Lake Magic (28 page)

“It’ll be fun, you’ll see. We’ll take the rowboat out and—”

“I can’t go on the water, remember?”

This time it was Jenny’s turn to smile. “I’ve got the goods on your mom,
remember
? If she catches us, I’ll just remind her of a few of the stunts she pulled as a kid.”

“You gonna tell me any of them?”

Jenny gave the toe of Cody’s shoe a playful kick and held out her hand. “Not today.”

By the time Jenny had gotten the small rowboat from behind the hangar and to the shoreline, she was hot, grimy, and rethinking the whole fishing idea. And that was before she’d slipped in the wet sand. Her white capris weren’t white any longer, and sweat had matted her hair to her scalp. Really a great look. Thank God no one besides Cody was around to see.

Using her forearm, she brushed a hunk of damp hair off her damp forehead and shot her nephew a look so full of reproach she was sure he’d finally get the hint and jump in to help.

Fat chance.

“How about a little help here?”

Halfheartedly he gave the small boat a shove with his foot.

Caught off guard by his effort to finally lend a hand (well, a foot, really), she wasn’t prepared. The front of the boat lurched forward, banged into her legs, and sent her flying. She landed butt down in the cold, shallow water. “Ayyyy,” she yelped and jumped up. Only her flip-flops were no match for the rocky bottom, and down she went again.

“Au-aunt Jen-Jenny.” Cody started to laugh. “Th-that w-was s-s-so f-f-f-funny.”

“Yeah, real funny.” She flung wet sand and small pebbles off her hands before firmly planting her feet and grabbing hold of the boat to pull herself up. She couldn’t help but think that twice now, she’d fallen flat on her ass when her nephew was near. She tried to brush the dirt from her pants but gave up. What was the point? She was wet, covered in lake goo, and a real comedian if Cody’s laughter was any indication.

She glared at him. He didn’t notice. He was too busy holding his sides and laughing. She slapped an orange life jacket around his neck.

That got his attention and finally shut him up.

“Aw, come on, Aunt Jenny.” He looked at the big fat orange U as if it was a pink boa. “What if one of my friends sees me?”

“They’ll thank me for keeping you safe.”

“This is so
retarded
.” Cody tugged at the neckline. His little chin jutted up, stuck there by the big fat orange vest.

“Better safe than sorry.” She winced. Great, now she was starting to channel her mother.

Ignoring his continual complaints, she told him to hop in the boat. Once he was settled, she gave the rowboat one last shove and then did her best to jump in. Her “jump” turned out to be more of a scramble, grab, pull, pray, move. By the time she ended up in the boat, her stomach hurt from hurling herself over the hard aluminum side. Somehow she didn’t remember fishing being this difficult when her grandfather had taken her out. “You want to help me row?”

Cody pulled out his iPod and plopped the two tiny speakers into his ears. “Yeah. Right.”

She clenched her lips and kept her mouth shut. They were going to have fun, damn it, lousy start notwithstanding.

She grabbed the oars, centered herself on the middle bench, and forced herself to concentrate on all that was good. Sunlight glistened off the pristine blue water, a trio of ducks quacked and bobbed near the shoreline, one of them butt up. Off in the distance a Jet Ski zipped around the lake, shooting up a steady arc of water. And on the seat below her, her nephew sat listening to his music and doing his utmost to ignore her. Even through his earphones she could hear the music’s steady hard rock beats. She drew in a breath, reminded herself that they were going to have fun, and then reached back in her memory for everything her grandfather had taught her about rowing.

Just like riding a bike. But a hundred feet out, she wasn’t smiling any longer. Sun beat down on the top of her head, and her eyes ached from squinting. Her throat was parched, and her arms burned. Her back began to prickle, and she knew a sunburn was in the works. All in all, it was shaping up to be a winner of a day.

She looked at her nephew and realized she hadn’t made him put on sunscreen. Crap. If he went home with his skin even the slightest flush of pink, Jenny was going to catch hell from her sister. But at least he was better prepared for their outing than she. He wore a baseball cap, the bill pulled as low as possible on his forehead she was certain so he wouldn’t have to look at her. Sunglasses covered his eyes, and unlike her capris, his khaki shorts were dry as a pin. He wore a black T-shirt under the orange life jacket and the color combination made her think of Halloween.

She pushed the oars through the water, trying to ignore the throbbing in her arms. “Are you having fun?” She raised her voice to be heard over his music.

He looked up, but she couldn’t read anything behind his dark glasses. He tugged at the orange vest again. “A real blast.”

She faked a smile. “Good. I knew you’d like it.”

He went back to ignoring her.

She looked around. Off to her left, there was a small inlet that her grandfather had always sworn was the best fishing hole in the whole lake. Jenny eyed the distance. It was at least twice as far as they’d already come. No freakin’ way. She pulled the oars in and grabbed one of the fishing poles.

From beneath his bill, Cody looked up.

Jenny opened the ancient green tackle box and grabbed a pink bottle of bait. “Have you ever baited a hook?”

Trying to act cool and uninterested, he pulled out one of his earphones, and she repeated the question. “Remember? I’ve never fished.”

“It’s really easy.” The jar was rusty, and it took her several tries until if finally twisted free. She found the end of the line, thankful a hook was still attached (a little rusty, but usable) and began to thread little pink eggs on.

“You mean we aren’t gonna use worms?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because . . .” Because the thought of stringing those poor, live, squirming, slimy things onto a hook made her stomach crawl. “Because I’ve read that this bait is more effective.”

Even through his sunglasses, she could see he wasn’t buying it. They got their hooks baited, and Jenny tried to show Cody how to cast, though it had been so long since she’d gone fishing, she was as rusty as the bait bottle. Still, they managed to get the lines in the water with a satisfying kerplunk.

“Now what?” Cody asked.

“We wait.”

“For how long?”

“For however long it takes the fish to bite.”

If possible, his chin jutted even farther into the air. “Like that’s gonna happen. A fish eatin’ something that’s pink.”

“I would.”

“Yeah, like what?”

Jenny thought for a moment. “Cotton candy.”

Cody stuck his earphone back in. “Well, you’re not a fish. They like worms.”

Jenny tipped her face up toward the sun and kept an eye on their lines, watching for any telltale movement. As the minutes ticked by, she couldn’t help but compare how what she was doing now was exactly the same thing she was doing with Jared: keeping one eye on him at all times. The Jet Ski zoomed by and rocked the boat. Her stomach plunged and lurched just like it had last night when he’d had her pinned up against the railing.

Yes, she was sure, but she couldn’t help wonder what it would be like to be his just for one night. One night where she’d feel his arms around her, his mouth on her, his weight between her thighs. Guilt collided with desire and twisted her stomach into a knot. She didn’t want to remember what it felt like to lie naked next to a man, to feel the hard length of him pressed against her. Especially not a man like Jared. A flyboy who had no roots, only wings.

“Aunt Jenny, I’m hungry.”

Heat crept up her neck and over her cheeks. She knew she was beet red and could only hope Cody blamed her inflamed skin on the sun and not on her licentious thoughts. She was hungry, too, but not in the same way. “I . . . um . . . I didn’t pack anything to eat.”

“Anything to drink?”

“No,” she said, knowing she was the world’s worst aunt. She’d forgotten sunscreen, food, and drinks, and she’d been having illicit thoughts about Jared while her nephew sat less than two feet away. “Do you want to head back in? It doesn’t look like the fish are biting.” Not that she’d know. She’d stopped looking at the poles around the time she’d started thinking about Jared on top of her, inside of her. “We can always come back out next weekend and try again.”

“Whatever.”

She took that to mean yes. She reached for her fishing pole, and then everything happened at once. Cody stood up and grabbed for his pole at the same time that the Jet Ski roared past again. This time it was so close, the little boat nearly tipped over from the wake. Without thinking, Jenny jumped up and grabbed a handful of vest and held on to Cody for dear life. His pole went over the side, and even as Jenny was yelling at him to forget it, to let it go, he was bending over, trying to reach it. Both their weight went to the left side, and water sloshed over the side. Panicked, she pulled Cody back and forced him to sit. By the time it was all over, they were both panting hard, and the fishing pole was sinking away. And an oar was floating off.

Jenny groaned. This. Could. Not. Be. Happening. Was it possible for this day to get any worse?

And then she heard laughter coming from the shore. She closed her eyes and groaned again. She didn’t need to look to see who it was; she’d recognize that deep baritone anywhere. Maybe if she sat here long enough, the sun would just burn her up and end her misery.

“Jared!” Cody hollered, waving madly, starting to stand up again.

Jenny felt the boat rock, and her eyes shot open just in time to pull Cody straight back down. “Don’t you dare,” she said as she snuck a peek toward the shoreline. Jared stood there with his feet planted a shoulder’s width apart. No wonder she hadn’t heard him leave. He was dressed in running shorts, a T-shirt, and tennis shoes. Remembering her earlier thoughts, she blushed all over again.

“We need his help.”

“No, we don’t.”

Cody pointed to the oar that kept floating farther and farther away. He crossed his arms across his puffy orange chest and let out a loud
“Huh
.
”

Jenny looked around. She didn’t need to be saved, no matter what Cody or her family thought. She could manage on her own. She picked up the one oar she had left and stretched out as far as she could, hoping she’d be able to nab the other oar. But no matter how far she stretched, the oar stayed out of reach.

“Need any help?” The deep timbre of his voice easily carried across the water to them. And so did his amused arrogance.

“No,” she hollered back, shooting Cody a
keep quiet
look. Using the one oar, she began to paddle, but no matter how many times she kept switching the oar from side to side, she ended up going in more of a circle than a straight line.

“You sure you don’t need help?”

She gritted her teeth and dug in, determined to reach that damn oar if it killed her. “Positive.”

But no matter how hard she rowed, she didn’t make any forward progress. Finally, she gave up and dragged the heavy wooden oar back into the boat.

“How much longer are we going to be out here, Aunt Jenny?”

As long as it takes.
“Don’t worry. I’ve got everything under control. We’ll be back on shore in no time.”

“Good. ’Cuz I really need to get back.”

A terrible suspicion stole over her. “Uh, you don’t have to use the bathroom do you?”

“No. I’m thirsty. And I gotta finish my homework before we leave for my game.”

“You’re not done with your homework?”

“No.”

She didn’t want to ask the next question, afraid of the answer. “Have you started?”

“No.”

“Cody . . .”

He didn’t say a word.

“Cody Adams, I’m—” But she was fresh out of threats and fresh out of ideas on how to retrieve the oar. She had the sudden urge to throw her nephew over the side and tell him to swim out and get it, then she wondered just how old that life vest was and would it even still float?

“Looks like we won’t be stuck out here much longer.”

She looked in the direction he was pointing.

Jared was shrugging off his shirt and pushing off his running shoes and heading for the water.

“No way.” A girl could stand only so much humiliation in one day.

Without pausing to fully think it through, she dove over the side. Icy cold water sucked the air straight out of her lungs, and she surfaced, gasping for breath.