Page 22

Chapter

Twenty-Two

Grace

Three.

Grace couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move. Her brain screamed that this was a mistake, that she could still bang on the walls and beg to be let out.

Two.

She looked at André one last time. He mimed smoking a cigarette, then crushed it under his heel and winked.

One.

The floor dropped out from under her.

Her stomach followed.

She wasn’t sliding—she was falling, vertical, head back, water whipping up around her as the tube screamed past her ears. The air disappeared, sucked out in the first second as gravity grabbed her by the ribs and flung her through the loop.

Her scream was swallowed whole. For a second, she thought she was upside down, then she was dropping again, and then her swimsuit was shoved so far into her butt crack, she wondered if it had been torn off.

She shot out the tube into the landing pool, water exploding up around her in a geyser. The world came back in pieces—chlorine in her nose, slick hair plastered to her face, lungs dragging in oxygen like it was dessert.

She blinked, coughing. And then a rush of adrenaline hit her so hard, she started to laugh. Wild, shocked, breathless laughter bubbling up until she was doubled over in the pool, completely soaked, completely unglued.

“Miss, please exit the pool.” Another employee motioned for her to stand and walk forward. She forced herself up on shaky legs, extricated her bikini bottom, and stood on the concrete, her arms wrapped around herself.

The slide wobbled and then— whoosh . André came firing out of the slide like a torpedo, water spraying in every direction as he hit the landing pool. His long body arched up through the surface, every lean, soaked muscle on full display as he pushed himself up and adjusted his damn shorts.

They rode low on his hips as he reached back and raked a hand through his hair, grinning at her like a lunatic.

Grace’s brain short-circuited. “I did it!”

“I know!” He jogged forward.

“Sir, no running?—”

André yanked her up from the step, one hand sliding from her waist to wrap solidly around the backs of her thighs.

Grace couldn’t stop laughing. “I didn’t die.”

“Not even a little.”

“I didn’t get stuck.”

André spun her in a circle, then lowered her slowly to the pool. “You should probably listen to me more often.”

Grace’s hands slid over his slick skin, the heat from his body seeping into hers.

André blinked, heavy lidded. “Looks like I got you wet after all.”

“Ah, sir, I need you both to exit the?—”

“Yeah, yeah. I get it,” André snapped, pulling Grace up the step with him. She stepped away from him, lifting her arms to pull out her hair tie and redo her bun. Her heart was still sprinting. Her skin tingling.

Shaky, soaked, and half-certain she left a piece of her soul back at the top of the launch tube, she caught sight of herself reflected in the mirrored edge of a smoothie stand. Hair clinging to her cheeks, eyes bright, lips pink with exertion.

She stopped, staring. Who was that person? She looked . . . hot. Exciting. Fun. Happy.

André grabbed her elbow and led her around the kids’ play area. She reached the chair beside Jenna’s and sank down onto the towel.

Jenna raised a brow. “Umm . . . you look pleased with yourself.”

André struck a pose in front of the group. “I popped Grace’s Cyclone cherry.”

“Ew! Gross!” Emma threw a towel at him, and the guys laughed as he used it to floss between his legs. When he was finished, he tossed it at Grace and winked.

She rolled her eyes and threw it onto an empty chair.

The morning and early afternoon melted into snapshots. Laughter. Food and drinks. Sunshine filtered through the skylights.

Grace couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed so much—real, full-body, ridiculous laughter. Emma dared Rhonda to go on the double tube slide backwards. Brett and Curtis made a sport out of cannonballing as close to Tyler as possible without getting caught by the lifeguards. Country somehow convinced one of the teenage employees to let him and Hope go down the tiny frog slide in the toddler area—twice—while Jenna stood at the edge shouting, “Gentry, she’s barely sitting up!” and “Her neck is still developing ! Stop throwing her like she’s a football!”

Hope squealed with glee every single time.

Grace nursed a frozen cocktail with a little umbrella in it, warm from the sun and from the people around her, trying to pretend she wasn’t aware of every time André threw her a look.

Because he did.

Often.

Even when Megan drifted over to him. Laughing too hard at his jokes. Reapplying lip gloss like it was prescribed.

Grace hated that she noticed. Then again, she noticed everything that afternoon. It was like her near death experience had transported her to a more vibrant version of reality.

She noticed Kelty sitting stiffly at the edge of the lounger, watching Sean laugh with Tyler and Suraj but never moving to join him. Penny rubbed Brett’s shoulders, whispering something that made him blush. Rhonda didn’t leave her phone for more than a few minutes, grinning every time her fingers tapped over the screen. And Emma didn’t seem to be drinking. Interesting.

Grace stirred the straw in her drink, letting the crushed ice melt a little before taking another sip. With only ten minutes left before they needed to pack up and go, she slid her phone from the pocket of her bag and tapped it awake.

She scrolled through her messages, stopping on one that made her heart stop. Elodie.

I’m so sorry, but it’s a no go. Amey declined to sign the release. If you want more details, we can talk later—but this means you're preparing for court.

Grace didn’t move. Her thumb hovered over the screen, the words burning into her like acid. She read it again. And again. The background noise of the waterpark faded into a cottony buzz.

Amey wasn’t going to talk. Wasn’t going to clarify what had changed. Wasn’t going to give them anything that might stop this before it became a full-blown legal battle.

Court.

Her chest tightened.

“You okay?” Jenna’s voice broke gently through the noise.

Grace didn’t look up at first. Then she passed her phone over. Jenna scanned the message and handed it back. Her mouth tugged into something that wasn’t quite a smile, but wasn’t panic either.

Grace blinked. “You’re not freaking out right now?”

Jenna set the phone down on the edge of her lounge chair and shrugged, her gaze drifting toward the wave pool where Country was relaxing with Hope in a yellow float shaped like a duck. “Kind of got that out of my system already.”

Grace sat up straighter. “Is that something you get out of your system?”

She shrugged. “Maybe?”

“We’re going to court.”

Jenna sighed. “Yeah.”

Grace dropped her phone into her bag. “I should’ve done more. Found another angle. Talked to Elodie sooner. I was so sure I could control this if I just?—”

“That’s the thing.” Jenna turned toward her. “You can’t. I used to believe the same thing. That if I just worked hard enough, worried hard enough, ran all the scenarios—maybe I could stop bad things from happening. Maybe I could keep myself and those I loved from hurting.”

Grace’s throat tightened. “And?”

“And I lost ten good years trying.” Jenna smiled faintly, watching Country paddle their float around in circles. “I was so scared of losing him that I never really let myself have him. And now?” She looked back at Grace. “I’m done living like that. I don’t need to add pain to pain. I don’t need to create pain out of nothing. If we lose Hope, we lose Hope. But I’m not going to miss the time I have with her now just because I’m scared.”

Grace sat very still. There was that word again. “I wanted to protect you from this.”

Jenna put a hand over hers. “I know. But you can’t. And that’s okay.”

They sat there for a long moment. Then Jenna gave a gentle squeeze. “I’m going to go float with Country. Last chance.”

Grace nodded and watched her friend walk barefoot toward the pool, her laughter rising as she strode toward the man she loved and the daughter they might not get to keep.