Page 31 of His Greatest Treasure

My heartbeat stutters at those words and the image they paint in my mind. One made of neon yellow and pale skin. Fuck.

“Uh, what’s wrong with the water?” Nova asks.

“What do you—Oliver!”

I bite my tongue to keep from laughing as Avery’s shout rips through the neighbourhood. The birds that were eating from the feeder on the back fence fly away out of fear. If I were smart, I’d follow suit.

“It’s Jell-O!” Nova sounds more excited than anything else.

“Don’t eat it, Nova!” Avery shrieks. Nova groans at the order.

The chain rattles along the fence, and finally, I look away from the sky to find Avery glaring at me from her side of it.

“Tell me you didn’t fill my pool with Jell-O,” she spits.

“I can’t.”

Oh, fuck, is she ever mad. Colour fills her cheeks, and I drop my gaze to her chest as it rises and falls at an alarming rate. Her bathing suit isn’t yellow today. It’s a hot pink one-piece with a cut-out in the middle, right above her lower stomach and belly button. It’s impossible to keep from following the line of the suit to the high-cut bottom in the shape of a V.

“My eyes are up here,” she snips.

I blink and meet said eyes. “Do you not like Jell-O?”

She parts her lips but doesn’t speak. I drop a hand in my pool and swirl it around in the water, her glare dripping with poison.

“Did you think I was going to let you get away with ruining my yard?” I ask calmly.

“I didn’t ruin your yard. I gave it character.”

I huff a laugh. “Then I did the same to your pool.”

“Did you buy yours before or after you ruined mine?”

“Oh, this thing?” I dip my toes in the water. “I’ve had this pool forever.”

“You’re an ass.”

“I won’t deny that.”

“Are you going to come help me get rid of the Jell-O?”

“Will you help seed the stripes in my yard?”

She shoves an angry hand through her hair and pulls it over her shoulder. “No.”

“Then you have your answer.”

“I only wanted to give you something to remember me by this time around.”

“That isn’t why you did it. You did it because you’re pissed.”

“Rightfully so!” she shouts, leaning closer to the fence. “You deserved it.”

I crane my neck to stare past her at Nova, who’s drawing on the cement pad that counts as their back patio with chalk. She doesn’t seem concerned over the pool, and I’m relieved. This fight is between her mom and me, and I don’t want her to get stuck in the crosshairs. She seems like a nice enough kid.

“Do you want me to apologize to you, Avery?” I ask tightly.

Her eyes flare with bewilderment. “No. It wouldn’t mean a thing now if you did.”

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