Whitewater Rendezvous

in sight was. And damn if that woman couldn’t answer every singlequestion, too. Their exchanges were really starting to get under her skin.

“Those are grayling,” Chaz answered, with the same patience she had every one of Elise’s incessant queries. “Hopefully we’ll have some for dinner one night.”

“I love a woman who can cook,” Elise said.

I’m going to go nuts if I have to listen to this for two weeks. Howis it that in all the times we’ve gone cruising together, I never realizedthat Elise is quite so painfully, dreadfully obvious.

“We do eat well,” Chaz agreed. “Menus are a high priority.”

So you’re defl ecting her fl irtations, for the most part anyway.

Aren’t you interested? I know you’re one of us. Aren’t you?

“Man, I can tell I’m going to be sore tomorrow,” Justine said, getting creakily to her feet. She arched her back with a groan, then rolled her shoulders to loosen them up. “I should defi nitely get more exercise.”

“No lie. This sure reminds me about some stomach and back muscles I don’t use very much,” Yancey added.

And shoulders. And arms. Megan didn’t want to admit aloud that she was feeling it, too. She’d thought she was in pretty good shape, but decided tennis and golf must use different muscle groups. And you’vebeen working so much, you really haven’t played that much the lastyear or so.

“I think I’m beginning to see why you invited me along,” Elise said.

“Oh, yeah! I get fi rst dibs tonight!” Pat raised her hand.

“Me second!” Linda chimed in.

“Not fair! You two do this all the time. You don’t need her like we do,” Yancey said.

“Let me state right up front that I’m not doing all of you every night,” Elise said.

“Maybe we should draw straws or pick numbers or something,”

Justine suggested.

“Can someone clue me in on what’s going on?” Sally asked.

“Before she became a graphic artist, our dear, sweet, charming Elise went to massage therapy school,” Pat said.

“Sucking up will do you no good. I’m still only doing two or three

• 73 •

KIM BALDWIN

of you a day, max.” Elise turned to look at Chaz. “You can get in on this, you know,” she said invitingly. “You and Sally,” she amended.

“I’m in,” Sally said immediately.

Megan watched Chaz, waiting for a response. Don’t do it. Picturing Elise with her hands on Chaz was not an image she liked very much at all.

Chaz neither accepted nor declined. She merely stood and stretched—slowly, languidly, a contented smile on her face. Looking every bit, Megan thought, like a pampered cat getting up from a nap, like they hadn’t already been paddling three hours on the river. Like this was no exertion at all for her.

Chaz looked up at the sky as if judging the position of the sun and announced, “Everybody ready? There’s a great campsite about another three hours downriver.”

You’re nice to watch, Megan admitted. Much too damn nice towatch.

After another hour or so, the river began to split into channels, some wide, some narrow—fi ngers separated by swampy tussocks of earth or wide, pale gray gravel bars. The group all followed Chaz like ducklings behind their mother, with Sally bringing up the rear in the raft, and eventually all the fi ngers of the river seemed to join up again.

Megan was halfway up the line of kayaks by then, quite a bit closer to the front than before. Not enough to have to make conversation with Chaz, but close enough to get a fi rst-rate view of the guide. She didn’t look much like Rita at the moment. Rita never looked this good from the back.

In the warmth of the afternoon sun, Chaz had peeled off her outer shirt and was wearing only a tank top under her PFD, allowing all those behind her a splendid view of her well-developed and wonderfully tanned shoulders and arms as she paddled her smooth, effortless strokes.

Poetry in motion. So that’s what that phrase means.

Several of them had been jockeying for position since the shirt had come off, none of them too overtly, of course. Megan had moved up, and so had Justine. And Elise seemed determined to keep the spot behind Chaz that she’d held most of the day.

The river led them very near a low, wide mountain with a big splotch of green limestone on the side. They saw more sheep there, close enough this time that with binoculars they could pick out the big

• 74 •

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14