Page 16 of High Side
“Thanks.” Brittany headed over to Paul.
She made her way to Liz, who had been their bus driver today since Lena had taken her grandkids to Montrose to go shopping. “Has anyone found Josh?”
“No. He bailed, and the spotters saw him exit the river, but he’s just disappeared.”
“What the fuck is he doing?”
“I have no idea. Is he on meth? I’m not running tweaker river guides.”
Kylie fought the urge to roll her eyes. “He didn’t say he was, no.”
“Well, you’re supposed to delve.” Liz’s lips twitched. “Let me get on the radio and see what happened. I don’t remember him being a problem last year.”
“Yeah. Make sure he wasn’t stung by a bee or something. And he wasn’t here long last year, so maybe we didn’t know.”
“Ah, the old stung by a bee excuse.” Liz winked.
They’d both seen it a few times. That and the “I was watching a mountain goat” or some shit. They grinned at each other, and she left Liz to it.
“So you like her, huh?”
Kylie glanced at Jilly in surprise as her friend sidled up next to her. “Who?”
“You know.”
Fuck. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, bullshit.” Jilly grinned at her. “But you just keep telling yourself that.”
Christ. She tried not to be so obvious if she was into someone. Playing favorites. Maybe she needed to back off.
“Be good. Did you see where that Josh went?” She needed to fire him, and it would be fun.
“Nope. I saw him bail and swim, but I was a little busy. Brandon was spotting. Is Liz calling him on the radio?”
“Yep. Gotta find him.” She turned away before Jilly could chew on her about Brittany anymore. It sucked that she was being so clear about her interest, but that was because there was something about Brittany that really called to her.
Not just the tight little body and hot ass. Which was stunningly good.
No, Brittany was…damn.
Yeah, no. She was going to have to breathe this shit out. This would be a long summer, but she couldn’t get caught up in the workplace romance stuff. She was a supervisor.
“Wanna have lunch?” Brittany asked as she breezed by.
“Sorry. Gotta burn and find Joshua.” She couldn’t quite look at Brittany as she said it. She felt mean, which was silly. This was better for both of them. “Liz is pissed, and if he’s hurt, it’s still on us.”
She shrugged her shoulders, feeling about frustrated—at herself, at Josh, at the world at large.
She’d really been looking forward to getting to know Brittany better. In a biblical way, but if people were really noticing, she needed to pull it back.
Looked like she was out of luck.
Six
Brittany stomped into the office after her second day on the job to turn in her radio. Jesus, what a cluster.
The rafting had gone well. The clients had been fine. But Josh the abandoner of ships had shown up at the end of the day to accuse her of, get this, bumping him out of the raft.
