Page 66 of Totally Opposed

“Backwards floating yes, a little, but you will get there. How about we try floating forwards?”

“How about we keep doing seated floating? I like this.”

“I thought you wanted to be confident enough to skinny dip at your ranch?”

“I can skinny dip like this. I think this is the perfect way to do it, don’t you?”

“As much as I would love to have your wet naked body wrapped around me in a pool, I’d also love to swim with you.”

“Okay, fine, let’s do forward floating then,” I say, and I let my feet slip from around his waist to stand in the pool again. He holds my hand the whole way to the edge. Actually, since stepping fully into the water, he’s always had a hold of me in some way.

“Okay, take the edge of the pool,” he says, and I reach out with one hand but keep the other holding his.

“This will be easier if you hold the edge with both hands. I know, here, how about this,” he says, and he moves to stand against the edge in front of me and rests his free hand on my side, sending a shiver through me. “Take the edge, I’ll keep a hold of you, too, and then when you are ready, let your legs lift behind you and if you can get them both up to float, I’ll let you kiss me.”

“Ohhh, I like incentives. Okay. I can do this,” I say, and I release his hand to take the edge on his other side. If I leaned forward and kissed him, I don’t think he would stop me, but I said I would try, so I step back, his hands softly resting at my sides, and then I let my feet lift from the slick floor of the pool. They don’t float as fast as they wanted to when I leaned back, but they want to rise. I try to lift them higher myself, and as I swish them upward, my body moves back and my face nears the water. Ryan ducks down, too, the water sitting just below his shoulders, and with a final little kick, my legs are up and I’m floating in front of him.

“I knew you could do it,” he says, and he closes the short distance between our faces and kisses me. I don’t know how long I am floating, only that by the time the alarm sounds on his phone over on the chairs, and he breaks our kiss, my face tingles from his three-day-old shave and I love it.

“Does this place have private showers?” I ask, and he smiles.

“It does.”

“Good, it’s time we got out and I thanked you properly. We have a game tomorrow, and I want to make sure we win.”

Chapter twenty-three

Ryan

I get off thephone with Granny, after promising her for the tenth time I will be coming home for her birthday, and head over to pick up Don early. Alan and I have our pregame show to do, and all the teams are out with the crowd entertaining them before the game, really building up the hype and it’s what I want him to see, too. I want him to see how amazing it all is, the sport his grandson loves. But when I get to the door, he doesn’t open it.

“Don, are you there?” I call through the door, but he doesn’t reply. He’s probably just in the shower again, I think, so lean against the hall and wait a few minutes before knocking and trying again.

“Don,” I call and then try the handle. It’s not locked, so I push open the door carefully to keep my eyes on the floor to stop Precious should she try to make a run for it.

“Mr. Beaker, it’s time to go. The game will be starting soon,” I call and close the door behind me. It’s oddly quiet, and an uneasy feeling settles in my gut.

“Don, are you in the bathroom?” I call, making my way down the hall towards his room. I don’t like the sinking pit that’s growing inside me. Where is Precious? Even if she was asleep when I came in, there is no way her super hearing wouldn’t have picked up my movement and come out to investigate. What the fuck is going on? I walk past the bathroom. The door is open, and no one is inside. Don’s bedroom door is closed, though, and my stomach flips as I turn the handle. Please no, please God no, I whisper, but when I push it open, he isn’t there. Is the fucker even home?

I check around the room and back through the house. What the fuck? Where are they? I was picking him up, wasn’t I? Kelly was watching the cat, and I was picking up Gramps.

I spot a cup of tea and his binoculars on the windowsill across from my apartment, steam still wafting from the rim.He was here not that long ago. I do another scan of the space.Did Precious get out, shit did she fall from the edge?I rush to the windowsill. I don’t know what I’m expecting to see. It’s not like if the cat did fall it would still be there on the ground. My elbow knocks the binoculars and I scrabble to grab them before they fall, and my eyes land on the bookcase shoved up against the side wall of his living room. It’s covered in photo frames and books and the odd baseball, but it looks like there is a door hidden behind it, too. Probably another closet he doesn’t need. Old places like this loved adding in closet space.

I’m setting the binoculars back on the windowsill when I look up the alleyway down towards the main street, and I spot the bright lights of the stadium.

“It can’t be,” I think, bringing the binoculars up to my eyes. The view from this window is perfect. From here, Gramps’s window looks right through to the diamond, and with the binoculars, I can already see the ground crew setting up for the theatrics tonight. Has he been watching all this time?

My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I grab it out, answering immediately when I see Alan’s name.

“Hey, he’s okay, he’s at the hospital though,” Alan says, and my heart is in my throat.

“What happened?”

“Kelly came to watch Precious, and he passed out.”

“Holy shit, but he’s okay?”

“Yeah, he’s okay.”

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