Chapters (31)
After lunch, we’ll have our first group demonstrations. This is mandatory for first-time boaters, and it requires one of us to do an overly dramatic flight attendant–style demonstration of life vests and how to hold a paddle properly. Neither of us has done it before, but someone needs to start reading the script to be ready to lead the demonstration. Not it.
“I’ll tell you what, I’ll flip you for it.” I pull a quarter out from my pocket and hold it between my fingers in front of me. “Since it seems like good luck runs in your family.”
She smiles.
“Heads or tails?” I ask.
OLIVIA
“Heads.” I always pick heads. Because my mom always picked tails, claiming it was creepy to bet on a dead president’s severed head. What could be lucky about that? she said. So I’ve made it my life’s mission to prove her wrong, one coin toss at a time. “Heads, you have to do it and tails, I do,” I clarify.
Aiden rests the coin on his thumb and flicks it into the air. He catches it in his hand, closes a fist around it, and looks at me with dramatically wide eyes. “Flip or open?”
“Flip.” He’s making this fun, and I’m relieved that the last few hours have been tension-free working with him.
Aiden opens his palm and flips the coin onto the back of his left hand. He leaves it covered.
“Come on. Come on,” I urge him.
He pulls his hand away, and there is a big beautiful dead-president face looking up at me.
“Yes!” I pump my fist in the air.
“Now you’re excited?” Aiden shakes his head, a huge smile on his face. “Two million dollars gets nothing, but a coin toss and…” He shakes his head and mutters, “… you’re so weird.”
And it should hurt my feelings, but it doesn’t sound like an insult the way he says it. It sounds endearing. Have I actually won over Aiden Emerson—Riverton’s grumpiest golden boy—with my weirdness?
“I’ve been told I’m delightfully weird,” I say.
“Here, it’s all yours.” He hands me the stack of paddles and I carry them down toward the boats lined up at each dock. Of course eventually I’m going to have to do that first awkward presentation while reading off the script Ellis gave us this morning, but not today. I may be wearing the world’s ugliest khaki shorts, and I may have just had a total mental breakdown in front of a really hot guy, but at least I don’t have to humiliate myself in front of tourists. It’s my lucky day.