“Wow, I’m honored. Does this mean I get to hoist the sails, too?”
He gave me a weird look and then shook his head. “Blake mentioned you were a jokester.”
I fought the immediate urge to ask him what else Blake said about me and focused on climbing into the raft as Talos held it in place from floating out into the channel. It wouldn’t exactly do me any good to be getting goo-goo eyed in front of his coworkers. Treating this situation delicately meant I needed to keep my trap shut until I got Blake in my bed.
Thenmaybe I’d go gung ho and figure out what that little minx was saying about me.
As soon as my hands were wrapped firmly around my paddle, Talos asked, “We all ready?”
My stomach twisted in excitement. This was my kind of adrenaline rush. Rollercoasters were boring in comparison and didn’t have that same ‘near death’ tease that an outdoor sport like this had. Sure, we were going down the more tame part of the river with hardly anything too wild, but there was still that element of danger I craved.
Once we were pushed off, Talos hopped into the raft and sat on the bench next to me. He helped guide us to the main channel of water, right behind the other rafts, and kept a modest distance between us all. As the last in line, we were probably going to take this thing slow, and while I’d normally be a little bitter, the oldercouple in front of me were clearly shaking like leaves the second we hit the first swell.
“All right, everyone! Paddles up!” Talos shouted. “Let’s work as a team and have a good time!”
My face hurt from how hard I was grinning.
Sinking my paddle into the water, I drove it back, pulling the water along with me. Feeling the power of a raging current fight back against you was impressive. The commanding presence of a body of water giving no mercy to how it would flow reminded me of my own temperament—giving way to no one and nothing no matter how much they begged or howled.
I used to think it was a negative trait of mine to not bend the knee to anyone, even my own family. However, over time, I began to see it as a blessing. A way to give me the sense of control I needed in order to feel safe.
Growing up in a financially unstable household had done a number on the inner spirit. The constant fear of eviction and food shortage was scary. And when my dad finally hit it big and moved us into a mansion compared to the cramped apartment I’d grown up in for half my life, it seemed too good to be true.
Getting sent off to boarding school, attending an Ivy League, landing myself a seven-figure career—all of it was one single decision away from becoming life ruining.
I could appreciate the gamble that was life, now that I’d had plenty of experience living it. No one was guaranteed a soft and cushy existence, and the more that fact was realized and appreciated, the easier it was to connect the dots tokeepthe lifestyle you got comfortable in.
Much like the raging river. A beast of a force that had no qualms in taking what it wanted. You could be the best swimmer in the world and still be swallowed up by the current.
“River left!” Talos called out. “Rock ahead!”
Driving my paddle down into the water once more, I curved it toward the boat, helping steer us out of the path. For some reason, though, the older couple in front of me began to frantically paddle in opposite directions, creating a counter balance to the motion of what the rest of us were doing.
“River left! Rock!” Talos called out again.
The thing was huge and hard to miss. Even hard to intentionally drive a raft into it with enough warning ahead of time.
And yet, we were heading right for it.
“Shit,” I mumbled, jamming my paddle backward.
My shoulders ached from the force of the water fighting against my paddle. Miraculously, the raft shifted the other way, moving the nose of it away from the rock’s direction and scooting us around the other side of it.
Unfortunately, it seemed the river had different plans for us and ended up depositing us toward the rock anyway.
A cruel mistress, indeed.
As soon as our raft slammed into the rock, the woman in front of me screamed.
“All right, calm down!” Talos lifted himself up from the bench to see where the front of our raft was lodged onto the rock. “Paddle backward, everyone! This is an easy one to get out of.”
My foot jammed up against the bench in front of me, giving me more leverage to drive my paddle back and scoop more water forward. With the river fighting us from the side, and our raft stuck from the front, this was going to be a bitch to get out of.
“Stick together!” Talos called.
The couple in front of me was clearly panicking, their paddles splashing up more waterintothe raft rather than pushing it out and away from us. I felt bad for them, as they were obviously not at all equipped to be going through an adventure class like this one.
I was surprised they weren’t pulled from it and sent back up to camp to tag along with another group doing something way less stressful.
