Here, Here, and Here

But instead of doing something to me he picked up his water bottle and sat down in the chair next to me.

“I think…” I pause debating inside my head whether or not to say it, “I think I’m going to tell her soon.” He got this excited look on his face, “But we need to talk about things first though okay” I said seriously. He smiled and Caoimhe called to him. He looked at her and winked. She giggled and said, “Mommy look at me!” I turned to look at her and this was my fatal mistake because at that moment Tom picked me up bridal style and ran for the deep end of the pool.

“No, no, no, Tom put me down!”

“I will just give me a second” he laughed at me. Then, true to his word, he put me down just not where I wanted him to. A second after he spoke he jumped into the pool, letting go of me when we hit the surface.

I stayed underwater my eyes closed but I could feel his hands on my hips and just then I missed his touch so much that I wanted to stay like that for longer, but my lungs had their objections. I kicked out of his hold and up to the surface. I took a quick breath and went back under, but instead of going back to him I went towards the side of the pool. As I pulled myself up onto the concrete Tom resurfaced.

When I had stood up I pulled off my soaked black tank top and slid out of my shorts reveling my cut out one-piece that I still had on from when I took Keevie swimming this afternoon. I looked up to see everyone’s attention focused on Caoimhe a little too hard. As I glanced down I saw that not everyone’s attention was on Keevie. Tom was staring at me, his mouth open as it slowly turned into a smirk.

“Shut your mouth boy, you might drown” I say with a hint of seduction in my voice and then I dived into the pool. I resurface to find him sputtering, trying to get the water my splash had made out of his mouth. I smirked, “What did I say?”

When I got through saying that he went underwater and I lost sight of him. ‘Not for long though’ I thought as he pulled me down under again and I had just enough reaction time to get a gulp of air. His hands floated from my ankles to my hips again. I’m not sure if it was just the water or if it was us, but we floated closer and closer to each other, our lips dangerously close because I don’t think we would last long if they met. At the last second I twisted my body just so and kicked off from his chest and propelled myself backwards. When I looked at him right before I went up to get air he had this stunned and hurt look on his face. I swam back over to the shallow end to go see my daughter.

“Mommy!!” she yelled as she dove out of Gustav’s arms. “What’s chicken?” she asked.

“Well that’s a game that people play in a pool” I answered and I saw that look that said she had an idea, “That only big people play” I added reading her mind.

“Can you show me?!” she asked excitedly.

“Yes, we can” I looked at Bill as he spoke and he got this sly look on is face that over the years I had come to fear. And then a moment I was being lifted into the air. I look down shakily and see myself sitting on Tom’s shoulders. When I look back up I see Bill climbing onto Georg’s shoulders and Gustav taking Caoimhe to the edge of the pool so she’d be out of the way and couldn’t get hurt.

Now they all know how competitive I am and when I made eye contact with Bill I saw him get a little scared. I got steady and hooked my ankles\feet around Tom’s back and he linked his hands over my shins and in front of his chest. All of a sudden Bill and Georg looked unsure if they wanted to go through with their plan.

I made the first move, knocking Bill and Georg off balance for a second, but they soon regained their footing and balance. After about two minutes of us knocking each other of f balance (it was mostly me and Tom knocking Bill and Georg off balance) I gave one final heave, pushing with my entire upper body and threw Bill into the water pulling Georg with him.

The problem was I had leaned so far forward in trying to push Bill backwards that I lost my balance. I tried to unhook myself from Tom as I fell, but when he refused to let go of my legs I realized that I wasn’t falling, he was throwing me and himself into the water. I screeched and when I started to come back up I used Tom and Georg’s heads to push myself upward, forcing them down farther. Then just as I breached the water I was pulled back down by my ankles and dragged out into the deep end of the water.

When I finally got to the stairs everyone was out of the pool and Bill was explaining to Caoimhe that that wasn’t how chicken was supposed to go. Tom had her in his arms, against his chest, with his towel wrapped around both of them. My heart melted and I wanted to tell her right there and then, but I knew that I had to lay down some rules with Tom before I told her.

“Baby, your lips are blue” I said rubbing her back.

“She’s shaking like a leaf” Tom said holding her a tad closer to himself, “So are you, do you have a towel?”

“If she doesn’t what makes you think I do” I roll my eyes, “Besides, I wasn’t planning on getting wet.”

“Here, put this on” he says holding out what looked like a shirt with his one hand, the other on Keev.

I battled with myself, but the goosebumps on my back and arms won, “Fine” I put on the shirt, which was like a dress on me, I immediately was warmed and attacked by the faint smell of cigarettes, pool, and . . . Tom.

We walked inside and Tom carried Caoimhe upstairs for me and sat her on the bed wrapped in his towel and then he left. I got changed and then I dried Keevie off and got her changed. I quickly ran the brush through my hair and then ran it more gently through her fine hair. When that was done we went downstairs to the dinning room for dinner. As we arrived I saw that the only seats left were to the left of Tom. I had a feeling that it was planned this way. I sat Keevie next to Tom and I took the seat on the left of her. Then the waitress came to take our orders.