Laura Loves' Life - The Paddle
By: Christie Brown
I was just putting my kayak in the water as he was getting out. He was about ten feet away from me when we both noticed we had the same kayaks, except his was blue. "How was your paddle today" I inquired, trying to make small talk with a good-looking guy. "Not bad but I'm kinda new to this" He replied, in a quiet shy sort of way. "But I'll learn" he said with confidence. As I got into my kayak he added, "Have a nice paddle yourself." Then he turned away to focus on getting out of his kayak with grace. At this he failed miserably and tumbled into the water, creating quite a ruckus. To save him embarrassment, I shoved off from shore giggling at his misfortune, and slightly excited. As I paddled away, I soon forgot about our brief encounter.
I was heading to the far side of the Spirit Lake Flowage, about an hour north of Wausau, where there was a small beach, and on weekdays it was almost always empty. That is why I had been coming here consistently every Wednesday afternoon in the summer. I was lucky that my own small law practice was finally starting to make money and I felt like I was able to relax more. Four years earlier I had struck out on my own after three grueling years of law school in Madison. Prior to law school I had been in an awful three year marriage mistake with my college sweetheart. All of this took a financial and emotional toll and left very little time for me. But that was all changing now as I was reconnecting with my love of the outdoors, exercising frequently and eating well, reconnecting with girlfriends and had even been on a date, which unfortunately had been a disaster. Several years back I had dreaded turning thirty, but now I was embracing it.
As I was rediscovering myself, several girlfriends were pushing me to get back on the dating-go-round. They were encouraging me to go out, meet guys, laugh, play, have sex, and not make any commitments. This sounded good in theory, but it was hard to meet guys these days as I was not really a bar or night club person and certainly did not know how to flirt in a grocery store. That all seemed so superficial. Also, I am not a social media user. I have an iPhone I use for work, taking pictures, weather, maps, and things like that but had no interest in Facebook, Tik Tok, Tinder or any of those types of apps. Again, superficial and a waste of time. I do use the phone to buy things like my new bike, sleeping bag and tent, and most recently a vibrator called the Rabbit. Probably the best thing I bought in years. But when I have free time, I would much rather read a book, which is how I planned to spend this lovely Wednesday afternoon.
It took about twenty minutes to get to the little beach on the other side. Just like most other Wednesdays, I could see I would have it to myself. With the picture-perfect weather, the book I had started and being alone on the beach this was going to be a great day. I pulled up and gracefully got out of my kayak and grabbed my little waterproof carry bag which contained a blanket, my book, a water bottle, some snacks, and a plastic flask of chilled white wine. After arranging my blanket on the sand near the water I slipped out of my camping shorts, so I was only in my new bikini. I was finally feeling confident about my body, especially since I was alone. But just as I was about to settle onto my blanket, I noticed another kayak coming toward me from the landing across the lake. Damn, I might lose my privacy.
As the Kayak drew closer, I realized, partly by its erratic movement, that it was the guy who had fallen into the drink when I was leaving. Why in the world was he coming my way. While I had thought that he was kinda cute and seemed to have a nice chest and shoulders (under his life vest), his clumsy move I had witnessed made me quickly forget about him. Now he was coming my way in an equally clumsy sort of way which made me hope he was going somewhere else. However, as he drew even closer it was apparent that this beach, and probably me, was his objective.
Suddenly I became a bit frightened. Just because he is a kayaker doesn't mean he isn't some sort of creep. My heart began to beat faster as he got closer and then he began to yell something and wave his arms. I couldn't quite tell what he was yelling but it also caused him to look even more clumsy. As I quickly slid my shorts back on, I suddenly could hear him yelling something about a phone. Then he was waving a phone around and finally I could hear him. "You left your phone at the landing, I found it near your car, I don't want you to lose it."
I felt relieved, he really was a good guy and just wanted to return my phone, at least I hoped that was the case. I went to the edge of the water and prepared to walk up to him and get the phone. If he was a creep, I knew he couldn't get out of the kayak quickly and I could jump in mine and leave him in the dust. When he was about ten feet away, he quit paddling and gently glided up to me as I was knee deep. He held out the phone for me to grab, and I recognized it was mine. Then he said, "please don't make me get out of the kayak, I don't want to look like a complete klutz two times in one hour." I laughed as he got to me, grabbed my phone and replied, "don't worry, I would hate for you to look foolish twice, but thank...."
Then we locked eyes. His bright green eyes drew me right in, they were the sexiest eyes I had ever seen, and he was looking directly into my blue eyes. We held the gaze for a moment and then I blurted out, "No need to turn around immediately, you can rest up here and I can teach you how to get out of a kayak with grace." He turned way in a shy sort of way and said, "It's kind of humiliating to be taught by a girl, er er woman, I mean female, oh I'm sorry.... I see your just better at this than I am, and I'm not used to that, but it doesn't matter who you are so.... Sure, I guess." He stammered. The fact that he corrected himself before I could question the statement about being a girl, won me over. So, I began to instruct him the correct way to exit a kayak without falling in the water.
"Ok, step one, grab each side of the kayak with your elbows bent at ninety degrees." By this point I also noticed that he really was built quite nicely under his life vest. He may not kayak much but he obviously took care of himself.
"Step two - Pull your knees up towards your chest and always keep your body in the center, as much as possible." As he pulled his legs up, I could see he also had nice legs, and I began to wonder what his butt looked like.
"Step three, begin to lean your body to the left as you swing your legs out of the kayak, and make sure to keep your body centered." He looked like he was very familiar with keeping his body centered.
"Ok the final step, place your feet in the water on the bottom and push yourself up from your kayak. He followed my instructions and then suddenly - Ker Sploosh - he fell right in clumsily, and again right in front of me.
I burst out laughing and to my relief, so did he. He pulled himself up and then stood up, dripping wet. As we stood there laughing, I took note that he had a fabulous ass, and it was highlighted in his wet swim trunks. I tried not to stare at it, so I looked back into his eyes as our laughter subsided. We stood gazing at each other for a moment in silence and then to break the quiet I offered my towel for him to dry off. "No thanks" he said. "I'm a swimmer so I'm used to being wet."
So that was it. He had a swimmers body underneath that life vest, and I was anxious to see it. So I said, "Why do you wear a life vest if you're a swimmer?"
"Well, being a swimmer is not much use if I fall out of the kayak and knock myself out." I laughed at that and then said, "At least take that wet vest off and let the sun dry you and warm you up."
I could tell that he had also noticed my body and had quickly glanced at my boobs in my bikini top. But he did not linger with his gaze, and he started to walk out of the water to the shore, which meant he had to walk right past me. I didn't move and as he passed me his elbow lightly brushed my arm. This further excited me.
We both got back on the beach, and he slowly and deliberately took off his life vest. 'Oh yah.' I sat on the blanket and gestured for him to do the same. But instead of sitting down he stood there and resumed our somewhat awkward conversation saying he had just taken up kayaking in the last couple of weeks. This was his third time out and he had only learned by watching You Tube videos.
"I'm a newbie but I love learning new things and I'm sure I will only improve, with practice." I loved his honesty and his sudden confidence. Maybe this wasn't going to be as bad as I had thought. In fact, it might be a lot better than I had imagined.
"Please, sit down and relax." I replied, my voice suddenly quivering with excitement, and my heartbeat accelerating. "Maybe you can use your swimming skills to teach me how to do the breaststroke, and then we'd be even."
At that suggestion he blushed deeply and then sat down about three feet away on the other end of my blanket. "I'm Josh and I live in Schofield, a suburb of Wausau, if you can call it that. This is my first year in this area and my first year as a middle school science teacher, so I have the summer off."
I tried to imagine him in front of awkward thirteen-year-olds trying to explain how animals reproduce. I told him my name was Laura (I didn't tell him my last name was Love as that gets confusing) and I had my own law practice in Wausau. "Since I often work nights and weekends, I decided to take Wednesday afternoons off for myself, and I've only recently returned to my love of kayaking."
