I didn’t know the whole story yet, and I wasn’t about to ask, but I knew he’d broken Devin’s heart. That was as good a reason as any not to like him.
Chris and Alex pulled up at that moment, followed immediately by Marta and Julie, all four of them climbing out of their cars and starting on the work of getting kayaks down from the tops.
I hesitated, looking at Devin, and then looking at Marta and Julie, who presumably knew how to do this and might notwantthe help, but who weren’t any taller than he was.
Devin’s plan for getting the kayak down was to tug on the rope and catch it as it fell, which hadn’t sounded all that safe to me. I didn’t want anyone getting hurt.
“Will Marta be mad if I offer to help?” I asked.
Devin lit up. “I don’t think she’d be mad at all,” he said.
That was all the permission I needed to rush over, stopping the two of them just before they tried the tug-and-catch maneuver Devin had described to me while I calmly lifted his kayak down.
“I got it, I got it,” I said, gently easing them both out of the way so I could pull this one down the same way. If anything, Marta’s kayak was even lighter than Devin’s, but it still could’ve done some damage if it’d fallen on either of them.
Marta raised an eyebrow, but like Devin said, she didn’t look mad. Maybe a little amused.
“Devin always says you’re a perfect gentleman,” she said as I passed it to her. “Maybe he’s not full of shit.”
In the full sunlight of what was a sincerely beautiful spring day, there was no way in hell I could hide my blush.
“Yeah, yeah,” Chris said, bouncing up beside us, Alex trailing behind and carryinghiskayak.
I hadn’t noticed before, but Chris didn’t have one.
Had everyoneexceptBrad brought a non-competing partner along?
“I notice he rushed to help the pretty girls,” Chris continued. “But screw the two of us, right?”
I opened my mouth to explain myself, but for once in my life, the perfect comeback came to me at the perfect moment.
“I’d have to ask Devin about that,” I said, barely holding back a grin. “But I’m not saying no.”
Chris stared at me wide-eyed, then broke into a broad grin and clapped me on the back as he walked past. “That was good. That wasgood, okay, you’re definitely okay. I’ll tell Devin he can keep you.”
The faintest touch against my elbow made me turn around again, seeing Julie hovering just behind me. She was wearing a floor-length skirt that wouldn’t have been my first choice for hiking through a forest, but her long hair was tied back into a sensible bun.
“Thank you,” she said. “For helping us.”
“You’re welcome,” I responded, and then remembered what I’d wanted to ask her about. “Hey, uh. Walk with me? While those guys are all talking about… kayak stuff.”
Her pretty face lit up into a pretty smile. If I’d been even a little straight, I thought maybe Julie was the kind of woman I would’ve gone for. Quiet, ponderous, and a tiny bit weird.
… completely uninterested in me romantically.
Yeah. That sounded like my type.
“I’d love to,” she said, and took my arm when I offered it. I doubted we’d be able to walk arm-in-arm very far, considering the slope I could see ahead in the direction the others were going, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t be civilized while weweren’tcutting our way through a swath of forest like we were exploring the Amazon rainforest.
It probably wasn’tthatdramatic, but heading out to flower farms from time to time was my idea of outdoor activity. If not for Devin, Ineverwould have agreed to something like this.
“So, what brings a pretty girl like you to a place like this?” I teased.
“Another pretty girl,” Julie said, nodding to Marta. “I love her.”
The way she said it was soeasythat a flash of envy hit me.
I’d never been able to do that. I’d never been able to talk about someone I loved so easily like that, like it was the simplest thing in the world.
