John Clayton - Practice does it

The invitations had come from the engraver with two "l's" in Randal and some of the cards which came with the early gifts had been misplaced. Besides that, her dress was going to cost one hundred and thirty dollars more than they'd planned. On top of it all, Evelyn had quarreled with her husband again and had gone to stay with her mom. Maybe she wouldn't come back for the ceremony, in which case Kay'd have to find another attendant. She had asked Lucy to attend her but her brother was getting married in Deauville the same day so she had to decline.

Kay's mom was almost beside herself, which didn't make things any easier for Kay.

In addition to her litany of woes Kay was concerned about learning to bump and grind. To get lessons on love took time and a lot of luck and she was running out of both. True, the cop in the car had taught her a few tricks, now she liked being eaten out. She liked that a lot. Last night she had even stayed awake a few hours longer than usual trying to thrill herself with her finger. Practice couldn't hurt, she rationalized.

Her mother's mounting anxiety and her father's increasing annoyance about the rising cost of the wedding was getting on her nerves.

"You know, Mom, I'd just as soon go back to grandma's and come back the day before the wedding. I'm going to be a basket case if this keeps up."

"Things are getting to you?"

"Can't you tell?"

"Well, dear," her mother said as she loaded the dishwasher. "I was much the same in the days before I married your father. Grandma had to practically lead me around by the hand. I was in a daze for weeks. You know what you ought to do? Take the car and go for a nice long drive. Keep driving till you've gotten so far away from home the scenery is unfamiliar. That will calm you down. I know. Trust me."

"But daddy wants the car this evening."

"Never you mind about your father. Go. Shoo. You're more important right now than his bowling."

Kay was out the door without another word. She was right back in, too – she had forgotten the car keys. The drive was just what the doctor ordered. She mused to herself how her mother knew best. All along the highway she thought how wonderful it was of her mother to be so understanding and she pondered whether she would be as good a wife and mother as her own mother was. She would try, she would try very hard for her own sake. And Davey's.

About half a tank down the highway she turned onto a country road which ambled through the rolling hills called the Evergreen Mountains. The highest hill was a whopping three hundred feet, but they were called mountains anyway. A series of colorful signs caught her eye. They advertised a boat rental place on Lake Drumheller. The lake was named for a pioneering family in the area who seemed to have cornered the market on real estate a century ago. The last members of the family lived in town, but their name was Eisenstein now.

It was almost sunset and a cool body of water was just the thing to relax her. She I followed the signs to the boat rental cove.

It was sleepily deserted. She saw one boat on the lake; men seemed to be fishing from it. She pulled the car to a stop and walked to the rental shack. Before she saw the attendant she noticed his legs. He was sitting in an old kitchen chair tilted back against the shady side of the shack. He was reading a paperback novel. His tanned legs were stretched straight out in front of him with his ankles crossed. He wore engineering boots and sweat socks with orange black stripes.

Kay figured he was quite young, maybe a high school boy, because his legs didn't have much hair and what there was was a golden color, floating just above beautiful smooth tanned skin. The shape of them indicated to her he did something athletic a lot, like bicycle riding or something.

As she rounded the corner of the shack, her feet crunched in the gravel and just as she came into his view he looked up.

He was a golden-haired youth close to her own age. His hair was a little too long, she thought, but it was beautifully highlighted by paler patches bleached by the sun. His eyelashes were so long they were almost artificial looking. His cheeks were highlighted, too, with tiny apple-like blossoms of healthy color.

He closed his book, smiled winningly and stood up. He was wearing shorts cut off very short indeed; in fact, they had practically no leg at all. They rode low on his hips and hung almost as if they were held up only by his trim round ass and something in his crotch which protruded, although not excessively.

"Howdy."

"Hello."

"Want to rent a boat?"

"I think so. How much are they?"

"Two fifty an hour for a motor, two for a row boat and two for a canoe."

Kay thought a motor boat would be noisy and that the restful dip of paddles and row boat was too much like work; she settled for a canoe. She could pretend she was an Indian and the white man had not yet reached the shores of the lake. It would be utterly relaxing.

"I'll take a canoe, if you'll demonstrate how to operate it."

"There's nothing to it, even the Indians could handle a canoe."

Kay was shocked at the remark, it sounded almost racist.

"I guess they should, they invented them," she said.

"They did?"

"Um hmmm."

"Oh, of course they did. I remember that movie with Gary Cooper being chased by the Indians in canoes. What was I thinking of?"

He smiled his terribly ingenuous smile and looked a little sheepish. Kay forgave him all.

"Are you by yourself?"

"Yes."

"And you don't know how to paddle?"

"I've never tried."

"Gee, I'm not supposed to rent boats to people alone if they don't know how to row or paddle."

The smile left his face as he pondered what to do. He looked at Kay in her culotte skirt with her bare shoulders showing above her halter top. Her legs were shapely and trim. Her hips were just the kind he would like to hug. Her bosom was pleasing to look at and her carriage made the whole package delectable. He liked best the smooth line of her neck and the cleavage between her breasts which was highly noticeable without being ostentatious.

An idea occurred to him and he forgot all about the deposit his boss required of all boat renters.

"Tell you what. It's almost time for dinner and Mr. Young told me I could close for an hour about sundown when the fish have stopped biting. There's not much business this hour anyway. I can close now and paddle you myself. How's that?"

"How much?"

"I'd do it for free."

Kay looked at him. His smile had come back as beguiling as before, if not more so. The idyllic view of punting on a sleepy stream between lush green banks flashed to her mind and she agreed.

Eagerly, Roger – that was his name – pulled a canoe off its rack.

"We'll take a wooden one, they're best."

They were also slightly wider in the middle, but he didn't mention that.

He slid the mooring line over a piling and eased the craft into the water. It bobbed gracefully and swayed away from the dock. Quickly, he stretched one muscular leg over the water, caught the side of the canoe with his toe and pulled it back along the dock. He secured the canoe to the dock and stepped down into it. Holding onto the piling with one hand and offering his other hand to Kay, he helped her into the canoe.

"Sit down right away."

She balanced herself on unsteady feet and quickly sat down on the tiny plank provided for that purpose. She plumped down less gracefully than she would have liked; she didn't want to look klutsy in front of this attractive, clear-eyed young man.

"We're going to need a paddle, right?"

He hopped out of the flimsy craft and raced along the dock to the place where the oars and paddles were stored. He selected a paddle and jogged back along the dock and got into the canoe.