In For a Pound

by Joselyn Vaughn

  In For a Pound

  by Joselyn Vaughn

  Published by Astraea Press

  www.astraeapress.com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and events are fictitious in every regard. Any similarities to actual events and persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental. Any trademarks, service marks, product names, or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if any of these terms are used. Except for review purposes, the reproduction of this book in whole or part, electronically or mechanically, constitutes a copyright violation.

  IN FOR A POUND

  Copyright © 2014 JOSELYN VAUGHN

  ISBN 978-1-62135-370-6

  Cover Art Designed by BOOK BEAUTIFUL

  For Joe and the Koffee Kuppe Ladies.

  Thanks for sticking with me every step of the way.

  Chapter One

  Where was Colin?

  Sidney Walker snapped her life jacket and double-checked the paddles in her canoe. The race would start any minute, and her partner was missing in action.

  She’d left her phone with her gear bag away from the lake’s edge, but she debated whether she had enough time to retrieve it.

  Around her, other teams lined up their canoes and stowed their gear. She snatched Colin’s life vest from the rear of the canoe and unhooked the buckles, readying it for him to slip on as soon as he appeared on the beach.

  Missy, the woman who made an art of getting under Sidney’s skin, sauntered past. “Aren’t you missing someone?” she tossed toward Sidney, a smirk contorting her mouth.

  “Colin will be here any minute,” Sidney gritted, refusing to let Missy rattle her. She twitched the rope handle on the canoe as if she had all the time in the world. Revenge would be best served on the lake.

  Missy snorted as she sashayed down the beach to her own canoe. “Good luck.”

  Half of Pine Bottom had hauled lawn chairs to the edge of the beach to watch the race. Colin probably couldn’t find a parking spot. A band played on the far side of the park, but the referee’s bullhorn drowned out their song with preparation announcements. Several boats rolled on the waves outside the swimming area as they prepared to monitor the competition.

  She’d already placed Colin’s paddle along the canoe bottom with his handle away from his seat, ready for him to grab after pushing off from the beach.

  “The race will start in five minutes, ladies and gentlemen!” the announcer bellowed through a staticky bullhorn.

  Sidney gasped, “Crap!” She jammed her fists on her hips and scrutinized the crowd. He had to stumble onto the beach any minute. Colin’s white safari hat should be easily visible among the spectators.

  Excitement buzzed around her as her anxiety level rose. She ventured a few steps up the beach toward the sidewalk. Where was Colin? It wasn’t like him to be late. He knew they needed the prize money from this series of races to pay for their wedding and honeymoon. If he didn’t arrive soon, he wouldn’t get into his race rhythm, and Missy and her brother, Zach, would beat them with their paddles dragging behind their boat.

  Could he have been in a car accident on the way here? They were close enough to the hospital that she’d have heard the sirens if that were the case. She rubbed her forehead, but would they have been audible above the ruckus here? She’d better check her phone.

  She clicked and re-clicked her vest, then raised her hand to her eyes to scan the milling spectators again. Nope, she had to check her phone.

  Sidney dashed up the beach to her rucksack. If Colin were in trouble, she needed to know. As important as the race was to her, his safety out-weighed it. She untangled her phone from the twist of socks and swimsuits and unlocked the display, hoping to see anything but the normal home screen. There wouldn’t be a text message. Colin refused to pay extra for a texting plan. She admired Colin’s practicality, but at times it was annoyingly inconvenient.

  The picture of her and Colin hugging after their last victory filled the tiny screen. A flicker of happiness cheered her. She supposed the matching life vests were a bit dorky, but they were on special at the sporting goods store. She and Colin were so close to realizing her dream — if he would just show up.

  By winning this race, they would be in excellent position for the final race in the Triple Crown. The bonus for winning all three races was a trip to the San Juan Islands. Sidney had dreamt about going there since she’d heard about the whale watching tours in a high school biology class documentary. The whales slipped through the water so effortlessly. Paddling a canoe was the closest she could get to the experience in Pine Bottom. If Colin didn’t show up, she didn’t know how they would afford any honeymoon, let alone the one she had her heart set on.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the other teams, stretching their arms and jumping up and down as part of their warm up routines. Missy and Zach were about three-quarters of the way down the beach. Neither of them were stretching; they worked on stowing their gear. Could Missy have done something to Colin—locked him in her basement or tied him up in the parking lot, so she would have the advantage? The more Sidney thought about it, the more likely it seemed.

  Missy tried to get her and Colin disqualified after the last race, claiming Sidney and Colin couldn’t possibly paddle that fast and must have cheated. Missy thought she was the best at anything and everything she tried. Penny, Sidney’s adopted aunt and landlord, had explained to the judges how Sidney rowed every night in preparation for the race and was more than adequately trained. What Colin lacked in skill, he made up in gusto. The judges accepted the explanation, but Sidney hoped for vindication with another victory. After this race, Missy would have no doubts about Sidney’s paddling skills.

  She held the phone to her lips. “Call Colin cell.” It rang, then rolled over to his voicemail. She pressed the button to leave a call back number, then switched to her email. Nothing but three advertisements for the bridal expo in two weeks.

  “Two minutes” came from the bullhorn, and she fumbled to the messaging app in a last ditch effort to see if Colin had used that method to contact her.

  She scanned the crowd again, expecting to see his floppy hat bobbing through from their ranks like a super hero saving the day. He’d dash to her canoe, his knee socks and water shoes kicking up sand behind him. Instead Penny barreled down the beach, her pinkish curls billowing in the wind gusts and her blue and white cover-up rippling over her apple-shaped figure.

  Sidney lived in the upstairs apartment of Penny’s house, but Penny treated her like the niece she never had.

  “Sidney!” She waved her arms as if scaring numerous seagulls away from a hot dog in the sand. The few birds braving the throng of racers scattered before Penny’s charge.

  “Have you seen Colin?” Sidney shouted. What other reason would Penny have to storm the beach?

  “He’s not here?” Penny braced her hands on her hips as she gasped for breath. “I haven’t seen him. I figured he was in the bathroom, applying another layer of sunscreen.”

  “He hasn’t called. It’s not like him to be late.” Sidney raised her eyebrows and waited, striving for patience as her agitation grew.

  “I wanted to wish you good luck. If he’s been in an accident, we would have heard. Someone here would have seen him. Maybe he can’t find a place to park. Both lots are filled, and there are cars along the road halfway to town,” Penny said, puffing as if she’d completed a hundred-yard dash. “I’ll see if I can delay the race.” She wobbled over to the man with the bullhorn, waved her arms as she talked, then they both approached Sidney.

  “How long do you think he’ll be?” the announcer asked, rubbing the beads of sweat f
rom his forehead.

  “I don’t know. I haven’t been able to get a hold of him.” She couldn’t figure it out. He’d always had his phone on him, and he never ignored her calls. Never.

  The announcer pursed his lips and consulted his clipboard. “I can move you to the second wave. You’ll have an extra five minutes before they start. It doesn’t matter who is in your canoe. But if you don’t have a partner by then, you’ll be disqualified.”

  “Okay,” Sidney responded, not hearing more than the five minute reprieve. Was he hurt? No, she would have heard the ambulance sirens. Overslept? Her call would have wakened him. She plodded down the sand and tugged her canoe away from the water’s edge. She dug her heels in and heaved backward, succeeding in moving the boat out of the way of the first wave of racers and landing on her butt as the announcer set the other contestants on their marks.

  What would she do if Colin didn’t appear? Her chances of seeing whales were diminishing rapidly.

  ****

  Joshua Pounds eyed the lawn chair his dad had positioned on the grass beside what passed for a boardwalk along the pint-sized lake. His dad, Buck, sat with his knees splayed to the sides and a soda in his hand. He had insisted they go to watch the annual canoe races. Joshua would have preferred to sleep another hour with the baseball game on the television and the air conditioning blowing on him, but his dad was rarely motivated to go anywhere these days. So they’d headed for the hot sun and the beach.

  His dad smiled, an expression Joshua had forgotten he had. The lethargy and his associated diagnosis of leukemia had dampened so much of his life it was hard to find something it hadn’t touched. Then Joshua saw what—or who—captured his old man’s attention. Each canoe team consisted of a man and a woman. Some of the women wore athletic swimsuits under life vests and others, skimpy string bikinis as if they were preparing for a photo-shoot. All of them warmed their muscles with body-accentuating stretches and twists.

  His own heart rate ba-dumped at the vision, and he considered the effect on his dad’s ticker. As delightful as the view was, maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea. The heat and the view might be too much.

  The racers positioned themselves to push into the water at the announcer’s command. Their enticing derrieres in slick spandex poised in the air with hands gripping the gunwales of the canoes. He’d choose this over snoozing to baseball. Joshua sat forward in his lawn chair, ready to focus his full attention on the competition. His gaze trained on the last canoe.

  The woman yanked her canoe away from the starting line. Her sandy-colored ponytail swayed each time she threw her weight back and inched her canoe out of the water. She landed on her butt as the rest of the racers splashed into the water. Soon paddles were flying as the boats cut through the waves toward the first buoy.

  The woman stood and brushed the sand off her bottom. Joshua idly wondered if she could use some help when his aunt, Penny, scrambled across the sand in front of him. Her white hair had been dyed red, but the color had grown out and faded, leaving a pinkish hue. If he didn’t know better, he would have suspected she hid a life vest under her hypnotizing shirt.

  “Penny! What’s got you all worked up?” his dad asked, raising his soda.

  “I need Joshua.”

  At the sound of his name, Joshua jerked his attention away from the woman on the beach. He tried to focus on Aunt Penny, but his gaze strayed to the solitary canoer. At least his mirrored glasses hid his shifty and potentially lecherous focus.

  “We’re short a racer.”

  “But—”

  Aunt Penny cut him off before he could remind her of his terror of water sports. After four years of swimming lessons in elementary school, the instructor had given him a certificate of participation and asked him to get private lessons elsewhere. Despite that, Aunt Penny had signed the whole family up for a white water kayaking trip before his senior year and cemented his aversion for any type of water recreation. He could overcome the fear when floodwaters endangered people’s homes, but he didn’t associate the water with a pleasurable experience.

  “Don’t worry. Sidney can do all the work. She carried Colin along anyway.” Aunt Penny had latched onto his wrist and dragged him across the sand before he could deposit his soda in the pocket on his chair. Her grip was such that any protest would result in a brag-worthy snake-bite. “All she needs is a warm body.”

  Warm body? In that case, he’d be happy to help. His brain provided several suggestions, none of them involving the lake.

  “Next wave line up!” from the announcer drowned out the good luck wishes from his dad. He’d need more than luck to come out of a canoe race alive.

  “You take the front. Sidney can steer.” Aunt Penny shoved him forward, and he stumbled in the sand, then kicked off his leather sandals. “This is Joshua.”

  “Life jacket.” Sidney flung the green and black vest toward him.

  “Life jacket?” Joshua held the jacket as if it were covered with sand burrs. He didn’t do water.

  “All you have to do is sit in the canoe. No swimming involved,” Aunt Penny reassured him.

  “No swimming involved,” Joshua repeated. Trusting Aunt Penny’s word in situations like this wasn’t a good idea, but a glance at Sidney crushed his better judgment. He was getting into the canoe.

  Joshua shoved his arms through the holes and held his breath as he zipped and clipped himself into the vest. Colin’s chest was obviously much smaller than his. Hopefully the vest was rated high enough for his extra weight, or Sidney could be dragging him out of the center of the lake. He took a last deep breath, then clipped the final buckle. A warm body was all he would be. It’d be a miracle if he didn’t pass out halfway through the race.

  Sidney cinched up her own life jacket when her cell phone beeped. She snatched the phone from her shorts pocket. “I almost forgot I had it.” She squinted at the display. “Colin texted me?” After scanning the screen, she said, “He’s not going to make it. His meeting is running long.”

  The announcer bellowed, “Racers, on your marks.”

  Sidney tossed the phone to Aunt Penny and grabbed the sidewalls of the canoe, preparing to shove it over to the water’s edge. Joshua bent to do the same to give the impression he had some idea what he was doing.

  The starting signal sounded, and Joshua wondered why he trusted Aunt Penny. Was Aunt Penny planning to do him in? It wouldn’t be the first time she’d tossed him in a boat and wished him luck.

  Sidney jammed the canoe into the water with such force Joshua lost his grip on the side. His toes stuck in the mucky shore as the canoe barreled away from him. He crashed chest first into the chilly water and sunk straight into the silt. Water poured into his nose and throat — a fluid reminder of why he stuck with showers versus any type of standing water. Thankfully, the vest buoyed him to the surface of the knee-deep water. He’d barely managed to get his feet under him when Sidney called, “Come on!”

  He frog-stepped through the shallows and tumbled into the boat somewhere near his seat. Despite almost overturning the rocky craft and cursing Penny’s stipulation of a warm body, he settled into the seat. Depending on how long the race was, “warm body” might be generous. “Dead weight” would be a more apt description. So far he’d been less useful than a mannequin in a high occupancy vehicle lane. After wiping the water off his face, he reached for the paddle. Droplets of water clung to his sunglasses, obscuring his vision. Sidney had already propelled them into an open space in between the other racers headed toward the first buoy.

  Joshua dipped his paddle on the right side of the boat, and the canoe charged forward as he drew it back. While he lifted weights at the gym when time and Mother Nature allowed, most of his physical activity came from shuffling disaster relief supplies from one location to another as a relief site coordinator for a local organization called Disaster Rebound. His muscles responded to the strain, but he didn’t expect them to endure through the race. He continued to paddle, alternating sides as h
is arms protested.

  Despite the ten other canoes on the lake from their wave, there was a peaceful quality to their rhythm. Sidney hadn’t said anything, so he figured he wasn’t sabotaging her chances—whatever they were. When they rounded the first buoy, Joshua assumed they would head back toward the beach, but Sidney steered the canoe toward the opposite shore.

  “How long is this race?” Joshua called over his shoulder. His weight shift tipped the canoe precariously to one side, and a wave lapped over the side.

  “Keep your eyes forward unless you want another dunking.”

  Since he’d already met his quota of swimming for the summer, he complied.

  “Two laps around the lake,” Sidney said. “How are you doing?”

  Two laps? The light burn in his arms increased ten-fold. He was going to be hurting tomorrow. How could he take care of his dad if he couldn’t move? “I’ll survive,” he said since a peek over his shoulder told him Sidney wasn’t even breathing hard. This time he kept his body centered in the canoe.

  Her muscles flexed each time she drew the paddle through the water. They had pulled far enough away from the other teams that he could hear the steady sloosh of her paddle as it dipped in the water and rippled out.

  “You race much?” Joshua asked, then considered whether he should conserve his oxygen. The vest constricted his chest, making his voice more winded than he actually was.

  “Now and then. Colin wanted to do this one because of the prize money.”

  Joshua nodded. Prize money was good. They approached the second buoy, then dashed by it.

  “There are three races in this series. If you win all three, you win a trip to the San Juan Islands. It includes a whale watching tour.”

  Not bad. Joshua dug his paddle in a little harder. “Who’s Colin?”

  Chapter Two

  Sidney’s rhythm sped up a notch. She chafed that Colin hadn’t shown up. He barely sent his text in time. Usually he was good about notifying her, even with a quick email to let her know if his plans had changed. It wasn’t often, but occasionally emergencies kept him at work later than anticipated, but rarely on Saturday afternoon. He knew she had her heart set on the trip. He had even suggested the canoe races to win it. Now he had left her to salvage their honeymoon on her own.