Page 77 of False Start

“So, we’re just taking the loss on this stop?” Kit raised an eyebrow.

We hadn’t found a place to buy inflatables, and we’d gathered enough bonus points from the hidden clues to at least secure fourth-place for the day. I wanted more points, but a naked plunge had always been a reach. I didn’t want to make Kit uncomfortable, even for bonus points.

I shrugged. “You didn’t want the points, anyway.”

“I also don’t want to freeze my ass off for nothing.” She sank down and put her hand back in the water, keeping it in for a while longer this time. “Going down naked would solve the problem of what to do with our soaked clothes.”

“Are you serious?”

She pulled her hand out of the water, flicking droplets on me. “What the hell? We’ve put in a lot of work. Let’s not let this stop be for nothing.”

I stilled, unsure if I’d heard her correctly. “So…”

When I’d written out the idea on a sheet of motel paper, I’d had Kit’s naked body on my mind. I kicked the vision out just as quickly, reminding myself that our kiss had been “different” with sibling energy. Even if I didn’t agree, I had to keep my eyes off and my mind occupied.

“So, we go naked.” She shrugged. “We record the plunge on my phone. I’ll blur out everything and delete the original.”

While the Internet had a slew of pictures insinuating nudity, I’d never had a full-blown naked pic. Yet. And despite my otherwise low-key off-season, a nude picture might blow whatever progress I’d made out of the water.

“If you’re sure,” I said with as little excitement as I could muster, which wasn’t much.

The tips of her ears burned red, and she averted her eyes. “Should we set up the camera at the bottom?”

I nodded, following her down the dirt trail.

“Hey, you can swim, right?” I asked, eyeing the fast-flowing water.

“Yeah. I mean, I’m not an athlete, but I know the crawl, doggy paddle, all the hits. Can you?”

“I swam on a team until high school.”

“Track, football, and swim team?”

I grinned. “I’m fast everywhere. Land, sea, air. If you weren’t so against hang gliding, you might have found that out firsthand.”

“Nope. Heights give me the creeps.”

“And how do you feel about deep pools of river water?” We reached the bottom of the trail, and Kit took an exploratory step onto the rocks overlooking the pool. Two thick ropes hung in the water and from our vantage point, I couldn’t guess at the depth of the pool.

“I thought I was fine, but that’s a long way down,” Kit murmured.

From the top of Natural Slide, the slide down looked like a gradual incline into the pool. But, from the opposite end, the dip appeared to be more of a plunge into inky, roiling water.

Ignoring the danger beneath us, I set up the tripod, nestling Kit’s phone into the cradle and pressing “Record.”

“Alright, time to find out if it’s possible to get hypothermia in the spring.” I stripped off my shirt and discarded it on the rocks.

“What are you doing?” Kit asked, eyes wide with shock.

“Getting naked?”

Her eyes skittered between my abs and my face, cheeks growing redder with each pass. “Aren’t we going to do that up there?”

I shook my head. “Not me. I want clothes when I get to the bottom.”

“But we’re going to have to walk all that way.” She cast a furtive look around the empty woods. “Naked.”

“Right. Or we’ll have to walk back up that trail, naked and wet. I’d prefer to be dry and naked as long as possible.”

---