Chapter 15 #2
“Oh, you’re going down,” he warned, lunging forward.
What followed was two hours of absolute, unfiltered chaos.
We played every game known to man, from shoving each other under water to a lawless game of pool volleyball using an old, half-deflated neon ball Landon found behind the shed, where the rules changed every three minutes based on whoever was losing.
Landon declared himself official referee, player, and commentator, narrating every play in a ridiculous voice that had me laughing so hard my stomach hurt.
When Rhys tried to spike the ball over the imaginary line, I threw myself across the water to block it, catching him off guard and sending the ball ricocheting off his shoulder and into the bushes near the patio.
“Out of bounds!” Landon shouted, blowing a high-pitched whistle through his teeth using his fingers. “Point to Ainsley! The crowd goes wild!”
“It hit the line!” Rhys protested, pushing his wet hair out of his eyes and looking over at Landon with fake outrage. “Landon, you’re blind!”
“Ref’s decision is final, number seven,” Landon said smoothly, floating lazily on his back. “Accept your defeat with dignity.”
Rhys turned to me, his bright eyes sparkling with playful menace. “You bribed him.”
“I didn’t bribe anyone! It was a clean block!”
“Come here,” he said, taking two fast, heavy strides through the chest-deep water toward me.
I shrieked, kicking my legs and trying to swim toward the shallow end, but Rhys was faster.
He caught me by the waist, his hands warm and dripping against my bare skin, and hauled me under before I could get a full breath.
We both went under, a whirl of bubbles and cold blue water, my hands scrambling for a grip on his shoulders.
When we surfaced, I grabbed him by the back of his neck and dragged him down with me, taking him by surprise so we both came up gasping, wiping water from our eyes and laughing uncontrollably.
“You’re terrifying,” Rhys gasped, shaking his head like a dog and spraying water everywhere.
“You started it!” I laughed, resting my hand against the edge of the coping to keep afloat, my chest heaving.
He stayed close, hovering in the water just a foot away, his arms resting on the stone edge behind him.
His green eyes were bright and soft as he looked at me, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
I looked at him, feeling the warm sun beating down on my wet shoulders, listening to Landon loudly arguing with an imaginary spectator from the deep end, and a strange quiet settled over my mind.
Out here, in the sun, dripping wet and breathless from laughing, none of my problems existed. I wasn’t pretending to be his girlfriend. I wasn’t pretending to be okay. I was just me and he was just Rhys, and for two solid hours, the rest of the world didn’t matter.
I was in the middle of splashing Landon as he tried to perform a high-dive off the side when the sharp, metallic click of the side gate echoed across the yard.
“Hey! Hope we’re not interrupting!” Justin’s voice carried across the concrete, loud, cheerful, and entirely uninvited.
I froze in the water, my hand dropping to my side. Beside me, I felt Rhys go still—a subtle stiffening of his spine that happened before he even turned his head.
Justin strolled onto the patio, wearing a pair of expensive branded swim trunks and carrying a cooler.
Right behind him was Kelcey. She wore a pristine, sheer white tunic cover-up over a black bikini, those same oversized designer sunglasses she’d been wearing to the soccer game perched on top of her head.
The shift in the air was so fast that it felt like someone had dumped a bucket of ice into the pool.
The effortless warmth that had filled the yard for two hours vanished.
Landon’s loud commentary sputtered out as he paddled himself slowly toward the edge.
Rhys didn’t stop moving, but the boy who had been laughing with me two seconds ago disappeared.
In his place was the Rhys I’d been used to seeing since starting this fake relationship—guarded, overly confident, and jaw set into a firm line, using his indifference like armor.
“Justin,” Rhys said, his voice flat as he pushed himself up onto the stone edge, water streaming off his muscles. “Didn’t know you guys were coming out here. I thought you were going out.”
“Plans got cancelled,” he said. “And you know how much I love the pool.”
Kelcey stood near the edge of the patio, her arms crossed, her gaze drifting slowly over to me. I thought self-consciously about my wet, slicked-back hair and my plain swimsuit, and wondered what she was thinking about me.
She gave me a tight smile that didn’t reach her eyes at all. “Hi, Ainsley.”
“Kelcey,” I said.
My customer service voice activated, so much higher and less genuine than my real one. It felt weird on my tongue. And that was when the realization hit me: for the last two hours, I hadn’t been acting.
When Rhys had dunked me, when I’d laughed until my ribs ached, when I’d reached for his hand in the water—none of it had been for an audience.
There had been no Justin to convince, no Kelcey to make jealous, no fake-dating narrative to maintain.
I hadn’t been pulling from a script or trying to look like a good girlfriend. I had just been happy with him.
And they came along and ruined it.
With Kelcey and Justin standing on the concrete five feet away, I was forced to put the mask back on—and it felt ten times heavier than it had before.
“We brought drinks,” Justin said, entirely oblivious to the thick wall of tension they’d caused. He unlatched his cooler, pulling out two cans of seltzer and tossing one toward Landon, who caught it with a quiet “Thanks.”
Justin walked over to the edge of the pool, looking down at Rhys. “How’s the water?”
“Fine,” Rhys said shortly.
Kelcey walked closer, her sandals clicking softly against the flagstone.
She pulled her sunglasses down over her eyes, hiding her expression, but her chin remained tilted up, her posture rigid.
“It looks like you guys were having fun,” she said, her tone carrying a light, dangerous edge of sarcasm.
“We heard you yelling from the driveway.”
“Just volleyball,” Landon offered from his tube, his voice completely stripped of the goofy accent he’d been using five minutes ago. He looked deeply uncomfortable, staring down at his seltzer can.
“Right,” Kelcey murmured. Her eyes cut back to Rhys. “You didn’t mention you were having people over when I saw you at the field yesterday.”
Rhys’s eyes narrowed slightly, a cold, sharp spark igniting in his expression. “I didn’t realize I needed to log my social calendar with you, Kelcey.”
Justin laughed, a loud, awkward sound that rang out hollow across the yard. “Hey, come on, man. She’s just asking. No need to get defensive.”
“I’m not defensive,” Rhys said calmly, though the muscle in his jaw flexed hard. “I’m just hosting my friends.”
The silence that followed was excruciating.
Justin stood by the edge of the pool, sipping his seltzer, while Kelcey stood beside him like a ghost, her gaze darting between Rhys and me with resentment that made the air feel thick and unbreathable.
Every single word spoken felt like a landmine.
I stayed in the water, my hands gripping the cold tile of the pool edge, feeling completely out of place in what was supposed to be Rhys’s safe haven.
The awful, stretching quiet went on for five agonizing minutes before Landon suddenly sat up in his float, looking over his shoulder toward the house.
“Hey, Rhys,” Landon said, his voice loud as he cut straight through Justin’s rambling story about a baseball drill. “Can I still borrow your old chem notes? I gotta go home and study before that final tomorrow.”
“Don’t you have your own notes?” Justin asked.
“I do, but they’re useless and I need to pass the exam. And Rhys did so well I figured I’d borrow his.”
Kelcey’s eyes slid to Rhys, almost like the idea of him doing well in a hard class had her seeing him in a new light.
I briefly wondered how she wouldn’t have known her boyfriend was a chemistry aficionado while they were together, but after everything I’d learned about her, I guess I wasn’t surprised.
“Yeah, I’ll grab them for you,” Rhys said, something easing in his shoulders as he realized he could escape Justin and Kelcey briefly.
Landon scrambled out of the pool with zero elegance, splashing water over the edge as he grabbed his towel and bolted toward the sliding glass doors.
Rhys watched him go, then glanced down at me.
The cold, sharp look on his face melted slightly as his eyes met mine, replaced by a quick flicker of concern.
He leaned down slightly, his voice dropping so only I could hear. “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” I lied, offering a nod that was hopefully reassuring. “Go ahead.”
He hesitated for a second, his green eyes searching my face, before he straightened up, gave Justin and Kelcey a curt nod, and followed Landon inside, the glass door sliding shut behind him with a heavy thud.
And just like that, I was left alone in the pool with Justin and Kelcey.
The silence returned instantly, heavy and toxic.
Justin took another sip of his drink, looking down at me in the water with a vague, disinterested smile.
Kelcey didn’t even pretend to smile. She stood at the edge, her arms folded tightly across her white tunic, staring down at me like I was a smudge on her shoe.
My chest was tight, my hands cold despite the summer heat. I couldn’t stay in this pool for another second under her glare. I turned toward the stone steps in the shallow end, determined to pull myself out, grab my towel, and get away from them before I said something I’d regret.