Page 24 of See You Next Tuesday

“I don’t think so?” Laurel looked confused. “My service sucks here.”

“Let’s stay on this road.” Jill sounded confident. “I’m sure it’s right.”

As it turned out, it was not right. By the time they made it to the kayaking tour, they were the last to arrive at the makeshift parking lot alongside the small river. Everyone else was already in life jackets and standing beside a big rack of kayaks, all paired off and ready to go.

“Sorry, sorry,” Jill apologized as she and Laurel rushed to get their jackets, then turned to Anya and Gabe. “You guys are good to share a boat, right?”

So this was why Simone and Kira “needed to drive alone”: They were plotting some scheme for Anya and Gabe to be stuck in a boat together. Anya shot Simone a faux-annoyed look, and Simone waved and blew her a kiss.

“Sure,” Anya sighed. “Gabe and I can share.”

“Oh, there are four of you?” the guide asked. “Bummer, I only have one kayak left.”

“What?!” Jill look stricken. “We have reservations!”

“You definitely do.” The guide looked like a stoned college student with long shaggy hair and a pleasant expression. “But another group messed up one of my boats this afternoon.”

“Oh.” Anya was disappointed; she’d been looking forward to seeing the bioluminescent bay all week. “It’s okay, I can hang back.”

“What about that?” Gabe pointed at a beat-up old wooden canoe that looked twice as big as the kayaks.

“Oh yeah!” The guide looked amazed, as if just remembering that canoes existed and were also made for water. “But you gotta be a stronger rower for that.”

“Shouldn’t you take that one then?” Anya asked him.

“I totally would,” the guide agreed, “but I’m in the solo kayak.”

“I can take Anya in the canoe,” Gabe offered. “It’s no problem.”

A few minutes later, Anya was sitting in a canoe, facing Gabe as he sat backward, rowing them behind the little pack of kayaks. He was wearing soft khaki shorts, a thin white linen button-down, and flip-flops. Anya could see the muscles in his shoulders flex each time he pulled the oars, and a little sweat was beading at his hairline.

“I really can take an oar,” Anya insisted.

“Sure, because our arms are such similar lengths. We could boat around in little circles. Great plan.”

“I was offering to help,” Anya snapped. “You don’t need to be a dick about it.”

“No, you can’t stand the fact that I’m in complete control,” Gabe retorted. “But you’re right, I don’t need to be a dick about it.”

He looked at her again, the same way he had at dinner—that look like he was trying to tell her something, but she still didn’t know what it was.

“Well, why are you, then?” she asked. “I mean, why were you? In Ohio.”

He met her eye with an adorably sheepish look, like he was a kid who’d been caught stealing. She had to imagine he’d never gotten in trouble once in his entire childhood, with a look like that in his arsenal.

“You are so intimidating.”

“What?!” Anya laughed. “Shut up, I am not.”

“I’m serious,” he said, his smile fading.

She folded her arms. “How could you possibly be intimidated by me?”

“You never take me at my word, for one thing.”

“Because you’re an obvious bullshitter, and people let you get away with it because you’re hot.”

Gabe knocked one of his big wooden oars directly into Kyle’s kayak.