A Place to Rest Part 19

She pulled back when Sawyer tried to deepen the kiss, conscious that they could be interrupted at any moment. "Monday.

Let me know when and where."

Sawyer's face lit up, as if an idea had suddenly occurred to her. "Have you ever been whitewater rafting?"

"Are you serious?"

"Is that a no?"

"Well, I don't have a strong desire to be dumped in a river anytime soon."

Sawyer shook her head slowly. "No sense of adventure. I thought you said you were all mine."

"I did." Jori struggled not to stutter. Sawyer's eyes darkened as she drawled the words, all mine. Never before had Jori wanted so much to belong to someone, but she knew that wasn't what Sawyer had meant.

"So what's it going to be?" When Jori didn't argue, Sawyer said, "I'll pick you up at nine Monday morning."

"Okay." Jori covered Sawyer's hands, which still bracketed her hips, and pulled them away. "But right now, I need to get to back to work."

She turned toward the door and when Sawyer quietly said her name, she paused and looked back.

"Pack an overnight bag," Sawyer said, and Jori fl ushed with antic.i.p.ation.

* 157 *

* 158 *

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

Nervous?"

"A little." Jori hefted the fi ve-foot paddle in her hands as if testing its balance.

"It'll be fun," Sawyer a.s.sured her.

After their trip leader called them together, Sawyer grabbed two helmets from the nearby bin and led Jori closer to the a.s.sembly point. She'd been rafting before, but never with this company.

As the leader, a wiry man with thick gray hair and a deeply lined face, explained the basics of rafting safety, Sawyer studied the other three guides, two college-aged men and one woman, who would pilot boats fi lled with a share of the twenty people gathered around. The two men wore brightly colored swim trunks and were bare-chested and tanned golden. They leaned comfortably against the porch railing and watched as the crowd was divided into four groups, a.s.signed to a guide, and instructed to board the old school bus parked nearby. The dark-haired woman, introduced as Lacey, would guide Sawyer and Jori, as well as four teenage boys.

The ride to the launch site took only a few minutes. They all disembarked and waited while the guides unloaded the infl atable rafts from the makeshift platform atop the bus.

* 159 *

"You're going to love this." Sawyer donned a yellow life vest.

Jori set the plastic helmet on top of her usual navy bandana and fastened the chin strap. "If I fall out, I expect you to pull me back in," she said as she shrugged on her vest.

Sawyer pulled Jori's vest closed and tightened the straps.

"Too tight?"

"No. It's fi ne."

"Okay, my crew over here," Lacey called from near one of the blue rafts with Ocoee Whitewaters emblazoned on the side.

She pulled her dark hair back and secured it with an elastic band from around her wrist before she put on her own vest and helmet.

"Are y'all ready to have some fun?" As she looked at each of them in turn, she smiled and lines crinkled at the edge of her bright blue eyes.

When they'd all introduced themselves and staked out their spots in the raft, she issued instructions. "I'm going to steer from the back of the raft. You two guys in the front will set the pace.

Everyone else, when you paddle, follow the person in front of you. There are a few basic commands. Obviously, when I say 'forward' you paddle front to back." She demonstrated with the paddle in her hand. "When I say 'back,' you go back to front.

When I say 'drift,' don't paddle at all. We're also going to do some spins, and I'll call out 'right, forward, left, back.' I'll go over that again when we get ready to do it. Now, let's get this boat down there."

They all grabbed the strap strung through the rings in the side of the raft and carried it down the concrete ramp to the sh.o.r.e.

The boys had clamored for the seats closest to the front, so Jori and Sawyer sat in the back, directly in front of Lacey.

Within minutes they were in the boat and drifting toward the fi rst set of rapids. They plunged through the whitewater, clumsily trying to follow the paddling instructions Lacey called out. When their boat crested a large rock just visible beneath the water and * 160 *

dropped into the swirling wash, Sawyer blinked against the cool spray misting her face.

The water calmed for a stretch, and Lacey continued to shout commands interspersed with information about the river and type of rapids they could expect to encounter. The churning water was broken up with more even stretches, and at one spot they could get out of the boat and swim downriver before they reached the next bit of rough water.

She explained that the Tennessee Valley Authority controlled the dams on the river so even in the height of summer the water level stayed fairly consistent. A large wooden chute on one steep bank closely paralleled the twists and turns of the river, and during scheduled times the river nearly dried up while the water was diverted through the chute in order to generate power.

The boys were far too interested in teasing each other to pay much attention to the women. Sawyer and Lacey carried on an easy conversation, Sawyer questioning Lacey about her history as a guide and the changes in the river over the years. Feeling a bit left out, Jori sat silently and studied the treed slopes of the gorge on either side of them. The sky was azure and cloudless; nothing impeded the brilliant sun. Despite the recent run of temperatures over one hundred degrees, the breeze along the river was enough to make the heat bearable.

By the third set of rapids, they found their rhythm and were beginning to paddle in unison, each timing their stroke with the person in front of them. As they entered calmer water, Lacey told them they could get out and swim if they wanted to. One by one they slipped over the edge of the raft.

Jori slid into the cool water, then lay back and let her life vest keep her afl oat. Though there were no rapids here, the current was still strong enough to carry them downstream. She closed her eyes.

A few feet away, Sawyer watched Jori. The rafting had been a great idea, but, more than that, being with Jori, away * 161 *

from Nashville, had recharged something in her that she hadn't even realized was drained. Their time together had both relaxed and aroused her. The pleasant three-hour drive down had been fi lled with music and casual conversation. When they reached the rafting outpost, Jori had stripped off her T-shirt to reveal a white bikini top that contrasted beautifully with her olive skin, and Sawyer had struggled to keep from leering. As Jori had boarded the bus in front of her, Sawyer's eyes had slipped down, of their own accord, to trace the waistband of her navy board shorts where they rode low on her hips.

Now she watched Jori fl oating a few feet away. Drawn to her but not wanting to disturb her repose, Sawyer swam slowly closer. But as she got within touching distance, Jori opened one eye and peeked at her. She reached out and captured Sawyer's hand, then drew her near.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" Jori asked.

Sawyer rolled onto her back and smiled. She glanced over to fi nd Jori's eyes once again closed. "I am. Very much."

"Thinking about Drake's?" Jori's fi ngers curled around Sawyer's, the warmth of her skin penetrating the cool water gloving their joined hands. They fl oated side by side, their sandal-clad feet lined up in front of them.

"No." Sawyer smiled. Jori looked so cute with wet curls clinging to the edge of her helmet, and Sawyer was antic.i.p.ating a relaxing dinner with her when they fi nished rafting. But when she thought about where the rest of the evening might lead, her stomach tightened like her skin beneath the hot summer sun.

"Good. I'd like to do this again."

"Me, too. In fact, I'm already planning the next trip. We could invite Matt and Davis."

"If we got a group together we could fi ll a boat by ourselves,"

Jori suggested.

"That would be fun."

Jori smiled, thinking it would be fun but it probably wouldn't top this day. She'd wanted Sawyer to have this time of relaxation * 162 *

but, she now realized, she'd needed this frivolous afternoon nearly as much. The time she spent away from work was often solitary, and even in her gla.s.s-blowing cla.s.ses she usually kept to herself. But today, Sawyer's enjoyment of their outing enhanced Jori's. They drifted for several more minutes before Lacey called them all to the nearest bank. After they were settled back in the raft, she directed them to the center of the river.

"All right, folks. Are we chickens or heroes?" Lacey yelled.

"Heroes!" a couple of the boys called out, needing no further explanation.

Lacey laughed. "When we go through this next section, we can take the chicken route. Or," she paused, her blue eyes sparkling with mischief, "we can go the hero route and it's likely most of us will end up in the water. But everyone has to agree."

"Heroes," came the cry again from the front of the boat.

"Ladies?"

Sawyer glanced at Jori, clearly leaving it up to her. And Jori felt as if her answer was about more than just the raft route.

"I'm game." She knew if she'd said she wanted the tamer route, Sawyer would have backed her up. But when she looked at Sawyer, everything in her screamed to take a chance.

Sawyer nudged the door open and led Jori inside. The small cabin was surprisingly s.p.a.cious, especially the great room with its high ceilings and honey-colored exposed logs. Flat river stones had been sculpted into an impressive fi replace in one corner, and Jori could imagine how cozy the room would feel with a fi re burning there.

Sawyer nodded toward a door to the right. "You can take that bedroom. I'll take the loft."

Jori stopped, not understanding what she'd heard. She'd a.s.sumed Sawyer would expect to share her bed. Apparently she hadn't needed to be so nervous and antic.i.p.atory all day.

* 163 *

Sawyer paused halfway across the room as Jori still stood by the entrance. "Is something wrong?"

She looked at the bedroom Sawyer had indicated and then at the loft. "Um, no. I thought-" She felt ridiculous.

"Jori, I'm not a dog." Sawyer slipped the strap of her bag from her shoulder and dropped it near the stairs. Skirting the rustic leather sofa in the middle of the room, she crossed to her, took her hands, and held them loosely. "You agreed to this trip so I could relax. Given that generosity, do you really think I planned it just to get in your pants?"

"I guess not." Jori was surprised by a surge of disappointment.

Sawyer grinned. "Of course not. That would be an added bonus." Jori fl ushed and Sawyer continued, "I didn't want you to worry about my expectations. You need a break as much as I do.

Let's just have a good time."

Jori had never been the type to "just have a good time"

without worrying about the implications. But she forced a smile.

"Sure."

"Good. Now, let's clean up and fi nd someplace to have dinner."

When Sawyer retrieved her bag and climbed toward the loft, Jori watched through the slatted railing, and Sawyer turned and deliberately grasped the bottom of her T-shirt.

"Jori, I'm starving and was looking forward to dinner. But if you're going to watch me undress, we may not make it out of this cabin." She pulled the shirt up, revealing a swath of skin.

"Oh, sorry." Startled, Jori rushed into her bedroom and closed the door.

She dropped her overnight bag on the bed and paced, distracting herself with the details of the room. The bed looked far too large for one person, with its handmade quilt that complemented the frame fashioned from natural pine boughs.

She jerked her mind away from the image of herself and Sawyer crawling across that quilt. Sawyer had put the ball fi rmly in her * 164 *

court, and now she needed to decide what her next move would be.

In the attached bathroom, she discovered a whirlpool tub and gla.s.sed-in shower stall. Her mind overlaid a picture of Sawyer reclining in the gently churning water with one of Sawyer taking her, fast and hard, against the transparent wall. She pressed her thighs together to still the ache between them. At this rate she'd never make it through dinner.

She quickly showered and dressed in a pair of khakis and a dark green blouse. Exhausted from their day of activity in the sun, she suddenly found she was starving as well and hurriedly rubbed a dollop of gel into her wet hair, fi nger-combed it, and left it to air-dry.

When she entered the living room ten minutes later, Sawyer waited for her, wearing a white b.u.t.ton-down tucked into dark jeans. She sat at one end of the deeply cushioned sofa, an arm stretched along the back of it and her legs crossed so a brown leather boot rested on her other knee. Sawyer's eyes roamed over her, drinking her in. When their gazes clashed, she thought Sawyer's relaxed posture was at odds with the intensity of that look.

Sawyer's casualness was possibly a ploy to draw her in and, she admitted, if that was case, it was working. Sawyer's apparent comfort with letting things progress or not intrigued her, made her uncharacteristically want to push the intimacy between them simply to see where it would lead. Jori allowed her smile to refl ect her antic.i.p.ation when she thought about what the evening might hold.

"How's your pasta?" Sawyer asked before she took another bite of stuffed eggplant.

"It's good." Jori smiled over the rim of a gla.s.s of house burgundy.

* 165 *

They'd been surprised to fi nd an authentic Italian restaurant tucked against the mountainside. Even after Lacey had given it her endors.e.m.e.nt as the place to get a good meal, Sawyer had been skeptical when they'd pulled into the parking lot of the tiny building with wood-shingle siding. The red, white, and green awning over the entrance was the only hint they were in the right place.

But the restaurant had been packed when they walked in, wall-to-wall booths and tables crowded with a mix of locals and tourists. The hostess had seated them on the back patio, where the glow from strings of bare bulbs overhead lit a dining area that was otherwise intimately shaded by a canopy of trees.

"Did you enjoy rafting?"

"Yes. It was great. I never would have tried that on my own."