Kathleen was confused. She thought she had the situation mapped out: Russell was done, their idyllic little wedding guest interlude was over. But his gentle hands on her body as he directed and assessed her dry land paddling seemed comfortable and intimate, sending frissons of electricity through her.
Enough. Stop analyzing. Kathleen zipped up the life vest and moved over to where Russell pushed one of the kayaks out so just the back end rested on the shore. Kicking off her flip-flops, she bent and rolled her jeans up another couple of turns.
“Get in and I’ll push you out,” Russell said, waving at the fiberglass craft.
“How are you going to launch yourself then?”
“Practice. Here. I’ll hold the boat and keep it stable while you get in. Set the paddle down across the cockpit, put your hands on either side, and step in.”
Kathleen stepped into the water, wincing at the cold. Russell held the back of the kayak steady as she followed his instructions, settling herself into the boat. He waded into the water, showed her how to adjust the foot supports and the seat, and pushed her out until the little craft was bobbing free. She turned to watch him as he slid into the other kayak with the ease of someone who had done it many times, giving the shoreline a shove with his paddle and coming abreast of her.
“So this is it,” he said. “Come with me.”
Kathleen dipped one side of the paddle into the water and pulled. The kayak shot out and she laughed, angling the paddle to take a stroke on the other side, then alternating steadily as she gained confidence.
“Like I said, you’re a natural.” Russell’s voice floated behind her and she twisted in her seat to give him a smile.
“It’s easy. I didn’t think it would be so easy.”
His dimple emerged as he watched her. “Another skill you can put on your résumé.”
Kathleen laughed again and Russell came alongside her. He showed her how to use the paddle as a rudder to turn the kayak. “These are pretty stable boats, but they’re not too bad at turning either.”
“What do you mean?”
“Maneuverability and stability are tradeoffs. Get a really agile boat that turns easily and it’s going to be harder to balance. Get a really stable boat and it’s not going to turn so well. These hit the sweet spot right in the middle.”
Kathleen nodded and they paddled in silence for a while. She looked out over the water, sunlight glittering on the surface. In the distance to her right, a low spit of land stretched toward the open ocean. “It’s really peaceful, isn’t it?”
“It is. I’d forgotten how much I missed this.” His face looked serene and relaxed. The muscles in his arms bunched and extended as he paddled.
“I think I could learn to love it the way you do.”
He gave her a sideways glance, apparently startled. “So soon? You’ve only just started.”
She watched the line of droplets cascade off one blade of her paddle as she lifted it out of the water, then repeated the motion on the other side, the kayak scooting smoothly over the bay.
“Sometimes you just know. Know what I mean?”
Russell wasn’t at all sure that he knew what she meant.
But he knew what he hoped she meant. And he hoped she wasn’t really talking about kayaking at all.
He cleared his throat. “I…think I do?” He paddled a little more swiftly so he could turn and see her face clearly. Her hazel eyes were large, her skin pale. Since he had met her, her hair usually framed her face, but the topknot that her hair was pulled into now drew her cheekbones into relief so that she looked almost fragile.
She returned her attention to look forward, looking at a group of seagulls as they sparred in the air, squabbling over something. “Is this the kind of kayaking you usually do?” she asked.
He wondered why she felt the need to change the subject. Or maybe he really hadn’t followed her meaning and she hadn’t changed the subject at all.
“I would usually go to a local lake, back when I had my own boat,” he said.
“When you were married.”
“Yeah.” Did that bother her?
“Which lake?”
“A couple of them. I—we—lived in North Bethesda. So, Clopper Lake, Tridelphia, places like that.”
“I’ve never been. Are those nice?”
“Very. Very peaceful, very quiet. But a lot more wildlife to look at. Inlets to poke into.”
“What sort of wildlife?” Her eyes followed a gull as it glided past.
“Some birds—herons, cormorants. Sometimes a deer or a family of them. Lots of turtles.”
A glorious smile spread across her face and she turned away from the gull to hit him dead in the chest with it. “I love turtles.”
“I do too. And you can sometimes sneak up on them. Get very close while they’re sunning themselves. Kayaking is very quiet.”
She paddled a few times and nodded. “Yeah. Very stealthy.”
“You bet.” His brain circled back to an earlier point in the conversation. “Does it bother you that I was married once?”
Her head turned so fast her kayak wobbled a bit and she rested the paddle across the cockpit opening, letting her boat drift. “No.”
“Really?”
“No. Why should it?” Her eyes had a shuttered, protected look.
Why would you ask me if it bothers me that you were married once if this is all we get?
The question lingered on her palate. She could practically taste it. But to actually ask it was to burst the soap bubble, to hasten the end of this little idyllic interlude that she’d been trying to extend by pretending that this moment in time was all that existed. He hadn’t taken the meaning of her innuendo earlier. Or if he had, he hadn’t taken the opening she had given him.
Russell glanced back at the shore, then at her. His eyebrows drew together. “Did you put on sunscreen this morning?”
Kathleen almost burst out laughing at the absurdity of his sudden detour. “No,” she admitted. I didn’t even think of it this morning.” She had been too eager to clean up and get back to spending more time with him. She hadn’t even thought about spending time outdoors. And even though she knew that her pale skin meant she should wear sunscreen all the time, she wasn’t as diligent as she should be.
“Well, practice your turning. We’re heading back.”
“But we just started.” And I’m not ready for this to be over.
“By the time we get back we will have been out for about a half hour. And you look like you could burn in about five minutes.”
He wasn’t wrong. Kathleen shoved her paddle in the water, feeling the drag as the kayak pivoted around it. “Fine.”
They made their way to the shore without speaking, only the tiny plink of the blades entering and the dripdripdrip of droplets cascading off as they paddled back. Misery pooled in Kathleen’s stomach as she realized how much he must want to get back to his life, to put this weekend in a mental box labeled, “Nice memory of a hot fling.”
“Paddle hard for the shore to get enough momentum to beach the prow,” he told her, showing her how it was done, drawing strong with his own paddle, his biceps straining against the sleeves of his tee shirt. Kathleen tried to imitate him, but the crunch of her boat coming to rest against the shore was less impressive than his. He was out of his kayak in a second and grabbing the handle at the front of hers, lifting it and tugging it more securely onto the shore, her body feeling like a rag doll in the vinyl seat. “I’ll steady it so you can get out.”
Kathleen placed the paddle down as she had seen him do, bracing her hands against it and pushed herself out of the kayak, her feet splashing in the icy water. Russell dragged his boat fully onto the grass and Kathleen imitated him, surprised at the weight of the thing. He had handled it as if it was a lot lighter, even when she had been sitting in it.
“Wow. Heavy.”
“Let me put that away,” he told her. “If you could grab the paddles and bring them, that would be great.”
Fantastic. Now he was rushing things towards their inevitable end. Clearly eager to be done with her. She picked up the paddles and carried them to the little boathouse, disappointment tightening her jaw. Looking at the fastening mechanism on the paddle, she pressed a little stud and twisted the two ends apart, placing it with the others in a corner. Repeating the same action with the other paddle, she unzipped her life vest and put it on the chest. Russell was just settling the second kayak on its rack on the wall. He straightened his shoulders and turned to her, seeming to steel himself for something.
Here it is.
“Here’s the thing,” he said. “I…”
Just get it over with. “I had a nice time, but this is it.” Rip the band-aid off, already.
“…Was wondering if you wanted to stay here another day.”
Kathleen’s face was empty of expression, her mouth tight. “You what?”
The nervous knot in Russell’s gut tightened and he raised a hand. “I’m sorry. It’s presumptuous of me. When I asked the woman at the front desk about the kayaks I also asked if they had availability for one more night. But I should have known better. You have your life to get back to.”
One of her hands was on her stomach, her other came to her mouth. “What?” Her voice was weak.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
She stepped forward, placing one hand on his lips, twining the fingers of her other hand in his still upraised one. “No. Stop talking. I have nothing to get back to tomorrow. I would love to spend another night—another day—with you.”
The tension that had been racking his shoulders tighter and tighter released and he felt lightheaded. “Really?” he mumbled around her fingers.
“Really.” The hand on his mouth lowered to her side and her other hand squeezed. “I thought you wanted to get back to your life.”
“What gave you that impression?”
Her eyes slammed shut. “Verb tense.”
His brain frantically skittered over what she might mean. Came up empty. “What?”
One eye cracked open, meeting his gaze. “You said that you enjoyed our time.”
“Of course I did.” He almost laughed at the images that paraded through his head. Talking with her. Dancing with her. Making love to her. How could I not?
“Enjoyed. Past tense.”
He felt awfully slow, not quite getting what she was talking about. “I did enjoy it. And I continue to do so.”
“You were in an awful hurry to stop kayaking.”
“You were going to burn to a crisp.” He looked at her eyes, trying to gauge if she was really on board with his idea.
“Well, it sounded like you were done.” One corner of her mouth twisted up and her posture shifted, making her look unbalanced, unsure.
He unlinked his hand from hers and slid both palms around her waist. “I’m not done if you’re not.”
A tiny, uncertain smile quivered at the corner of her mouth. “I was just getting started.”
“Good.” He bent and kissed her gently, feeling they had just begun again. Her lips were soft against his, her body pliant. His pulse picked up and he dragged his consciousness to the present. “Come on.” Taking her hand in his, he led her out of the boathouse and locked up.
“Where are we going?”
“First we’re going to tell Colin that I’m not riding back with him. Then we’re going to move our stuff into the room I reserved.”
Her eyebrows went up. “You went so far as to reserve a room?”
“Like I said, presumptuous. I’m also presuming you’ll give me a ride home.”
She cocked her head. “I wouldn’t say presumptuous. I would say…that you planned ahead and expected to get what you wanted.”
“I was hoping I would get what I wanted.”
She squeezed his hand. “I’m glad. I wanted it too.”
“Did you?”
“I really did.”
“Then why didn’t you reserve a room?”
“Oh,” she said. “I couldn’t be that presumptuous.” Her face was tight with the effort to hold back laughter.
He stopped and traced a finger over those lips. “I go out of my way to do something romantic and what do I get? Sass.”
“Only the best for you.” She reached up and tugged her hair loose from its knot. It fell in waves around her shoulders and Russell resisted the urge to stop and run his fingers through the silky strands.
“Stop distracting me and let’s go find Colin and Alicia.”
In the end, they found Colin and Alicia in their suite. Not, as Kathleen privately feared, interrupting anything particularly personal. Colin was finishing packing, Alicia informed them as she let them in.
“My wife is nothing if not a genius at traveling light,” Colin grumbled from the bedroom.
Alicia shrugged. “I lived out of two suitcases—at most—for years. I see no reason to start traveling with extra crap now.”
Colin emerged from the bedroom, running his fingers through his thick, shaggy hair. “Your practicality is only one of the many things I adore about you, my darling. What can we do for you, Russ?”
Butterflies unexpectedly took flight in Kathleen’s stomach as she glanced sideways at Russell. Would he change his mind at the last minute?
“Slight change of plan. I’m not riding back with you.”
Colin’s eyebrows went up and his dark eyes twinkled. “Is that so?”
Russell shrugged. “Yeah. Thought I’d give you guys some privacy on the drive back.”
Colin glanced at Alicia, then looked back at Russell. “Magnanimous of you, mate. But what exactly did you think we could get up to in a moving car with me driving?”
Kathleen could swear that Colin was a hair’s breadth from bursting into laughter. Looking at Alicia, she saw that her friend was assessing the situation with a secretive half-smile.
“It’s not that, Col. I just…it’s your honeymoon. You two should be alone. You don’t need a third wheel in the back seat.” Russell bit his lip, apparently a tell that he was out of his depth.
“Our honeymoon isn’t for two weeks. We’d hardly have Colin’s family come all the way from England and abandon them immediately. And Grace is staying with us for a few days as well before she goes back to Wisconsin for summer session.” Alicia stroked Colin’s arm with her fingertips, the secretive half-smile blossoming into a full, happy grin as he looked down at her.
Russell floundered. “Well—”
“We’re staying an extra day,” Kathleen blurted, lacing her fingers into Russell’s.
Alicia and Colin burst out laughing. “Of course you are,” Alicia said, her eyes dancing. “Took you long enough to come out with it.”
“What…are you talking about?” Russell said, his eyes narrowing.
Colin’s eyebrows lifted. “Really, mate? You thought I told you to leave your car at home because I wanted your company on the drive out? You think the timing of our arrival was an accident?”
“But Alicia had to be here earlier and you had a meeting that got cancel—oh.” Russell smacked his hand over his eyes, the fingers of his other hand squeezing Kathleen’s. “You guys are good. You should hire out for parties or something. Maybe join the CIA.”
Kathleen tried to glare at Alicia, but couldn’t keep it up for more than a half second without bursting into giggles. “You set us up?”
Alicia shrugged. “We saw potential. We established the environment for it to happen if it was going to happen. And apparently it happened.”
“Matchmaking at your own wedding. That’s…next level, Col,” Russell said, extending his hand for Colin to shake.
“Anyway,” Alicia said, flicking her fingers at them. “Shoo. Have a great time. We’ll see you back home sometime soon.”