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It’s official. Victor Tan is dead meat.
He signs his death certificate the moment he pushes Chris into the deep end of Annie and Deacon’s pool.
She has just enough time and instinct to gasp for breath and pinch her nose before her swimsuit-clad body plunges into the warm water and sends it splashing all over. The sky is bluer and the birds are louder when she breaks through the surface, wet hair sticking to her face and cheeks blistering with a blush as hot as the September sun that beats down on them. Her breathing seems to fill the entire volume of space as everyone stares at her, but it’s only for a moment. Then they turn back to the music and their plates, leaving her to shake the water out of her ear and look for whoever did it.
“Sorry!” Tan calls from the edge, before she can say something that is definitely not suitable for the young ears around. He’s smiling all too happily, with an air of calm around him. “Luca dared me.”
Shocked, her brain short-circuits as she struggles to process Tan’s words. When she does, she stands corrected.
Victor Tan and Dominique Luca are dead meat.
Her body whips around in the water, eyes on fire, and see finds Luca grinning at her like he won the lottery, waist-deep in the pool. She spots Deacon and Annie lounging on the ledge behind him, watching with raised eyebrows. Deacon throws her a sympathetic smile, but she sees it grow when he takes a sip of his drink. For her part, Annie looks like she actually is on Chris’s side, but a moment later Samuel runs up and whispers something in her ear, and she scrunches her nose at Chris as she exits.
“It was the only way to get you in here!” Luca calls and pulls her attention.
“Get who where? Woah!” Hondo interrupts. The backdoor slides shut as he and Street come back from their beer and ice run. “Can’t remember the last time I actually saw you swim at one of these shindigs, Chris. What’s the occasion?”
“The occasion ,” she draws out, although her heart rate is calming and she can’t help the smile that plays at her face. “Is Luca daring Tan to push me in.”
“You were the one who took your head off a swivel, Alonso. Going soft on us?” Tan teases, and Chris debates how quickly she can get out of the pool and get him on his ass. Despite all the other people around, her energy is locked in on her former teammates, and it feels no different from the fun competitions they’d create for themselves at HQ. It feels good, like home. An idea forms.
Chris’s tight jaw juts to the side, and she looks between the offending men like a standoff. Deacon and Hondo watch on, incredulous, loving gazes surveying the scene.
“Street!” She shouts, eyes narrowing as his widen like he’s surprised he’s somehow involved. “Five minutes. You, too, Tan. You got any pool noodles, Deacon?”
Catching onto her, he lets out a hearty laugh. Setting his drink down, he lifts himself out of the water on strong arms, and disappears into the shed, only to return a minute later with his arms full of the colorful foam noodles. They fall into the pool like air.
“Have fun, you two.” Deacon says to Tan and Luca with a wink. Small ripples float out from the impact of the noodles and catch Chris at the shoulder. She wraps tattooed fingers around an orange one, and shoves the rest in Luca’s direction, Tan just beginning his descent into the water.
By the time she has her weapon of choice, Street has kicked off his shoes and shirt to join her, brushing past the opposition. Navy shorts accentuate the muscles low on his torso. Her hand rests just above the waistband when he reaches her side, and her lips tickle his earlobe as she whispers something to him that the others can’t hear even as her discerning eyes never leave them.
“Oh,” he exhales, pulling back just enough to wink at her. “Working together again, just like old times.”
“Exactly. And they’re going down.”
With that, she presses at Street’s shoulder until he turns his back to her. She hardens her stare at Tan and Luca as she sets a foot on Street’s thigh for him to lift her so she’s sitting on his shoulders. His arms lock around her shins.
Luca laughs something loud and bright and it takes everything in Chris not to break, but she manages not to. Understanding blooms in his blue eyes and he wastes no time in bringing Tan up to speed. Street walks closer to the pair so they’re both evenly deep in the pool as Tan matches her stance, but on Luca’s shoulders.
“Twenty on Chris?” Hondo whispers to Deacon, savoring the refreshing bubbles of his beer. Deacon eyes him in his periphery.
“Pretty sure she’s got this handled.” He smirks, and then turns to the rest of the group, who are sizing each other up. “You guys need a ref?”
“Be my guest!” Tan confirms without looking in his direction. “Let’s see if you still got it, Chris.”
His tone sounds the same as when they’d spar in the ring, and Street’s hands tighten their hold on her tan skin as she raises the pool noodle in front of her chest like a jousting stick.
“Funny that you think you ever had it, Tan.” She throws right back, smiling.
“Alright, alright!” Hondo jumps in, his hands up like he’s surrendering. “You two ready to duke this out?”
“Hell yeah!” She shouts, before leaning down to Street. Her lips meet the side of his nose, just under his eye, and his lashes flutter closed as she leaves a kiss there. They’re both smiling when he opens them, her voice low. “Don’t drop me.”
“Never,” he promises, with a dimpled grin and expert eyes already looking for weaknesses in Tan and Luca’s stance. “They’re going down.”
“On my count!” Hondo calls. “One. Two. Go!”