Page 76 of New River Gorge(ous)
Beck turns to face the back of the boat. “Hey, is Lynette picking us up?”
“Yep, in about twenty minutes,” Logan calls back and then tips his head to the river.
“Anyone up for a swim?” Beck asks before setting his paddle down and gracefully jumping over the side.
“I think I’d rather stay in the boat this time,” Melanie says to Matt.
I set down my paddle and attempt to exit the inflatable boat as gracefully as Beck. Again, my short legs don’t let me leap over the wall of air-filled plastic, and my skin makes a slapping sound as it hits the wet material before I slide off the raft and into the water.
“I’ll hold the boat at the next shallow spot,” Logan calls as he passes by us with Matt and Melanie still in the middle. Just when the boat clears us, Ben stands at the edge of the back and falls purposefully backward into the river, where he lands with a huge splash.
“Sooo, Brooke,” Ben says as he floats over to me. “How’s your grandma’s car?”
“Oh, it’s fine,” I say, looking around the water for Beck. My heart is in my throat because I can’t see him.
Suddenly, something pulls on my leg, and I kick it, shrieking. Beck’s copper hair breaks the surface of the water, and he grins at me. It’s an actual grin, a playful one, the kind where he doesn’t look like the weight of saving lives is pressing down on him. The seriousness usually present in his posture is gone.
“Are. There. Snakes. In. Here?” I ask, looking around, even though I know it was Beck that grabbed my leg.
Beck shrugs. “Probably, but I wouldn’t worry about it. The rapids wouldn’t be good for them.” He swims closer to me and loops a finger around my life jacket strap. “Are you scared?”
I shudder at the idea of snakes. “Definitely.”
“Did we just find someone who likes snakes even less than you?” Ben asks, surfacing on my other side.
“Doubtful,” Beck responds as I say, “Absolutely” at the same time.
Ben’s eyes twinkle with a knowing light. “Well, I’ve heard that snakes are romantic.”
Beck’s gaze snaps to Ben. “Don’t you dare use Bea’s lines on me.”
Beck splashes water at Ben, but Ben ducks behind his hand before laughing.
“One day, we’ll get her to bring a python or maybe a boa constrictor and leave it in your bed.”
Beck smirks. “That’s illegal, thank goodness. And I happen to know you don’t want to live a life of crime.”
“For the record, I’ll have no part in this prank,” I say.
Beck pulls me a little closer and wraps an arm around my life jacket girth before he leans in. He plants a brief kiss on my temple that makes a warmth linger on my skin against the coolness of the water.
“Not a life of crime,” Ben corrects, “but if Bea asked me to help her prank you like that, I would.”
“Threatening me, Benjy?” Beck questions, a glint in his eye.
“Of course I am,” Ben says back. “That’s what friends do. Right,Becky?”
Beck lets go of my life jacket and begins chasing down Ben, who clearly anticipated this because he is booking it down the river as fast as he can go. I swim after them, not wanting to beleft behind because now I’m thinking about snakes, and that is a hard pass for me.
Beck overtakes Ben, and the two of them start good-naturedly wrestling in the water. I’m glad to have grown up with brothers, because the entire thing doesn’t strike me as odd at all.
But Melanie must not have grown up with brothers because she’s shrieking from the boat. “Stop! Matty, stop them! They’re going to get hurt!”
I forget for a moment to tread water because I’m so incredulous at her overreaction. My head bobs under the water, and I force myself back up only to find that Logan and Matt stare at Melanie slack-jawed while Beck and Ben continue trying to shove one another under the water. It’s difficult in life jackets.
I swim to the shallow area where Logan has let the raft bump up against a boulder.
“They’re just playing, Mel,” Matt says as I pop my head over the side of the raft.
