Chapter 4
It turnedout there were lots of activities for people to do on their own, too. There was a bulletin board at the entrance to the main lodge with the schedule posted on it, and there were alternative activities for introverts.
Grace approved heartily.
It had taken her a long time to figure out that even though she had a social side, at her core she was very much a loner. More to the point, she preferred to do things on her own. She’d hated being married. Constantly needing to discuss and compromise, settling on something neither party was happy with—no wonder the marriage only lasted long enough to give her the world’s most perfect child.
Then her ex had moved back to the city and left her to her own devices, which she poured into a life that actually made her happy without reservation.
What would make her happy today?
She picked a yoga class mid-morning, then a brief wildflower identification lecture right before lunch. Maybe she would head to the boathouse in the afternoon for kayaking, safely after the partnered watercraft activities of the morning were well and truly over with.
As the hours ticked by, she found herself glancing around, wondering if Frank was doing anything. If he’d been coerced into a picnic, although she didn’t see him on the lawn before she went to the dining room.
He wasn’t there, either.
After lunch she headed to the lake and got a quick set of pointers on the basics from the boathouse staff.
“It’s pretty easy,” said yet another handsome young man, flashing her a ready smile. “As long as you don’t mind getting wet.”
She gave him an innocent smile. “I don’t mind at all.”
He didn’t miss a beat. “Feel free to take your clothes off in the boathouse.”
Giggling, she headed inside and quickly changed into her swimsuit, then picked one of the provided life jackets off the wall. Safety first.
Back at the dock, she watched the young man demonstrate how to get in and out of the kayak, then did her wobbly best to mimic what he did. Water sloshed into her seat. He was right. She was going to get soaked as she did this, but she was in the slim boat and surely that would be the hardest part.
Except she was wrong.
Paddling wasn’t that bad. She figured out how to roughly go in a straight line, and even got around raft tethered in the middle of the lake.
But once she was pointing back to the shore, everything seemed suddenly more precarious. The wind had picked up, pushing small but persistent waves against the side of her kayak. Even though it wasn’t the direction she wanted to go in, it was easier to turn parallel to the shore and cut across the lake, across the waves.
And that was when she saw Frank.
He was sitting on a picnic table under a giant oak, all by himself, on the far side of the boathouse. He had a bottle in his hand and another one beside him. Not enough to get drunk and climb into the wrong bed, she thought to herself, so really, she had no leg to stand on in noticing that.
And she wasn’t really sure why she did notice him anyway. He was a small figure in the distance. But in their handful of encounters, he’d made an impression on her. She was quite sure—and quite surprised to realize—that she’d recognize his large frame anywhere.
Uh oh.
That was unsettling.
She turned away from him. Better to figure out how to battle the waves than sit with those thoughts for a second longer. She could only imagine how that set of text messages would go down.
Grace: Confession time. I have started looking for Wyatt’s boss at every turn and by the end of the week, he’ll be entirely sick of me. The wedding is going to be amazing, though.
Tegan: Mom…
That was enough to make sure she didn’t look back again. Her daughter loved her, Grace knew that. But there was always a thread of concern about her decision-making skills, especially when it came to men.
She headed out past the raft, because that was easier than returning to the boathouse. At this rate, she’d paddle straight across the lake and need to be fetched by a staff person, so she needed to tackle turning again.
Easy as pie.
Any second now.
