Page 13 of Riverside Reverie

As much as I wanted to linger, I pushed her forward, holding her while she found her footing on the ledge and scrambled up.

“Thanks.”

“No problem,” I told her. She smiled at me over her shoulder, wringing out her dark red curls, the water cascading down her body to pool at her feet.

As tantalizing as the view was, I had to force myself underwater to stop from staring greedily at her. She wasn’t putting on a show for me, so why did I want to watch her like she was? Like every movement, no matter how slight, was designed to capture my attention?

The cold and momentary lack of oxygen zapped some of my senses back, and when I came up for air, Lux was gone from the ledge and so was her towel.

5

FIRE AND FOG

Theo

By the time Jasmine and Lux rejoined us on the beach, it was after five o’clock and we had the fire roaring. Several sausages and an aluminum tray of homemade mac and cheese were cooking on the wire grill placed over the hot coals.

Desmond patiently tended to the sausages with metal tongs, turning them every so often so they’d brown while Zoey sat on the other side of the fire, stirring the mac and cheese with a wooden spoon. Her legs were crossed, her expression peaceful as she rested against Kai’s knees. He sat behind her in a camping chair, sipping a beer, bobbing along to The Tragically Hip, his favourite band.

With the distant echo of the loons down the river, a sense of peace settled over me. We’d gone camping as a group many times before. Most of us had grown up together in Sudbury, spending a lot of the weekends in our late teens camping on Baz’s family’s extensive property near Whitewater Lake, or one of the local provincial parks.

The French River was a group favourite, and we’d been camping here many times before. We knew the best routes, the best places to jump off cliffs, and we knew where all the best campsites were.

We’d done this so many times together that we’d learned how to work in sync for a more effective trip. It was easier when everyone brought a little bit of something. Less supplies, no duplicates, and we were able to make the ice last a hell of a lot longer. It felt less like work this way, too.

It was a tradition of ours to get together at least a few times throughout the summer for portage camping trips.

Lux brought down a camp chair, unfolding it beside Jasmine’s, across the fire from me. I stood with one foot on the stump we’d used to chop wood, trying my hardest not to stare in her direction. I didn’t want to make her feel uncomfortable, like the pretty new toy at the playground, but she was damn hard not to look at.

“Feels good to be back here, huh?” Desmond remarked quietly, following my gaze. I glanced back at him.

He wasn’t usually much of a talker, and when he did talk, it wasn’t about superficial things like how attractive someone was. But he was observant, and he’d caught me checking out Lux a hundred times already today. This was his subtle way of calling me out for it, his knowing eyes missing nothing.

“It does.” I nodded, letting him know that: yes, I do think she’s pretty. I was still looking at him when his gaze moved from Lux to Jasmine, and the look in his eyes changed slightly. It was almost completely undetectable, but I’d caught on to him. He had feelings for her, although I doubted he’d ever act on them.

I’d known Desmond my whole life—our dads had worked together, and we’d gone to elementary school together. We’d later met Baz, Kai, and Zoey in high school. After graduating, Desmond went to trades school for welding, and I went to Trent to get a degree in Environmental Geoscience before heading to Laurentian University to get my PhD in Mineral Deposits and Precambrian Geology.

Shortly after graduating, Desmond started working for the same mining company as our fathers, while I landed a job as a junior environmental geoscientist at an international consulting firm. The firm provided a broad range of engineering, geosciences and environmental services to the mining, water resources, hydropower, geotechnical, oil sands, oil and gas, and government sections.

In the last six years, I’d gained a lot of invaluable experience in acid rock drainage and metal leaching, as well as mine waste hydrogeochemistry and geochemical sampling. I lived and worked primarily in the Greater Sudbury area, but sometimes my job brought me to our many other locations in other countries.

I’d just got back from checking in on one of our mines in British Columbia, and in three weeks’ time, I would be flying out to one of our mines in Peru to run some tests on the soil. I was scheduled to be there for at least a week.

I loved my job. There was something new to do every day, even when I wasn’t travelling outside of the province on contracts. The money for a junior geoscientist was good, so good that I’d been able to pay off my student debts and go in on a duplex with Desmond.

Of course, the duplex had been in dire need of repairs when we’d purchased it, so we’d gotten it for a steal. It took a year for us to tackle the extensive—and expensive—renovations, hiring Baz and Kai to do most of the work. Desmond and I worked on the project too, whenever we had a spare minute.

After we’d finished renovating, we began to rent out one side of the duplex to university students. That was how Jasmine and Talia had joined our group of friends, they’d both rented rooms off us five years ago, and we’d all hit off.

Another laugh brought my attention to her again. My gaze collided with Lux’s, and I felt the pull and could taste the tension between us, like an impending storm. There’s nothing I loved more than a good storm.

Desmond flipped the sausages over the crackling flames. I drew in lungfuls of fresh, northern air, appreciating being back in Ontario again.

I had done a lot of travelling since I started working for the firm, but out of all the places I’d been, nothing compared to my home province. It was good to be back, among friends and family.

I was happy we’d chosen the French River for our trip this year. Nice and secluded, it allowed us an opportunity to appreciate nature and be boisterous about it. The sites were so spread out that we could play music without disturbing other campers, and it was close to Sudbury, where we lived.

We’d all gotten busier with each year that passed; between new jobs, demanding careers, and life in general—our group trips were slowing. Hell, Zoey and Kai were engaged now, and getting married in the fall.

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