Chapter 3
Chapter Three
Ace
By the time four o'clock rolls around, the lake is chaos.
Boats crisscross the water in every direction, music drifts from half the docks on the shoreline, and the marina is packed with tourists buying ice cream and forgetting where they parked their golf carts.
A pontoon full of college-aged guys is attempting, badly, to do donuts near the swim buoys, just begging for law enforcement to show up to issue a ticket.
I spot Chrissy the second she steps onto the dock beside the boat launch.
She’s wearing a ball cap, black athletic shorts, and a fitted tank top that shows off her banging curves.
And she’s carrying her kayak down toward the water with easy confidence, barely glancing at the crowd around her. She’s beautiful and strong.
And damn, that’s hot.
I jog over to her and grab the front of her kayak before she can stop me. "Need a hand, Speed Racer?”
“No.”
Laughing, I help her anyway. “I’m doing you a favor. If you wear out your arms now, you won’t stand a chance at beating me.”
She sighs. “Why did I agree to this?”
“Because there’s a part of you, deep down, that is dying to kayak with me again?”
"I'd rather paddle with a rabid raccoon in my kayak,” she mutters.
“Ouch,” I say, chuckling. “That hurts.”
"Please,” she scoffs. “Your ego is stronger than steel. It’s impossible to bruise.”
She’s so much fun to banter with. I could do this all day.
But Joel, Trent, and Forrest are already on the water waiting for us. So, we launch our kayaks and paddle over to meet them. I introduce Chrissy to Trent and Forrest and then explain the goal of today’s practice.
“So, we’ll just be paddling together today, getting a feel for the lake and the stretches that each of us are most comfortable handling for the relay.”
“And,” Joel says conspiratorially, “if we just practiced our own stretches separately, Ace wouldn’t have an excuse to spend time with Chrissy.”
Forrest nods. “Yeah, it’s not like we haven’t been paddling this lake our whole lives and know every stretch by heart or anything…”
“Come on, guys,” Trent says. “It’s not every day Ace asks us to be his wingmen. We can’t turn down a friend in need.”
Chrissy bites down on a smile while I seriously consider drowning all three of my friends.
“Anyway,” I say through clenched teeth. “We’re here today to get to know each other as a team.”
We paddle together for a while, keeping an easy pace. Trent and Joel and Forrest are great endurance paddlers, but Liam and I were the fastest paddlers. And Chrissy is right up there with us. Before long, I’m itching to paddle ahead of the others—and I can tell she is too.
I glance over at her and our eyes meet.
Her mouth curves into a flirty smile. “Try to keep up,” she says, digging her paddle into the water harder. She pushes ahead of the group.
“You’re on!” I say with a laugh.
We paddle ahead, leaving Trent, Forrest, and Joel in our wake. We paddle hard for a half hour without stopping, slicing through the water like missiles. Stroke-for-stroke, we’re a perfect match.
Which just goes to show how athletic she is.
Because I work out—a lot. She wasn’t entirely wrong when she said I like to be the center of attention. I do. What’s wrong with that?
I also use my muscles, though. And I’m a foot taller than her and outweigh her by seventy-five pounds or so.
But she’s easily keeping up with me.
When we finally take a breath, we park our kayaks beneath an overhanging tree for shade, and each pull water bottles out of our packs.
I take a long swig before asking, “So, you’ve raced competitively, haven’t you?”
She glances over at me. "How'd you know?"
"You paddle with real technique. Not just athletic instinct."
Her expression softens slightly. "Two years in college. Then I stopped."
"What happened?"
A pause—the kind that has weight behind it. "Turns out college is expensive."
Something about the way she says it makes me want to ask more, but this probably isn't the moment for that conversation. Instead, I grin at her. "And ever since then you’ve been dying to find a worthy opponent? It’s a good thing you found me.”
She snorts. "You are exhausting."
"And yet you keep showing up."
"That's because I enjoy winning."
"You literally haven't beaten me yet."
Chrissy turns toward me slowly. "Ace.”
"Yeah?"
She raises an eyebrow. "I let you think you won this morning because I didn’t want to wound your fragile ego.”
Wait… is that true? Did she let me win?
I shake my head. “No way. You’re not the type of woman who lets a man win.”
She grins. “Are you sure?”
I grin back. “Yep. Plus, you said I have an ego of steel.”
She laughs. “That much is true.”
My friends catch up with a few minutes later, and we finish the rest of our kayak together. But I can’t keep my eyes off Chrissy. Somehow, between sunrise and sunset in a single day, she’s become all I can think about.