Page 9 of The Bride's Secret

His air pump made the ladies near them laugh. “Yes! Come on.” He scooped her up and ran toward the edge. His strong arms cradled her and lessoned any bouncing from his run. She squealed and clung to him. Everything about him felt solid. Warmth spread through her, so much skin on hers was making her a little crazy, in a good way.

At the edge of the pool, he teetered.

“What are you doing?”

“I think someone needs to get tossed in.”

“Oh no you don’t.” Her arms tightened around him, clinging to his neck.

He tried to peel her off, but she was having none of it. She screamed, she kicked, she laughed, but in the end, she went under, while he held her in his arms. They came up together and she splashed him in the face. “Hey! I wasn’t ready for that.”

“It’s the best way to get in, all at once.”

“That’s debatable.” She swam around and then floated on her back. “The water is nice. It’s the perfect temperature.” She lowered herself further in. “I hate to be cold but this isn’t bad at all.”

They played and it was good for her. He lifted her in the air and threw her across the pool. When she hit the water, she laughed to herself. It felt nice to let go and be a kid again. When she surfaced, he was right in front of her, facing the other way to talk to someone so she jumped up and put all her weight on his head to dunk him, but he didn’t move.

“I seem to have a new growth on my head. Can you tell?” He looked around, asking the older couple nearby. “Do I have something on my head? Cause it feels different.”

They laughed with warm smiles and then the gentleman said, “She’s an improvement.”

“Ho ho!” Carisa climbed up onto his shoulders. “Did you hear that? I make you look good!”

“I already knew that, you vixen, now what are you doing up there?”

“Well, you are impossible to dunk so…”

He walked deeper and deeper into the pool until he was under the water and then deeper, until she was barely holding her nose above water. Then she moved to stand on his shoulders, but she tipped over and fell and he came up for air.

His face was close to hers. “What we need, is a good long game of freeze tag.”

“What? I haven’t played freeze tag in…”

He shrugged and then tagged her. “You’re frozen.”

She tread water. “Do I just stay here in the deep end?”

He tagged the five nearest people to them and then called over his shoulder, “Unless someone unfreezes you. Come on, have you never played this?”

Pretty soon every person under the age of thirty was in on it. Running and swimming sprints through a huge pool was a great workout. For the first time since the wedding, she actually forgot she had almost been married that morning and just laughed and had fun.

A little kid, had to be ten or younger tagged her. “You’re unfroze, but pretend like you’re frozen so we can trick him.” They were all ganging up on Wyatt. So far, he was the best out of all of them, and tagged them before they could even move. But there was an undercurrent rebellion which she thought was hilarious. “Ok, got it.” She whispered.

Then Wyatt was on to her. “Nice try, Henry.” He tagged them both, then lingered near for a moment. “So, the hot tub sounds nice.” His rumbly deep voice in her ear sent shivers through her.

“Yeah it does. You ready to go?”

“Almost. I have to win first.”

“Ugh. How is that even possible?”

“Watch and learn.”

She leaned against the side of the pool and watched as Wyatt systematically and thoroughly tagged every single person in the water whether they were playing or not until Henry was the last one standing, and that was because the kid cheated and jumped out of the water to get away. But Wyatt was on to him and as soon as he came close enough, Wyatt leaped out and tagged him up on the pool deck. Everyone in the water cheered and Wyatt took a bow.

Then he approached her, his body glistening with drops of water. And she didn’t think she’d seen anything so handsome. He reached a hand down. She took it and he lifted her up and out of the water.

“Woa. You are strong.”

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