me,” Sam says, and she shakes her head. He tries to hug her, and she pushes him away.
“He’s the most annoying man in the world.”
Just then, a whistle blows. “Try not to get caught in my wake,” Sam says, and when Izzy makes a move to clock him, he bolts.
I take in his long legs as he runs. “He’s kind of crazy, but I can see why Gram liked him so much.” I glance at Nate, and his eyes are narrowed, his lips slightly downturned. “What?” I ask.
“You like him, huh?” He looks past me, and before I can answer, he says, “We better get going.”
I have no idea what was going through his head, but I follow him to our pumpkin. I wave to Faith and Albert, who are a few pumpkins down, and on the other side of us, Sam and Jason are goading each other. I grin. I love that Gram’s “family” are all here. I’m sure she’s cheering us all on from heaven.
“I’ll hold it while you slide in,” Nate says, as he balances the big gourd.
“That’s what she said,” Sam yells out, and he and Jason laugh hysterically. Nate might be shaking his head, but his lips are quirking.
“Ready?” he asks me.
Here goes nothing.
He holds the massive pumpkin, and I balance myself by gripping his shoulders. Once inside the huge gourd, I settle my rear on the bottom.
“Good?” he asks.
“As good as I can be for a girl about to ride a pumpkin across the lake.”
His playful grin is back when he says, “This is going to be fun.”
The pumpkin wobbles as he climbs in, and two guys give us a push to set us into motion. We all enter the water, and cheers erupt behind us. Nate slides his paddle into the water and gets us going. I follow suit, but all I manage to do is spin us in a circle.
“Help,” I yell to Nate.
He uses his paddle to stop the spinning. “On the count of three, we do it together.” He counts down, and on three, I paddle, but he’s so much bigger and stronger, we end up going in a circle again.
“Oh my God, we are so bad at this.” I start laughing. Nate laughs with me, and Sam goes by us and splashes me with water.
“Hey,” I yell at him, momentarily forgetting all about the dangers of the water.
“We’ll get this.” He nudges me with his elbow and gives a wink. “We’re good at syncing our movements,” Nate says, and heat crawls into my cheeks. He chuckles at that. “On the count of three,” he says again, and I put more force into my stroke.
“We’re doing it,” I say, the pumpkin rocking as we power forward.
“Coming Sam,” I yell. Up ahead Faith and Albert are killing it, close to halfway across the lake, but Sam is closing in on them. “Let’s get him,” I say to Nate.
Working as a team, we both row, and someone bangs us from behind.”
“Sorry.”
I glance over my shoulder and see Doug, the man who’s horse nearly killed me, working hard to get by us. He hits our pumpkin again and knocks us out of control. We start spinning, and by the time it stops, I’m dizzy and laughing so hard my stomach hurts.
Nate’s roar of laughter goes through me, and when he rights us again, I steal a glance at him. Attractive. Funny. Rock solid. I can’t deny that I really like being with him, in the bedroom and out.
Don’t fall for him, Kira.
“Ready,” he asks, and I quickly pull myself together, fearing I’m already in deeper than I ever meant to be. We’re different people from different worlds who are just enjoying each other. Neither of us wants a relationship, he made that clear, and this hookup comes with an expiration date. After that quick lecture, I nod, and we start paddling. Ice-cold water splashes up, and I yelp as it chills my body.