Children played in the shallow end, their parents scattered about the deck, keeping a sharp eye on them. The air was peppered with "mommy watch, daddy look at me," and Bryce couldn't wait for Carolina to be chattering away like that. Almost. His daughter, who was the most fascinated of the group, was in the shallow end of the pool, her body surrounded by a seated rubber ring float and looking like a stuffed pumpkin with that orange life vest. Katey had one hand on her, yet Carolina was just happy to watch the other children play.
Bryce's brother-in-law Chris tossed horseshoes with Portia's husband Stan. Bryce had known Stan since high school but hadn't seen him in nearly two years. Since he'd married Diana. Katey's husband Drew moved close, gesturing with his beer to Ciara.
"She's great, Bryce. I'm happy for you."
Bryce felt that niggling voice in the back of his head shout off a warning.
"It's serious, isn't it?" Drew said, keeping his voice low.
Bryce tried to deny it to himself, but his heart wouldn't let him. He smiled. "Yeah, it is."
"Good, because if anything, we're all glad she dragged you back into the land of the living."
Bryce sent him an embarrassed smile, knowing it was the truth. He'd avoided people because he didn't want their sympathy for sorrow he wasn't feeling. He hadn't wanted questions about Diana, about their life that was really just existing together. Then Ciara walked in and his world tilted. Nothing was the same, not the house, not his daughter and definitely not him. He turned his gaze to her and smiled as she fussed with the table settings. She'd invited all his friends, and had prepared everything herself, made certain there were kiddie favorites like popcorn and juice boxes, and in the house, she even had goody bags for the kids for their trip home.
She made certain he, Carolina and their guests were happy.
Their guests.
These were her friends, too.
As if she knew he was watching her, she lifted her gaze. Her eyes went wide and she rushed around the table and threw open the grill.
Ciara waved at the smoke. "Oh Bryce, for pity's sake."
"Sorry." He began flipping the food before it scorched. "I was watching you."
"Oh, don't blame me for this. How hard is it to cook burgers?"
"That was a compliment," Bryce said dryly.
"Oh," she said, and reddened.
Drew chuckled and moved toward his wife as Bryce swept his arm around Ciara's waist. "Thank you, baby."
"For what?"
"For all of this. For doing it without help and well, just for wanting to."
"I couldn't let you get so involved with me that you lost your friends a second time."
"It's the woman, darlin', not the occasion that makes the difference."
Ciara's eyes teared. He was looking at her with such tenderness she thought her heart would cave in it was so full. She cupped his jaw, kissing him softly.
"Go Bryce," his sister shouted and they pulled apart.
"Go, do something," he said. "Before I make a complete fool of myself and drag you inside." He focused on the grill.
"Gee and I was going to watch you cook. That whole caveman thing is very erotic. Almost as good as the captain at the helm."
He groaned as the images of that night flooded his mind, the two of them rolling on the bedroom floor and unable to get enough of each other. Tonight would not come soon enough.
Leaving him to grill, Ciara sat on the edge of the pool, spinning Carolina in her little tube and watching the children. Mothers stopped conversation to watch the kids cannonball into the water, or stand on their hands. The men talked near the grill, passing around a bowl of chips.
Bryce said something to his sister. She laughed and tossed him a tart smile. Ciara wasn't really listening, but watching, absorbing, the love between the brother and sister so apparent. Bryce adored his little sister. Hope was nosey because she loved him and wanted him to be happy. It made Ciara long for her own family and she wondered what they were doing right now.
How old were Mike's boys now? And had Cassie fallen in love yet? Had she had her heart broken when there was no one there who understood and could help soothe it? And Richard, she'd missed his wedding. She'd been so angry with them all for forgetting she'd existed. That she'd had plans.
Before it had been as punishment, anger, now she was the only one suffering.
"Hope, would you watch Carolina for me? I need to check on something," she said and Hope nodded, slipping into the water beside the baby.
Ciara grabbed a towel, wrapping it around her damp suit as she walked into the house. She didn't stop until she was in the bedroom she'd used when she first arrived.
Removing her computer from inside her suitcase, she didn't stop to think what she was doing, that she could be creating trouble for herself. She linked the computer across the world, through Ireland, Bangkok, Bombay and she watched the indicator take it back to Georgia, only a couple hundred miles away from where she was now.