“You can,” Ruth said, “but I’m staying out of the water.”
“Suit yourself, Grandma, but Mom and I are getting in the water.”
Bethanne hesitated. “You go on and I’ll join you later.”
“Mo-om,” Annie groaned. “Okay, if it’ll make you both feel better, I’ll swim in my underwear.”
Annie shucked off her shorts and cotton top, leaving them at the water’s edge, and walked into the lake with her arms raised. “Oh, boy, this is cold.”
Bethanne kept a keen eye on her daughter. The cool water lapped at her bare toes, and she felt the sweat roll down her neck. The sun was even fiercer now. Annie, meanwhile, was floating on her back.
“Are you coming in or not?” she shouted to Bethanne.
“Coming in.” Bethanne carefully removed her own clothes and waded into the water in her bra and underpants. The lake seemed even colder than before and shock made her gasp.
Ruth strolled down to the shore, watching them more intently than a lifeguard at the baby pool.
“Come on, Ruth,” Bethanne said. “You wanted adventure. Well, this is it!”
Her mother-in-law paced the shoreline. “I’ve never done any thing like this in my life.”
“Don’t be shy,” Annie said. “We could be here for hours. We might as well enjoy ourselves.”
Ruth cast them an anxious look. “You won’t tell anyone, will you?”
“Cross my heart,” Annie said, standing up to make the motions.
“Come on,” Bethanne encouraged her again, waving her in. “The water’s fabulous.”
Ruth took off her clothes and folded them in a neat pile. Then she walked straight into the water. Unlike Annie and Bethanne, who took time to adjust to the cold, Ruth plunged ahead. Maybe she feared one of them would comment on her thighs, Bethanne thought with amusement.
The three frolicked and played like schoolchildren splashing one another and diving under the water. Bethanne couldn’t remember the last time she’d swum in a lake. She was enjoying herself so much, she didn’t immediately hear the noise that attracted Ruth and Annie’s attention.
Both of them got to their feet and stood there, unmoving.
Bethanne turned around and was instantly overwhelmed by the sound of motorcycles moving toward them.
“Mom,” Annie said, grabbing Bethanne’s arm. “I remember where I heard about this lake,” she cried. “It was from the bikers at the restaurant.”
Nine
The motorcycles roared right to the edge of the lake, and lined up side by side.
Shivering in the water Bethanne huddled close to Ruth and Annie. No one seemed to know exactly what to do or how to react. The water suddenly went from comfortable to below freezing. All three of them crossed their arms, although Bethanne realized their efforts to hide themselves were futile.
“Didn’t Robin say something like this would happen?” Ruth wailed. “We’re goners for sure.”
“Over my dead body,” Bethanne said from between clenched teeth.
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Ruth muttered. “How will I ever explain this to Grant? This is all my fault.”
“It’s no one’s fault,” Bethanne said. She wasn’t about to let these men intimidate her or her family. Squaring her shoulders, she began marching toward the shore, her legs making rippling, splashing movements in the water.
Annie tried to grab her arm. “Mom, what are you doing?”
“I’m going to ask them for help,” she said. If she treated them with respect, then they’d do the same. She hoped.
“Mom!” came Annie’s plaintive cry as Bethanne pulled her arm free.
With her back straight, Bethanne ignored Annie and Ruth’s pleas and the teasing catcalls from the bikers. She was all too aware that her wet underwear concealed nothing. Scooping up her capris, she tried to pull them on, slipping one leg in. Because she was wet, the fabric stuck and she lost her balance. She would’ve tumbled to the ground if not for one of the bikers who reached out and caught her.
“Thanks,” she said breathlessly.
The biker removed his helmet.
Bethanne blinked twice. It was the same man she’d served in the café less than twenty-four hours earlier. The one who’d stayed in her mind, the biker named Max. Their eyes met again, his dark gaze unreadable.
Rooster removed his helmet next; so did the other two bikers, Willie and Skunk, if she remembered correctly.
By then Bethanne was fully dressed, although her clothing clung to her, soaked as it was from her underwear.
Annie stepped out of the water and quickly dressed, too. That left Ruth, who stubbornly remained in the water. She squatted down so only her head was above the waterline and refused to budge.
“Grandma, it’s all right,” Annie told her. “You can come out. We know these guys.”
“I’ll stay where I am until those…those men turn around and stop gawking at me.”
Rooster threw back his head and howled. “I don’t think you’ve got anything I haven’t seen before, Grandma.”
“Turn around,” Ruth barked. “All of you. I don’t need any Peeping Toms staring at me.”
To Bethanne’s amazement, all four bikers did as Ruth demanded.
“We’d appreciate your help. Our car won’t start,” Bethanne said, as much to distract the four men as to secure their assistance.
“We didn’t flood the engine, either,” Annie added.
“I had a problem starting it earlier.” Bethanne led them to the rental vehicle. “This is a relatively new car, so I’m surprised we’re having trouble,” she said.
“I don’t know that much about cars,” the guy she remembered as Willie said with a shrug. “I can fix a motorcycle with a bobby pin but cars baffle me.”
“Same here,” Skunk chimed in.
Rooster and Max exchanged glances. “I’ll take a look at it for you,” Rooster offered.
Bethanne didn’t immediately find the hood release. “Like I said, this is a rental car…or I’d be more familiar with it.” As soon as she managed to release the hood, both Rooster and Max bent over the engine.
It didn’t take long to detect the problem, which according to them was something to do with the carburetor. “You’re gonna need a tow truck,” Rooster said. “With a bike any of us could lend a hand, but these engines aren’t what they used to be.”
“We don’t have cell coverage out here,” Annie told him. “We’d have phoned for help earlier if it was that easy.”
“Do any of you ride?” Willie asked.
“No…afraid not,” Bethanne said, answering for all three.
“Then one of us will need to take you into Wells.”
“Hold on just a minute here,” Ruth said, wagging her index finger at them. She’d dressed, putting her blouse on inside out, although Bethanne wasn’t about to tell her that.
“Before we do any such thing, the three of us need to talk.” Ruth steered Bethanne and Annie away from the bikers. They stood several feet away, forming a tight circle. Ruth glanced over her shoulder and lowered her voice. “I don’t like the idea of one of us leaving with a biker.”
“But, Grandma, what else are we going to do?” Annie asked.
“Do you honestly think we can trust these men?” Ruth pinched her mouth into a thin line and frowned. “They’re…riffraff.”
In normal circumstances Bethanne wouldn’t have considered riding with any of them, but at the moment their options were few. “Do we have a choice?” she asked.
“We could always stay right here and stick to our original plan,” Annie suggested. “Only…”
“Only what?” Ruth whispered.
“Well, I heard them talking at the café yesterday…and I’m afraid this might be a biker hangout. At least we’ve met these guys before, and even though they might look a bit intimidating, they seem decent enough.”
Ruth shook her head. “I still don’t like it.”
“I’ll go,” Bethanne said.
“No, you won’t,” Ruth insisted. “If anyone goes, it’ll be me.”
“You’ll have to ride on the back of a motorcycle,” Bethanne reminded her.
Ruth paled. “I…I can do it.”
“Mom, it makes far more sense for me to go,” Annie said, as if it meant nothing.
“No.” Bethanne refused to even discuss it. She wasn’t about to put her daughter in any additional danger.
Cutting off further argument, Bethanne broke away from the others and approached the bikers. They stood with their arms crossed, waiting. “Okay,” she said, walking toward them, hands held out. “If one of you would take me into Wells, we’d deeply appreciate it.”
“That’s real big of you.” Willie’s voice was sharp with sarcasm.
“I’ll take her.” This came from Max.
His offer appeared to surprise Rooster, who shrugged and stepped back. “Your call.”
Max started toward his Harley and Bethanne followed. “You ever ridden in the—” he hesitated “—buddy seat?”
Willie and the other two bikers broke into hoots of laughter.
Bethanne turned back, not understanding what they considered so humorous.
Max silenced them with a single look. He was an intense man who rarely spoke, she’d noticed, and never seemed to smile. He wasn’t especially big. About six feet, with broad shoulders. He seemed to be her age, possibly older.
Rooster handed Bethanne his helmet.
“Mom, are you sure about this?” Annie asked anxiously.
Bethanne nodded, although she wasn’t sure of anything. She set the helmet on her head and draped her purse crossways over one shoulder. Max climbed onto the bike. Apparently, it was up to her to find her own way onto the Harley. She managed, but it wasn’t pretty.
“Oh, Bethanne,” Ruth cried, covering her mouth with her hand. “Be careful.”
“I will,” she promised. She didn’t like this any better than Annie and Ruth did, but someone had to ride into town and she was the logical choice.
The only instruction Max gave her was to hold on. It wasn’t like there was an extra pair of handlebars for her to grab. Her one option was Max and, not knowing what else to do, she slipped her arms around his middle—and clung for dear life.
The first turn nearly unseated her. She cried out in alarm, but if Max heard, he gave no indication. Even with the helmet, the noise was deafening; the roar sounded as if she were next to a jet engine. It seemed to take forever to reach the town of Wells. By then she was so tense and stiff she found it difficult to breathe. Thankfully, Max knew where he was going. He pulled into a garage and turned off the engine, then braced his feet on the pavement and set the kickstand in place.
Bethanne didn’t dare move. She pried her fingers loose, one by one. It occurred to her that her stranglehold might have been uncomfortable for him.