Like Bees to Honey | gxg

17. Smells Like Trouble

By the time Sabina was clinging to the handles of a tube watching the ropes stretch out as the boat puttered away, she was questioning her life choices. Another boat roared past in the other direction, and the waves spreading from its wake jostled her, knocking her tube against Mel's as one huge roller after another passed. Mel put her heel against Sabina's tube and pushed so that they floated apart, which was smart. At least they wouldn't crack heads as soon as Isaac hit the gas.

Reaching their full length, the ropes pulled taut and the sudden tension made the tubes bob. A wash of cool water came over the front, soaking her.

Mel asked, "Ready?"

Sabina tightened the straps of her life jacket. Then she grabbed the handles again and nodded. Mel gave the thumbs up. The motor roared, and Sabina's stomach lurched.

Luckily, Isaac wasn't a jerk. He didn't accelerate right to full speed but found a nice gentle pace that was well within Sabina's comfort zone. Squinting against the wind, she exchanged smiles with Mel as her tube drifted closer, almost within arm's reach.

The double tube setup wasn't as scary as Alice had made it sound. Before they bumped into each other, the boat began to turn and inertia sent Sabina scooting right up to the edge of the wake, while Mel stayed closer to the middle. Sabina skidded along the bulge of white water, teeth knocking together, knuckles white on the handles, until the boat turned again and Mel skimmed across to the opposite side.

Isaac drove in long s-curves that sent them back and forth in this pattern, sometimes bumping together gently in the middle as they switched from one direction to the other, before he straightened out. Mel's grin was as feral as her tangled hair as the sides of their tubes nudged together. An answering glee bubbled in Sabina's chest.

"Faster?" Mel asked, and it was impossible to say no to that expression.

The motor growled louder and the wind cracked Sabina's ponytail against her neck. This time when Isaac turned she flew right out the side of the wake, and a moment later Mel popped over the edge, too.

The wind had picked up and with it the waves, and she bounced across them, the lake feeling hard as cement, tubes straining against their ropes. When the boat turned in the opposite direction, Mel shot out the other side of the wake with a loud whoop.

Sabina's hands began to ache from holding on so tight. She was just about to hold up her hand to say she was ready to stop when, at the apex of the next turn, they crossed paths with the waves from another boat's wake.

The deep waves met them just as Sabina was shooting off the peak of the wake after Mel, who hit a trough at an angle and was knocked loose by the impact. Her legs dragged in the water but she kept her grip. She might have been able to climb back on if Sabina's tube hadn't then plowed straight into her.

The impact threw them both free. For a moment Sabina felt weightless, caught somewhere between fear and thrill. Then she hit the surface of the lake, hard, and all the air was knocked from her lungs.

The dark, churning water disoriented her, but the neon-green life jacket pulled her to the surface. She popped out into the sunshine and found herself laughing, breathless but unhurt. Soon Mel surfaced nearby, rubbing water from her eyes.

"Okay," Sabina said, swimming over to her while they waited for the boat to circle around to pick them up. "I admit it. That was pretty fun."

Mel blinked hard, then did it again. "Can I take a raincheck on the 'I told you so'? I can't see."

"You can't see?"

"I think I lost my contact, and I'm tragically blind without them."

"What? Did it fall out in the lake? Do you have another pair at home?" The only thing Sabina knew about contacts she had learned from those ads that involved a lot of splashing water.