Page 6 of High Side
“Uh, 90s alternative. Latin rap. Country. You?” She could listen to everything, though. Well, not Norwegian death metal.
“I like R&B, mostly, but I love anything you can sing to.”
“Cool. I can totally go there. Morning person or night owl?” Brittany asked.
“Oh, man. I’m a night owl naturally, but I’ve learned to go to bed early so I can go to work.”
“Me too! Man, that’s a challenge, learning to switch, but the river waits for no woman.”
“Neither do the clients.” Jilly laughed out loud. “I figure it’s better to get a little extra sleep so I can be nice.”
“Yeah, because some of those kids can be nuts, man.Damn.”
“I know, right? Though the dudes who think they got this, and they know more about it than I do? I hate that. I know I’m young, and they probably think our training is minimal, but we have to certify, you know? And they’re the ones who always sit and stare if there’s a high side or someone goes in the river.”
“God, I’m glad to know I’m not the only one.” Brit had to laugh at that.
“Nope. Not at all, honey. Do you have your stuff in your car? I’ll help you lug.”
“Thanks. I do.” Looked like she was actually moving in. So she let Jilly run her outside to get her stuff. “Hey, is there a laundry facility?”
“We have two washers and dryers for free in the back of the bunkhouse.”
“God, I love this place already.” Who did that? No one ever trusted people their age with free machines.
“Right? And Hannah and Kristen are in culinary school. They’re flying in next week. That means risotto balls.”
“Oh my God.” Brit figured she’d die happy with that. “I’ll buy wine.”
“Oh, you I like. There’s a winery right outside of town.” Jilly bounced. “If you need someone to go with.”
“Absolutely!” God, she already had a job, a new friend, a rafting family. How frigging cool!
“Excellent. We’ll make a plan.” They grabbed all her shit out of the truck, chattering all the way, vibing on the beginning of the summer possibilities. She had a feeling she was going to like it here.
A lot.
Three
Kylie grinned at the assembled river guides who were there for the start of the heavy season, not just the first runs people like she and Joe made every year with the early corporate peeps. “Okay, so everyone made it to the first day. Way to go. Now we start the M&M Outfitters training course. Welcome back to the returning guides, and let’s all say hi to Brittany, Jesse, and DJ!”
She waited for everyone to clap backs and shake hands before moving on.
“So, returning guides, what’s the number one priority at M&M Outfitter?” she asked, making Joe roll his eyes, but she did it every year. She had to. Liz and Lupe were damn serious about it, and so was she.
“Safety!” came the chorus.
“Right on. I’m not interested in lawsuits, pissed-off customers, or my bosses crawling up my ass. We follow the rules, and we follow all of them.” She had this speech down.
There were several grins, and Joe gave her a thumbs up. “Okay. So, we’re going to go through what we do before the rafts are even loaded on the trailer…”
They went through the pre-trip meeting, the checklist of safety preparations, and how to inspect and load the rafts. They were going to drill this into everyone’s heads for the next five days.
Then it was time to load up the locals. They had Evie from the Lazy M Ranch, Jack and Aimee, and a spate of graduated seniors from the high school. They also had their horse whisperer Milo, and Jenny Mae from the wood shop.
She split the group in half, sending one group with Joe to run through getting the guests prepared, and keeping the other half bus loading and checking off the inventory of equipment.
“Okay, so this is where it will get hairy. These are all experienced rafters. You have to respect that while not letting them push you around.” Usually they lost two or three kids on this trip, just because they found out the pressure of actually having guests in a raft with them was too much. It was one thing to go out on the river with friends. It was another to hold paying guests’ lives in your hands.
