The Best Man Plan - Jaci Burton Page 0,59
sunglasses down. “Yeah?”
“Yes. Which is unfortunate because we can’t do anything about it.”
“Why not?”
She opened her arms. “We’re out here in the open. We don’t have any privacy.”
He got up and stretched. “Be right back.”
He disappeared into the thickness of the woods. Erin shrugged and went back to watching the water, wishing she was out in it instead of sweating on the bank. When Jason returned, she looked up at him.
He dug into his backpack and used some hand sanitizer, then grabbed his water and took several swallows.
“Hot out here,” he said.
“I know. I took a walk earlier and I was wishing we had a boat so we could be out on the lake.”
“Yeah? Did you bring your swimsuit?”
“It’s under my clothes.”
He gave her a hot look. “I did say I’d take you shoe shopping. But I have an idea that involves being out on the water. Your call.”
“Water. Definitely water.” She’d only been teasing him about the shoe shopping anyway.
“Okay.” He whipped out his phone and scrolled, then punched a button. “Hey, buddy. You out on the water?” He listened and laughed. “Yeah, I’m on the bank fishing, and me and my lady are hot as hell. Come pick us up by the Johnsons’ dock.”
Erin just stared as he made arrangements with . . . someone, then hung up and tucked his phone in his shorts.
“Who was that?”
“A friend who has a boat. Let’s pack up.”
“Seriously? Just like that, and you’ve got a boat.”
His lips curved. “I know people. People who have boats. You wanna go out on the lake or not?”
She definitely wanted to go out on the lake. “Yes.”
“Then let’s do it.”
She liked that he jumped on her suggestion, that he was the kind of guy who’d give her what she wanted. He listened, and he was game for anything. That meant something to her.
It took them about ten minutes to pull and pack up, then they were on the road. Jason drove them to a parking place near a boat launch.
“Are we bringing the fish?” Erin asked, motioning to the cooler.
“Yeah, we’ll bring those along.”
Their fish were in coolers, packed with plenty of ice, so they’d stay nice and cold and fresh.
Soon enough a very nice boat pulled up to the shore. There were four people on the boat and she had no idea who any of them were. Fortunately, she was in the business of being sociable around people she didn’t know, so she wasn’t at all intimidated. She grabbed her tote bag and let one of the guys haul her onto the boat.
“Howdy,” the guy said. “I’m Vince.”
“Nice to meet you, Vince.”
“The gorgeous brunette over there is my girlfriend, Summer.”
Summer smiled and came over to greet her, accompanied by a stunning black woman. “Glad to have you aboard. This is my best friend, Daria, and her fiancé, Mike.”
Both of the guys were equally fine-looking. Mike was dark and studly and wore glasses, and Vince was lean and muscled in a surfer-boy kind of way.
She shook hands with everyone. “Thanks for letting us come aboard.”
“Anything for Jason,” Mike said. “You two sweating it out fishing today?”
“Yeah,” Jason said. “Caught two nice-sized catfish, though.”
“So that means you’ll be frying dinner for us tonight?” Vince asked.
“Love to. You game for hanging out, Erin?”
“I have no plans other than being on this boat right now. I appreciate the rescue.”
“There’s nothing worse than sweating while sitting right at the edge of the water, dying to get in,” Summer said. “And we have tubes and a great spot where we can go hang out and you can cool off.”
Erin liked these people. They were friendly and accommodating. And when the boat took off, she nearly died from the pleasure of the breeze, the bits of water coming up to relieve her from the oppressive heat and the sheer joy of feeling the waves underneath her as they skimmed across the water.
They anchored near a small cove, out of the way of the traffic from the other boats. Vince, Mike and Jason tied off the tubes to the side of the boat.
“Anyone want some water, lemonade, wine or beer?” Daria asked.
Normally Erin would opt for wine. But it was so hot a cold beer sounded like just what she needed.
Jason grabbed two beers from Vince and handed one off to her. She sat at the back of the boat and watched as Summer and Vince lowered themselves onto the tubes.
“You don’t want to get into the water?” Jason asked.
“Oh, I do.