Page 51 of How to Kiss a Hawthorne Brother
Her toughness, her resilience, stirs something deep in my gut. No, that’s not really accurate. My gut is already a churning mess of attraction and desire and a billion other feelings. But seeing Kate face something she’s never done before head-on, to see her flip and stumble and still want to get back in the boat? It makes all those churning feelings crystallize into something specific. Something tangible.
Once we’re out of the water, we lounge on the banks of the river eating lunch. Griffin will be down with the truck to haul us, and our kayaks, back up to Triple Mountain within the half-hour.
“So what did you think?” I almost don’t need to ask her. I’ve been doing this long enough, I’ve learned to recognize the excitement that buzzes in people who really loved the experience.
Kate’s still humming, energy pulsing right under her skin. She smiles wide at my question. “I want to do it again. And can we do bigger rapids? I mean, notbigbig rapids. Nothing like what I watched in the videos of the Green Race. But something bigger than what we did today. Will you take me?”
Yep.I’m totally done for. This woman has me.
"I would love to take you."And give you anything else you ever want.
“It was seriously such a rush. I felt so fast. And in control. It’s easy for me to understand why you love it so much. And also why your program is so successful. You really are a good teacher.”
“You better stop. Anymore, and my ego will be too big to fit in my boat.”
She collapses back onto the grass and lifts an arm up to shield her eyes. “Nope. If your ridiculous muscles haven’t done that yet, my compliments definitely won’t.”
I relax back beside her, propped up on my elbows. I tilt my face up and close my eyes, enjoying the warm sun on my water-chilled skin.
“Do you ever wish you could stay somewhere forever?” Kate asks softly.
My mind immediately goes to her staying in Silver Creek forever. “What, like...in a certain place?”
She turns her face to look at me. “More like, in a moment. Like this one.”
“Yeah?”
She smiles. “I just did something really fun. And now my belly is full. The sun is warm.” She pauses. “The company is good.”
There is so much I could say. So much I want to say. But nothing I say is going to change the fact that Kate is only in town for a couple of months. When her grandmother’s house is ready to sell, she’ll be off on her next adventure. Her next assignment. The very nature of her career depends on her always leaving places. I swallow the words clogging up my throat. “It’s nice to have you back, Kate.”
Back in the parking lot of Triple Mountain, I walk Kate to her car. She retrieves her cell phone from her bag and holds it up. “Can we take a selfie next to the kayaks?”
“Of course,” I say. “But I also took a few photos of you while we were on the river. I’ll text those over later.”
“What? When did you do that?”
“It’s just part of the whole experience.”
She rolls her eyes. “I forget the rapids we did are like splashing in a kiddie pool for you. Of course you had time to take pictures. Did you file your taxes too? Do your grocery shopping?”
“Just stop it and get in here for a picture,” I say, pulling her close to me. My hand wraps around her waist, heat searing my fingertips when they press against her bare skin. She lifts the phone and tries to capture us both in the frame, but it’s obvious after a couple of attempts that with my longer arms, I should be the one holding the camera. I take it from her with my free hand, and she snuggles even closer into my side, one hand pressed against my chest.
I take a half-dozen different pictures—having a sister has taught me that one single photo is never enough—and hand the phone back to her. It buzzes as it passes from my hand to hers and I watch as Kate reads the notification. She pauses, her face shifting from shock to surprise to something that looks like excitement? But then she looks toward me and it’s like a mask slips into place, her face shifting into an easy neutral.
“Everything okay?” I ask.
“Yeah. Sure. That was just . . . a work thing.”
My heart drops to my toes. “Your next assignment?”
“Um, sort of? Not exactly.” She looks over my shoulder. “It’s hard to explain. Hey, you should probably help Griffin unload those kayaks.”
I follow her gaze to where Griffin is lifting the boats off his truck to store them on the rack behind the gear shed. He doesn’t really need my help. There are only two boats, but I’m smart enough to recognize this as the dismissal it’s meant to be. “Okay,” I say evenly. “You still want some help hauling some stuff to Goodwill this afternoon?”
“Yes!” she says a little too eagerly. “Absolutely. I would love the help.”
She gives me a quick hug and then she’s in her car and gone.
