“Well, we are done for the day. Rodrigo said he would handle all of the lock up tonight, because I covered for him when he had the flu.”
“That’s awfully sweet of him,” Riley said, insinuating something.
“Whoa, hold up. Do not insult Rodrigo in front of me. He is like a father to me, and I won’t have it.”
Leave it to Riley to ruin a good moment.
“Okay, sorry, that was a joke in bad taste. See, I’m glad I have you around to set me straight,” he said.
I glared at him. He was lucky he didn’t get slapped.
“Go grab your bikini. I will meet you in the pool area after I snag us some food.”
“Okay,” I said.
I debated just crawling into bed instead, but it was the pool. I had been waiting to be invited back to it for seven long summers. The pool was open year-round, but the summers were when I had missed it most, because it was needed. The Georgia heat was nasty.
We were just hanging out and swimming as friends. His dad was probably right; hanging out with someone on the straight and narrow would help him stay that way, too.
I walked back to my trailer, shedding out of my clothes. In my bedroom, I put on my red bikini and grabbed my suntan lotion, my hat, and my flip-flops. I already had my sunglasses. I threw some clothes back on over the bathing suit. I didn’t want to strut through the lawn in just my bikini.
When I got to the pool, Riley had a spread of food laid out on the granite patio table.
“There is no way you did all of this yourself,” I told him.
I set my items down on a chair.
“You caught me. I asked Lynn for help.”
Lynn was their longtime housekeeper. When we ran into each other, she was always very sweet to me. She was like a grandma I didn’t have.
“When you see her next, tell her I said thank you. I am starving.”
I grabbed a plate of food and a soda from the cooler.Riley had remembered I didn’t eat as often as I should. He tried to encourage me to take better care of myself. I felt touched by the thought of this spread, but not the effort. The effort had been Lynn’s.
“Bring it over here,” Riley said.
He was sitting on the edge of the in-ground pool. His feet were in the water and his plate was in his hand. I brought my full plate over to him and sat down. The water felt good on my feet.
I missed this pool.
“It’s been a while since we have done this,” Riley offered.
“Yeah, fifteen years,” I answered.
“I’m sorry about that,” he said.
I shrugged my shoulders. At this point, I was just hoping it was all water under the bridge.
“I guess I blamed you for what happened,” Riley started.
“No offense, Riley, but I don’t want to talk about anything that isn’t lighthearted. I’m not here to milk another apology from you. I came here to use you for your food and pool,” I said.
He smiled and laughed at my rude joke.
I saw William peek at us through the curtains. Perfect, at least today wouldn’t be wasted. Let William see us together, make his own conclusions, and then that’s it. We didn’t have to go public with anything, a relationship or friendship. The only person Riley had to impress was his father, and me by default.
Today was going well until the universe decided nothing about Riley and I could ever be easy. Marly, Riley’s random one-night stand from several weeks ago, had entered the pool area, escorted by Lynn. I waved at Lynn, and she waved back with a little smile. She apologized for interrupting us.
