The Things We Wish Were True Read Online Free PDF Page B

expecting Bryte to laugh, but Bryte didn’t even smile over her standard joke, which usually got a better response. She continued talking, her words tumbling over themselves. “So we got married and had the kids, and things were crazy. We made a few quick trips back, but we never stayed very long. It was easier to have my parents come to us.” She took a breath. “So what about you guys? How’d you end up back here?”
    Bryte watched as Christopher barely put his face into the water, then she applauded as if he’d just swum the length of the pool. “We bought a house here when I got pregnant with Christopher. Wanted him to have the same kind of childhood we both did. You know . . .” Bryte’s words died on her tongue as she realized what she was saying. This wasn’t a place full of happy memories for Jencey. For her, this was a place to run from, not to.
    Bryte recovered quickly, her voice confident. “I mean, we love it here.”
    “Of course,” Jencey found herself saying. “It’s nice.” She looked around at the handsome lifeguard on the stand in his Risky Business sunglasses, the rippling water, the assortment of children playing together, and the older woman who’d been so nice—JJ’s mom. If she tried to recall some happy memories of this place, she might come upon them. She might see things differently.
    “Look, Mom!” she heard Zara call, and turned to see her youngest, most cautious child standing on the diving board. Back home Zara never went near the high dive or the slide, hanging out in the splash pool for babies instead and insisting that was all she wanted. Maybe this short diving board was more her speed. “Watch this!”
    “I’m watching!” she called back brightly.
    Zara sprang into the air and gathered her feet to her, forming herself into a compact little ball just before coming down with a loud splash into the water. All the other kids clapped as Zara popped back up to the surface, blinking to clear her vision so that she could make sure Jencey was still watching.

BRYTE
    On the way back to her chair, Bryte stepped on a discarded juice box, and the remaining contents squirted her foot. She grimaced and sat down to wipe it off with her towel. Her friend Karen had arrived with her daughter, Sarah, while she was catching up with Jencey. Karen sprayed the child with SPF 100, coating the air more than the kid. Bryte waved the mist away and handed a cup of water to Christopher, who was already whining that he wanted to go back in the water.
    “We need to say hi to our friends,” she coaxed. She looked at Karen and sighed with exhaustion. “Hi,” she said.
    Karen laughed and pointed over at Jencey. “Who was that?”
    Bryte smirked at her. How to explain who Jencey was? She didn’t have the energy to go into it now, so she gave as brief an explanation as possible. “That was someone I grew up with. She’s in town with her girls for a visit.” She made her voice sound light and carefree as she said it.
    Karen checked Jencey out surreptitiously from behind her dark glasses. “She’s pretty,” she said. “Really pretty.”
    Bryte flopped back on the chaise. “She always was,” she said. “And besides, her kids are older. She has more time to spend on herself.”
    Karen pointed at herself. “Don’t I know it—this bathing suit?” She gestured to the plain black tankini she wore. “When I put this on today, it was the first time I’d been out of sweats in two days! When Kevin wants to have sex, I’m like, ‘Dude? Have you looked at me? Have you smelled me?’”
    Bryte laughed. “Preach, sister,” she said.
    Karen began the arduous process of pulling the floaties onto her daughter’s arm as Sarah twisted and whined. “You can’t go in unless you have these on,” she said. “You know the rules.” She gave up when the floaties were just above the elbows instead of at the biceps where they belonged. She waved Sarah toward the pool. “Let’s go,” she