Free Wild & Hexy by Vicki Lewis Thompson Page B

kayak sure was visible.
    The blue one he now pushed into the water belonged to Bruce, who was responsible for Jeremy getting into kayaking in the first place. It wasn’t a particularly good one—the rudders didn’t react well— and Bruce was leaving it in Big Knob when he and Melody moved to Hawaii.
    He’d offered it to Jeremy, who was glad to have it for this date but didn’t really want it permanently. He had high standards in most things, which probably explained why nobody but Annie had ever interested him.
    Annie floated in her kayak, her paddle held in both hands, and waited for him to pull alongside. The lake was as still as Jeremy had ever seen it, which was good for Annie’s first try at this. Wind and choppy water made the learning curve steeper, and he’d have felt more obliged to explain the rollover technique. Most beginners weren’t crazy about that maneuver, and it might have put Annie off.
    ‘‘It’s incredibly beautiful out here,’’ she said. ‘‘We’re just catching the beginning of the sunset.’’
    ‘‘Uh-huh.’’ He had a tough time appreciating the sunset when there was Annie to look at. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes sparkled with excitement. He’d thought she could never look more beautiful than she had riding on the float as Miss Dairy Queen the summer of her junior year, but he’d been wrong. Tonight he saw more than a pretty girl. Annie had turned into an incredibly voluptuous woman.
    ‘‘Thank you for suggesting this,’’ she said. ‘‘What a fantastic idea.’’
    ‘‘Wait and thank me after you’ve paddled across the lake,’’ he said. ‘‘You’ll be using muscles you didn’t know existed, and you might be a little sore.’’
    ‘‘I don’t care. I had sore arm muscles plenty of times when I was a softball pitcher.’’ She lifted her paddle and dipped it into the water. ‘‘Am I doing it right?’’
    ‘‘Not bad. Remember to twist at the waist and make that figure-eight pattern I showed you.’’
    ‘‘Right.’’ She started off. ‘‘If you follow behind me, you’ll be able to check my technique.’’
    ‘‘Okay.’’ He’d planned to follow, anyway, so that she could set the pace. ‘‘Looking good, Annie. You’ll probably take to this the way you did to pitching.’’
    ‘‘You know, I miss softball. I thought about joining an adult league in Chicago, but there was never time.’’
    Once again he was reminded of the difference between big-city and small-town living. In Big Knob they always seemed to have time for the extras. For one thing, nobody ever got stuck in traffic.
    This evening on the lake was a perfect example of the pace of life around here. Except for the occasional twitter of a bird settling down for the night, there was no sound except the liquid slide of their paddles through the water. No honking horns, no jackhammers, no blaring music, no sirens.
    ‘‘Look, there go Mr. and Mrs. Mallard.’’ Annie stopped paddling long enough to point out the ducks crossing their path. They left a V-shaped wake that fanned out over the otherwise smooth surface as they swam toward the shore.
    ‘‘In another few weeks we’ll have ducklings around here.’’
    ‘‘I remember. They’re just too cute, like a miniature flotilla.’’
    ‘‘Yeah.’’ Jeremy loved the ducks, the lake, the trees. He craved this kind of peaceful setting, especially after a day spent in the café, which might well be the noisiest place in town if you didn’t count the school gym during a basketball game.
    Annie’s voice drifted back to him. ‘‘Are the Knob Lobbers still competing?’’
    ‘‘Yep. If you were going to be here next week you could see our first home game.’’ But she wouldn’t be here next week. Because that depressed him, he decided not to think about it. ‘‘Have you figured out a story for tomorrow?’’
    ‘‘Maybe. I saw Clara Loudermilk heading into the Bob and Weave today, which reminded me about her