was as if sitting in the hot tub and then jumping in the cooler pool was something we’d never done before. The jokes never got old about shrinkage—the “I was in the pool. It was cold water,” Seinfeld jokes. Ryan launched the football to each of us, destroying our bodies when the pigskin slammed into us as we jumped from the diving board. Reliving old times felt better than I ever imagined.
When the girls strolled in, I stood in the shallow end waiting to see my girl’s face. The first redhead walked through, but I waited patiently for the prettier one. When Ryan grabbed his sister and jumped into the water with her…the damn bride to be…an audible gasp nearly drowned out the splash. My eyes shot to Zach, whose entire jaw tightened when Emma hit the water. Ryan walked a thin line because he was Emma’s brother, but at this point, Ryan was going to be in deep shit. So, fucking typical of Ryan and Grant. Before I even finished the thought, Grant shoved Ali into the pool with one hand and reached for Phoebe with the other. She was giggling at first, but then fear of what was about the happen registered in her eyes. My resounding, “No!” echoed in the huge glass room just as Phoebe splashed into the deep end of the pool. Her comments about being unable to swim blasted to the front of my brain. The few seconds it took for me to jump out of the shallow end, run and dive into the 12-ft water for my non-swimmer seemed like an eternity. Her wide, terror-filled-eyes beneath the water saw me coming. I scooped her up, cradling her in my arms as I surfaced and then kicked over to the side.
“You ok?” I asked, shaking the water from my head.
Her head bobbed up and down as she cleared the water from her racoon eyes. The cutest racoon eyes ever. The mascara smudged in the damnedest way.
“Phoebe, I’m sorry,” Grant said.
“It’s ok, Grant,” she tried to laugh. “I’m not super buoyant.”
“Sorry, man,” he repeated.
I stared at him for a hot second then glared at Ryan. “You’re not the one that started this shit, Grant.”
Phoebe pulled my chest hair. “They were just having fun.”
Seeing her soaked hair stuck to her head, the faintest of pants and yet she still smiled and defended their actions. There was no way to explain the feelings brewing inside of me. The girl I’d seen in Braums was in fact a woman that reeled my heart in with every passing moment. Soulmates was a word casually thrown around too often diminishing the gravity of what it meant. The entire time her rounded green eyes blinked, her wet lashes clung together, she clearly saw something in me I wasn’t sure if I saw in myself. This girl believed in me. I’d somehow become her lifeline and there wasn’t a single thing I’d change about that.
“You ok?” Emma asked from behind us.
Phoebe turned to her, still holding tight to my neck. “Yes. Thank you. Thanks to Aquaman here.”
“My asshole brother started this bullshit. Sorry you got included like that. On the bright side however, everyone likes you enough to pull that shit on you.”
Phoebe smiled. Emma smiled. I smiled. I loved that everyone liked her. How could they not?
_______________
The rehearsal went off as planned despite the half dozen pranks. Ryan hiding the agenda, Emma hitting Ryan, Grant tripping Zach, and then Zach about losing his shit with the stress they were all putting on Emma. I didn’t feel sorry for Zach. Not one bit. This was going to be his life. Emma had her crew of guys that had been her protectors for her whole life. Hell, I was one of them too. Maybe someday some of the pranks and nonsense would wane, but until then, Zach would have his hands full.
Wine, Italian food catered by my father, all under a tent not far off the beach but away from the wind, was exactly how I had pictured things for Emma. All of us actually. This beach had been our place for too long not to make it a part of our special days.
Emma opened a slew of slinky lingerie pieces that the girls had bought for the honeymoon. Zach quickly yanked them out of her hand as she held them up for all to see. The thought of anyone picturing Emma in them was too much for him. I understood his typical