Over the crush of gravel and voices chattering, water flowed. Jo’s palms grew clammier as the sound grew louder.
The group approached a gulley, the racecourse for a wild river. The trail stopped at a bridge and picked up on the other side.
“Wow!” Mike shouted. “Look at that!”
The friends gathered at the side of the ravine—except Jo—and stared down at the water.
Mike talked loudly to be heard. “It’s running high ‘cause of the record snowfall! They won’t even raft on it this year—too dangerous!”
“It’s awesome!” Red yelled and skipped out onto a bridge built like the one they had crossed in their cars, consisting of thick slabs of wood a couple of inches apart. There were no rails on either side. In the middle of it, Red stood on its very edge. Chills ran down Jo’s spine. She wiped her palms on her shorts. The group started across.
Jo stepped onto the first slab, relieved at its solid sturdiness beneath her foot. She took another step. The noise and fury of the roiling water was tremendous. Through the space between the slabs, the river pour by so fast it made her dizzy. She looked up.
In the middle of the bridge, her friends stopped to watch the water charge at them from one direction and bolt out the other, flowing over rocks in bluish-brown waves, sending up white spray as it crashed down on itself.
The guys joked and threatened to push each other over the side. Lary pretended to push Dove. She shrieked and he took her hand and pulled her closer to him. Drew tried to jest with April in the same manner, but she scolded him, wagging a threatening finger. Jo was chuckling at them when something on the bridge caught her eye. It shot towards her.
“Oh, Jo-Jo,” Red sang, grinning wickedly, aiming straight for her. Jo stood paralyzed. In an instant, Red’s hands were on her shoulders, shoving her backwards. Red was laughing, her teeth bared in a sardonic grin. Jo gripped the tops of Red’s arms and pushed her in the opposite direction, but Red had the forward momentum. Jo was powerless, panicking. Red shoved her to the edge of the bridge.
“Red, stop! Stop!” Jo cried, her gut clenched with terror. Her hiking boots teetered on the end of a wooden plank. She was no longer pushing Red back, but holding onto her with all her might. Her knuckles were white, clutching Red’s slender arms. The river thrashed below her. Her heart pounded furiously. She squeezed her eyes shut and screamed.
“That’s not a good idea.” The words were quick. The deep voice was calm, but tinged with irritation. A masculine hand on Red’s shoulder pushed her back, none too gently, while another hand circled Jo’s upper arm and pulled her forward. “Let’s play nice, girls,” Galen said. He led Jo to the middle of the plank she had teetered on. She latched onto his shirt with moist, bloodless fingers. “Let’s get off this bridge, shall we?” He walked Jo, her arm trembling inside the grip of his hand, to the other end of the bridge and back onto the trail.
“Jo, are you Ok?” Dove ran back and wrapped her arm around Jo’s shoulders.
Jo was shaking and breathing hard, still gripping Galen’s shirt, though he had let go of her.
“What’s going on?” Mike asked, his brow deeply furrowed.
“I was just jokin’ around,” Red said playfully. “Huh, Jo-Jo?” She reached out for the top of Jo’s head, but Jo knocked her hand away. Red glared. “Geez, can’t anyone take a joke?”
“It wasn’t funny, Red,” Dove told her.
Red pouted. “I’m sorry, Jo-Jo. I didn’t know you had such a fear of heights.”
Jo couldn’t speak. The river, raging behind her, still threatened her. She hated herself for shaking so visibly and looking so helpless.
“Ok, guys, let’s move on,” Dove said. Her arm slid off Jo.
Jo took a step, still clinging to Galen’s shirt. She released it without looking at him.
“Jo-Jo, I really am sorry,” Red spoke, without sincerity.
Jo took a deep breath. She was more disappointed in herself than she was angry with Red. “It’s Ok, Red, but…it’s just Jo.”
“Great. Let’s go.”
“Red!” Mike called her, sharply. He shook his head.
Red frowned and her eyes filled with arrogance.
He turned back to Jo. “I’m sure she didn’t mean to scare you, Jo. If you want, I’ll tell her about…you know.” His aqua eyes glistened. His lips curled upwards.
“No…uh...” Caught in his soft, compassionate gaze, heat that was not the sun devoured the skin on her cheeks.
“Mike, what’s the name of this river?” Ben asked, unconcerned with the drama that had just unfolded. Mike’s gaze broke off from Jo’s, releasing her from the spell they had cast.
“Cutthroat,” he answered.
Ben puckered his mouth and raised an eyebrow. “Hmm….”
“Let’s go,” Lary said.
The others in the group had already turned away and Jo sighed, glad to no longer be the center of attention. She smiled at Dove with gratefulness, and then at Mike. He winked his left eye at her. A smile flickered on her lips. The sweet, flirty wink set her heart pounding, in a different way. He walked away, the moment of the wink replaying itself over and over in her mind. There was no sound and no motion, no world and no one else.
“Jo.” Dove tugged the bottom of her shirt and giggled, bringing her back down to the earth. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
“Yes, let’s get out of here,” she said mindlessly, her eyes still on Mike.
Dove starting walking, aiming for Lary. Jo followed, but was delayed by a hand on her shoulder. She turned her head. Her lips pursed at the sight of Galen, but then she remembered that he had just rescued her. She relaxed her mouth and lifted the corners into a halfhearted smile. “Thank you for your help,” she said dryly.
“Let’s walk,” he said.
Her gut tensed. She walked woodenly beside him. Her friends were back to normal, talking and joking. April was annoyed with Drew as he tried to capture butterflies for her that she didn’t want; Lary and Dove were deep in conversation; Ben and Mike were walking on either side of Red. She wanted to break away from Galen and catch up to April. She increased her pace, testing to see if he would keep up, or let her go. He kept up.
“Thanks, again,” she said to him. She debated telling him why she had gotten so upset. She peered at the side of his face. The sunlight gleamed in his ink-colored hair and none of the strands were diluted to a lesser color of brown or highlighted to red or blue.
He looked down at her. “You were smart to keep Mike from telling her about the water.”
“What about the water?” Her eyes contracted.
“It’s best she doesn’t know your weaknesses.”
How did he—? April! She squeezed her lips together and squinted at April’s back. “You talk like Red’s out to get me.”
“She’s out to keep you away from what she wants.”
“And what’s that?”
“Mr. Heartthrob up there.” He nodded in Mike’s direction.
Jo was mildly amused that he’d used the term ‘heartthrob’ and almost smiled. “I’m sure she’s not worried about me.”
“She might be.”
“Why do you say that?”
“The way she acts towards you. Jealousy makes a person do ugly things.” He turned his head and set his silver gaze on her eyes. “Envy, too.”
Jo snapped her head forward. Her eyes found Red. “She can have him.”
“She probably will—or maybe she already has.”
His allusion was all too clear. She stopped so suddenly one of her boots slipped in the dirt. She grabbed Galen’s arm. They faced each other and Jo drilled her eyes into his. “Galen, you might be that kind of guy, but he’s not.”
Galen took a step closer to Jo, leaving only inches between them. Sweat glazed his forehead, under his bangs. She caught sight of something shiny and blue on the skin of his chest, barely visible where the V of his T-shirt ended. A whiff of hard candy drifted on the air.
“You don’t know what k
ind of guy I am,” he said. The tone of his voice was rich and cold, his grey eyes so light, they were startling.
Jo slowly shook her head. “And you don’t know what kind of guy Mike is. You don’t know anything about any of us.”
Galen’s mouth opened.
“Hey!” Drew yelled. “Are you two going to kiss or what?”
Their heads whipped in Drew’s direction at the same time. Jo twisted her lips together and shot him a look of death, but she was thankful for the interruption. It allowed her to make her escape.
Chapter 11