Chapter Seven #2
Siobhan started to reach out, intending to stop her, but she withdrew it when he laughed his big joyful laugh. Kyle took Nora’s hands and did the same, only faster, and both kids squealed.
She retreated to the steps, sitting on the top one so she was still in the water. Brian floating over and sitting on the other end of the same step surprised her, but she kept her eyes on Oliver.
“I’m sorry we startled you,” he said quietly, looking at her in that way that said he saw more of her than she was comfortable having be seen.
“No, you’re fine. I don’t love pools, so I overreact sometimes. They make me nervous and I try not to put that on Oliver, so here we are, but it’s hard sometimes.”
“Does he take swim lessons?”
She chuckled. “We’re trying again soon, I hope. We went once, but I couldn’t do some of the things I need to show him in a group class. I can’t afford private lessons, so my friend Robin’s going to take him this winter if we can work out a schedule that fits.”
“It’s awesome that you still want him to be comfortable in the water and don’t just avoid the pool. Some people would.”
The compliment pleased her more than it should, getting a small smile out of her. “My mom used to take us to a town pool when we were kids and there were always bullies who’d splash and dunk you, or grab your legs and pull you under.”
His scowl was deep and immediate. “They should have been banned. That won’t happen here. I mean, you might see us do it to each other—and you saw Water Ball of Doom, of course—but none of us would do it to anybody else. Especially somebody who doesn’t look comfortable in the pool.”
Her cheeks heated again. “Does it show that much?”
He gave her that crooked grin that, no matter how much she hated the feeling, sent warmth curling through her body. “We can be a little rowdy in the water, obviously, so we were taught very young to be aware of who was in the pool with us at all times.”
“Your parents really had their hands full with four of you.”
“Yeah. They definitely did. When we were kids and acted up, we’d get a time-out and have to do multiplication tables.”
She laughed. “Seriously?”
“Yup. Sometimes we weren’t too bad and it was just low numbers, like one through three, but other times we’d work our way up to twelve.”
Imagining Brian and his brothers sitting in a row, reciting math problems, made her laugh again. How did she laugh so much around in this man? “I’ll make a note of that one.”
As she watched, Kyle lifted the buoy line across the middle of the pool, towing Nora—who had a noodle under her arms—under it and into the deep end.
Steph and Oliver followed and, for a moment, Siobhan tensed up.
But despite the fact that he was wearing a little life jacket, Steph never took her hands off of the child.
Oliver was clearly having the time of his life, and with Mike also nearby as Kyle pulled Nora around, she had nothing to fear.
Instead, she made herself enjoy the sun warming her muscles while the cool water kept her from overheating.
It would have been a lot more relaxing if Brian wasn’t sitting so close to her, the breeze carrying the beachy scent of his sunscreen to her. He was utterly distracting on every level, and it made no sense.
Nothing did anymore.
* * *
Brian prided himself on his self-control, as a rule, but keeping his eyes off of the way the simple black swimsuit cupped and lifted his former sister-in-law’s breasts was not easy. “This is so strange.”
“What’s so strange?”
He winced, not having intended to say that out loud. But he was in it now and they were as close as alone as they could get. “You and me sitting here, hanging out.”
“Well, I’m sitting here watching my son in the pool. You’re the one hanging out.”
“True. I sat down to apologize, but it’s comfortable and it’s just strange how easy it is to talk to you.”
She chuckled. “I’d pretend to be offended, but I know what you mean and yes, it is strange. You’re kind of a nice guy now, I guess.”
“I always have been, for the most part. We all have our moments. But you never gave me a chance.”
“A chance to what?”
He watched Kyle spotting Nora as she swam the width of the pool, while Steph and Oliver played with the pink noodle. “To be a good husband, I guess. From day one, you were against me marrying your sister.”
“I’m sorry you thought that.”
“What was I supposed to think? When I was in eighth grade, I replaced all my algebra teacher’s dry erase markers with permanent markers—even the boxed ones in her storage cubby—and there was more approval in the look she gave me when she found out it was me than in any look you ever gave me.”
“How did she find out it was you?”
He noticed she didn’t deny it. “My pain in the ass younger brother always had a digital camera with him—usually still does, actually—and he took some pictures to use as blackmail at home. But he was showing his friend in study hall and didn’t realize the principal was looking over his shoulder.”
“Oops.”
“Yeah, but circling back to the point, even Mrs. Rundell didn’t look at me with as much disapproval as you did.”
“It wasn’t really about you.”
“I was the only man she was marrying.” He snorted. “That I know of. Looking back, who knows.”
“Don’t. I know this is hard, but Kelly’s my sister and no matter how furious I am with her right now, I’ll feel compelled to defend her.”
“You think she deserves that?”
“Maybe not, but…she’s my sister. I don’t know. But I can’t help it and I don’t want to argue with you right now.”
“Okay.” He stretched his legs out, aware he wasn’t going to sit on the cement step much longer. “But if it wasn’t really about me, what was it about?”
“Kelly wasn’t ready to marry anybody. Whether it was you or some other guy, it was going to end in disaster.”
“So you decided the best way to work the problem was to hate me and hope she caught on?”
“I didn’t hate you.” When he gave her a skeptical look, she shrugged.
“I didn’t know you well enough to hate you.
But I guess I—I don’t know. It’s hard to explain.
I think I distrusted the fact that you couldn’t see it.
If you truly knew her well enough to marry her, you should have been able to see she wasn’t ready for that kind of commitment. ”
He thought about what she’d said for a few minutes, and then he nodded slowly. “I guess that’s fair. Obviously I didn’t know her as well as I thought I did.”
“It’s hard to know Kelly,” she said in a quiet voice. “The real Kelly, I mean, because she doesn’t always share the most authentic parts of herself.”
Brian thought about her words, letting what she wasn’t saying out loud sink in. Having brothers himself, he knew how hard even that little bit had been for Siobhan to admit, so he let it be.
The silence stretched on until she sighed. “It’s time to bring everybody’s peace and quiet to a screeching halt—literally—by dragging Oliver out of the pool. He’s had enough sun for today, but he’s having some of the most fun he’s ever had. I should probably apologize in advance.”
He chuckled and then called out to the other end of the pool. “Hey, Dad!”
When his dad turned, Brian pointed to Oliver and then jerked his thumb toward the gate. Mike nodded.
“You tuckered me out, kiddos. I’m going to dry off and go see if there are any frogs by the pond.”
“Frogs?” Oliver and Nora yelled at the same time.
When Nora started swimming toward the side of the pool with Kyle at her side, Oliver began flailing, trying to turn himself toward Siobhan.
“Mommy, there are frogs,” he yelled before spluttering because he’d splashed himself in the face.
Siobhan stood, but Steph was already lifting the back of the life vest slightly, so Oliver could paddle the length of the pool.
“Can I see the frogs?”
Siobhan turned to grin at Brian, who was in the process of standing because her leaping to her feet in case Oliver needed her had put her butt in his line of vision and he didn’t think it would be good to get caught admiring it.
“Oh, you guys are good at this,” she said.
“It’s been a while since a toddler needed wrangling, but remember my dad had four of us and we weren’t always old enough to recite multiplication tables. Deflect, distract and, if necessary, bribe. Somebody can always come up with a fun activity to throw in the mix.”
“They say it takes a village, and you definitely have quite a village.”
There was something in her voice that made Brian want to dig deeper.
Did she have a village? He wasn’t sure if Kelly was still around, and he’d picked up during the time he was involved with the family that Siobhan and her mother weren’t very close.
She’d mentioned a friend named Robin, but were there others?
Parenting was no joke and he wondered who she turned to for support when she needed it.
But as she reached out and pulled Oliver through the water and into her arms, both of them laughing, he realized it wasn’t really his business.
Even if and when the paternity test confirmed what they all already believed to be true, Siobhan wouldn’t be his business.
Oliver was obviously healthy and happy, and that’s where his involvement would end.
“I want to find frogs, Mommy.” Oliver squirmed in his mother’s arms, and Brian felt an urge to reach out and take him—to carry him out of the pool and wrap a towel around him while explaining they’d get changed and then head over to the pond.
Instead, he turned and stepped out of the water. After grabbing his towel and slinging it over his neck, he walked to the gate.
“Uncle Brian, I have to pee,” Nora said, speed-walking toward him with her mom on her heels.
Ellie had their towels and her bag in her arms, and she gave him a grateful look when he opened the gate so they could get through.
As soon as they cleared the cement, Nora took off running toward the bathroom.
Before leaving, Brian turned back. “Last one out needs to double-check that this gate latches behind you.”
“Kyle and I are going to stay in for a bit and relax,” Steph told him. “I’ll make sure it’s closed when we leave.”
Brian nodded, but then arched an eyebrow at his cousin. “Just so you know, the camera on the store covers the pool area, so don’t even think about getting frisky in that water.”
After ensuring the little ones were out of the pool, Steph pushed backward and used her foot to fling water at him. “As if we’d get frisky in the middle of the day with my family literally everywhere.”
“It runs all night, too. Just so you know.”
“According to Ellie, it’s Joey you forgot to tell.”
Brian laughed. “Joey knew about it. He got carried away and forgot about it, but luckily he woke up in the middle of the night, panicked and wiped the entire drive.”
“She said if he hadn’t remembered and one of you guys saw it, he might have ended up on one of Hannah’s true crime podcasts.”
“So I guess when I turned off the sound alerts to my phone because a raccoon kept setting it off, I saved his life.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re supposed to check the alerts in case somebody is breaking in. Otherwise, what’s the point?”
“Hey, Stella’s not just a pretty face, you know. And mostly we wanted the wireless doorbell and then somebody decided it would be a good idea to have video to be able to check if something happened and suddenly my phone was chiming every time a chipmunk sneezed.”
Then he left before Steph could say anything else because Siobhan was almost finished gathering their things and he didn’t want to get pulled into a frog-spotting adventure to the pond with them.
It sounded fun and he’d love to see the little boy’s face when he spotted one, but it was too hard to stay hands-off.
Even though he’d warned his mother against it, the attachment tugged at him, and it would be too easy to get sucked into an illusion that might break his heart.
But he heard the low rumble of his father’s voice and then Siobhan and Oliver laughing as he walked away, and he was still smiling when he went in the house to change.