Reluctantly in Love (9 page)

“Not funny,” Lexie said with an eye roll, and Leo laughed.

“You’re such an ass,” I said.

“First one to the ramp at Jonak’s gets dibs on the only air mattress we have.” Matt shoved away from the riverbank and their canoe drifted into the current. He dipped his paddle into the river. “Last ones have to hunt for firewood.”

“That’s not fair!” I called after them. “I don’t even know where this ramp is!”

“Better keep up then,” Matt said over his shoulder.

“I want that air mattress,” Leo said, paddling after Matt. “Sorry, man,” he called back to Chase. “You got the short end of the stick with Rox.”

“You’re lucky I’m scared of this water, or I’d take you down,” I said, but they were already a canoe length away.

The canoe rocked and dipped toward the water. After a nerve-wracking moment, the canoe stabilized and so did my breathing. I craned my neck, careful not to move the rest of my body, and gave Chase a severe stare.

“You should have warned me, sheesh!”

“I thought you were in a hurry.” He gave me a cocky smile. The canoe drifted, and he dipped his paddle in the water, stroking backward. The canoe lurched forward. “Unless you want to lose so you can get me all to yourself out in the trees after dark.”

“Um, no.” But now that the idea was planted, making out with Chase in the dark would be the best part of this camping trip.

“All right then, we better catch up with everyone.”

I faced forward in case he had some kind of superpower, like mind reading. “Right. I want that air mattress.”

I stroked through the water with my paddle, trying to talk my nerves down. The quicker we paddled, the sooner this canoe trip would be over. “This isn’t so bad.” A little of the tension eased from my shoulders. “Do you canoe a lot?”

“I grew up on this river, so you don’t have to worry. I know where the ramp is.”

I turned to look back, but the boat wobbled. I faced forward again. “I didn’t realize you and Matt were both from this town.”

“Yeah, that’s why we can’t get rid of each other.” He laughed. “We’ve been friends since grade school. Got into a lot of trouble, that guy and I.”

“I know how that goes.” I smiled, thinking of my friendship with Gen and Lexie.

“How do you like living in Lincoln?” I asked. Talking kept my mind off of what might be swimming under the canoe.

“I don’t mind it, actually. Better than Omaha. I never did get used to that city—too busy for me. I’m a small town kind of guy. If there was need for another doctor in Cedar Ridge, I might move back.”

“There’s a doctor in this town?”

He laughed. “You sound surprised.”

It couldn’t have taken but ten minutes to make it from one end of Cedar Ridge to the other.

“It’s a really small town. Some of the streets are gravel.” Then I worried he'd be insulted, and said, “But it’s charming.”

“Small towns aren’t for everyone,” he said with a chuckle.

“And not big enough for two doctors?”

“There are already two doctors in town, actually. But I’m sure they’d have me if I showed up with my bags. The town doc is my dad. My older sister joined the practice a few years ago. They get patients from all over the county.”

“A family business thing; that’s nice,” I said, thinking of my dad. He hadn’t made secret his disappointment in my pursuing a writing career. He wanted me to join the culinary empire—his dream, not mine. A dream he’d chased without me after he divorced my mother. Even though I told myself his approval didn’t matter, it did. When I was thirteen, I found it easy to blame myself for his leaving. Coming to the realization that it wasn’t my fault had taken too long.

“I have a younger brother who designs houses and a younger sister who’s a photographer. They thought three doctors in the family was enough.”

“Where do they live?” I had a pattern now—paddle twice on the right, once on the left, once on the right, twice on the left.

“All my family lives here in Cedar Ridge. I’m the rebel.”

I could hear the laughter in his voice, and wondered if it was something his family joked about at the dinner table. Gen and Lexie’s family joked like that. Sitting at their parents’ dinner table was always loud, full of bickering, and oozing love. I was my parents’ only child. I had a younger half-sister from my dad’s second marriage, but since that marriage hadn’t lasted either, I’d only seen her a few times. I hoped he was a better father to her than he was to me.

“Your family sounds nice,” I said.

“They are. I think I’ll keep them around.”

I could hear the shrug in his voice, and laughed.

We paddled on in silence until the canoe wobbled and I looked back to see why he was moving around. He was leaned forward with a hand in the cooler.

Catching my eye, he asked, “Pink thing? Blue thing?” He held up a pink wine cooler. “You must have packed this cooler.”

“I didn’t know what kind of mood I’d be in. I’ll take the pink one.” I turned just a tad sideways in my seat and he handed it to me. “There’s beer somewhere in there too. I don’t drink beer usually unless there’s orange juice in it.”

He grimaced. “Orange juice? Why would you do that?”

I screwed my nose up and faced forward in my seat. “Because beer isn’t my first choice in drink. I mean, it’s good sometimes.”

“I get it. You’re a foo-foo drink girl”

“You bet your ass.” I untwisted the cap off the wine cooler and took a drink. The sun was even hotter out here on the water, if that were even possible. “Whose idea was it to canoe in one hundred degree weather?”

“That’d be Matt.”

The bottle sweated in my hand. I needed that koozie thing Matt gave me, but I forgot it on the river bank.

“How does it feel to be a victim of matchmaking?” I wedged the bottle between my knees so I could paddle.

“I’m not sure. Do they do this often?”

“Seems like it. At least, lately.”

“This isn’t so bad.”

“It’s not, is it?” I could think of worse people to be in a canoe with. Chase wasn’t bad company. I wasn’t even annoyed with Gen and Lexie anymore.

“I figured she was up to something.” He chuckled. “She’s been talking about you nonstop for the last few months.”

“Yes, well, once she gets an idea in her head, she’s annoyingly persistent.” I glanced back at him with a smile. “But it’s nice not being the fifth wheel.”

“So, you’re happy I’m here, but not interested in the matchmaking part. Got it.”

I looked forward and concentrated on paddling stronger on the left to push the canoe away from the trees hanging low over the bank.

“That’s right,” I told him. “Not interested in . . . that kind of thing.”

Total lie. Hooking up was definitely on my mind, and probably not going anywhere for a while. At least, not while he was in the same canoe with me.

“Yes, I did get the impression you aren’t interested in men.”

I whipped my head around and the canoe rocked. “What? I am too. I happen to love men. And . . . ” I wracked my brain to think of something I liked about men, but my mind was blanking, “and their . . . penis.”

What the hell?
Apparently I’d been single so long and out of practice that my mouth no longer worked around hot guys. Perfect.

He burst into laughter. “Penis, huh?”

“You know what I mean. I was making a point.”

“You made it. You like guys.” He gave a short nod, coupled with a devilish grin. “It’s just not my penis you’re interested in.”

Smiling, I said, “I’m sure you have a very nice penis. I just don’t think dating my best friend’s boyfriend’s best friend is a great idea.”

“You’re probably right.” He lifted his paddle and pointed. “Tree.”

I turned just in time to duck. All the turning around I was doing wasn’t helping to keep us from drifting toward the bank. I pushed my paddle off a big fallen tree trunk hanging off the bank and into the water.

“If it makes you feel any better, I also told Gen it’s not a great idea for us to date.”

“Exactly,” I said with a shrug. “So, you’re a smart, rational doctor who possibly has a nice penis.”

“I’ve never had any complaints before.”

I bet you haven’t.
It was hard to imagine a less than perfect penis on a man whose body looked like his. And I had a great imagination. Grinning, I said, “I’ll just have to take your word for it.”

His response was laughter.

“I think we’re going to lose this race,” I said. The two other canoes were specks in the distance, with Matt and Gen in the lead. They disappeared from view around a bend in the river.

“We can catch them.”

I sucked in a deep breath of fresh air and shook my head. “You know what? I don’t care to hurry. It’s pretty out here.”

“The company’s not so bad, either,” he said, and my lips broke into a big, fat smile.

“I agree,” I answered, and dipped my paddle into the river.

I tilted my face up to the sun, enjoying the warmth on my skin for the first time today. I’d been concentrating too much on being hot and sweaty. Out here on the water, there was a breeze that cooled the sweat from my skin. The sky was a pure baby blue, no clouds in sight, and the sun reflected off the sand, turning the sandbars in the middle of the river into glistening gems. I hadn’t expected this trip down the river to be so serene, or the view this breathtaking. My conversation with Chase had taken my mind off everything that could possibly be lurking in the water beneath the canoe.

We were drifting in the water, letting the current carry us along, when a splash from beside the canoe startled me. A huge bird unfurled its wings, flapping so close to us that I sucked in a breath.
Too close.
I gasped, and jerked away from its large talons. The canoe shifted under me and I screamed as I lost my balance and went backward into the murky water.

My eyes squeezed shut and panic surged like electric pulses through my limbs. A scene from
River Monsters
flashed through my mind and I just knew I was about to die. My arms flailed, grasping for the surface, for anything.

This is it. My last moments on this earth.
And then a ridiculous thought occurred—I hadn’t folded my laundry before I left on this camping trip. My mother would fly here to take care of my funeral arrangements and be shocked at the domestic disaster. My agent’s deadline was nipping at my heels, and laundry was a time-suck. I had a housekeeper who came in once a week, but it wasn’t her job to do my laundry.

Another thought occurred—my mother would see the slinky underwear in my drawer and wonder who her twenty-three year old daughter was wearing it for. My ghost would stress that I wore it for no one. I happened to like pretty, sexy things. My mother still thought of me as her baby girl. She still squeezed my cheeks and told me she wished I wouldn’t grow up. A little late for that, but saying so made her feel good. Seeing my slinky underwear would not.

All these thoughts passed through my head in what had to be seconds, those seconds dragging on into an eternity. When strong arms closed around me, I clung to them with a death grip until my head broke the water’s surface. I gasped and sucked in fresh air as I wiped at my eyes. I couldn’t breathe fast enough.

“Hey, hey, you’re okay,” Chase said in a soothing tone, his arms steadying me. “I got you.”

I blinked at him, my hands on his chest now. He pushed the hair out of my eyes then cupped my face with his hands. The eyes staring back at me squinted with concern.

The river water was warm, reaching up to above my waist and another flash of panic shot through me. I sprang out of the water and jumped on him, wrapping my legs around his waist, but the water still grazed my butt. I couldn’t get any higher unless I crawled onto his shoulders.

“Oh my God, get me out of this water,” I said on a whoosh of air, inching higher up on his middle. My arms were over his shoulders and my hands clutched at the top of his head, my fingers twined in his hair.

He waded through the water with me in his arms. The river bank wasn’t far, but felt like a football field away.

“I got you,” he repeated.

I held my breath until the grassy river bank was only a few steps away. My legs loosened their grip around him just enough for me to relax in his arms. I was still too distraught to enjoy the feel of his back muscles under my fingers—that’s how freaked I was. When I was safely deposited on the river bank, I expelled a breath and fell back into the grass, my legs hanging over the bank. I had never felt so happy to feel grass before.

I rolled over and splayed my arms out, one cheek against the prickly grass. “I love you, grass.”

Chase laughed from somewhere above me—he’d climbed up on the bank too.

I rolled over and sprang to my feet, throwing myself into his arms. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. I could have died.”

“I know you don’t want to hear this, but you definitely wouldn’t have gotten eaten by mutant fish.”

I leaned back just enough so I could gaze into his eyes.
Like the ocean.
It was my favorite color of blue, I decided. A girl could get lost in those pretty gems. I couldn’t look away, not even when I realized this lingering gaze might seem super intense—like, weirdly so.

The heat behind Chase’s gaze was intoxicating, and my breaths became shallow. It was strange, this current of energy that rushed through my body. There’d been none of this with my last boyfriend, none of this with any of the guys I’d dated. Whatever this was left me dumbfounded and at a loss for words, which was something I wasn’t used to.

“Mutant fish, huh?” The corners of his lips twitched with a smile.

And the moment passed. I stepped away and propped my hands on my hips.

“Yeah, mutant fish. Pollution is real, Chase. And if this river’s polluted, the fish and all the organisms living in it would be mutated.”

Chase’s smile widened into a full out grin, and I narrowed my eyes.

“I saw it on a documentary.” Then after a moment, I added, “A scientific documentary.”

“Can’t argue with science,” he said with a nod and an amused shrug of his shoulders.

“Exactly.”

“Murky water freaks you out—it’s not a big deal. Heights freak me out.” He propped his hands into the grass and leaned back into them. “One time, my brother convinced me to get on a roller coaster. I don’t know why I did it. Maybe I just didn’t want to look like a wimp in front of my baby brother. Either way, I screamed the entire time. I might have cried a little too.”