Pool Girl: An Instalove Possessive Age Gap Romance (A Man Who Knows Who He Wants)

by Flora Ferrari

  “Sorry to have to bring it up, but it’s a new policy. The patient’s in private rooms can only remain there if they have insurance.”

  I hear Piper groan quietly, starting to fidget with nerves and frustration.

  “Nurse… Reynolds,” I say through gritted teeth, straining to see her ID tag. “Guy’s bill will be paid in full. Cash if you’d prefer,” I tell her, feeling myself looming up again.

  But she’s not bothered. “That’s great, Mr.…?” she retorts. “But we require an insurance policy number or a credit card or bank account number to apply to any patient’s stay in a private room.”

  I force a smile and glance over to Piper, whose mouth is wide open.

  “Maybe we could sort that out while Piper sees her dad?” I ask the nurse, straining to sound polite now, and only for Piper’s sake.

  If the nurse was a man, I’d be handling things a little differently.

  Something I might take up with the hospital admin first thing tomorrow instead.

  “Sure,” Nurse Reynolds clips cheerfully. That fake cheer that all nurses have. The kind that can turn on you in a second and call security, so I play along.

  Poor Piper, I don’t mean to let her see me get so wound up.

  “If you could fill these forms out, I’ll take Piper through to see her dad.”

  I give Piper an encouraging nod and set to work on the forms so my friend won’t have to worry about his bill.

  Nor will Piper. She’ll never want for anything ever again. I’ll see to that.

  A doctor passes by, asks me if I need help just as I’m finishing up with the forms.

  I feel like asking him about lodging a complaint, about the hospital’s policy on patients without insurance, but I know I’d be wasting my breath.

  I shake my head, looking up again once I see him peering at Guy’s name on the form.

  “Ah, your brother will be fine,” he says knowingly, ignoring the fact we both have different surnames. He doesn’t sound like the doctor I spoke to on the phone though. He clears it up when I ask him.

  “I’m Dr. Clements, night shift,” he explains.

  I decided to put myself down as Guy’s brother after all. What are they gonna do, a genealogy check? I should’ve just told them from the get-go, but Piper…

  We might not be related by blood, but he’s the closest thing to family I’ve ever had. Until today.

  Noticing the forms again, Doc Clements seems a little more forthcoming with information, and some good ol’ bedside manner.

  “Guy had a small… a very small heart attack,” he explains, making my own give a jolt and mixed with what I know is coming up between us, it only makes things more difficult.

  “But he’s fine now and we expect him to make a full recovery,” the doctor explains.

  “What brought it on, I thought he had flu?” I ask.

  “He does,” the doctor says, frowning. “But it would appear something else… likely an emotional shock contributed to his cardiac episode.”

  The doctor hears himself being paged, his beeper buzzing in his top pocket. “Excuse me,” he says, and as quickly as he appeared he’s gone.

  I stand for a while, checking over the forms until I’ve had quite enough of that, then just listen to the night sounds of the hospital ward.

  I want to go find Piper, and her dad but remember the nurse saying it should only be one at a time with visitors too.

  Not the place to spend a minute more than you have to, I reflect.

  The hospital is not a place I expected Guy to end up in either, he looks after himself and he’s as fit as I am, if only just a little smaller.

  I hear footsteps and turn to see Piper and the nurse coming back. Piper’s been crying and my instinct is to hold her, to kiss her.

  Remembering my brother story, that might not go down too well, so I only put my arm around her, rubbing her consolingly.

  “How is he?” I ask her, watching her nod and sniffle, scowling when that damned nurse butts in.

  “He’s fine, but I’m not sure he’s up for another visor just now, maybe you can-”

  I bring my face close to hers. “Maybe you can zip it for a bit, Reynolds. I’m going to see my brother now if you don’t mind.”

  With an icy look, the nurse backs off, reminding Piper to stay put. I lean in and promise Piper I won’t be long.

  Then I start down the linoleum corridor, which suddenly feels like it’s a mile long when I consider what I know Guy’s about to ask me.

  I just know it.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Piper

  Dad’s fine. I mean, he’s not dying or anything. But the doctor’s told him he had a small heart attack and he does have a fever from the flu which they’re monitoring and bringing down slowly.

  It’s a relief, but it’s no relief at the same time.

  I just want dad to be well again, but at the same time, if he hadn’t come to the hospital, if he hadn’t been sick in the first place, I might never have met Will.

  We would never have…

  I can’t think like that though. Dad’s fine and that’s all that matters.

  I have no idea how we’ll pay Will back for the hospital bill though, how we’ll manage with a lot of things if dad is gonna be in here for a few days.

  Hospitals are expensive. And despite what my dad tells me, the pool cleaning game isn’t a million dollar job.

  I watch Will walk down to the room my dad’s in, wondering why he was so distant, but the nurse’s look explains a lot as she looks over the folder with the payment details Will’s filled out.

  “So, your uncle and you, pretty close huh?” she asks, looking at me with narrowed eyes.

  I don’t like her, and I know Will doesn’t either.

  I open my mouth to automatically correct her, to tell her Will’s not my uncle but in a split second, I figure Will’s put himself down as my dad’s brother.

  That’s what Will would do.

  It’s my turn to give her a piercing look. “What’s that got to do with my dad’s treatment?” I ask her, watching her flush and humph as she flips through the papers, turning her back to me.

  Leaving me alone after a moment, she storms off down the hall in the opposite direction from dad’s room.

  Hugging my elbows, I feel a chill again, suddenly fearful I might have contracted something myself when I fell in the pool today.

  Hospitals always do this to me, two minutes in one and I’m convinced I have something wrong with me.

  I suddenly come to my senses again, with nurse Ratchet gone, who says I can’t go back down to dad’s room to see him but more importantly right now, to see Will too.

  I get about halfway, almost turning back when I think I hear that nurse coming back, but it’s not her.

  It’s two men’s voices, trying not to shout, hissing at each other.

  As I get closer to dad’s room, creeping now, I realize it’s him and Will.

  It sounds like they’re arguing but trying hard not to shout.

  As soon as I’m convinced it is them, I freeze. I mean, talk about awkward.

  I don’t want to rush in and interrupt them, but at the same time, the man’s just had a heart attack. He shouldn’t be getting excited about anything.

  But, I also trust Will as much as my dad. It’s a maddening moment, but suddenly they both go quiet. Finally, they start talking normally and I debate again whether to even go in there or not.

  I creep up a few more steps, hearing my dad sigh and say something about how Will’s always done right by him.

  I can’t go in there. It’s none of my business what they’re talking about. It’s probably about the hospital bill. That’s what it is. Dad doesn’t want to have Will pay for his hospital bills.

  As if we have a choice right now.

  A door bangs down the hall, making me jump and I turn to see that nurse walking back over to her station. Before she has a chance to spot me, I know I have to go one way or the other
.

  In two long steps, I’m back inside dad’s room. Will turns in surprise and my dad looks up at me, and then at Will.

  I can tell they’re both wondering how much I heard.

  “Sorry,” I whisper. “That nurse…” I explain, but they’re both still staring at me. My dad’s gaze is more intense than ever, almost accusing compared to Will’s who only looks surprised that I suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

  His shoulders relax and he gives me a small smile, keeping his eyes on me, not on my dad.

  I want to go to him. I feel like it’s where I belong, but the look my dad’s giving me is unsettling.

  “What? What is it, Dad?” I ask, hearing a tremor in my own voice, feeling suddenly like I’ve gone from the pan into the fire by coming in here.

  “Will says he helped you do the pools today, that you fell in one at his place,” he finally says, forcing a laugh.

  But his laugh has an edge to it.

  An edge that makes my belly start to twist with nerves.

  He knows. Crap! He knows.

  It’s strange how our parents just know some things, like when we’ve been bad or when we’re lying. Even if we have the best intentions, even when we’re trying to protect their feelings.

  I don’t want to get into it with my dad, not now and maybe not ever. Even though I know the day will come when Will and I have to talk to dad about us, I just don’t want it to be right now.

  Not tonight.

  I smile, laughing nervously. “Yeah, uh… Will said you called. I took a tumble but I only got wet, nothing serious,” I lie.

  “Then he helped out with the rest of the round. We didn’t get behind in the end, got everybody done. Even Ms. Perkins,” I chime, trying to sound upbeat, but noticing I sound more like a lunatic.

  My teeth are almost chattering with nerves by the time my dad answers.

  “Hmmm. Yeah, Ms. Perkins,” he says in a low tone, cryptically.

  I shoot a glance at Will, who looks like he’s about to say something when that nurse clears her throat.

  She stands in the doorway, tapping her foot with a hand on her hip, checking her watch.

  “Alright, you two. I think that’ quite enough excitement for one night,” she says, giving Will an icy look.

  “I told you, no more than one visitor and not for more than a few minutes.”

  We both stay quiet as she crosses the floor, checking my dad’s monitor while she has a finger on his pulse, she tsks to herself.

  “Please,” she says, turning to us both again. “Come back tomorrow and call before you do,” she says dismissively.

  Will doesn’t seem to need a second reminder, and while the nurse blocks my dad’s view of us, he grabs me by the elbow and pulls me out into the hall.

  I try to say something, but he shakes his head firmly, almost dragging me along the hallway until we’re clear of the ward.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Will

  Guy doesn’t waste his breath, plus I know I don’t have long to visit anyway.

  “It was Vanessa Perkins,” he says knowingly, sending a jolt of guilt through my gut.

  I know Guy well enough to know what he’s thinking and he knows me just the same.

  There’s no need for us to play games.

  “I thought I could trust you, with Piper,” he says coldly, turning away when I meet his eyes with mine.

  “Just like old times,” he muses bitterly to himself.

  I know what’s coming. He always brings it up when things are bad for him.

  “You went to the rich family, got the college degree, the overseas holidays, the tuition,” he starts to remind me.

  I want to interrupt him, to tell him for the thousandth time that I made my own way in the world, being fostered to a well to do family had nothing to do with it.

  But he’ll never see it that way. Guy was never fostered like I was, and although we spent so many years growing up in the same state-run home for boys, he only left once he was legally old enough.

  I tried. I did do all I could to make it easier for him, both in the home and for his whole life afterward. But it’s something he’s never gotten over. That I had a family of sorts and he never did.

  That I made it in the world and he only ever made it as a pool guy, and even that was only with my help.

  And now?

  Now he knows I’ve claimed his only daughter. The only family he ever had, lost to me, the best friend that always seems to get everything that Guy never can.

  That’s the pity speech anyway, the gist of it. Lord knows I’ve heard it enough over the years, it’s the one thing that keeps Guy and me from catching up more often.

  Every time he comes to do the pools, I try to make sure I’m not there or make like I’m busy.

  He hates coming to my house. I know he does.

  But I know he loves me, like a brother. And like brothers, we might have disagreements, even passionate hate for some things about each other, but we’ll always be there for one another.

  That’s just what boys do.

  “What about Vanessa Perkins?” I ask, hearing how weak my own voice sounds in the face of the truth I know is coming.

  “She called me once she came to and noticed you two had left. She’d wiped herself out on margaritas once she saw you and Piper. She really thought she stood a chance with you. You, Will! You of all people!”

  He stifles a laugh, which turns into a hacking cough that he mutes by sheer force of his own will.

  “So you know,” I tell him, not telling him everything though.

  Kissing Piper behind a tree while we’re cleaning pools, that’s one thing.

  I’m not sure I feel like telling him everything right now, not until I know his heart can take it.

  But he knows.

  We never had real parents, but we always knew what the other was thinking. Always knew when the other was lying, even if it was only to protect the other’s feelings.

  “I’ve paid your bill, for the hospital, you don’t need to worry about that,” I tell him softly, hoping to change the subject but knowing I’ve just made it worse.

  “Of course you have!” he spits out, sitting up and making a fist I know is meant for me when I get close enough.

  He knows.

  “You always have plenty of money, don’t you Will? Plenty of shit to rub my fucking nose in. Well now you have the greatest pile of all, don’t you? Don’t you!” he practically shouts, and I move closer with both my hands up if only to try and calm him down. Stop him from having another heart attack.

  But his outburst has weakened him, he slumps back onto his pillow, and I feel like the worst man in the world once I see the single tear run down his cheek.

  “I suppose she couldn’t stay a little girl forever. She’s been so grown up for years. College and now this,” he reflects, ignoring me and telling himself.

  “She’s a woman now, not a child. But dammit man, I thought I could trust you with her, the one thing I had that you didn’t, the one thing I did right in this life. All by myself, without your meddling. Without your stupid money!” he finally hisses, and I get it.

  I understand why this hurts him so much.

  “I never wanted to hurt you, Guy,” I tell him truthfully. “This all happened so fast, but it’s real. I love Piper. I’m gonna take care of her, but I don’t want you thinking, not for one second that I did any of this to hurt you. Ask her yourself. She feels the same way I do.”

  We stay silent for a while, then he sighs again. “I don’t need to ask her, Will. I could see it in her eyes just now. Before you came in here. She looks happy for the first time in her life. You’ve given her something she’s never had, confidence. Confidence in herself.”

  I don’t know what to say, so decide to say nothing, but Guy reminds me again, a little more accepting this time.

  “You always did good by me, Will. Both of us. You’ve helped more than anyone would or even should. And I know, as much as it pisse
s me off right now, that you’re the only man that can give my little girl the life I know she deserves.”

  It’s as close as a blessing I’m gonna get, but before I can shake his hand, Piper’s suddenly in the room, and not long after, that damned nurse tosses us both out.

  Piper’s looking worried sick, but I practically drag her out of the hospital, not making any sense until we get back in her dad’s car that we borrowed to come down to the hospital.

  “Will,” she says nervously. “You’re scaring me. What’s going on? Does he know?”

  Her look softens as I smile, but she’s still looking slightly panicked.

  Good old Piper, I know that like me she just doesn’t want to hurt her dad’s feelings.

  I take her hand in mine. If it was the right time for me to claim her then it’s the right time to ask her this one question.

  But she won’t let me.

  She’s talking right over me, full of concern about her dad and worried about me too.

  God, I just love her so much.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Piper

  I can hear my voice getting louder, higher in pitch.

  It’s like the more words I spill out, the more frantic I’m sound.

  Why is he smiling? This is serious.

  Will has practically dragged me out of the hospital and into the car, scaring me and confusing me. And now he’s smiling?

  My mind is racing faster than my mouth too, and before I get too much out, I’m crying hysterically.

  Will leans over and puts his strong arm around my shoulders, pulling me gently toward him as he does that thing I like so much. How he strokes my hair and kisses my head.

  Telling me it’s alright. Telling me he loves me.

  Will had his mouth open like he wanted to ask me something, but I have more questions than I know what to do with myself right now.

  Sensing all this and more, Will calmly waits until I’ve settled down, just a little.

  “Your dad’s gonna be fine, Piper. We’re gonna be fine too. But I know you have a lot to ask me and I think it’s only fair I answer all your questions before I ask you mine.”