“I have an idea,” Alice pipes up. “Should I lead?”

I wave a hand at the pile of wood. “Have at it.”

Faye laughs and we all get down onto the ground and watch as Alice starts explaining what she wants us to do with the pieces. I get the task of lining them up so they’re the most even and then finding the smallest, skinniest pieces to go beneath all the big ones, in the opposite direction, to hold them all in place. Once we’ve done that, Faye gets to work on slowly using the thin twine to attach the pieces together while Alice begins figuring out how to work the rope.

“If we bring the rope up between the pieces of wood, won’t the water come through?” I ask, feeling a little more involved now our raft actually looks like a raft.

“That’s what I was thinking,” Alice mumbles, “but I feel like we’re not going to get much of a choice here.”

I look over at two of the other ladies, the two girls who don’t talk a great deal to us. Linda and Quincy. The two of them are clearly best friends and came here together, and mostly they keep to themselves. Still, they’ve got a great idea. They’re only threading the rope through a couple of planks, just above where the thinner sticks run along the bottom. Only creating a few small gaps, and they’re using the twine.

“Oh, I think we’ve got it the wrong way around,” I say. “I think we should use the rope on the bottom and the twine to thread up and through.”

“Copy cat,” Linda mutters from beside us.

I cross my arms. “It’s not a competition, Linda.”

She glares at me. Oh, she’s got a problem now, does she?

She hasn’t spoken to me at all on this retreat and now she’s angry because I am using a trick. It’s a competition, after all. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do? Besides, who says copy cat anymore, we’re not in grade school.

“No, but at least try to use your brain, or is it still damp from your little swim in the lake last night?”

Oh.

It suddenly makes sense.

She must have heard, or seen, Enzo and I.

Is someone jealous?

It sounds like someone is jealous.

“What’s the matter, Linda? Your husband hasn’t fucked you in five years and you’re imagining how fucking good it would feel to have one of these ranchers bend you over that raft and make you call him daddy?”

Linda’s eyes get so big she looks like she’s about to pass out with shock and horror. Faye giggles and Alice claps a hand over her mouth in surprise.

“Okay,” Enzo says, walking toward me and putting a hand on my shoulder. “That’s enough from you.”

“She started it,” I mutter.

“Bitch,” Linda mutters.

“I heard that, Linda. Next time say it to my face!”

Enzo puts two hands on my shoulders now and pushes me back a touch, leaning in close. “While I like it when your filthy mouth gets the better of you, I don’t feel like breaking up a cat fight. You want to cool it?”

“She saw us fucking.”

He grins, wickedly. “Then let her have that fuckin’ great memory.”

I smirk.

“Now, go and finish your raft. You never know, it might just be a competition.”

My eyes widen. “Wait, you never told me that. It changes everything if it’s a competition, I’m a sore loser.”

“Then you better start tying.”

I spin around and start helping the girls with an enthusiasm I didn’t have before. Together, we actually manage to piece our raft together and it looks pretty good. When we’re done, and the other girls are too, Enzo stands in front of us all.

“I didn’t mention it earlier, but whichever raft floats the best and makes it to the other side first, wins a night out in town, on us, with friends of your choosing. Start paddling, ladies.”

“Shit!” Alice says. “I need that. Let’s go.”

Everyone rushes to put their rafts into the water. Two of them sink right away, slowly tilting until they disappear into the water. I take a large stick that was in our pile and use it to help glide us across the water.

Linda and Quincy are beside us, using sticks to row too, and for the moment, they’re in front of us. Water laps up against the side of our raft as we fall behind. We need to move fast.

“One up front, one in the middle, one at the back, let’s use our hands to row this mother fucker,” I call to the girls.

They do as I say and, going off different sides to keep the balance, we all lean into the water and use our hands to row, but even then, we’re still not catching up. The rules were if the raft didn’t sink and we got there fast, that was it, nobody said we couldn’t get into the water.

Tags: Bella Jewel Walker Hills Romance
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