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“Ah. Right.” He nodded abruptly and concentrated on his roll. “Absolutely.”
Allie put down her coffee. This warranted a discussion. “Do we have to get weird and tiptoe over who has rights to whom all weekend? I really don’t want to.”
“No, you’re right. We’ll keep it simple. You’re here with Erik. I’m here with Sandra.”
“Okay.” Served her right for bringing it up.
“But when they’re still asleep...” A slow smile spread over Jonas’s face. “We can cheat on them.”
Allie giggled, wilting into relief. “That’s exactly what I meant!”
“Don’t worry.” He finished his coffee and took his plate to the sink. “It’s not going to be a big deal. Sandra and I are friends...”
Allie jumped on his hesitation. “With privileges?”
“Not anymore.”
“She knows that?”
“Her idea. Years ago.” He turned back to Allie, not displaying any sign of discomfort that might indicate he was lying. “Last night was weird, but it won’t be that way going forward. Erik will calm down. It’s all good. We can hang out on kayaks with our consciences clear.”
She wasn’t totally convinced. Sandra had looked as if she could cheerfully tear Allie apart with her teeth. “Okay.”
“But only because kayaks don’t have beds in them.”
“Huh.” Allie shook her head at him, shame-on-you, and devoured the last of her roll’s buttery bliss. Kayaking was exercise, right? She’d burn off the calories of one roll paddling for only...twenty-five or twenty-six hours. And if she came back from this outing with Jonas and found Sandra and Erik upset again, that was it. She would make sure she and Jonas weren’t alone again.
The idea made her instantly miserable.
After breakfast, she and Jonas changed into their bathing suits, slathered on their sunscreen and met down at the boathouse where Jonas found water shoes that fit her and selected kayaks and paddles. He gave her a short lesson, which, while she was swinging the paddle around on the beach, made Allie even more certain she was going to be hopeless at this.
She wasn’t. A little clumsy at first, she soon got the hang of the stroke and was gliding happily around, amazed at how little strength or energy it took to propel the boat forward. The lake water in daylight was astonishingly clear—green when she peered into its depths and a rich dark blue when she gazed across it. Add the vibrant green of the surrounding forested hills and the white of the gulls skimming the surface looking for fish, and she was hooked, not only on kayaking, but on the area.
“This is so gorgeous! How could you not come here every weekend?”
Jonas looked around, resting his paddle. “That’s a good question. I guess I got out of the habit.”
“I can’t imagine.” That was an understatement. Not only couldn’t she imagine, she wanted to growl at him. If she had a place like this she’d be out here every possible chance she got. That was something about privileged people that drove her crazy. They didn’t really understand and value what they had because they’d never done without. Whoever she ended up with would have to have worked hard for everything he owned.
“No.” Jonas resumed paddling. “Out of context, it probably doesn’t make sense to anyone on the outside. Partly, it’s that my family has made this place its own for so many generations that it came to represent something I only had a tiny piece of and couldn’t alter. I’ve wanted my own place for a while now, in my own style, with my own stuff.”
“Kind of like how you only have a piece of your company and want to have your own. So...essentially you’re a megalomaniac.”
“You do understand!” He grinned, then his gaze shifted behind her and he pointed urgently. “Look.”
Allie turned just in time to see a bald eagle flying past only a few yards away, its yellow eyes and curved beak clearly, if briefly, visible.
“Oh my gosh!” She shaded her eyes, watching the majestic bird fly, the great wings flapping gracefully as it made its way up the lake. “I could see it so clearly.”
“They’re around here every year, but I haven’t seen one that close up before. It’s always thrilling.”
“And you stay away from here.” She couldn’t stop straining her eyes after the bird, now a distant miniature.
“You’d get it if you saw our family in action. My dad was extremely controlling. Erik and I both rebelled in our own way. He fought back. I tended to disappear. I still feel as if I have to behave myself in the house, even when they’re not there.”
