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She nods, slowly. “Let me put my equipment away. Then I was thinking I would make some tea. We can play a card game, or whatever you’d like?”
“That sounds perfect,” I reply, truthfully.
“Great.” Katherine smiles, then heads upstairs.
I sink back down on the couch. There’s a chance Elliot has feelings for me. The problem is, I don’t think he’ll ever do a damn thing about it. And if I try to make him, I could risk losing him.
For good.
PartThree
Third Summer
Auden
I eye the gray water dubiously. Despite the warm air and sunshine, I know the smooth surface is simply masking the chilly water.
Elliot shrugs off his t-shirt. He’s always been muscular as a result of his hockey training, but he’s filled out even more since I saw him shirtless last summer. The bright sunlight throws each muscle into harsh definition.
Cassie and the rest of the girls on the boat aren’t bothering to avert their gazes as they stare at Elliot. I do shift my eyes away from the tan skin. We officially “broke up” a couple of months ago, at Elliot’s suggestion. I’m not sure if it was because he felt badly about how it came about to start or was worried it might turn us into more of a gray area, like the couch encounter we both pretended never happened. We didn’t so much as kiss again.
I pull off the cotton dress I’m wearing as a cover-up over my bathing suit. I grab a life jacket from the floor, wincing as the cold lake water soaks into my bikini and drips down my stomach.
“Let’s do this before I change my mind,” I tell Elliot, grimacing.
He snaps his own life jacket into place. “Ready?” He grins down at me, excitement dancing in his blue-gray eyes. I’ll do far worse things than jump into cold water if it means Elliot looking at me like that while I do. “If I jump, you jump,” he teases.
I snort. “Titanic? Has that line ever worked for you?”
“You tell me,” he replies, grabbing me around the waist and leaping into the lake, plunging both of us into its cold depths.
I’m quickly yanked to the surface by my life jacket and gasp from the chill and the shock. Elliot is bobbing next to me. I splash some of the chilly water toward his smiling face in retribution.
“Yeah, you were right. This issuperfun,” I tell him sarcastically. The water iscold. Elliot laughs before he swims over to the tube floating a few feet from us. He effortlessly pulls himself up onto the surface, then turns around to offer me a hand.
I roll my eyes. “Nowyou decide to be chivalrous?” But I can’t pull myself up, so eventually I have to give up and grab it.
He chuckles but smoothly lifts me out of the water as soon as I place my hand in his. Rather than land on the tube like I expected, I end up directly on top of him. His body heat feels heavenly after the cold water, but I roll off him quickly. We haven’t been this close since…the couch.
“You guys ready?” Josh shouts in the distance.
Elliot flashes a thumbs-up at Josh and the motor roars to life, yanking us into motion through a spray of cool water. Wind combs through my hair. Air rushes past. Warm sun spills down and soaks into my skin. When I close my eyes, it feels like I’m flying. It’s magical—and like a lot of things I’ve experienced in Canmore, I wonder if it’swhatI’m doing…orwhoI’m doing itwith.
We skim along the surface of the lake for a few more laps. Eventually the engine quiets to a low sputter and the rope goes slack. Elliot lets go of the front of the tube and rolls onto his back, glancing over at me.
“That was the worst, eh?”
“If I don’t develop hypothermia, I’ll thank you later,” I reply.
He laughs, the motion moving his body closer to the side of the tube. I see an opening and pounce. He doesn’t see it coming, but I fail to consider the physics at play when weight spread evenly across a surface quickly shifts to one side.
Elliot is certainly surprised when he’s pushed into the lake, but I’m equally shocked when the entire tube capsizes, sending me right into the icy depths after him. I sputter as I reach the surface, greeted by the sound of Elliot’s uproarious laughter. I meet his eyes, trying to remain serious, but am unable to contain my own laughter.
“That was the best you could come up with?” he asks me once he’s finally stopped laughing. “Dunking both of us?”
I try to look as dignified as a bedraggled person can. “I saw an opening, so I went for it. Split-second decisions don’t exactly allow for a thorough assessment of potential outcomes.”
Elliot snorts and swims toward the boat, still chuckling to himself. “C for effort,” he tells me, barely keeping a straight face. I splash some more water at him. We near the boat at the same time, and I giggle as he pushes me out of the way to climb up the ladder first.
