Page 46 of The Ripple Effect

Willow might be in control of her waterlogged canoe if Brent were helping her, but he’s whirling around in the water shouting “My shoe! I lost my shoe,” while Willow screams back, “Don’t put your feet down! Float on your back!” Some distance downstream, Trevor and Petra are swimming for shore, their abandoned boat bumping gently in an eddy near the outwash.

Mitch and Lori tromp out of the foliage carrying their canoe. Lori can’t see much with the hull over her head, but Mitch surveys the carnage with a dispassionate look, the canoe braced on one strong shoulder. “That went poorly.”

I bristle, very much aware that I liked Mitch’s blunt, critical style before she directed it at me. “Everything’s okay! Stay cool while we sort ourselves out!”

Sloane glares at me, shivering. “Easy for you to say from up there,” she gripes, just as Dereck accidentally nails her right in the helmet with a cupful of water. Sloane floats for a second, eyes closed, then ever so slowly reaches up and pushes her sodden bangs out of her face, coming away with a gritty handful of sand from the bottom of the canoe.

“Oh, shit. Sorry, Sloane.” Dereck leans way over to see whether she’s okay. The canoe ejects him, soaking Sloane again. Dereck comes up spluttering, then draws a mighty breath to scream, “Whyis this country so fuckingfreezing?”

Alookcomes over my sister’s face. I’ve seen that look in the trailer forNighthawke. I’ve seen it on myself, and it’s never not meant trouble.

She kicks herself onto her stomach and heads for my canoe.

Chapter Thirteen

“Don’t do it, Sloane,” I warn, as she closes in on my boat like Jaws. We’re in a calm patch at an elbow in the river, the water deepening from the foamy pale green of the rapids to a more tranquil sea-glass shade. Tall spikes of purple loosestrife show their first few flowers near the flat brown shore, the muddy sand quickly giving way to aspen and baby cedar trees framed by distant snow-dusted peaks.

I can’t make any big moves when there are this many people in the water. Also, paddling away from a swimming client seems like a bad PR move when Brent’s watching.

“Sloane! Don’t do it! I need to be in my boat so I can help—”

She levers herself out of the water, pressing down hard on the gunwale and sending me flying.

“Nooo—” My yell cuts off as I go under, replaced by bubbles and rushing water and the ice-pick ache of glacial runoff against my forehead. The noise of my thoughts subsides, turning dull and muted like the knock of a paddle against a canoe.

When I come up, all I can hear is my sister laughing.

“Sloane! You psychopath! What did you do that for?” I whip a curtain of water in her direction.

“You looked too dry. Also too warm. So I decided to help out my s—uh, my instructor in her moment of need.” She splashes me back, then turns around and soaks Dereck, who’s clinging to the side of the canoe.

“Hey!” Dereck protests. “What did I ever do to you?”

“You dumped a pound of sand down the front of my shirt.” Sloane scrapes her fingers under her collar and comes away with quite a bit of evidence to support her accusation.

“I did it by accident!”

“Yes. Me too.” Sloane backstrokes away, laughing. As she passes Brent, floating on his back with his toes in the air, Sloane pulls off his recovered shoe and keeps going, waving it in the air.

Within ten seconds, everyone’s splashing and screaming. Even Lori yells bloodthirsty sports chants from the shore, kicking big rooster tails of water that only hit her and Mitch, and also Dereck, who’s sourly paddling toward land.

Downstream, Trevor and Petra have made it to the riverbank. Their excited jumping settles into a surprised stillness, then he pulls her close, fastening his lips to hers in a back-bending, mind-melding kiss for the ages.

I look away, feeling like I’ve invaded their privacy. Remembering how when I kissed Lyle, the whole idea was to get someone to invade ours. I wish I could take that kiss back. It feels cheap compared to the real thing.

Lyle pulls up in his canoe. Babe leans down to give me a businesslike lick on my cheek, and I draw back, startled.

“Babe thinks that was a good exercise,” Lyle says. He smiles as Sloane sneaks up behind Willow, toppling her into the water with a shriek.

I look up at him, feeling so strange. I want his praise very badly, but I may not deserve it, considering.

“Really? Was she listening when I hijacked your lesson and made everyone do something they’d never practiced before and didn’t want to do?”

“No. But she can see people are turning something bad into something good. She likes a therapeutic breakthrough as much as the next dog.”

I look again, but with Lyle’s eyes. I’ve never seen Sloane laugh as hard as she’s laughing now, playing keep-away with Brent’s shoe. Willow’s gotten her hands on a bailing bucket and is very capably defending her position halfway up a large boulder. Lori’s chafing Dereck’s arms in a motherly way.

“Sometimes… sometimes people need to go in,” I say, holding on to his gunwale, stunned to hear his words coming out of my mouth.Huh.When I look up, Lyle’s smiling, but his eyes darken like they did after we kissed, smoldering an inch away from mine.

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