The Pool Guy Came Tuesdays, and by July It Wasn't the Pool novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Thirty-Six

By five o'clock on my thirty-sixth birthday there were twenty people in my backyard and not one of them was complaining about the pool.

They stood around it with plastic cups, looking at the water.

It was clear down to the drain.

The man from the house with the three-car garage crouched at the edge of the deep end and put his hand in it.

"I thought you had a leak," he said.

"I had a sprinkler," I said.

"Well, it's beautiful."

"It's mostly just clean."

I had a yellow sundress on, and my hair was down.

Nico was at the grill in a plain white T-shirt, turning chicken thighs with a pair of tongs.

He had been there since three.

Nobody had asked what he was doing there.

The old neighbor with the pruning shears had come through the front door with a pan of lemon bars.

She put them on the counter and looked at Nico through the sliding glass for a long moment.

"Fridays now too, I hear," she said to me.

"Saturdays are new," I said.

"Good for you, honey," she said, and patted my arm, and went out to find a chair in the shade.

At a quarter past five the bell rang twice.

I knew it before I turned.

Craig stood at the sliding door in a pressed linen shirt, with the sun on his glasses.

He had a bottle of wine in his hand and a smile on his face.

"Jo," he said. "I know I wasn't invited."

"No," I said.

"I just wanted to say happy birthday. And to make peace." He lifted the bottle. "It's the Pinot you like."

"I like the Riesling."

"Do you?"

He stepped through the door and walked out onto the deck.

Twenty people turned to look at him.

I followed him out with my heart going fast and my voice steady.

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