Page 21 of How to Kiss a Hawthorne Brother
I shouldn’t be surprised by the question. There is no adventure too grand, no challenge too difficult for Kate.
Still, a little over a week ago, I thought I might never see her again. Then she texted and turned my world upside down. When she showed up on Siler earlier today, that upside-down world locked into place and started spinning the opposite direction.
And now she wants me to teach her to kayak?
On the upper Green, there’s a three-mile section of river called the narrows. Tight turns, massive boulders, huge drops. Class IV and V rapids with names likeGo Left and Die, Thread the Needle,andGorilla.
Right now, I might as well be approaching the narrows without a paddle. I am powerless to resist this woman.
Even scarier? I know exactly how things are going to end, and I don’t even care. I don’twantto resist.
“You don’t have to,” Kate says quickly. “It was just a thought.”
I must have been silent for too long. “No, that’s not...I can teach you,” I say. “Of course I can.”
“Really?” She smiles wide, and my heart turns over.
Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no.There’s no way I’m getting through this without falling even more in love with her. And not just the high school fantasy version, but the real her. The sitting-right-in-front-of-me her.
But then the summer will end, and she’ll go, and I’ll stay. Just like always. This is exactly what Perry warned me about.
“I was thinking I could write about it,” she says like she still needs to convince me. “The Green River, it’s a big kayaking location, right?”
I clear my throat and nod. “World-renowned. There’s a race every November, the Green Race, and it’s a pretty big deal. Actually, it’s exactly the kind of thing you like to write about. The whole culture that has grown up around the race.”
She rubs her hands together. “I think I just found my next project,” she says in a sing-song voice that makes me grin.
I shake my head, wondering again how I wound up here. Across the table from Kate. With plans to spend the rest of my summer teaching her how to kayak.
I don’t know how any of this happened, but I know one thing.
It’s going to take everything in me to keep my head above water and my heart intact.
Chapter Seven
Kate
I pull through downtownSilver Creek, hands gripping the steering wheel of my rented SUV, and stop at a red light beside the middle school.
It is...weird to be back. Uncomfortable, even. But I’m still breathing. Still moving forward. Still doing the hard thing I’ve been hiding from until now, no matter how vulnerable it makes me feel.
“It’s a cute town,” Kristyn says. Her body is turned so she’s facing the window, her eyes scanning the landscape on her side of the car. The woods are thick and wild, a rocky creek bubbling with white frothy water barely visible through the trees.
My phone rings as I ease through the intersection, and Kristyn picks it up. “It’s your mom. You want to answer it?”
“Yeah, go ahead. I’m sure she wants to know where I am and if I’ve made it to the house.”
Kristyn puts the call on speaker and sets it on the center console between us.
“Are you there yet?” Mom asks after I say hello.
“Almost. We’re pulling through downtown now.”
“Oh. Then I’m glad I caught you.”
My eyebrows go up. “Is everything okay?”
“Of course!” she says a little too enthusiastically. “Everything is fine. But there is one detail I forgot to mention when we first talked about the house.”
