“I’ve got it,” I tell him. “It’s fine. Why don’t you get back to the wiring?”
The gas supply in this house is untrustworthy at best, and most places this far into the disputed lands are busy converting to solar for a more reliable service. Dominic has some skills in that department, but the whole place needs wiring up to the panels and battery—something I barely even understand—before it will be useable. The gas in this neighborhood is still working, when it wants to, but years of neglect have taken their toll. Dominic has been collecting old but serviceable wiring when he can, and piling it up in the garage, but we need a lot more before the appliances can be converted to run on electricity.
In the meantime, he’s got a couple of solar panels fixed up and is putting in wiring that will charge mobile phones and give us some security if we need it.
I pull the board away one last time and take a peek, seeing Tigor run and jump into the pool next door, the water splashing everywhere in his wake.
And that’s when I hear Darrell laughing.
“I wishwehad a pool,” he says, and I have to move around the hole to catch sight of him standing on a crate on our side of the fence. Spying on our neighbour. I guess I’m not really one to talk.
Tigor raises his arms and brings them down hard on the water, sending a wave crashing into the fence just below Darrell’s face. He laughs as a few drops splash over him, and I find myself grinning.
“You swim here. Now.” Tigor glances up at the hole. “All of you.”
Fuck. Busted.
I stand up, still holding the board, and look down at the two of them.
Tigor’s tongues glance across his tusks. “You swim here.”
“Can we?Please?” Darrell now has his face turned my way as well, and my body is so confused, not knowing whether to be motherly and protective toward my little brother or needy and seductive toward my next-door neighbour.
I shake my head. “I don’t want you to get cold.”
Tigor growls. “It’s hot.”
“Noit’s not, it’s like, 75 degrees. That water has to be freezing.”
“That’s hot. Too hot.” Tigor ducks back under the water as if to demonstrate, then comes up slowly and Darrell laughs.
“Please? Emmie, it looks good.”
“The water will be cold,” I protest. “I’m the one that will be up all night with you when you catch a cold.”
“I will warm the water.” Tigor pushes up off the bottom, leaping out of the pool and heading for their barbecue, firm naked buttocks pumping with every damn step.God. “You will all swim.”
Darrell looks up at me with a hopeful grin, and my defences have been worn down. “Fine,” I say. “If it’s warm, we’ll swim. But, you have to put something on. You’re going to traumatize the kid.”
“Yes!” Darrell jumps up, fist pumping the air.
I sigh as I watch Tigor at the barbecue lighting coals, then striding off into the grass and coming back with a huge rock, which he places beside the burning pile. As I turn around, I find Dominic staring at me.
“What? What was I supposed to do?”
He grins but shakes his head. “I’m not saying anything. But you’d better hand me that board if you’re going swimming.”
* * *
The pileof hot stones Tigor heaved into the deep end of the pool at regular intervals has done the job, I have to admit. It’s warm like a tropical lagoon and I have no worries about Darrell. It’s actually really good to see him smiling so much. Some of the things he’s seen, no kid his age should have to go through, but Tigor has done a good thing for him and that’s something he won’t forget in a hurry.
“Watch out!” he screams as he takes a running jump, dive bombing into the pool and sending a wave of water crashing over me.
I splutter dramatically as I break back through the surface, mock-glaring his way, and he laughs as he starts to swim away. And as I watch him go, my eyes land on Tigor.
And my nipples harden beneath the thin bra I’m using as a makeshift bikini top, since I don’t have a real suit. His eyes are on me, and even beneath the water, through a pair of jeans he tore into shorts, there’s no mistaking what my presence is doing to him. Sweat is pouring down his face, but whether that’s from the sight of me in nothing but my bra and panties or the fact that he’s obviously uncomfortable with how warm the water is, I have no idea.
I swim his way, and he shifts across to give me space by the ladder.