Page 130 of Untying the Knot
She takes the towel from me and says, “The right girl at the moment.”
And I know the meaning behind that. Despite the easygoing conversation, there’s still an elephant in the room. We’re bound to be divorced once the papers are processed, and even though I think she’s the right girl for me—for life—it’s not forever. No one will be better. No one will match her.
But I don’t push to prove her wrong. That’s not what I need to do right now. If Myla has shown me something over the past week or so, it’s that I’ve been blind to who she is and what she wants in life. My goal is to show her that I’m in her corner, that I’m sorry I ever left, and that if I could, I’d be her everything once more.
“Are you going to dip into the pool or just lie out?”
She eyes me and says, “When have I ever just laid out?”
The answer is never.
Myla is the girl doing cannonballs in the pool on vacation and tossing random items into the deep end so she can impress you by retrieving them within seconds of hitting bottom. She’s not one to lie out by the pool, drink froufrou drinks, and dip her toe in the water momentarily.
Nope, she’s all in.
“Wasn’t sure if you were going to try something new.”
“Never,” she says as she lifts her cover-up over her head and deposits it on the lounger. And then she walks up to the pool, turns around, and with a salute, she falls backward, right into the water, making me laugh.
When she pops up, she wipes the water out of her eyes and says, “Never a lounger, never will be one.”
“You getting in there with your wife?” I hear a voice ask. I turn just in time to see Huxley and Lottie approach, hand in hand.
“Uh, yeah,” I answer. “Can’t let her swim alone.”
Immediately, I’m doused back into reality where Myla isn’t really my wife. But I have to pretend that she is. Therefore, I line up on the edge of the pool, give Huxley a wink, and then backflip into the water. When I surface, I hear Myla behind me whisper, “Show-off.”
I push my wet hair back and turn toward her. “You could have been more creative with your entrance. You chose what you chose. Don’t hate on me for being more theatrical.”
“Do I need to jump into this pool again?”
“Up to you,” I say as I float next to her.
She glances over her shoulder and smiles, then looks back at me. Whispering, she says, “If they didn’t just park their asses next to our loungers, you can bet your tight ass that I would be reinventing the wheel when it came to pool theatrics, but I’ll have to settle with knowing in my heart of hearts, I would show you up.”
“Okay, keep believing that,” I say.
“Oh awesome, you guys here for the class too?” JP says as he walks up with Kelsey.
“She dragged me to it,” Huxley replies.
“Looks like Ryot and Myla are ahead of us.”
“What class?” Myla whispers.
“Hell if I know,” I reply just as a few more couples make their way into the pool. Glancing around, I ask, “What’s happening?”
“I don’t know, but they’re surrounding us,” Myla says.
Kelsey dips daintily into the pool while JP dunks his head in first and then flops the rest of the way. Huxley and Lottie enter by the stairs, taking it slow while holding hands.
“I’ve heard nothing but great things about these classes,” Kelsey says while JP swoops his arm around her waist.
“Yeah, me too,” I say, eliciting a pinch from Myla. “What?” I whisper. “Have to make conversation.”
“Oh, here is the instructor now,” JP says as a lady wearing leggings and a sports bra walks up with a Bluetooth speaker.
“Hey, couples,” she says in a cheery voice. “Thank you for joining me this morning. If you would so kindly pick a portion of the pool for yourselves where you can find privacy, I’m going to set up and be right with you.”
