Page 94 of A Summer Mismatch
“Now how long do you think we’re going to need to wait for help?” She peered over to where Logan was very slowly making his way to the shore.
“We’ve got time to rest our eyes and dry off.” He relaxed against the back of the canoe, tipped his head up toward the sun, and closed his eyes. The music paused at the end of a song, and the sound of water lapping and frogs chirping was surprisingly relaxing. She leaned her back against her side of the canoe and copied his pose, letting the warm sun bake her wet clothes. A little rest sounded like the exact right thing to do.
She had the promise of a kiss with Logan. She’d reconciled with her grandpa. R.E.M. now blared from the bridge. This might just be the best day ever. She smiled as she closed her eyes while the canoe drifted wherever it wanted to go.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Winnie
Winniepacedbytheshore of Paradise Lake as yet another failed matchmaking attempt unfolded before her eyes.
This was the worst.
When the Secret Seven had come up with their plan to strand Logan and Julia on Paradise Lake, Winnie had been coming up with her own plan. Horace said that he’d back off and allow these kids to get together. And she’d wanted him to prove it.
Prove it by being the person they’d have to row together to save.
He’d been resistant at first, not because he didn’t want to see them happy, he assured her. But he just wasn’t so sure about this plan overall.
“Stranded in a lake without oars? Can’t we just replicate the Watermelon Gala? Have Bruno make them a nice meal at a table for two set on the beach? Or set them up with a private helicopter tour.”
Both of those ideas did sound great, but she was feeling stubborn. “You promised to follow my lead,” she’d reminded him.
And so he’d agreed to strand himself on a canoe in the middle of Paradise Lake, only grumbling once that someone would have to be really dumb to lose not only their own oars, but the rescue oars as well—except for the one he would take from them to head back to shore, under the pretense that he needed to get out of the sun.
Instead, nothing had gone the way it should.
Instead of a single steamy kiss, Logan was in his own canoe, paddling madly toward shore.
Horace and Julia were drifting farther from shore in yet another canoe, sitting as far apart as they could in such a small canoe, Julia dripping wet.
And for some reason unknown to man, a song about how everybody hurts was blaring from Rosa’s boom box. Cameron, loving every song, had a spin dance-move going that Lydia joined in with.
Maybe she should have scrapped this plan. Gone with Horace’s idea of a helicopter tour. They were so loud, it was hard to talk, but it would have been romantic at least. Instead of hot, sticky, and based on Julia’s scream when she’d fallen into the lake—terrifying.
“You had one job!” Nancy chewed out Don.
Don threw his hands out. “Winnie’s the one who insisted Horace take the canoe out. I would have sent Winnie out instead.”
“She couldn’t be in the sun for that long,” Nancy snapped back. She stopped, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath with her hands in a prayer position in front of her. “It’s going to be okay. But will someone please tell me why Rosa is playing heartbreak songs?”
”Is that what they are?” Harry cocked his head to the side. “I’ve always loved this song. I sing it to Ginny all the time.”
A vein in Nancy’s head looked close to exploding.
Harry cleared his throat. “At least they talk about love.”
“Falling out of it, which is opposite of our goal here!” Nancy had to do another one of her recentering-self breathing techniques.
Winnie placed a hand on Nancy’s arm. She’d continued watching Horace and Julia while her friends bickered and brainstormed about next steps. “Look,” she whispered.
They all stopped and looked out at the canoe where Julia and Horace were holding one another in a tight embrace. Winnie’s eyes watered. Nancy’s hand came over hers.
“Oh.” Harry placed his hand over his heart as if preparing to say the pledge of allegiance. “Wow.”
“Maybe this wasn’t such a failure after all,” Winnie said.
“We somehow managed to match Julia and her grandfather,” Nancy breathed.
