I shrugged. “The very best.”
She laughed, which made me wonder if she was thinking of the same memory I was. The first time I’d taken her to the country club pool when she was thirteen so I could give her her first swim lesson. I’d been on the swim team for years, so I thought I could teach her a thing or two. Except I forgot to account for how I felt whenever Cora was in a swimsuit. Especially when we were both in the water and I was trying to teach her how to back float, which meant touching, which meant my brain pretty much went into power-down mode.
“You told me it would only take a few lessons to teach me how to swim,” she said, still laughing. “And it took a whole year of weekly lessons before I could finally make it a full lap without stopping.”
I rubbed at the back of my head. “Practice makes perfect, right?”
“I don’t know about perfect, but I’ve definitely had plenty of practice.” She backed out of the water so she could sit on the sand and put on her fins. I guessed she was ready. “I can’t believe you actually took the time once every week until we graduated to get in the water with me so I ‘wouldn’t forget what I’d learned.’”
I shifted so I was blocking the sun from her face. “I might have had ulterior motives for our weekly swim.”
Her eyebrow lifted. “Pissing Jacob off?”
I shook my head, although those swim lessons had definitely pissed him off plenty.
She caught me staring at her and adjusted her top. “So you could see me in my swimsuit?”
I shook my head again, but I definitely hadn’t minded seeing her in her swimsuit every week. I’d had to beat her into the water every time to try to disguise my “reaction” to seeing her in her swimsuit. And ten years later, same damn story, I thought as I slid my hand into my pocket.
“Because you were a good guy?” she said next.
Another head shake, because I wasn’t a good guy. I was a far cry from that. “Because I wanted to be with you.”
My answer took her a second to absorb. “In a chilly pool that you had to remind me how to do egg-beaters in every single week?”
I moved closer so my feet were between hers. “In the depths of hell roasting on a spit if it meant getting to be close to you.”
Her chest stopped lifting with her breath, like I’d taken her by surprise. Which didn’t make sense to me. Didn’t she get it? Didn’t she understand? Had I not been clear in my feelings for her?
Her breath returned, this time making her chest move extra fast. She was looking around like she was hoping for a distraction. “Will you go with me?”
“Yes,” I answered, not knowing where or to do what, just knowing my answer was always yes where Cora was concerned.
Her shoulders seemed to sag with relief. “You can check out a mask and fins over there.” She pointed at a bright white shed tucked back on the edge of the beach.
My fingers pinched the material of my slacks. “I don’t have a swimsuit. I’ll have to go back to the cabin first.”
Her head shook as she scanned the beach. “I need to go now or else I’ll chicken out.” Her eyes widened on something before she pointed down the beach again. “There. You can just buy one and change into it.”
My gaze followed the direction she was pointing in, and my mouth fell into a frown. A vendor was carrying what looked like an umbrella lined with an endless supply of bright colors and wild prints. “Those are women’s swimsuits.”
From the corner of my eyes, I noticed her shake her head. “They’re men’s swimsuits.” She was already waving over the vendor. “European-cut men’s swimsuits.”
“Banana hammocks.” My hand thrust in the direction of the “swimwear” swishing toward us. “You’re suggesting I put on a banana hammock and strut around on a beach filled with children and old women?”
The vendor was already lowering the curtain hanging around his mobile umbrella shop. The privacy seemed kind of ironic, since I’d be emerging from said changing room dressed in a swimsuit that was basically Lycra dental floss.
Cora shrugged like the answer was obvious.
“Why do you think I’m going to do this?”
She smiled at me, her light eyes finding mine. “Because you get to be with me?”
He really would do anything to be with me. He actually meant it.
When I’d suggested the Speedo store on wheels, I hadn’t actually expected him to go for it. I’d expected him to head back to the cabin, change into his swim trunks, then meet me back here. He hadn’t though. He was behind that circular curtain now, stripping down and actually putting on one of those things.
I wasn’t sure what to make of it. I wasn’t sure what to make of him. He was saying things, doing things that seemed totally out-of-character. Matt had been so stand-offish and distant with me for so long, but he’d been the opposite over the past two days. He’d been the Matt I remembered falling for as a young girl, instead of the Matt I’d come to know ever since Jacob and I got together.
God, Jacob. He was coming. I could ignore his calls and try to pretend he wouldn’t be here this afternoon, but that didn’t change that he would be standing in front of me today, asking some hard questions. I should have been focusing on what I was going to say to him. I should have been barred inside the room I’d just checked into and crying myself senseless over the mess I’d found myself in. I should have been trying to drown Matt for what he’d done and how he’d deceived me, instead of asking him to go snorkeling with me like this was our honeymoon.
I was such a wreck, such a ball of confusion, and I didn’t know what to think or do. My head was pulling me in one direction, and my gut was pulling me in the other. I couldn’t have both, I’d always known that, but now, I wasn’t even sure if I was entitled to one of them.
Because I might not have known I was making love to Matt last night, but that certainly hadn’t stopped me from wishing it would happen again. How could I look Jacob in the eye ever again after being with his brother last night? How could I look Matt in the eye ever again after being with his brother for years?
It was an impossible situation, so I did the only thing I could and shut it out. I ignored it, knowing it wouldn’t go away, but I was content to set it aside temporarily.
“Did you pick one yet?” Matt hollered from the mobile changing room.
“I thought you did.” I stood and dusted the sand off my backside, trying not to stare at Matt’s slacks that had just fallen around his ankles.
“I’m going to leave that honor up to you. I want it on record that I had no say in any of this when it comes back to bite me in the ass.”
I shifted through a few selections hanging from the top of the umbrella. I still couldn’t believe he was actually doing this.
“Do you have anything against animal print?” I winked at the vendor when I came across a flashy python print.
“I have a thing against dressing like a male stripper in public.”