Chapter 25
25
Ayla flipped on her back and looked up at the ceiling above her. The pool at FCU was one of her top ten favorite places. It was open to all students, and was five dollars for a guest. Whenever she could, she found her way there. Sometimes, Aubrey brought her. Other times she took the transit by herself. Today was the first time she’d had friends with her, though.
It was nice, different having people who cared about her. Besides just Aubrey.
“You are part fish, right?” Hala asked, doggie paddling next to her. The water was deeper here—Hala was two inches shorter than Ayla—and most definitely not a super great swimmer.
“Partially. I think I’ve spent more time in aquatherapy than regular physical therapy over the years. It hurts less and feels great.” She grinned at her friends—and ignored the three guys at the opposite end of the pool. They’d been making eyeballs at her, Greer and Hala since they’d arrived. And had started swimming far more… vigorously once they had seen them.
They were boy-sharks, and they were circling.
It was just a matter of time until they swam in for the kill, so to speak. But she had no fear—Greer would chase them off.
“In the water, I can move without being afraid I’ll fall down. Remarkably freeing. After I graduate and don’t have any more tuition costs, Aubrey is talking about putting one of those swim gym indoor exercise pools in the garage. We just have to find a way to pay for it. And make sure it will fit. We’re going to go all tropical themed, and tile the floor around it, and add handrails. That kind of thing. If it’s big enough, we need to measure. The small one should fit, but there isn’t a guarantee.”
“We have an old workshop building behind the horse barn that’s empty, you know. I bet if we told Gunn about those pools, you’d have one within a week,” Greer said, swimming around her. She was much stronger at swimming than Hala. “I think my big brother is in love.”
“I think your big brother is beautiful when he’s in love,” Hala added. “But Greer is probably right.”
Love. Well, Ayla wasn’t ready to think about that yet. She just wasn’t. “I don’t know that I would call it that.”
That word kind of made her feel a little panicky, actually. It was far too early to be thinking like that.
“So what would you call it? Are you involved with Gunn? I’m totally hoping you are, but if you aren’t and it’s just friends—that’s cool, too. So… spill. What’s he said?”
Ayla treaded water, then reached out and guided Hala closer to the edge of the pool. Just in case. Her friend was looking a little pitiful there.
“We… I think… we may be beginning to date. Like… seriously date. Not Chan and Gene or Genny and Chad seriously. Yet. We are going slow. But that’s all I really can figure out. I’m not good at this kind of thing. The last guy I was involved with was almost eight years ago and that ended with Aubrey beating him up in the front parking lot of our townhouse. He kissed me and wouldn’t stop when I told him to.”
“Ninja Aub. I would so believe it,” Greer said.
“Has Gunn kissed you yet?” Hala asked, a strange look in her big brown eyes.
“Not… yet.”
“Do you think he will ?” Hala asked, clinging to the side of the pool, as those three guys swam closer. And closer. Ayla swore she heard the theme music to Jaws playing in her head now. “I keep trying to figure out what he’s thinking, whenever I see you together, but Gunn has always been seriously hard to figure out. As is his clone, I might add.”
“What is going on with you and Grady?” Greer asked. “I know you’ve been arguing with him.”
“He seems to think that I need him to tell me what to do every time I move lately. I think he has misplaced the whole ‘big brother’ thing, since you aren’t cooperating.”
Yeah, Ayla somehow didn’t think it was that. There wasn’t anything brotherly in how Grady looked at Hala. He looked at Hala the way slobbery men looked at Aubrey.
But well… Ayla was just going to keep that opinion to herself. Hala was ranting about the latest thing that Grady-man had said to her. But her cheeks were bright red. And it wasn’t just from exertion, either.
Ayla had questions.
Then, they didn’t have time to talk at all.
Those idiot guys from clear across the pool decided to introduce themselves.
And well… that just took all the fun out of spending the day at the pool with her besties, didn’t it?