Chapter 15 Thorn
“Everything okay in there?” I ask Sadie, who’s been inside her tent for more than twenty minutes now.
We’re supposed to meet the others for kayaking in five, but at this rate, maybe I should go on down without her. She was going through something up on the cliff earlier—but I knew better than to ask about it, or to even look like I noticed.
I noticed. It was impossible not to.
“Just a second,” she calls out. “Sorry!”
When Sadie finally emerges from her tent, I do a double take.
She’s wearing a white string bikini and some sort of sheer, sand-colored skirt that covers absolutely nothing up even though it goes all the way to her ankles. Between all that and the gold palm leaf earrings and her floppy sun hat, she’s clearly mistaken day at the lake for day at the pool.
Not that I’m complaining. She looks good—very good.
“What?” she says, checking to make sure the essentials are covered by the small bits of fabric. “I thought we were going to the lake next?”
“No, you’re right. We are,” I say, resisting the urge to roast her a little.
Has she ever been to a lake before? “It’s just, uh—there’s going to be a bit of mud.
And sticks that might tear your skirt. But you look really nice,” I rush to add, because I’m overcome with a strong urge to make sure she knows she should feel confident about how she looks.
Her eyes flash up to meet mine, a sudden blush turning her cheeks pink. “I look nice?”
“You do.” I swallow. I’m having a hard time looking away.
“Thank you.”
“We should probably—” I start, at the same time she says, “Should we go meet the others?”
She leads the way, and oh shit is that a mistake: her bikini bottoms are cut to show off her curves and a whole lot of skin.
I may not make it to the lake.
I force my eyes down even lower, and that’s when I notice she has something stuck to her leg.
“Sadie?” I say. “You have something…uh…there.”
She twists around to check out the back of her thigh, just above her knee, but the mesh skirt is in the way of her fixing it.
I thought she was blushing before—but that was nothing compared to now.
“Yes I brought wax strips to a wilderness excursion,” she blurts out suddenly, misreading my confusion for judgment. “I’m very particular about my legs, and they drive me nuts when they’re even a little stubbly.”
I hold my hands up. “I didn’t say a word.”
“I heard you in my head, though.”
I laugh. “What, exactly, did I say?”
“You were like, ‘Sadie, you know you could’ve saved some space if you’d left those at home, right?’ And I was like, ‘But it’s just so much more comfortable this way,’ and you just shook your head and sighed.”
“Wow—I said a lot in your head.” I grin. “But that does sound pretty accurate.”
Again, not that I’m complaining.
“Well, bringing all of that stuff was worth it to me,” she says with a smirk.
She totally caught me staring, and probably (accurately) read my every thought.
“I didn’t say a word,” I repeat.
When we get down to the lake, the others fall silent, as if they’re witnessing a rare bird. Especially the guys—but all of the girls, too.
“See, babe?” Zoe says, swatting Joshua on the arm before adjusting the asymmetrical strap on her navy-blue one-piece. “I totally could have brought my bikini. You look amazing, Sadie—I’m going to pretend we’re on the Amalfi Coast right now!”
Sadie’s face turns stormy at the mention of Italy.
“Thank you,” she says. “I’ve always wanted to go there.”
Matteo takes the lead on getting everyone set up with the kayaks, demonstrating how to get in and what to do if you tip over. Mackenzie Lake is large but not overly deep, so we’ll have ample space to paddle around without being too cramped.
“Want to go together?” Sadie asks me.
I really should say no, make up some bogus icebreaking exercise just to put some space between us; we’ve gotten close so quickly, more than I meant to.
And after how she looked like she desperately needed a friend, or a hug, or more up on the cliff earlier—and now that white-hot bikini and everything it doesn’t cover—
It’s just dangerous, is all.
It’s a distraction.
I’m not on this hike for my own benefit, as much as I love being out here. My job is to make sure everyone stays safe and has a good time learning more about themselves while immersing themselves in nature.
That said, we’ll be camping out at this location for another night: I won’t have to have hawklike focus every second of the day like I do when we’re hiking. I’m human. I need rest—and fun—too.
I can be a diligent leader and I can spend time getting to know Sadie. As long as it doesn’t get physical between us, I’m not technically breaking any rules.
“Sure,” I say before I can take it back.
She chooses a yellow kayak and I pick out a blue one. We paddle across the serene water, the mountains looming larger with every stroke as we move farther from the shore and our campgrounds.
“This is fun!” Sadie calls out from behind me.
I glance over my shoulder and have to stifle a laugh at the incongruous sight before me: Sadie looks like a runway model who tripped off the catwalk and landed in a kayak, completely at odds with her surroundings.
She’s still wearing the floppy hat and the earrings, but left her mesh skirt in a heap by the water.
It all just drives home what a stretch this entire trip was for her—and something about that makes me want to jump out of my kayak and into hers, physics be damned.
“You’re really getting the hang of it!” I reply.
Her paddling was pretty uneven at first—I had to keep slowing down to make sure I didn’t leave her too far behind, but she’s picking it up quickly. I should have known she’d be a fast learner.
The water is tranquil and smooth, perfect for beginners.
We follow the curve of the shoreline as we explore, even though we’re not terribly close to it.
It’s easy navigating—until I see the rounded top of a large boulder peeking out just above the water up ahead.
There are several dotting the lake, but I thought I’d steered us clear of them.
“We’re going to have to make a turn now, okay?” I call out over my shoulder. “You’ll need to shift your weight a little”—I demonstrate, leaning slightly to the left—“and then do a long stroke of the paddle on the right side.”
“Like this?” she replies.
My kayak pivots just in time to see Sadie’s valiant attempt at replicating the turn.
She dips her paddle in like I’ve told her to—and she shifts her weight, too—but she shifts it to the same side instead of the opposite one, and the movement is just too much all at once.
Before I can warn her, Sadie flips, shrieking, and goes under.
I’m out of my kayak to help before she even resurfaces. The water is shoulder-deep out here—not too deep for me, but Sadie’s not as tall as I am. Her sun hat floats next to her upside-down kayak as her paddle drifts farther out.
She comes up gasping, laughing, her dark hair slick against her shoulders. Smudges of mascara rim her eyes, because of course she wore makeup for this.
“Did I do it right?” she says, clearly not taking herself too seriously. She bobs on her tiptoes, the water up to her chin.
I make my way closer and wrap my arm around her waist, lifting her up to give her a little more breathing room. The bare skin of her stomach feels slick and smooth under my fingers, and suddenly she has my entire attention.
“Never seen anyone do it better,” I reply. “You’re a fast learner.”
She clings as I support her, her light grasp on my shoulder doing things to me that make me wish we were truly alone out here.
“Here,” I say, taking slow, heavy steps through the water toward her kayak. “I’ll help you back in.”
We’re almost there when her grip on me suddenly constricts, so tight at first that it takes my breath away.
It takes a split second to register the fact that it’s not only her arms wrapped around me so tightly—it’s her entire body.
She’s jumped up so that we’re pressed close, zero space between the tiny fabric of her bikini bottoms and my swim trunks, her legs wound around me and crossed behind my back.
Somehow her backside is now firmly in my hands, and her terrified face is a mere inch from mine.
“What was that?! Something brushed against my leg!”
I know better than to tell her all the possibilities.
“Probably just a fish,” I say.
“There aren’t snakes in here, are there? It felt like a snake, Thorn!”
She buries her face in my neck, her breath hot on my skin.
“Don’t make me lie to you,” I reply, one of my hands going instinctively up to her back, the knot of her bikini tie thick under my palm. “Ask me something else.”
“Are the snakes going to eat us?”
I have to laugh. This I can honestly answer without freaking her out.
“I’ve been swimming in this lake hundreds of times, Sadie. I haven’t been eaten yet, if that makes you feel any better.”
The tension in her body eases, but she doesn’t make any moves to let go—which is fine by me, as long as I tell myself I’m just being a good guide, that it’s okay for us to be this close right now since I’m helping her through the water.
It’s a stretch and I know it.
“Let’s get you back in that kayak, okay?”
Once we’re beside it again, she shifts off me so I can flip it right side up.
Getting Sadie in is another ordeal altogether.
It’s too unstable, even with me holding it, for her to get in on her own without having solid footing underneath her. She tries a few times, laughing with every failed attempt.
“How about this?” I say, repositioning myself in the water so my knee is a makeshift stepstool. “Climb up and I’ll help you in.”