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Twenty
“Ican’t believe you did this,” Brant muttered, keeping his voice low so no one else could hear.
Kurt had walked back to the truck to get the cooler. “Did what?” he said, but the grin stretching across his face made it obvious he was playing games.
“Youknowwhat, damn it.”
“Whoa! What’s wrong with you?” Kurt said, sobering. “I did you a favor, bro. You’ve been moping around for a week, and now she’s right here. You can thank me later.”
Thankhim? You didn’t get over a woman by staring at her in a bikini. But Kurt had already hefted the cooler out of the back and was carrying it to the boat, so Brant didn’t have the opportunity to voice any more of his displeasure.
“All clear,” Miles called out a moment later, letting Brant know he could go park.
Briefly, Brant considered driving off and leaving them all at the lake. He hadn’t signed on for an entire evening with Talulah, especially because she’d looked just as shocked to see him as he was her.
Cursing the entire time he circled the lot, he finally found a spot big enough for both the truck and the trailer and sat there for a few minutes, trying to regain his equilibrium. He couldn’t leave. Someone who didn’t care whether Talulah was around or not would never react in such a volatile way, which meant he could only slap a smile on his face and act as though she was no different to him than any other woman.
He could manage that for four to five hours, couldn’t he?
Since the answer had to be yes, he got out and strode down to the boat, where everyone was waiting for him. He could feel Talulah’s gaze as he approached, but he refused to glance her way. He’d just ignore her, he told himself, and try to enjoy the sun, the water and the skiing.
Then, when it was all behind him and he got back home, he’d let his brother know he didn’t appreciate being tricked.
Talulah felt unwanted and out of place. Brant wouldn’t even look at her. He took the driver’s seat, which put his back to her most of the time, and found a section of calm water so everyone could ski.
Kurt and Miles skied like pros, and Jane and Kate weren’t bad, considering they’d had far less experience. Jane tried to talk Talulah into going when they were done, but she insisted she preferred to ride in the boat and watch others. She’d only been skiing one other time in her life, many years ago, and it hadn’t been a success.
Miles took over at the wheel so Brant could ski, and like his brothers, he did so flawlessly.
“Are you mad at me?” Jane whispered while he was out of the boat and couldn’t hear her. After getting out of the water, she’d wrapped herself in a towel.
Talulah frowned. She didn’t want to say anything in front of the Elway brothers, who kept glancing over. “We’ll talk about it later.”
“I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I thought it would be a fun surprise.”
It wasn’t that Talulah didn’t want to see Brant. She did. She was just so conflicted about how her actions would affect the people around her, including him. “It was definitely a surprise,” she said.
When Brant signaled that he was done, Kurt made his way over to her. “Aren’t you at least going totryto ski?”
She could tell he was frustrated by her refusal. “I’m not good at it. I tried once before.”
“It’d be worth trying again,” he said, and after Brant got back in the boat, even Kate and Jane insisted she make the effort. Jane said that all she had to do was grip the rope handles and push the ski against the pressure of the water once the boat started to accelerate, and she’d “pop up.”
They made it sound easy. They made it look easy, too. But once she got out in the cold water and was hanging on to the rope, she found she’d been right all along: it wasn’t easy. Brant had taken over driving again—she had the impression he was their main driver—but as soon as he gave the boat some gas, the ski wobbled beneath her, then cut out to the side, where it was ripped off by the rushing water, and she was dragged behind the boat until she remembered to let go of the rope.
She’d tried four times and drank far more lake water than she deemed healthy by the time she decided to give up. When Brant circled around, and Kurt lifted the rope to throw it out to her again, she yelled, “I can’t do it. I feel like an idiot, making you go in circles. It’s okay. Someone else can take a turn.”
The ski had come off again during her last spill, but she’d managed to grab it. She was trying to hand it up to Miles when Brant said something to Kurt that must’ve been, “Here, you drive,” or something like that, because he suddenly dived off the side and swam over to her.
“What are you doing?” she asked. “You don’t have to help me. I can tell you don’t even want me to be here.”
“You have no idea what I want,” he said with a scowl. “But back to skiing. You’re trying too hard. Relax and lean back. Let the boat do the rest.”
“I hate that you’re mad at me,” she said.
“I’m not mad at you. I—” He seemed to think better of making that statement. “Never mind. Come here.”
She shivered as he adjusted the shoes on the ski, making them fit more snugly. “Remember, let the boat do the work,” he said as he helped her put the ski back on. “Just sit in the water, draw your knees into your chest and let the tension slowly pull you up. I wish I had two skis, so I could start you out that way. It’d be easier for you. But it’s been a long time since we brought a beginner. I don’t even know where those old skis went.”
