Threading the Needle Ch. 08

Without even taking time to flirt with Winnie, he turned and ran back to his own raft. By the time he got there, Weston was pushing off. Standing up on a rock, they all watched him and he maneuvered his raft over to the right. It was like watching an intricate dance. He called out a command and then paused for a set time before calling the next one.

Lena could see that the group before them was hanging around to be ready to help if Weston needed it. There was also a group of safety kayakers waiting in eddies across the river so that they could get to swimmers as quickly as possible. Lena knew that Alex wasn't among them. With the good water, she preferred to kayak for fun than for money. She was on another river with some other friends.

The various types of support were unnecessary for Weston as he had a clean run. He eddied out to the left side of the river and got out his throw bag. Seeing him in place, the other group waved and set off down the river.

Logan didn't have any difficulty either. His run was clean and as soon as he secured his raft, they saw him heading up the side of the river. Glancing at each other, they all headed towards their raft. When they passed Liz's raft, she broke off what she was saying and went over to them.

"Just do what Logan says, when he says it, and you'll be fine," she told them. "And if not, we'll all be down there ready to get you," she added with a smile. Her eyes caught Lena's and then dropped down along her body. Despite trying not to be embarrassed by Liz's attention, she twisted a little to the left and then the right. Without meaning to, she looked all the more desirable. Liz licked her lips and then turned to walk away.

As Liz went back to her boat, Lena saw the flirtatious women watching. This time Lena's rival was the one with the scowl. Unable to help herself, Lena gave her a little smile and then hurried to catch up with the rest of her boat.

When she got there, Lena joined everyone else on top of the biggest rock they could find. Although the view wasn't as good from here, they could still see most of the route the rafts were taking. It was only when they dropped down the steepest part that they would lose sight of them.

Although she had missed the third raft, Lena was there in time to watch the fourth one push off from the shore. The guide jumped into the back of the raft and started calling commands. She wasn't sure but she thought his name was Carl. While his line was a little more ragged than the previous guides' were, he still managed to make it over to the right and hit the Chute just where he wanted to be.

Lena watched as the raft started to slide down and out of sight. They shouldn't see it again until it was past a big wave caused by an underwater rock ledge, but all of a sudden, they saw the front of the raft floating up into view. It kept coming until it fell backwards.

"Flip!" several of them yelled together. Before they saw the raft again, Lena saw several red helmets bobbing in the river, and then moments later more of them. Her stomach clenched as she thought about swimming this stretch of river. There were still rocks and nasty holes below Boulder.

Downstream, Weston pointed at the other rafts and then at the swimmers. Both guides pushed the boats away from shore immediately to chase the swimmers. Kayaks were peeling out from where they were waiting. Looking upstream, Weston held both of his arms in a T shape, the signal to hold up.

Although her raft was almost in the current, Indigo immediately stopped and pulled it back. Telling one of her customers to hold it, she got up on a rock to watch the recovery downstream. Liz ran over and joined her. It was a small rock and for balance, she slipped her arm around Indigo's waist.

Lena felt a little twinge of envy when she saw Indigo lean against Liz. "That's not for balance," she thought to herself. Almost immediately, she felt bad. "I knew the situation between them. It shouldn't surprise me," she told herself. "Fuck, I need to get ahold of my jealousy. We've been out once!" It reminded her of what Rikki told her. "Liz is going to be Liz, no matter what."

Now they could all see the raft. While they watched, Carl pulled himself up on it. Grabbing the flip strap, he leaned back. Just like in training, the raft lifted in the other side and as Carl pulled in the strap, it slowly flipped back over. A few seconds later, he was in the boat and pulling in the one customer who stayed with the raft. Fortunately, both of them still had their paddles and he was at least able to line up for the next set of waves. Another customer was close enough to the raft that she managed to grab onto it as it came up on her. Once she was in, Carl started working it over to the bank. With two paddlers, he was making progress when the river swept them out of view.

By now, Logan was almost back with them. He changed directions and went over to Indigo and Liz. They huddled together talking about the run. While they were talking, Weston gave them the all clear signal. Hopefully that meant that everything was okay with Carl's raft. Raising her arm straight up in a fist, Liz returned it. After talking for a little while longer, the three of them headed over to their own rafts.

The serious looks on all the guides made Logan grin as he approached them. "Why so serious? It's a nice day for a swim!" he joked.

"Are they okay?" asked Winnie.

"Probably. Weston would be more agitated with there were any injuries," he replied. His grin grew cockier as he spoke to Winnie. His gaze lingered on her for a moment, and then looked around. "Liz is changing the raft order. Since Weston is the only support down there now until the kayaks eddy hop their way back up, she will go first and provide support for Indigo and me."

"That's the first flip I've seen, you know that we didn't do ourselves," Lena said. Her tone was much more serious than usual. Liz would have approved, but Logan scoffed at little,

"Carl screwed up. He let his nose drift and then couldn't correct. I mean, you need to be on with Ledge Wave. Some runs have half the rafts flipping on it, but you saw me. No problem," Logan said.

As he spoke, Liz was pulling out. All of them admired her run. Her raft moved just where she wanted it and exactly when. It was a clean run and she pulled out as soon as she could to be ready to provide help if necessary.

Once Weston gave the all clear sign again, Indigo pushed her raft off the shore. Winnie smiled as she watched. It was clear that it was only a matter of time before she would be as good as Liz. Her boat made an almost perfect set up, with only a couple of corrections needed. Still Winnie held her breath as the raft disappeared from view. She let it out in a rush as she saw Indigo come into sight, already working her way over to the bank across from Liz.

"Well, that's six runs and one flip. Plus I've already run it once without a problem. Odds are against us," Logan said in that same cocky tone. For once, no one even smiled. Liz drove safety and consequences into their heads during training. None of them took it as lightly as Logan seemed to.

Winnie gripped her paddle tighter; her knuckles turned white. She was in the back spot, opposite from Logan. There was a slight jerk as the raft came off the shore. She could feel it drifting while Logan leapt into it and then took his place. The slow twirl made the knots in her stomach tighten up. Even when Logan started to turn into the line he wanted, she didn't feel any better.

Unlike Carl, Logan had an experienced group of paddlers. This was the seventh straight week that four of them were on the river together. The rookies knew each other well enough that their paddles touched the water at the same instance and came out the same way. It was so steady that the two second year guides had no problem in matching it. It gave Logan all the power he needed.

The boiling surface of the rapid was fascinating to Winnie. Strong eddy lines marked the locations of the rocks she remembered from the previous weeks. A couple of times, Logan rode right alongside them, keeping just out of their strong grips that would send him in directions they really didn't want to go. Still, he did a good job and as they entered the Chute, Logan was where he wanted them to be.

The ride down was thrilling. It was like a brief but intense roller coaster ride. As they exited out of the Chute, Logan screamed out a long triumphant yell that seemed to last a long time. Just as they came up on Ledge Wave, Winnie glanced over at him. Noticing, he flashed her another cocky smile. As he did that, they heard a slight scraping sound and the nose turned slightly to the left. The back of the raft slipped down towards a sucking hydraulic just to the left of them.

"All ahead! Hard and lean forward," Logan yelled. There was a hint of desperation there. "Lean! Forward!" he yelled again.

As the left rear of the boat touched the hydraulic, Winnie felt it grab the tube and start sucking it under water. Her waist began to sink under the surface with it and she felt the powerful pull grabbing her. She tried to lean into the raft but it was too late, she felt her body sliding backwards into the water. The last thing she saw before she submerged into a boiling white froth was Logan's mouth opening in surprise. And then she was in the river.

"Hold onto my paddle," was Winnie's first thought. "It can act as an extension of your reach, and you can use it to push away from rocks." The words from her safety lecture rang in her head.

"Get your feet up and downstream!" she thought next. "You don't want to get your foot caught in something you can't see underwater, plus it's another way to get away from rocks." The problem was for the moment, she couldn't tell which way was downstream. Tumbling around in the wave, she lost her orientation. She felt the hole pulling her under and through gritted teeth, she sucked in a breath of air from the froth just before going under. Once again, she felt herself spinning around before popping up to the surface.

This time she was out of the hole and in the current of the river. She was almost in the exact right position. Since there didn't appear to be any rocks dead ahead, she looked around for her raft. As she did, a throw bag sailed over her head, putting the line right over her shoulder. She grabbed on and followed the rope back to her savior.

It was Lena, who was already rapidly pulling in the rope. Tightening her grip, Winnie turned away and let the rope pull her backwards to the raft. A few moments later, she bumped against the raft and two hands grabbed the shoulder straps of her life jacket.

"One, two, three," Lena yelled, pushing down slightly on three and then falling back into the raft and pulling Winnie on top of her. They lay like that for a moment, with Winnie in between Lena's legs while they caught their breath. It seemed natural for Lena to put her arms around Winnie and hug her. It felt just as natural for Winnie.

"You okay, Win?" Lena asked with her lips close to Winnie's ear.

The shock of her swim was still strong and it took her a few more breaths to be able to answer. "I'm okay. No harm," Winnie said. Her own arms rested on Lena's and she returned the pressure. "Thanks for saving me," she told her.

"You looked like you were doing fine, but I'm glad I was there," Lena said, finally letting go.

"Me too," Winnie said. Looking up, Bohdi and Logan both had their hands out to help her up. Without any hesitation, Winnie took Bohdi's and got up onto her feet. The rest of the raft was paddling backwards and the boat was almost on shore, just below Logan's customers.

"You sure you're okay, Winnie?" Logan asked.

"I'm fine," she curtly said. It was obvious that she was upset with him. It might have just been unavoidable, but the fact that he stopped paying attention to the river to grin at her at that exact moment was hard to forget.

Before either one of them could say anything more, there was a whistle. It was Weston wanting to know if everything was fine. Winnie stood up and gave him the all okay signal. Weston got a relieved smile and then signaled to Logan to get a move on. The next rafting company was ready to send their first raft through and Weston wanted to be ready to go as soon as it successfully made it.

Logan just headed back to his raft without speaking again. As David, the other second year guide, took his place to guide the rest of the trip, Lena leaned over to Winnie. "A little hard on him, weren't you?" she said.

"He was showing off for me when it happened. I'm fine but it could have been worse," Winnie said.

"Oh, I didn't see that," Lena said. She looked back at where Logan was getting back into his raft. "You going to forgive him?"

"Probably... eventually," Winnie replied, trying but failing to prevent a tiny smile. "He'll need to grovel some." Weston was already pushing out into the river and Logan copied him moments later. Watching him float by in his raft, Winnie's smile faded, replaced by a scowl. "Right now, I'm still mad at him," she said.

"You get no argument from me," Lena said. Each time she was around Logan, her opinion of him got a little worse. She tried to be nice for Winnie's sake, but it was getting harder.

"Everyone ready?" David asked, causing Winnie and Lena to separate and get in position. As soon as they were, he pushed off and jumped into the boat. "All ahead," he called. Winnie and Lena dug into the water with their paddles and focused on following his commands.

It didn't take long before Boulder Drop was out of their minds. The rest of the river was tamer, though still fun. Even Winnie completely let go of her irritation and just enjoyed herself. It helped that there were four boats in between her and Logan.

At the take out, Winnie and the rest of the guide boat helped with putting the gear away. Despite Logan's attempts to apologize again, she continued to give him the cold shoulder. And once the customers had left, Weston pulled him aside. Although they tried to ignore it, it was impossible to avoid overhearing Weston as he yelled at Logan.

"Fuck no, Logan. Carl's flip was different. He was doing his best on a goddamn hard wave. And he doesn't have your years of fucking experience," Weston told him. "You were right in front of me. You were showing off."

Logan wasn't nearly as loud as Weston was, so it was impossible to hear his response. The gist of it wasn't hard to figure out.

"She wasn't fucking flirting with you. Don't blame her, Logan. I saw it all. She glanced at you and you took your eyes off the river," Weston said. "That was a bad spot for a swim. Luckily, Winnie is smart and knows what to do. It might have been different with a customer. This isn't the first time you've done something like this. When you guide for me, you focus on guiding, you got it?"

There was a pause as Logan spoke again. When Weston replied, he was quieter but could still be heard. "Yeah, you're a good guide, Logan. You're just not as good as you think you are. And you sure as hell aren't as smart."

Walking away from Weston, Logan stalked over to his car. He didn't look at anyone, and embarrassed to witness Weston chewing him out, they all tried to pretend he wasn't there. As soon as he was changed, he got in and drove off.

Winnie watched him leave. While she did brush off his attempts at apologizing here, she thought she might forgive him at the tavern after he had bought her a drink or two. That was her idea until she realized he tried to give her some of the blame for her swim. Now she was pissed off again. In her mind, she was glad that he wouldn't be there.

"He's cute enough that I'll forgive him," she thought to herself. "But no way will it be tonight."

Already changed, Bohdi was waiting for her and Lena. It didn't take them long. Saying goodbye to Weston, who was going home in the van, they piled into his car and headed to the tavern.

They weren't the first ones to get there. Wanting their beer, Jack and David left before the incident with Weston and Logan. Feeling awkward with Winnie there, Bohdi waited until she went to the restroom before telling them about it. Seeing how they were looking at her when she came back, she was blunt.

"I don't want to talk about it, okay? Let's just move on."

They all smiled sympathetically and tried to change the topic. As guides, they couldn't completely avoid it. The one thing they all had in common was rafting. Running the Drop was the highlight of the day, which made it impossible to ignore. In the end, they rehashed the run multiple times while managing to stay away from talking about Logan.

Lena was less involved with the conversation that she might have been. Guides weren't the only ones at the tavern. Several tables were taken by some of their customers, including the group that went with Liz.

"Just my luck," she whispered to Winnie. "The bitch gets the whole trip with Liz, and now she is here too." She took a big sip from her beer, and then stared into it. "When she gets here, want to bet on where Liz sits?" she asked.

"Not really," Winnie told her. She put her arm around Lena's shoulder and gave her a little hug. She felt Lena press into her, their heads touching. There wasn't much more to say.

Of all the guides, Liz was the last one to get there. As she walked in, the group from her boat saw her and called her over. She soon had a beer in front of her and a spot right next to the flirtatious woman.

While Lena wanted to ignore them, she couldn't help herself. With a depressed look on her face, she kept glancing over at Liz. Even though normally she was sucked into rafting conversations, her confusion about her feelings towards Liz was getting in the way.

After a while, Liz got up to go to the restroom. As she came out of it, she found Lena waiting for her.

"Hey cutie," Liz said with a smile. She was on flirting autopilot now. Her attention shifted easily to Lena.

"Hi," Lena replied. She looked over her shoulder. They were around the corner where the main room couldn't see. "So, you going to join us?" she asked, trying to carefully sound curious rather than whiny.

Liz's smile didn't change, but there was a slight tightening in her cheeks. "Maybe in a bit," she said, and then started to walk past. When Lena reached out to touch her shoulder, she stopped again.

"It's just I thought we were going to get to spend time together today, then there wasn't room in the raft. That's okay, I understand how it works, but now you are still with them and not with me," Lena said. Her disappointment was plain.

"I know Lena, but this is how the game is played. They asked for me because they have gone with me before. They had a great time today and I got almost twice my pay in tips. They'll probably be back again this year, and this is how I make my living," Liz said. She paused to look at her before she continued. "Look, today was a really good day for me. If I spend some time with them here, it increases the chance that they will ask for me again."

"Oh," Lena said, feeling stupid. "I get it. I'm still getting used to this, and to you."

"It's no big deal. Go hang out with everyone, and when they leave, I'll come over," Liz said. With that, she hurried back to the table of customers.

Walking back to the main room, Lena looked over at Liz. The group was excitedly greeting her, and she noticed that the one woman was right next to Liz. As she watched, Liz put her hand up and placed it on the small of the woman's back. While it was just a light touch, it stayed there. Sighing, Lena headed over to the bar to get another beer.

While the bartender was pouring her beer, Lena felt someone come alongside her. Looking up into the mirror behind the bar, she saw it was Indigo. Turning, she gave her a little smile.