Every second that ticked by made her heart a little more fragile. So much more rode on Joshua showing up. It meant they had a second chance. She could set things straight and confirm he cared. If he didn’t show, her heart would be broken, not merely bruised as it had been by Colin’s absence.
People in the crowd gestured to the various racers, but an inordinate amount focused on her. She could almost read their lips. ‘Where’s her partner?’ ‘Did she get stood up again?’
She swung back to the lake, so she didn’t have to see all the people of Pine Bottom whispering about her. The announcer welcomed everyone to the event and called for the racers to assemble at their canoes. Five minutes, she had five minutes to find someone to occupy the front of her canoe or… Or what?
Missy would win? She didn’t care. Sidney sighed and reached for her T-shirt. The sun might not fry her if she covered up, but the blistering stares would.
“Why am I doing this?” she grumbled as she settled her shirt over her swimsuit. The trip. The San Juan Islands. Whale watching. She pictured the ferry to the islands and the little artisan shops. It seemed quaint, dry. It didn’t excite her. It didn’t pump her with adrenaline like it had at the beginning of the summer. And why was that?
She wanted the fairytale, happily ever after, end of the movie moment.
One face came to mind.
Joshua. Her stomach squiggled in fear. How could she go on if he didn’t come? Could she go on with her day to day, running into Buck and Penny, knowing Joshua would never be hers?
She snuck a peek over her shoulder, hoping to see anyone—someone in particular—coming to save her. Instead she found Buck in his lawn chair on the edge of the beach. Alone. Neither Penny nor Joshua flanked him. So Penny had ditched her too.
Buck shaded his eyes and studied the roads coming into the park. He expected someone who wasn’t coming too. Whatever scheme Buck had planned had fallen through. Should she pack it in and go home now before the whole town realized the extent of her humiliation?
Members of the audience gestured her way and shook their heads, leaning to their neighbor to whisper. She imagined the conversations. “Poor Sidney.” “Stood up again.” “She can’t seem to keep a man.”
Missy and Colin shuffled through the sand toward their canoe, their hands intertwined. As they passed, Missy plopped a kiss on Colin’s cheek, looking as much like love birds as Colin and Sidney ever had. If the kiss was supposed to throw her off her game, it did nothing. Her balance had shimmied away as she paced the beach waiting for her true love, and he wasn’t going to show.
A commotion to the side of the beach drew her attention. It drew everyone’s attention. People in lawn chairs tipped to the side. Buck’s jaw gaped against his chest. Sidney’s heart leapt. Could it be him? Had Joshua come to her rescue?
The figure that burst from the mass of lawn chairs was not Joshua.
It was Penny. Penny, stuffed into a swimsuit that probably hadn’t seen sunlight since the Seventies, her skin so white her veins stood out like blue highways on her legs.
“Penny?” Sidney scrambled toward her. Penny must have news. Did she know where Joshua was? Had there been another tornado, requiring his disaster relief expertise? Before taking one step, Sidney slipped in the sand and fell on her face. Spitting grit off her tongue, she pushed herself off the ground. The sand stuck to her sweaty skin.
Great. As if the crowd needed another reason to point and stare.
“I’m here!” Penny posed to flaunt her suit, then kicked off her flowered flip flops. She swung her arms back and forth in a pseudo warm up, then bustled to the canoe. “Where’s my life jacket?”
Sidney tried to brush the coating of sand off her arms and face, but only succeeded in scraping off a layer of skin. She didn’t notice the upbraided outer layer as her heart sank into her stomach. “You? What about Joshua?”
“Honey, I thought he was coming too. Buck said—” Penny reached for a life jacket and started wrestling with the straps. “How in the world do you make these things bigger?”
Sidney rubbed her forehead, then winced at the abrasion of the sand. He wasn’t coming? Her excitement whooshed out like a punctured balloon.
Penny struggled with the buckles on the life jacket, but Sidney put her hand over Penny’s. “Don’t worry about it.” If an eye hadn’t been trained on them before, it now ogled Penny’s awkward dance with the life vest.
“But the race. It’s going to start any minute now. We have to be ready.” Penny worked her way into the too small vest and snapped the top buckle to the bottom one. She grabbed the paddle and swung it menacingly at the lake.
“It’s no use.” Sidney dodged the flailing paddle and untangled Penny from the life jacket. She dropped the life jacket on the sand. Her heart hit the ground with it.
“But your trip?” Penny asked, jamming the paddle into the ground like she was claiming the territory for the old country. “We can’t let Missy and Colin win.”
Missy and Colin dallied around their canoe. Missy kept looking out to the water, shading her eyes and gesturing to Colin. Though the bribe irritated Sidney, she couldn’t muster the will to care. Losing Joshua wasn’t worth it. She wished she could take back every word she’d said at the bungalow. The mistake hadn’t been kissing him; it had been letting him go. “It’s not worth going without…”
Sidney chucked her own life jacket at Penny’s feet. She pictured Joshua’s horrified look when Penny tossed him into the canoe the previous race. The race may have been the experience he didn’t want to repeat. “Why do I have to wait for him to come to me? I’m no damsel in distress.”
Penny’s eyes widened. Her mouth moved as if she was going to rebut Sidney’s question, but nothing came out.
“I don’t have to wait for him to come. I can go after him.”
“Sure you can.” Penny gave her a fist pump.
“Where is he?”
“Josephtown, where that twister went through.” Penny patted her on the back and directed her toward the parking lot.
Sidney nodded and dashed up the beach, then spun back to the canoe. She’d forgotten her shoes. She’d been wrong about Colin, but she’d fixed that mistake. She knew her heart now and knew what she wanted. She wouldn’t let Joshua go without telling him how she felt.
****
Joshua had changed his mind a hundred times last night. He’d have been better off getting in the truck and doing his dithering on the drive to Pine Bottom. At least then he would have been driving while he was awake. Now he was exhausted, and the coffee with a shot of espresso had made him jittery instead of alert. Even if he made it in time for the race, he’d be useless in the canoe.
Why had the decision to go to Sidney been so hard? He wanted to do it. He wanted to be by her side. He wanted her to win the trophy and the trip. Why was he such a fool to wait until the last minute? As it was, he would barely get to Pine Bottom in time for the race. There would be no time to put on his swim trunks before dashing out to the beach. Not that he’d spent any of his waffling time last night looking for them. And he didn’t have them with him anyway because he hadn’t bothered to hook up his travel trailer. Once he finally decided to head out, he didn’t have time for anything to go wrong.
Love had turned him into an idiot.
He exited the highway onto the state route that would take him to Sidney. He still had over an hour to drive. As he passed the gas station, he weighed the need for more caffeine versus making it in time for the race. There wasn’t time to stop. After all this, he didn’t want to miss the race by only a couple minutes.
He gunned the gas, allowing his truck to gobble up the miles between himself and Sidney. He arrived at the park with about five minutes to spare.
Joshua abandoned his truck at the closest spot to the beach, blocking in several cars until he decided to leave. As he pushed the door open, the humidity hit him like a hot, wet blanket. He was going to regret throwing on jeans before he left.
&nbs
p; He jammed his keys in his pocket and dashed for the beach. The announcer warned that the race would start in five minutes. Joshua darted through the crowd, leaping over tipped lawn chairs as he searched for Sidney.
He discovered an opening for the beach and broke through it. His feet crashed into the sand, and his body tumbled into a dashing figure. He grabbed her—he knew it was a her by the squeal—then he knew it was her by the frisson that flashed on his skin. “Sidney?”
She twirled in his arms to face him, her mouth open in shock. “Is it really you?”
He searched her face, hoping she meant him and not Colin. “Aren’t you supposed to be preparing for your race?” He took in her full appearance, drinking it in as if she was a glass of water in the desert. Her mussed ponytail, the oversized T-shirt, and her bare feet. He could hardly believe he was holding her in his arms.
She wiggled her toes in the scrubby sand, and Joshua was momentarily fascinated by the flecks of purple on each digit.
“But why are you heading — never mind.”
Her hand trembled in his. Perhaps the heat had gotten to her. Her skin was flushed a delightful pink. He couldn’t help but smile—like the aforementioned idiot. How long had she been out in the sun? “Your race. Your trip. I was coming here to help you.”
“You were?” She seemed confounded at that. “But Penny just said you couldn’t come.”
“I never told her one way or the other.”
“But you’re here.”
“Two minutes,” an announcement blared behind them.
He couldn’t focus on anything but the sparkle in her eyes. “I’m here.”
Then, because it was all he’d dreamed about for the last month, he lowered his mouth to hers.
Chapter Twenty-seven
Sidney squeezed his arms, relishing the coolness of his skin under her fingers. His lips were descending to hers, and heaven was only a breath away. Her eyes flitted closed, anticipating the contact.
Then she was jerked to the side. Her eyes flashed open. “What?”
Joshua lurched away in a similar fashion.
“Time for that later,” Penny shrieked. “You’re going to miss the race.”
Penny’s hand in the middle of Sidney’s back propelled her toward the water. Sidney reached back for Joshua to halt the determined momentum, but Penny’s force powered them both through the sand.
“But…” Sidney sputtered. What did the race matter when Joshua was about to kiss her?
“You can’t let Missy win.” Penny gave them a final shove toward the canoe, her hat flailing like an angry seagull. Joshua splashed face first into the shallow waves, drenching himself from head to toe. Sidney tumbled across the frame of the canoe. She caught herself before her shins slammed into the sidewall. While a dunking in the water would have washed the sand off her sticky skin, she didn’t need bruises across her shins.
The announcer sounded the starting signal. Penny heaved the canoe to the edge of the water. Sidney had no choice but to scramble into her seat or hazard another crash. Joshua grabbed the sides of the canoe and jumped into his place. His white T-shirt clung tantalizingly to his shoulders and back. If anyone in the crowd hadn’t been focused on her, they were now. Life jackets smacked Sidney in the back of the neck as the canoe rolled on the waves.
“You can do it!” Penny screamed from shore, pointing wildly at Missy and Colin’s canoe zipping through the water ahead of them. Sidney scrambled into her seat, still a little shocked that she was in her canoe and not kissing Joshua. All that tumbled with the fact that Joshua had returned to Pine Bottom and to her.
“What do you think?” Joshua asked with the dignified air of a Southern gentleman. He shaded his eyes against the reflection off the water. “Care to take a turn around the lake?”
“We’re already on the water,” Sidney commented as if pushing off from the beach was as arduous as two grueling laps in the hot sun. Penny’s shove had sent them plowing onto the course. The other teams had left them in the dust, so to speak, including Missy and Colin who already had a considerable lead over the other teams.
“All right. I’m in.” He winked. “Give me that life jacket.” He caught the jacket Sidney tossed and wrestled his broad shoulders into it. Sidney forgot to don her own as the way his muscles tightened the nylon fabric sidetracked her. “We’ve got some ground to make up.”
Sidney swung her own jacket over her shoulders and zipped and clipped the front. Puzzle pieces that had been scattered on the floor and in a different room had suddenly found their places. Home, family, dreams, true love. This race didn’t matter. Everything that mattered to her was in the front of her canoe. She loved him. She had to tell him, but she wanted to wait until she could see his face and actually kiss him after she said it.
And he was paddling as if his life depended on it. She’d better get cracking and pull her own weight.
She grabbed her paddle and dug it through the water, relishing the canoe’s forward leap. While her muscles strained, she couldn’t seem to wipe a ridiculously cheesy grin off her face. Joshua had come back. They had a second chance.
“So uh…” Joshua called back to her. “I’m sorry I was late.”
“I was ready to go to you.”
“But you would have missed the race.” It was hard to hear over the splash of the paddles. Through their diligent efforts, they caught the trailing crews and battled for position among the knot of crafts and paddles.
“It didn’t matter unless I could be with you. I was such a fool at your house. I thought I needed time to get over Colin, but I don’t. It was more important to ask you for a second chance for our relationship than to win this race.” She jabbed her paddle on the opposite side of the canoe, and they swerved around another team. “Good job,” she called to the team they passed. Another minute or two and they would leave the main clump of racers behind and angle for Missy and Colin who had an ever-widening lead.
Joshua didn’t say anything at first, and Sidney wondered if his love for her wasn’t the reason behind his return. Maybe he was only here to help her out. Tomorrow, he’d be off to the next disaster site, giving other people hope.
But she needed hope too. He was here now, and she refused to let him go without telling him how she felt about him. She was about to pour her heart out when he started speaking.
“I couldn’t live without you, Sidney,” he said, his voice low and strong despite the whistle of the wind across the lake. “I tried, and I couldn’t do my job. People suffered. Preschoolers went without underwear. It was a sad state of affairs.”
Sidney’s heart leapt at his words. Her head slipped all the pieces together. “I don’t want to live without you anymore. I love you.”
“And I, you, but enough of this sappy stuff. I’m too out of breath to talk. I can’t let Missy and Colin coast to a win. We have to catch them.” They had sailed through the main group and were now inching toward the leaders, namely Missy and Colin.
As they found their rhythm, matching each other stroke for stroke, Sidney leaned to the side to see around Joshua. In the confusion on the beach, she’d lost her sunglasses, so between the sun and its reflection on the water, she had to squint to see much of anything. She scrutinized Colin and Missy’s canoe for the trolling motor Missy had employed in the last race. The contraption was not evident nor was the tell-tale whirr of the motor. Perhaps Colin’s influence had some benefit in convincing Missy to play fair.
They aimed for the next buoy, and Sidney marveled that Joshua had returned, that he was paddling a canoe, and that he loved her. Her paddling was auto pilot as she watched Joshua’s muscles flex with each stroke. His biceps rippled as he pulled the paddle though the water, then lifted it across the boat to the other side. She was a lucky girl.
She filled with elation as if they had already won the race. Joshua’s strength, compassion, and courage would always be by her side. Even though they had made no commitment, she knew there was no one else for her.
&n
bsp; “Sidney,” Joshua called over his shoulder. “We may need a course correction.”
Sidney leaned to the side to locate the next buoy and discovered their trajectory would take them on the out of bounds side. She switched her paddle to the other side of the canoe. Missy and Colin were beyond the next buoy already, though their paddling pace didn’t seem to match their lead. Even though they were out of the running for the trip, Sidney couldn’t let them win the significant cash prize for this race without a challenge. Their attempt to bribe her shouldn’t be rewarded with an easy win. Sharing the competition with Joshua built their relationship. Winning would be the perfect cap for the day. She dug in and paddled harder.
Joshua must have noticed the distance to their competition as well because he matched every stroke. Their craft skimmed across the surface as if it had been waxed. If they continued at this pace, they’d cut through Missy’s wake in no time.
A minute later, her arms burning, Sidney checked their angle on the buoy. They were still heading for the near side. Joshua’s return must have fogged her brain. Changing her paddling sides again, she steered for the far side of the buoy and reminded herself to get her head in the race.
Sweat poured down her forehead, and she brushed it away with the back of her hand, grimacing at the coating of grit. “How are you doing up there?” she called to Joshua. He had to be roasting, even in soaked jeans.
“A dunk in the lake is going to feel pretty good after we’re done.” He paddled a couple strokes. “Is it just me, or does that buoy feel like it’s getting farther away rather than closer?”
“I’m having the worst time aiming for it.” Sidney glanced over her shoulders at the beach. She wished she had her sunglasses. Two canoes trailed them, but they were all heading straight away from the starting line. “I don’t remember them changing the course, but I know we didn’t come out this far last time.”
In For a Pound Page 22