. I mean, it was fun, I thought. Not everything has to be efficient, you know.”
Her smile widened. “People tell me that. I don’t know if I believe it.”
