Making Waves Read Online Free PDF Page B

Lloyd, who was skinny as a stick. Mel and Max, twin brothers, were hard to tell apart except for Max being a good five inches taller than his brother. Trip swung around the mast with ease and landed on the deck like a cat.
    Even if Trip hadn’t told her, she’d have known the skipper was Trip’s father. Tall and muscular, the two men appeared to be cut from the same cloth. She smiled. Cut from the same sail. I have to start thinking nautically . Both father and son sported dimples, but the father used his infrequently. He seemed to smile only when he poked fun at someone. His current target appeared to be Mel, the shortest of the crew, who struggled with securing a sail they called the “spinnaker.”
    A middle-aged passenger removed his bowler and rubbed his balding head. “Captain Andrews, are you sure it won’t bring bad luck to have this young lady aboard? I thought a woman on board a ship will make the sea angry.”
    “Ah, but a naked woman on board will calm the sea.” Max elbowed his brother in the side.
    Marguerite’s cheeks warmed.
    Captain Andrews silenced Max with a stern look. “We’ll take our chances since this is a lake and not the sea.” He made his way around the ship, inspecting the crew’s preparations and barking orders at a few of them to secure more ropes. Finally he told his son to “set her free.”
    For a moment Marguerite feared he’d changed his mind and meant to set her ashore. Instead, Trip vaulted over the side and unwound the thick rope holding the cruiser’s bow. After the current carried the bow clear of the dock, he released the next set of ropes and then jumped aboard the back.
    Pulse pounding, Marguerite held on to the edge of the bench she’d been assigned to. Questions filled her mind. What were the different sails for? Why did the ship lean so far to the side when the sail filled with air? But she swallowed the questions. Since they were still so close to the shore, it would be too easy for them to take the “unlucky” lady back.
    “Your first time on the water?” the balding passenger beside her asked.
    “Yes, is it obvious?”
    “Well, I doubt most young women in Iowa have been aboard sailboats. I don’t know if I’d want my daughter risking the rigors of sailing.”
    “Rigors?”
    “There’s the wind and the sun, and of course the spray. You do realize you’ll probably get damp.”
    She smiled and glanced at Trip. “It wouldn’t be the first time. Are you a sailor?”
    “No, but my son is taking sailing lessons from the gentleman over there, and he thinks we should have our own vessel built, so I’m here to discover for myself what my son calls the ‘thrill of the sea.’”
    The mainsail filled and the Argo suddenly picked up speed. With one hand holding her hat in place, Marguerite turned her face to the wind and watched Lloyd attach a second smaller sail up front.
    “Thrill” hardly described her wildly beating heart and volcanic excitement as the ship began to cruise along. Only when she’d raced her horse when no one was looking had this kind of exhilaration surged through her. She closed her eyes and imagined floating on the breeze.
    The man harrumphed, wiping the thin mist from his face with a linen handkerchief. “I don’t see what my boy is talking about. More chill than thrill.”
    Didn’t he feel the freedom the wind carried? Out here, the only rules were dictated by the skipper and the water. Maybe four wood-paneled walls of an office suited this man, but it wouldn’t her. She could never get enough of this.
    And in that moment, she made a decision.
    She would find a way to learn to sail.

5
    Flopping across the bed in her tent, Marguerite closed her eyes, trying to recall the motion of the water rolling beneath her. “Oh, Lilly, it was the most wonderful experience I’ve ever had.”
    “From that grin on your face, I thought as much.” Perched in the rocking chair beside the bed, Lilly clicked her tongue. “Well, at least you