29. Canoe Confessions
CHAPTER 29
CANOE CONFESSIONS
LEDGER
I step into the elevator from the parking garage at work a few minutes late after dropping Zoe’s necklace off at a jeweler to be repaired. Between Zoe falling off that roof, the stress of the hospital, making sure her recovery was going well, and wanting to spend every moment I could spare with her, I had somehow forgotten about her necklace that I’d slid into my pocket right before picking her up in that skinny alley.
Still , it’s baffling to me that I managed to forget about the necklace. Up until that point, I’d never seen Zoe without it. I guess I was just focusing too much on her amazing eyes. Or how much she makes me laugh. Or her lips. It could’ve been her lips.
It took me a minute to even remember what I’d been wearing that night. Well , it took me until I remembered that I had been soaked by the rain— those wet pants made me very aware of what I was wearing for long enough that I had no question.
Of course, they’ve been laundered since then. All my clothes from that trip have been. I panicked for a moment until I remembered that once Zoe had been doing well enough in that hospital that I could go out to the rental car and get our bags, I’d found a restroom and changed. I had checked my pockets first, found the necklace, and put it in a zippered part of my bag that I rarely used, worried that I’d lose it otherwise.
So I went to my bag, and there it was. Right where I left it. I hadn’t brought it up to Zoe when she told me the story behind the necklace because I worried that it might have fallen out of my pocket somewhere along the way, and I didn’t want to give her false hope that it wasn’t lost. The jeweler said they’d have it fixed by tomorrow afternoon, so I decided to just wait and surprise Zoe with it then.
Zoe has been on my mind nonstop, and I get to take her to see one of my favorite places tonight. I’m floating as the elevator takes me up. As soon as I step out onto the floor, Emerson catches my attention and taps the watch on his wrist. I roll my eyes and head over to him. “ Sorry I’m late, Mr . Punctuality . I had to drop something off to be repaired and had to wait for them to open.”
“ Dropping something off, huh? If it was your sense of urgency, I’m not sure they can fix that.”
I chuckle. “ Maybe not, but I figured while I was at it, I’d see if they could fix your sense of fashion. Turns out that’s beyond repair, too.”
Emerson looks down at his neatly-pressed light blue shirt, his tie with a subtle pattern of mathematical symbols, and his gray sweater vest like he’s trying to see what issue I might have with his outfit.
“ Relax , bro. I was kidding.” I make eye contact with Kella and wave her over. “ What do you have for me?”
He picks up his tablet and the three of us head into one of the conference rooms at the back. “ Not too much new, unfortunately. There still have been no attempts made to steal the Trust pieces with the trackers in either Dublin or Belgrade .
“ We’ve also been monitoring everything we are getting from our contacts close to Aragundi . It seems that his business, nefarious as it is, has been running along as usual. We are still looking for ways to capture him, since that would be optimal, but you know how slippery he is.
“ Of course, our second best scenario is capturing the two men who have been stealing the Trust pieces, since they are currently looking like they’re the strongest contenders for Aragundi’s fortune and his network. Now that we know who they are, we’ve been working to figure out who their network of people are. These are some bad men, and we do not want them adding Aragundi’s resources to their own.
“ Still no sign of them?” I ask. They’ve been ghosts ever since stealing the Trust piece in Ankara . In the nearly two weeks since we’ve been back, I’ve been in touch with every contact I have in Europe and in the Middle East but every lead has come up empty.
Emerson shakes his head. “ Nothing .” It’s seeming more and more likely that they were able to get the number off the Trust piece from that case before we got it in our possession.
Kella taps her pen on the conference table. “ Maybe one of the brothers was injured and they’re waiting for him to heal. Or maybe they had their own internal catastrophes that had to be dealt with before they could spare a trip to either of the locations of Trust pieces.”
“ Or ,” I add, “they could suspect we’re onto them and figured we placed trackers on the final two pieces. They could be trying to finish whatever challenge Aragundi set up without the numbers from them.”
“ Could be any of that,” Emerson says. “ As far as information we can get from here, we might be at an end unless they make a move.”
Zoe and I head over to my childhood home, hitch up the trailer, and load on the canoe I used so much as a kid. Then we take the twenty-minute drive from my mom’s house to Piney Run Lake , where my dad had taken us so many times.
“ Wow , it is beautiful here,” Zoe says as we lower the canoe from the trailer into the water.
The last of the sunset is reflecting across the smooth water and makes it look rather incredible. “ It’s one of my favorite places in the world,” I tell her. “ It’s just as amazing in the middle of the day, too, when you can see all the trees lining the curves and bends of the shore and the sun glinting off the water. Or in the early morning, when you can see mists rising from the water. You really can’t go wrong anytime of day, but I’m excited for the stars to come out, because seeing them reflected on the water is the best.”
A few minutes later, the trailer is parked, we’re wearing our life jackets, and I’ve stepped into the boat. I hold out a hand for Zoe , and she steps in, careful to get her booted foot positioned on the curved floor of the canoe. I can tell that the thing still annoys her, but she hasn’t complained about it much lately, and she hasn’t tossed it into the nearest Dumpster . If her doctor doesn’t give her some kind of award for that, I will.
We sit on the two benches, facing each other, and I pull an oar from the floor of the canoe. There’s two oars, but I’m worried that Zoe rowing might prolong the recovery of that broken rib and bruised spleen. But I also know that she’d rather act like she’s not injured. I say what I’d want her to say to me if our roles were reversed. “ I know that in a rowing competition, you’d win, hands down. But , I really want you cleared to go on a mission with me soon. Plus , I kind of just want to show off my mad skill with an oar, so do you mind if I paddle?”
She tries to hide a smile, like she knows exactly what I’m doing. “ Go ahead,” she says. “ I wouldn’t dream of denying you a chance to show off those arm muscles of yours. I’ll just sit back and enjoy the show.”
I grin. “ Speaking of going on a mission with you, has the CIA found anything on our art thieves?”
“ No , but I’ve been thinking about the Trust piece I acquired. ”
I flinch. My mind immediately goes back to that moment where I was running toward the handoff of the case from one bad actor to another when Zoe stepped out of a building and got to it first.
“ Now that we know who the men are who have been stealing the trust pieces…”
My eyes go wide. “ They were the ones who were receiving the handoff, not giving it!”
Zoe nods, a satisfied smile on her face. “ I had the same realization this morning. Which means they likely didn’t already get the secret number from the chip on that piece before we intercepted it.”
“ So they’re down by at least one. There’s no way they’ll be successful with only seven of the numbers. They have to go for at least one more of the Trust pieces.”
We are both grinning. We will get a chance to go on another mission together.
I pull the oar through the water, first on one side, then on the other, guiding us along the meandering shoreline of the lake, not far from the shore. The night is still, the crickets are chirping, an owl is hooting, a few frogs are croaking, and the paddle is making a swishing sound as it enters the water. Every once in a while, a fish breaks the surface of the water, making a splashing sound, and occasionally, we hear distant laughter from the one other couple who is on the lake tonight. The night is the most relaxing I’ve had in a while.
I’ve been pointing out all my favorite spots to Zoe . When I show her my favorite fishing spot, she says, “ Huh . I can’t really picture you as the fishing type.”
“ No ?”
“ Not even a little bit. You , sitting in a lawn chair at the edge of the lake, hat pulled down over your eyes, a fishing pole in your hand. I’m just not seeing it.”
“ Oh , yeah, that’s not how we fished. My dad tried to teach us that way once, but it didn’t stick. We all just dove into the water, and it became a competition of who could catch one with their bare hands. They’re slippery little things— it isn’t as easy as it sounds.”
“ Ahh ,” Zoe says. “ That I can picture. Speaking of favorites, that’s what we should play.”
My eyebrows draw together. “ Oh , that game where one of us asks something like, ‘ What’s your favorite spy movie?’ And by the way, if you say anything other than True Lies , we’re turning this canoe around.”
“ Nope . It’s got to be Spy Kids . It’s the ultimate classic. And exactly. Except the questions aren’t limited to favorites.”
“ Spy Kids doesn’t have Arnold , but it does have jet packs, so I’ll give that one to you. Who asks first?”
“ I will. Um …. Oh . What’s your favorite embarrassing story from growing up? You know, just in case I need to know for teasing purposes later.”
“ Okay , I’ll tell you,” I say, “but only if you tell yours first. I need to know how high to set the bar.”
“ Fine ,” Zoe says as I paddle the boat along an inlet. “ There are so many… What to choose? Oh , got one. Okay , so when I was a teenager, I looked young. When I say young, I mean young . And , I’ve got to tell you, at an age when you want people to treat you as if you’re older, it’s the worst time to look younger. Especially when you’re doing things like getting your driver’s license and applying for your first job.
“ Anyway , I had been in the same foster home with two foster brothers for about a year, so we knew each other pretty well. I was fifteen— a sophomore— and my foster brother, Justice , was a junior. We were both in the same biology class.
“ One day, we had a substitute teacher, and I remember Justice referring to me as his sister at one point. At the end of class, the sub asked us to stay after and come talk to her. So we did, except she mostly talked to Justice . She said in a super kind, trying-to-be-helpful-and-understanding voice, ‘ I think it’s sweet that you brought your sister to class. I’m impressed with how well-behaved and surprisingly knowledgeable she is.’”
“ Well -behaved?” I say, mostly because it feels so odd.
“ Yep . Then she says, ‘ But this isn’t the place for her, and it’s not really appropriate to bring her with you. If it’s a matter of having a single parent at home with no babysitter, there are resources available.’ Okay , that look of confusion on your face right now? That’s exactly how our faces looked at this point. Then she says, ‘ And don’t you think her elementary school teacher and her friends are missing her not being in her own class right now?’ She thought I was in elementary school. ”
I give a hearty laugh. It’s ridiculous how happy it makes me just being with her. “ Oh , wow— that is young!”
She’s laughing, too. “ I swear to you, I didn’t look elementary-school young. I looked more like fourteen instead of fifteen. And , of course, the most gossipy jock was also waiting to see the teacher, so he started a whole rash of people saying things like ‘ Did you get permission from your mom?’ And ‘ Does your mom know you’re here?’ anytime I did anything, and it lasted for the rest of the school year.”
“ Well , if it’s any consolation, you totally outgrew it in the most beautiful way possible.”
Zoe smiles and lifts her boot a bit. “ It’s because I accessorize well, isn’t it?”
“ That is a factor.” The doctor told her to keep the boot on for six weeks. I didn’t think she would make it past two weeks. At times, I didn’t think she’d make it past two days. But it’s been three weeks, and she’s still going strong.
“ Okay , your turn.”
“ All right,” I say. “ I’ll stick with your substitute teacher theme. I think we’ve already covered that it was important to me to do well in school. And I did. But when people would look at me, what they saw was ‘ Dumb jock.’ And , well, let’s just say that sometimes I played it up for a laugh. Like in my junior year math class when we had a sub.
“ It was clear from the beginning of class that was exactly how she saw me, so I decided to mess with her. Every time she asked a question, I’d raise my hand and give an answer, showing I clearly didn’t even know basic arithmetic. She called me up in front of the class to do a problem on the white board. I’m pretty sure it was so she could stress the importance of doing our homework.
“ So I did the math, in the most wrong way possible, giving my reasoning behind what I was doing for each step out loud. Some of my reasoning wasn’t even math-related— it had to do with things witnessed in nature, or things I overheard while at a movie theater or something. All of it was ridiculous. And , of course, my answer wasn’t even in the ballpark. It wasn’t even in the same state as the ballpark.”
Zoe starts laughing, and I continue, hoping I can make that laughing continue.
“ Everyone in the class was loving it. It was early in the school year. Probably half of them knew me well enough to know that I wasn’t that dumb, but the other half probably had their suspicions. My plan was to eventually blow the sub’s mind by correctly solving the other problem that was on the board, which was much more complex, thereby proving that she— along with anyone else who had been judging the book by its cover— had been wrong about me.
“ Just as I was about to reveal my true genius, the principal came in and asked if he could take a minute to tell us about… I don’t even remember. New school safety procedures or about the standardized testing schedule or something. And then he talked until the bell rang to end class, leaving me looking like I couldn’t tell a mathematical variable from a pirate’s booty, thereby solidifying my reputation as a dumb jock.”
“ Oh , I will definitely be teasing you about this later.” Zoe’s laughing enough now that she’s wiping a tear from her eye, and getting that kind of reaction from her makes my chest puff up just a bit.
“ Okay , my turn,” I say. “ If we got stranded and had to camp out here, which of us do you think would survive the longest and why?”
“ Me , for sure, because my bag has a secret stash of chocolate. Survival of the sweetest.”
“ And you’re just going to live off chocolate?”
“ I’m pretty sure it can be done. Why ? Do you think you would last the longest? What do you think you’ll survive off of?”
“ Oh , I’ll have plenty of food. I can fish with my hands, remember?”
“ As vital as chocolate is, protein would be nice. I’ll give that to you. Okay , what would you do if that bird that has been following us is a spy bird, trained to eavesdrop on us?”
“ Easy . I’d recruit it. Turn it into an asset. How about you?”
“ I’d feed it false info. Make up a good story.”
I grin. “ I bet we could come up with a good one.” I glance at the oak, maple, and pine trees that are lining the shore, thinking. “ Okay , I’ve got one. What’s the first extreme sport you tried?”
Zoe looks upward for a moment, thinking, before her eyes come back to me. “ I think it was motocross. At one place I lived, there was an empty field nearby that some kids had turned into a dirt bike course. One time, they made a big jump because they wanted to recreate the jumping over cars thing. But since we were young, we all lined up our bikes instead. I talked one of the kids into letting me try making the jump with his dirt bike, even though I was young enough that I probably shouldn’t have been trusted with a motorized vehicle.
“ I summoned all the courage I needed, and I’m pretty sure all the speed I needed, too. But it was getting late and a storm was rolling in. Just as I was going up the ramp, lightning struck and startled me enough that I jerked the handlebars to the side and instead of soaring over the line of bikes, I soared up and over to the right, managing to land in the lone tree in the field. Somehow , neither the motorbike nor I was injured, although it took seven of the older boys to get it out of the tree.
“ They never let me get on the dirt bike again, but it did earn me the nickname ‘ Lightning Bolt .’”
“ And I will definitely be teasing you about that later.”
“ Go ahead. It’s a nickname I’d still wear with pride. Okay , yours.”
“ Wind skateboarding,” I say as I start paddling us toward the south end of the lake.
“ Is that even a thing?”
“ Land windsurfing is, but we didn’t know about that yet— it’s a much better idea than what a friend and I had come up with as ten-year-olds. We had seen a couple of videos one summer— one with windsurfing and one with hang gliders— and thought they looked like so much fun. We knew we couldn’t do either. We checked. Both needed waivers to be signed by someone over eighteen, and we knew our parents wouldn’t.
“ So we decided to make our own version— a big hang gliding-shaped frame covered in fabric to strap to our backs and a skateboard at our feet. Then we took it to the top of a street at one end of town that, at the time, had felt really steep.”
I can tell that Zoe can already see where this is going, because her hand is over her mouth and her eyes are wide.
“ We envisioned the wind catching us, blowing us really fast, and being able to skate all the way to the other side of town just with our momentum. What we hadn’t thought through was that when you’re skateboarding downhill, the wind blows against you, not at your back.
“ I went first. I got the frame strapped to my back like a giant backpack, got on my skateboard, and gave myself the biggest push-off to start down the hill. You know, to give the wind a really good chance to catch my wings. I realized our conceptual error not too far into my trip down the hill, but like I said— biggest push-off, so it was too late to just stop.
“ A few seconds after that, the wind caught my wings enough that it sent me sailing backward while gravity took my skateboard forward.”
“ Did you get injured?”
“ Not enough to keep us from trying again but that time with the skateboard strapped to our feet. Spoiler alert: neither that, nor starting at the bottom of the hill to have the wind push us up worked.”
Zoe laughs. “ I wish I could’ve seen that.”
This lake has so many twists and bends along the shoreline, and I lead us through a part that opens up into a wider area that feels almost like a hidden lagoon. It’s one of the most peaceful places on the lake. Lily pads are growing at the edge of the shore, trees are lining the lake all around, the water is still, and the sky is clear.
I move from sitting on the bench to the floor of the canoe, and Zoe comes to sit in front of me, leaning back against my chest. Her outstretched legs are against mine, and her forehead is against my cheek, so I turn slightly and give it a kiss. I wrap my arms around her, and we both look up at the stars, taking in the perfect surroundings.
I can’t imagine a night more perfect than this— being with Zoe in one of my favorite places, talking, laughing, kissing, holding her in my arms, and just relaxing together after a few challenging weeks. I wish I could stay in this moment forever.