Eleven #3
That was the final mistake. Valerie held her breath, shut her eyes and tried not to gasp at the shock of tumbling into the cold lake. The water swirled as she froze for a moment. Then her life jacket and basic survival skills kicked in and she bobbed up to the surface, snorting and wiping her eyes.
“Valerie!” Nico appeared in front of her, wet hair slicked back from his face. “You okay?”
“I’m fine.” She felt horrible. “I’m sorry.”
Nico looked astonished. “For what?”
“For dumping you in the water! For breaking the canoe!” She was so upset she felt the tears coming. She was here to help, and she’d done this.
Nico laughed hard enough to swallow some water. When he was done coughing, he said, “It happens. The canoe is fine. You can swim back to the dock while I set it straight.”
“Let me help,” she insisted, treading water.
Nico glanced over. “Okay. Swim under and make sure you put a hand on the edge so you don’t hit your head.”
They ducked beneath and poked their heads up in the space of the flipped canoe.
She swung around to face Nico, who was bobbing closer than she anticipated.
In the dark, all she could hear was the sound of the water splashing and Nico’s steady breathing.
It was secret, intimate, and calm, and if it wasn’t for the fact that she was kind of chilly in the water, she could have stayed here for hours.
Nico, however, seemed immune to the potential romance.
She supposed she didn’t blame him, as being dropped in the lake wasn’t a fun surprise for anyone.
He gave her brisk instructions for where to put her hands.
“On the count of three, we’re going to lift the canoe up and to your left so it’s upright,” he said.
“Got it.”
Four seconds later, the canoe was sloshing right side up.
“Good job,” he said and she beamed. He was close enough for her to see that his shirt had gone transparent in the water and for their legs to tangle if she misjudged her kicks.
Valerie nearly forgot to keep moving as he reached out to her face.
She closed her eyes and waited for his touch.
Nico handed over one of her huge earrings. “It was about to fall out.”
She took it, a little embarrassed and disappointed, although what she thought could happen in broad daylight, after being dumped from a canoe fully dressed and with Roger and Alice watching, was another question.
She tried to neutralize the fantasies that insisted on marching through her mind with boring counterarguments.
Making out in the water would be tiring, even with a life jacket, since it was too deep to touch the bottom.
Not to mention the cold water would make her skin clammy.
Sex in a canoe, assuming she could get back into it, seemed dangerous, but in a legitimately life-threatening and not sexy way.
Hold on, all he did was save her earring.
It was hardly an invitation. Valerie heroically reined in her imagination despite catching sight of the swing hanging off a tree branch near the water.
Nico waved her ahead and started towing the canoe back in, correctly judging it was easier for Valerie to swim to the dock than try to get back inside.
Roger and Alice greeted her with cheers when she climbed up, her clothes dripping and giving more drowned cat than sex kitten.
“You passed a cottage rite of passage,” said Alice, tossing her a luxurious blanket of a towel from the selection that had been rolled and tucked into a woven basket.
“Falling in the water happens to everyone.”
“My last time out, I sent us into the lake because of a water snake and then I couldn’t get the canoe back upright,” Roger said. “David was furious, plus I was face-to-face with a nope rope.”
“Sorry, a what?” She must have misheard.
“Water snake.” Roger pointed to the lake. “They’re excellent swimmers.”
“Snakes swim?” There was a new fear unlocked.
“They’re not poisonous.”
“Do they bite?”
“Only if they feel threatened,” said Nico from where he was tying the canoe. “Try not to grab them.”
Good to know. Obviously she was never going into the water again.
“How was your talk with Penny?” asked Roger, voice low as he watched Alice head back to the house.
Valerie told him, and Roger winced. “A lot of that is Penny repeating Dad,” he said. “She doesn’t think like that.”
Valerie didn’t argue—he knew his sister best, although she had some doubts. She hoped he was right. “She said she never knew you were dating.”
Roger grinned, and it was strangely mischievous under his black ball cap. “It was fun to sneak around, to be honest. We wanted to avoid our parents knowing, since neither would approve, but it also felt like our secret.”
“Are you sure she didn’t know?” asked Valerie.
“Positive,” he said.
Jenn came out, swathed in UV-protective clothing, and the conversation turned general as Valerie dried off in the sun, thinking of Penny’s attitude toward Yvette. How much did Penny know?
Something to consider. When she wasn’t thinking of Nico coming out of the lake, of course. Or what they could do on that swing.
Or water snakes.