Wow. The woman had some impressive upper-body strength. In fact, she could probably easily outpaddle Kevin. But she couldn’t let Julia paddle. That was part of the deal, part of Ben’s stipulation. His sister had to sit smack dab in the middle of the boat, the safest seat in the house.
“Did something happen?” Julia peered up at her. “Earlier? At the press conference? I know it’s none of my business, but you looked kinda pissed off.”
The bruise on her heart throbbed, but she smiled. “Nothing I can’t handle.” Julia didn’t need to worry about it. She dealt with enough in her own life every single day. This day had to be about freedom for her.
“’Cause Ben’s worried, Paige.” She shaded her eyes from the blazing sun. “He thinks Gracie said something to upset you.” The melodious pitch of her voice rose into a fishing expedition.
Paige ignored the implied question and focused on cinching a dry sack into the boat. “Trust me. That’s not the problem.” She didn’t care so much what Gracie had said. It was the truth of her statement that had gotten to her. Ben’s chosen profession demanded that he become a professional liar. A politician. Whoever ended up with him would live life in front of the cameras. They’d need to lie about things, too. And she couldn’t. She needed freedom. She couldn’t play a part like Gracie had done all those years. For so long, she’d tried to be who people needed her to be, and it had only turned her into a self-protective failure. Trying to be everything to everyone meant she would become nothing.
Julia tugged on her sleeve. “Hey, Paige—”
Gravel crunched behind them and his sister snapped her mouth shut like she was afraid she’d get caught butting in.
“Can I help you ladies with anything?” Ben asked, his voice dripping with that tempting-as-midnight-dark-chocolate drawl.
“Actually, yes.” Paige refused to get lost in those eyes. They’d only make her think funny things. And she had to focus. “Can you get Julia in the boat?” She pointed at the foldable camp chair she and Shooter had secured onto the center tube of the raft.
“Wow,” Julia murmured. “That’s quite the seat.”
“Yep.” She hoped her smile didn’t look as plastic as it felt. Feeling Ben’s gaze burn holes through her, she tugged on the straps that held the chair in place. “It’s pretty sturdy. Just remember our safety discussion.”
She focused on Julia. Don’t look up. Because Ben had moved over her. Too close. Scooting more space between them, she bent over and lifted the strap she’d rigged up in front of the chair. “It’ll be a bumpy ride. You have to hold on the whole time.”
“Deal,” Julia said solemnly.
“All right, sis.” Ben swept his sister into his arms, and even though she tried not to watch, tried not to notice the careful way he carried her with one arm secured under her arms and one secured under her knees, the scene dinged her heart. Did he have to be so kind?
Ben settled Julia into her special chair and the woman beamed the same way she had when she’d sat tall and straight like a queen on Sweetie Pie’s back.
He seemed to watch his sister for a minute, which gave Paige the chance to watch him without getting caught.
Though his lips were supple and relaxed—and completely enticing—his jaw tensed and his eyes shifted back and forth from the river to Julia as if assessing the danger.
He was worried. He didn’t have to say anything, she could tell. And she needed him calm and alert for this trip. “Ben,” she called. “Can you help me load the cooler?”
He seemed to wake from the awful nightmare he was probably forced to relive every time he looked at his sister. “Sure. Yeah.”
Paige headed for the van. His long stride caught her in a matter of steps.
“She’ll be fine.” She heaved open the van door. “You need to stop worrying.”
“I’m not worried about Julia.” He plowed his open palm against the metal, slammed the door shut, and wedged himself between her and the van, the space so tight she felt his muscles tense against her. But he didn’t touch her. He only looked at her.
Her traitorous body responded with an overpowering rush, pheromones coursing through her the way they had when his hands slid up her stomach last night.
“What the hell happened, Paige?” His voice was low and rough and completely sexy.
She mentally backhanded herself. Not the time for that…
“We made love, for god’s sake. Now you won’t even talk to me?” His face inched closer. “I didn’t peg you for the overdramatic manipulative type.”
His eyes. Stop looking at those delicious lips and focus on his eyes, damn it. Why was that so hard? She nudged him out of the way with her shoulder and opened the door again, dragged the cooler out so there’d be a barrier between them. Thank goodness it was filled with ice. She might need that to cool herself down later.
“I realized something.” She matched his anger in her own expression. “You’re different in front of the cameras, Ben. You lied. You acted like you didn’t even know me before. Like I was a stranger to you. Like you hadn’t been stalking me at the restaurant.”
“I wasn’t stalking you,” he shot back, face all red and passionate. “If I told them the real story, they’d be all over you. I went along with it to protect you.”
“That’s just it.” Her heart got that sinking feeling, like it was stuck in quicksand. As much as her head knew it was best, her damn heart hated to think that he’d never touch her again, never kiss her the way he’d kissed her last night. But no. No. She always deferred to her brain when it came to things like this. Her heart was too fragile. She couldn’t risk it. “I don’t want that, Ben. I don’t want to live my life dodging cameras, worrying about what everyone thinks of me.” She’d worried about it far too long, though she never would’ve let anyone know. And now she only had regrets.
“Paige…”
God, the way he said her name, like he knew her, like he’d do anything—wrangle a rabid bull or whatever it was cowboys spent their days doing—for her, if he thought it would make any difference.
“I know it sucks, but that’s not how it is all the time.” He threaded his fingers through hers, the simple touch feeding her hesitation. “We can figure it out. How to have both…”
“Ben!” Kev yelled from the shoreline. “Come on, man! Time’s a tickin’! Let’s get a few shots of you and Julia for the blog.”
And there it was, the only evidence she needed to refute his claim. There’d always be another shot. Another tweet. Another blog entry.
Ben squeezed his eyes shut.
Before he opened them, before he could sway her with another argument, she withdrew her hand from his, grasped the cooler’s handle, and dragged it away. Good old Kevin had made her point for her.
There was nothing more to say.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Ben ran a hand over the god-awful orange life preserver that squeezed his upper body and stared at the swirling river a few feet away.
An intermittent pain pulsed inside his chest like a warning flare. Call it intuition, a premonition, a gut feeling. Whatever the hell it was, he didn’t like it.
Of course, it could have something to do with the fact that nothing had gone right that morning. Not with him and Paige, anyway.
Paige. He fought back the squeeze in his throat with a long inhale.
She stood on a rock in front of the group, her goddess body backlit by the sun. She’d started the infamous whitewater rafting safety talk, but he was having a hard time focusing. Between her tight swim top and the weird churning in his gut, he’d hardly heard a word she said. Focus. Sure, he’d rafted all over in Canada and the Northwest, but he’d never had his disabled sister on a trip with him. As many times as he’d heard the “talk” he should have it memorized, but nothing had ever gone wrong. He’d never been worried about himself swimming a rapid, but Julia…
“If the boat hits a rock sideways, it might wrap or flip.” Paige demonstrated with the inflated mini
ature raft she held above her head. “If that happens, we’ll all end up in the water.”
Ben glanced at Julia. His mouth went dry. She couldn’t swim through whitewater. Even with the life vest, the current could pull her under…
“If you fall out of the boat, point your feet downstream and steer with your arms so you don’t hit rocks,” Paige continued in that polite, no-nonsense voice.
The heads around him all bobbed in expectant nods, but visions of Julia bouncing off boulders in a violent current edged him closer to a panic attack. This was a bad idea. His sister didn’t belong in a class-three rapid.
“By the way, it’s critical that you never stand up in the river.” Paige paused to look at each one of them. Well, each one except him. Apparently politicians didn’t deserve a sturdy glance.
“If your foot gets stuck between the rocks, the current’s strong enough to push your head under. We call that scenario a foot entrapment. It’s a nasty one.”
Perfect. Sweat itched on his forehead. How the hell many more scenarios were there? And why didn’t he remember all of this from his other trips?
The expression on Paige’s face relaxed from grim seriousness into slight concern. “If I think we’re about to wrap or flip, I’ll yell, ‘high side.’” She tipped the toy boat on its side. “Everyone who is able should immediately move to the side that’s tipping up. Hopefully, the weight will bring us back down and steady the boat.”
“Hopefully?” The flesh in his throat felt like sandpaper. “Sorry, but hopefully’s not gonna cut it.”
Paige’s lips bunched in a silent challenge. Her eyes narrowed into a cool indifference.
But hey, at least she looked at him.
“When done properly, the high side always works.” She sounded like a monotone recording.
He crossed his arms. “So you’ve never flipped a boat?”
Julia whapped his leg. “Shut up, Ben. I want to get on the river.”
He ignored his sister and stared back at Paige, matching her irritation glare for glare.
“Of course I’ve flipped a boat.”
You idiot. She didn’t have to say it. He heard it loud and clear.
“But I’ve never lost anyone.” Her eyes locked on his and the force behind them could’ve stopped his heart.
“This is a team thing. We work together, do things right, we’ll be fine.” Her mouth went soft and turned his legs all rubbery again, damn it.
Gracie, who had been unnervingly quiet, he just realized, shuffled into the water.
“Good Lord in Heaven above! This water’s colder than a well-digger’s belt buckle!”
“Yeah,” Paige said, as she jumped off her rock. “If it’s this cold on your feet, imagine falling in.”
Bryce walked through the group. “No one’s gonna fall in. Right?” He eyed Paige.
“Right,” Kev muttered, casting a wary glance at the water like it had the ability to reach out, grab his ankle, and pull him in.
Right. They had to work together. Which meant Paige had to communicate with him, talk to him, look at him. Maybe it wasn’t too late to convince her he deserved a shot.
“Of course no one’s going to fall in.” Paige waded in up to her sculpted thighs and held the boat in place. “We should push off. We’re already late.”
He should move. He should really move. It would help if he could take his eyes off her legs…
“Ya know,” Gracie drawled from behind him, “I’m thinkin’ I may as well go on back to the lodge with Bryce. Meet up with y’all at the party a bit later. Would you mind, Benjamin?”
Back. Lodge. Gracie had said something to him…Eyes off Paige’s legs, chief. He turned to his mother. “You’re leaving?”
“I didn’t realize the water’d be so cold. You know how my arthritis flares up in the cold…”
He had a tough time stifling a smile. Maybe things were looking up. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad day, after all. “Fine? Are you kidding? That’d be excellent. Wonderful. The best thing that’s happened since about eight-forty this morning.” When he’d been lip-locked with the beauty in the sports bra swimsuit.
Did he imagine it, or did Paige’s cheeks flame with a blush? Hopefully it was a blush. That meant he might still have a fighting chance with her. Lord knew things would be easier with Paige if Gracie wasn’t around to muck it up again.
“Are y’all sure?” Gracie asked, but she was already out of the water.
“Yeah, it’s no problem,” Bryce said, but he shot Ben a dark look.
What can you do? He answered with a smirk and a shrug. Better to have her driving Bryce crazy than Paige.
“Bye, then! Y’all have fun, now, you hear?” She did her beauty-queen wave and followed Bryce back to the van.
“Okay.” Paige assessed their boat. “That’ll change things up. Ben, you’ll be front left.” She pointed to his spot, a slight glow still smoldering on her cheeks, if he wasn’t mistaken.
“And we’ll put Kevin front right.” She waited for Kev to climb in. “Shooter and I’ll take the back. Julia, you stay put and hold on. Okay?”
“Roger that,” J sang happily.
Feeling the weight on his shoulders lighten, Ben climbed over the tube and took his assigned seat. He leaned over to grab his paddle off the floor and caught another great view of Paige’s legs. So distracting…
The boat rocked while Paige and Shooter climbed into the back.
Ben faced forward so he could focus on something besides her tanned skin. Last thing he needed was to fall out of the boat. So it was probably a good time to check out some of the other scenery.
There was plenty of it, that was for sure. On both sides of their boat, rock-strewn slopes folded down right into the river. Rounded boulders of all shapes dotted the shoreline, separated by miniature pine and springs of aspen that dared to grow on such tenuous ground. The river sat too low to let him see much of Aspen itself, but mammoth mountains rose up on his left, catching him in a shadow that reminded him how small he really was.
Beneath him, the boat moved swiftly in the current and thudded against white-capped waves. Water splashed his face and arms. Cold glacial water that ran off the mountains and collected in the river. Good thing the sun was out.
“Let’s practice some paddle commands,” Paige called over the roar of the river. “Our first rapid’ll come up quick. We need to be ready.”
“Right. Paddle commands,” Kev said, voice an octave higher than normal. “What were those again?”
“Forward. Back. Right turn. Left turn,” Ben answered just as Paige made a sound. He looked back at her and grinned. “I listen.”
“Right.” Her smile bordered on playful. “When I call forward, you all dig in and paddle hard.” She demonstrated with her guide paddle. “Backward, lean back, plunge the blade into the water, and push.”
Ben’s gaze drifted down her body, lingered on the way her muscles tensed when she went through the motion.
It’d be a miracle if he didn’t fall out of the boat today.
“Right turn means the left side paddles forward and those of you on the right paddle backward. Anyone want to guess what a left turn is?” Her eyes offered him an invitation.
He always did love being the teacher’s pet. Especially when the teacher was such a babe. “Left turn means the right side paddles forward…” He did a few practice strokes, hopefully displaying everything his body could offer her in the process. “And the left side paddles backward.”
“Right.” She smiled, the real Paige smile, the one that showed her slightly crooked front teeth, the one that tugged on the corners of her eyes.
Wow. Gracie’s absence definitely seemed to have improved her mood.
“Make sure you only paddle when I tell you to,” she went on. “Especially in the rapids.” Reaching over the side of the boat with those long, graceful arms of hers, she plunged her guide paddle into the water and pulled, turning the bow of the boat left in one effortless motion.
Her small smile and a shake of her head told him she got it, but then she was all business again. “First rapid is Entrance Exam. Class four.” Droplets of water glistened against the browned skin on her shoulders and, god help him, he didn’t hear what else she said.
Before he could ask her to repeat it, she and Julia started chatting. Something about J’s new sandals and where she got her toes done. Which meant he could check out of the conversation for a while. He shifted and scanned the scene in front of them. The river churned and boiled, the water murky and brown. Calm for now…
“Say cheese.” Kev snapped yet another photo of him.
“Really? Haven’t you taken that same picture five times already?”
“Wanted to get that mountain behind you. Stellar shot.” Kev slipped his phone back into the waterproof pouch he’d belted around his waist. It looked like a fanny pack. Very hip.
“Besides,” Kev said, “the female constituency will fall all over themselves when they see you shirtless.”
Paige made a gagging noise.
“Hey.” Kev raised his hands. “We gotta do what we can. Thank god you work out, Ben. Every little bit helps.”
Yeah. Not exactly what Paige needed to hear at the moment. Time to change the subject. “So…” He gave her “the eye.” Never failed him before. “How bad is this first rapid?”
She shrugged. “Not too bad. Usually. Pretty straightforward run.”
“Will we get wet?” Julia squealed. She was obviously enjoying herself. “I hope we get wet. The sun is so hot.”
Paige laughed. God, he loved that sound.
“Wait ’til we’re through the rapid. I guarantee you won’t be hot after that,” she said.
He’d beg to differ. As long as she sat mere feet away wearing those short shorts and tank-top bra thing, he’d be hot.
The boat floated around the bend, and almost immediately, the river started to move faster, louder. Whitecaps crested and crashed. A distant rumble thumped his eardrums. Splashing. Thrashing. Reverberating like wheels of a freight train.
Something Like Love Page 24
