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She dove under the water and came up again, shaking water out of her hair.

“What happened when you got good grades in school? What did your parents do?” she asked. I guess we were back to talking about me.

“They’d get me a gift card to my favorite store and take me out for pizza,” I said.

“Exactly. No matter what my grade was, my parents would ask why it wasn’t higher. Why I wasn’t the best student in my class,” she said. “I tried to be. I did the sports and studied for the tests and went to the goddamn country club and did all the things I was supposed to do, and it was never enough,” she said, breathing heavy. “It was never enough.”

I swam close to her and touched her face as I stood up. “I’m sorry.”

She stood up and looked down at me. “It’s not your fault.”

“I know. I’m still sorry though. You deserved to be celebrated for your accomplishments.”

Mama still had a bunch of my awards and other things displayed in a case in her office. Anytime my name appeared in the local paper, she’d cut out the article and save it. Those were also framed and up around the house. When I’d been a kid, I’d thought every parent was like that.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said, swimming away and leaning on the edge of the pool, her feet drifting in the water.

I went over to join her. “It does, but we can talk about something else if we need to,” I said.

“I’d rather talk about anything else,” she said.

I pushed back from the wall and smiled at her. “How long can you hold your breath?”

Ryan grinned, seeing the challenge in my eyes. “Longer than you.”

“Wanna bet?” I asked.

“You’re on,” she said.

“It’s not fair. Your lungs are bigger,” I said when I lost the fifth breath-holding contest by a lot.

“Your body has other benefits,” she said.

“Oh, like what?” I asked and then she picked me up. I wrapped my legs around her waist and tried not to grind myself on her abs.

“You’re the perfect size, for one,” she said, slowly spinning around.

“And?” I asked.

“Your tits are also the perfect size.”

“And?” I asked.

“How about we rinse off in the shower and I can show you?” she said.

“Deal.”

After another shower, I put on some of Ryan’s clothes and we headed to the kitchen for snacks that we ended up eating on the couch together. Ryan’s legs kept twitching.

“You okay over there?” I asked.

“I’m not good at relaxing,” she said. “You know how I told you about my plans for the day? I lied.”

I grabbed another handful of popcorn. “Uh huh.”

“I lied,” she said, putting both hands on her legs. “I was going to run and swim and then do some weights and then mow the yard and then go for a walk with an audiobook and then clean out the fridge. I spend a lot of weekends at Uncle Mark’s, but the family is on a camping trip this weekend,” she said.

“That sounds like a lot,” I said.