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I hadn’t held on to the seat this hard since the first time Jason took me drifting.
Manson couldn’t stop laughing as we careened wildly around a sharp turn. Apparently, staring death in the face was funny to him. Hell, I liked risky business too, but if I was going to die, it needed to be on my terms.
Trusting that Jess wasn’t going to send us flying off the side of the mountain felt a lot like gambling with my life, but damn, the adrenaline rush was wild.
Jess cackled like a mad woman as we drove through the creek, splattering mud all over the doors and windows. A bump was coming up on the trail, but she didn’t slow. She put the pedal to the metal and sped up, sending us flying over the crest with all four wheels off the ground.
“Jesus Christ, woman, you’re going to murder us,” I said, sliding across the seat when she wrenched the wheel hard to the left.
“How am I supposed to jump if I don’t go fast?” she said, yelling over the music we had blasting from the stereo.
She finally brought us to a stop. She was laughing breathlessly, her hair disheveled from the wind whipping through the cabin. Her denim shorts were unbuttoned, her bikini top deliciously close to baring a nipple. She turned in her seat to look back at me, as did Manson. They both had similar expressions of wicked amusement on their faces.
“Did I scare you, Lucas?” she said, giggling when I wrenched open the door. I stepped out, pacing as I appreciated being back on solid ground for a few moments.
“I guess she can drive, huh?” Manson said, getting out of the passenger seat. He wasn’t wearing a shirt today and hadn’t bothered to fix his hair, leaving it to dangle in his face. He looked so happy that it was impossible not to return his smile.
“Yeah, I guess she can handle herself,” I admitted as she came around the front of the Bronco.
Manson swept her up into his arms to kiss her. I wasn’t much of a voyeur; I got too impatient, too eager to participate. But the two of them together were just so damn sexy, it was impossible to look away.
“It’s beautiful out here,” Jess said. She came to my side once Manson let her go and reached up to scrub dirt off my cheek with her thumb. I hadn’t expected her to touch me there, but I surprised myself and didn't flinch.
Every time she touched me, it felt like she left a mark on me. My skin felt hot, almost electric, anytime her fingers came in contact.
“Is that a dock?” She suddenly jogged back down the trail, toward the water. The creek widened into a river here, and there was an old wooden dock that extended into the water. Jess walked out onto it, the boards creaking as her shoes thumped across it.
“Too bad there isn’t a boat,” she said as Manson and I joined her. “I could go for a lazy float down the river.”
“It gets less lazy about a mile downstream,” Manson said. “That’s why there isn’t a boat anymore.”
“Damn foolish,” I said, shaking my head as I remembered the story he’d told me about that death-trap boat. “That’s what happens when you go places without me. You suddenly lose your sense.”
“You would’ve been right there in the boat with us. Don’t lie,” Manson said, reaching over to shove my shoulder playfully. “I didn’t even have a scratch on me.”
“Ooh, I’m sensing a juicy story here,” Jess said. She turned toward us, motioning for us all to sit down. “What happened?”
Already knowing the story, I pulled out a cigarette and lit up while Manson explained.
“Remember how I told you that the first time I came up here, it was just me and Daniel?” he said. “Well, Daniel wanted to try acid. We got a couple tabs from Vincent. We took ‘em, spent an hour wandering around looking at shit. Then Daniel came up with this idea that we’d float down the river in the damn boat.” He rolled his eyes, as if he’d been innocent in the whole situation.
“It may have been Daniel’s idea, but you agreed,” I said. He’d never be allowed to live that incident down.
“I’m a stupid fucker when I’m tripping,” Manson admitted. “But yeah, we got in the boat. I don’t know if you’ve ever floated down a river tripping balls, but it’s fantastic. Until we hit the rough part.”
Jess’s mouth formed a silent “Oh” of surprise. A far more subtle reaction than I’d had when I first heard about it, but I’d gotten better since then about not flying off the handle with my temper.
“So that was the end of the boat,” he said.
Rolling my eyes at how simply he’d wrapped up the story, I said, “You forgot the part where the boat splintered to pieces on the rocks and you nearly drowned. Daniel is lucky I didn’t fucking strangle him for that.”
“It’s sweet that you were worried for him, Lucas,” Jess said, and I sputtered in protest.
“Ain’t a damn thing sweet about it. This fucker nearly gave me a heart attack. Almost drowning in a river that can’t be more than five feet deep.” I shook my head. “So damn foolish you could throw yourself on the ground and miss.”
“So, whatI’mhearing is that a wooden boat isn’t durable enough,” Jess said. “But if we had a few swim rings...”
Manson nodded, holding his arms out as if to say that Jess was thinking in exactly the right direction. “That’s what I’m saying. We need some floaties.”
