Fourth of July
When Sabrina entered the new pool area at the Metro Court, which had been refurbished to model a tropical island getaway complete with cabanas and a pool bar, Emma bounded over to her. "Sabrina!"
Sabrina kneeled down and gave her a big hug. "Hey, sweetie. How are you?"
"I'm good. This place is awesome!" Then Emma grabbed Sabrina's hand and began pulling her. "Come sit with me and daddy!"
Sabrina, hating to disappoint Emma, stalled and said, "Um, Emma, Will is meeting me later. It might be better if I sit by myself." When Emma frowned, Sabrina continued, "But I'll be close by and you can come visit me."
Emma's response was the puppy eyes and frowny face Sabrina could never deny. "Please, Sabrina…" So, Sabrina gave in and allowed herself to be (quite literally) dragged over to Emma and Patrick's cabana.
Patrick, who'd been laying on one of the lounge chairs, smiled when he saw her. "Hey."
Sabrina couldn't help but smile back. "Hey."
Emma addressed Patrick. "Sabrina said she'd sit with us. Isn't that cool?!"
"Yeah, it is."
As Sabrina put her stuff on a chair near Patrick's, she heard Patrick tell Emma that it was time to reapply her sunscreen. Emma, wanting to go back in the water, frowned, but shuffled over. As Patrick was getting it ready, she said, "I want Sabrina to do it."
Patrick laughed and said, "Okay," and passed the sunscreen to Sabrina, who'd just sat down. When Sabrina took it from him, she inadvertently touched his hand and felt a jolt of electricity inside her that caused her to pull it away quickly. He gave her a knowing look and a wink, but said nothing.
Once Sabrina had finished applying the sunscreen, Emma fled to go back to her friends in the water and Sabrina was left alone with Patrick. To distract herself from glancing over at him lounging in only his swim trunks, Sabrina busied herself with setting up her area. After laying down her favorite beach towel, she grabbed her Kindle and sunglasses from her tote. She removed the cute beach hat she'd bought on a whim so she could take off her cover-up, adjusted the back of the chair and then settled in for a satisfying stint of reading by the pool.
Patrick made a mental note to buy Emma the biggest ice cream sundae ever for convincing Sabrina to come sit with them (or, rather, him, since Emma had been in the water all day) in their cabana. He'd brought Emma to the party at the pool so she could spend the day with her friends until Robin came to pick her up later and had busied himself by people-watching from his lounge chair as he kept an eye on Emma.
Ecstatic to see Sabrina enter their cabana with her, Patrick infused all his joy in his "Hey," but got distracted when he noticed Emma was starting to get some sunburn. Again, however, his little angel pulled out another assist when she insisted Sabrina apply a new round of sunscreen instead of him. When Patrick handed Sabrina the tube, he literally felt the jolt of electricity run between them, so he smirked and winked when Sabrina got spooked by it and pulled her hand away, knowing she was just in denial and would come around sooner or later.
After Emma left, Sabrina didn't say anything, but he caught her sneaking glances at him as she settled in to read. The only thing Sabrina liked better than reading was doing so outside, and, today, as she sat there in her bikini (when had she bought that!?) he gained a new level of respect for her addictive habit. As she read, Patrick drank in the site of her – and made no effort to hide his appreciation from her.
After several minutes of him staring, Sabrina sighed, "Patrick. Stop it."
"What?" he asked innocently.
Never looking up from her Kindle, she said, "You're staring."
"Just appreciating the view." When Sabrina looked up and rolled her eyes, he added, "Nice bikini. When did you start wearing those?"
Sabrina, who'd returned her attention to her book, answered, "In Puerto Rico. But, Will bought me this one because he said it matched my eyes. Since he's coming later, I thought I'd surprise him with it."
If Sabrina had wanted to kill Patrick's buzz, mentioning Foster was guaranteed to do it. "Oh."
When Sabrina continued to ignore him, Patrick returned his attention to Emma. However, about an hour later, when the sun started creeping into the cabana, exposing most of Sabrina's chair, she started fumbling around in her tote for sunscreen. As he watched her apply some to the front of her body, as well as her arms and legs, Patrick was hit with a brilliant idea that made him seriously reconsider his genius daughter's request for that puppy.
When Sabrina sat up to try to rub sunscreen on her back, he acted on his thoughts, saying, "I can… ah… do that for you, if you want."
Sabrina looked over her shoulder with a doubtful look. "Thanks, but I'll pass," she said as she pulled her hair over her shoulder and wrenched her arm around in a weird angle to reach her back.
Patrick stood up and walked over to her chair. Then, ripping the tube out of her hand, he said, "You can be so stubborn sometimes. Just let me help you." Before Sabrina could, once again, refuse, he squirted some in his hand, sat down behind her, and began rubbing in the sunscreen.
How much were puppies anyway?