“Sean, Jesus, you’re like a solar eclipse. Move, I’m trying to get so—” Lexi whipped off her sunglasses and spun around, squinting her eyes from the bright sunlight until she saw Vincent smiling at her. “Vincent.” His name came out in a rush of breath. “Wh-what are you …”

“Change of plans.” He offered her the drink from his hand. “Your drink, miss.”

Lexi took the drink and set it down on the small table beside her. “Nice cabana service Anna has here,” she joked. He slid onto the lounge chair beside her and stole her sunglasses off her head.

“What did I miss?” he asked as Maddie came running over to him and crawled into his lap.

“You missed my cannonballs, Uncle Vincent. I got Grandma all wet,” Madison bragged.

“I’m so sorry I missed that.” He kissed the top of his niece’s head.

“Did you bring your swimsuit?” Maddie asked hopefully.

“Yep.”

“Go change and I’ll show you again.” Madison hopped back onto the ground, tossed her towel on the deck, and jumped into the water. “Come on, Uncle Vincent, hurry.”

Lexi laughed. “You better hurry, or she’s going to start jumping and you’ll be wet anyway.”

Vincent smiled at Lexi and slipped her sunglasses back over her eyes. “Thanks for letting me borrow these.” He brushed his fingers over her cheek, then took off for the pool house, stripping off his shirt as he walked away. He didn’t see Lexi and Hope mouth “nice” to each other when he disappeared through the doorway.

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He quickly changed and joined his niece in the pool. Soon her laughter rang out followed by an enormous splash. A fraction of a second later, a huge wave of water slammed into Lexi’s chair. She bolted straight up and brushed the dripping hair from her face.

“Oh, Lexi, I’m sorry,” Vincent said as he quickly swam to the edge of the pool, pulling himself out and trying not to laugh. “I swear I didn’t mean to get you wet.”

Lexi opened her eyes and found a bare-chested Vincent standing before her, dripping and glistening with water. She seemed to temporarily loose her ability to speak, but shook her head from side to side, bringing herself out of her daze. “No worries, it’s a pool party. People get wet.” She craned her neck around his body. “Go, Madison’s waiting for you.”

Vincent squatted down beside her chair and put his hand on her bare thigh. “I really am sorry.”

Lexi flipped her sunglasses up so he could see her eyes and know she was being sincere. “I know. Really, it’s fine. I’m not going to melt. Go swim.”

“Thanks. You really are the best.” He gave her leg a squeeze and turned to face the pool.

Madison bounced up and down in the water, describing what kind of jump she wanted him to do. Just as Vincent leaned toward the pool to hear Madison better, Lexi gave him a big shove in the back and sent him flying into the pool with a splash.

When he surfaced, Sean was howling. “Nice scream, Vince.”

“That was a perfect belly flop, Uncle Vincent,” Madison offered, giggling as he wiped the water from his face.

Lexi stood at the edge of the pool, grinning proudly. “I didn’t know you could fly.”

In one massive lunge, Vincent flung himself at the edge of the pool and grabbed her ankle, holding her in place. “You wanna fly too, Lexi?” He grinned and gave a sharp tug on her foot. Lexi leaned dangerously far over the water, but regained her balance at the last second.

“Vincent Drake, you let her go this instant.” Elizabeth’s voice cut through the laughter.

“But, Mom, she pushed me.”

“Vincent, you will not fling one of our guests into the pool. Let her go.”

“Yeah, Vincent, let me go.” Lexi playfully wiggled her ankle in circles trying to escape. “Your mom said so.”

“This isn’t fair,” Vincent grumbled as he let go. Lexi couldn’t resist sticking her tongue out at him. When he pulled his hand back to splash her, she screamed and ran back toward Elizabeth’s chair and hid.

“Don’t you dare, or your company car will be mine, young man.”

Vincent and Madison finished up their time in the pool and climbed into a pair of chairs and dried off in the sun. Anna, Hope, and Lexi began setting out the food as Sean and Erik pulled it off the grill.

“Vincent, you better have sunscreen on or you’ll be the poster boy for skin cancer,” Jade’s voice screeched from the doorway. She had finally ended her phone call and decided to join the rest of them. She wore a long sleeved swim cover up, an oversized hat, and large sunglasses to prevent a single ray of sun from touching her skin.

“He’s a grown man. I think he can handle this himself,” Anna snarled, in no mood for Jade and her dramatics.

“Ten minutes worth of ultraviolet exposure ages your skin a year. You might not care about how he looks, but I do.”

“You little—” Hope grabbed Anna by the arm and held her in place. When Anna regained her composure she smiled. “You’re absolutely right, Jade.

Lexi, would you be a dear and go rub some lotion on my brother? I wouldn’t want him to burn.”

“I’d love to,” Lexi grabbed the sunscreen and glanced over at Vincent. “Think I should get his chest too?”

“Absolutely.” Anna grinned as Jade’s teeth clamped shut.

“Lucky for you,” Lexi said a moment later as she placed the lotion back on the table, never breaking eye contact with Jade, “I have more class than that.”

“Here, Jade, go graze on some salad. There’s a nice shady spot way over there.” Hope pointed to the opposite side of the pool.

“Want a wiener, Jadey?” Sean asked, suggestively dangling a hot dog from the end of a pair of tongs as Jade walked past.

As the thick stick of beef bobbed in her face, Jade snarled. “Keep your wieners to yourself.”

“Let me know if you change your mind, Jadey. I’ll save this big juicy one just for you.”

Vincent wandered over to talk to Jade, but she waved him away and pulled out a magazine and began flipping through the pages with a scowl on her face. Vincent rolled his eyes and grabbed a plate of food. Lexi tossed him a cold beer to go along with it.

“Thanks.” He leaned back against the rail beside her and began eating.

“No problem,” Lexi said softly. “So, why are you even here? I thought you two were heading out of town for the weekend.”




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