Things were a little awkward at first. Maggie was wearing cut-off jeans and a T-shirt over her bikini top. Nina was wearing a pair of cut-off jeans too. They were pulled over her one-piece bathing suit. The two girls sized each other up for a few moments, exchanging only polite pleasantries with each other, both of them wondering what I saw in the other.
Mike was also surprised, although pleasantly so, to find Maggie there. I'd decided that the best course was not to tell him beforehand. If there was chemistry to be found between the two of them, then so be it. I did take one step in order to help the chemistry along.
"What's she doin' here?" Mike asked me when we were out of earshot.
"She's an old friend of mine." I told him.
"She's fuckin' hot." He proclaimed. "I used to see her at school."
I nodded. "Don't get your hopes up." I told him. "She's got a boyfriend. She's just along for the ride."
"She does?" He asked, disappointed.
"Sorry dude." I told him. "She's off the market."
"That's the shit." He pouted. "Oh well, she's nice to look at anyway."
"You got that right." I nodded.
By telling Mike that he didn't have a chance with her I figured that I was actually giving him his best chance. If he knew that she was available he would have been hitting on her like mad and I knew his lines and techniques would have been immature enough to drive Maggie away. But if he thought she was already spoken for he would tend to be much more like himself. That was what I wanted.
Mike and I, shirtless for the occasion and wearing shorts, finally picked up the tongue of the trailer and placed it on the hitch on my Dad's car. I was gratified to see that Maggie was taking in the bulging leg muscles of Mike as we did this. I suppressed a grin.
We connected the wires for the trailer lights and, with a last farewell to my parents, pulled out into the street and headed for the freeway. We got on I-90 heading east for Idaho, Nina and I in the front, Mike and Maggie in the back. My plan was working so far at that point. The two of them were talking easily in the back, discussing the merits of Spokane's community college. In the front, Nina rested her hand on my bare thigh and occasionally gave me a little squeeze.
Our first stop was a grocery store just outside of Coeur d Alene. The drinking age in Idaho was nineteen years old at that time. In a few years it would be raised to twenty-one thanks to the efforts of the group that my Mom and Dad were supposed to be part of.
"Okay Maggie." I said, handing her the cash that we'd pooled. "Go do your stuff."
She smiled sweetly and stepped out of the car. "You wanna come?" She asked Mike. "I'll need help carrying everything."
"Sure." He barked, stepping out with her.
While they were inside Nina and I went back to the boat and opened up the ice chest. We took out all of the soda my Mom had placed in there and tossed it into the trunk of the car. When Maggie and Mike returned they had three twelve packs of Olympia and two bags of ice. This was placed in the ice chest and we headed North.
Lake Pend Oreille, our destination, is a huge lake, the third largest West of the Mississippi. We paid our money and pulled into a launching facility at the south end of it. The facility was crowded with other boaters out to take in a day on the lake and we had to wait in line for about twenty minutes. The air was festive as we watched people scurry here and there, watched the sun beat on the blue surface of the water, and listened to the gunning of boat engines. Finally it was our turn. It had been a while since I'd done such a thing but I managed to back the boat into the lake without breaking or hitting anything. We detached it from it's trailer for the first time in years and I parked the car while Mike held the boat to the dock with a rope.
We climbed into the boat, Nina sitting next to me in the front while Mike and Maggie sat directly behind us. The engine fired up at once and I took a moment to praise Mike's mechanical skills.
"You fixed the boat?" Maggie asked Mike, her eyes shining at him. It seemed she was warming up to the possibilities he represented.
He nodded suavely. "Yeah." He confirmed. "I know a little about engines and stuff."
"Don't be modest." I said as I backed the boat away from the dock. I turned to Maggie. "We wouldn't be out here today if it wasn't for him. He's a goddam mechanical genius."
Mike blushed at the praise and Maggie smiled. "You know?" She said. "My car's been making a funny sound lately. Maybe you could take a look at it sometime."
"Maybe I could." He nodded. "What's the sound?"
While Maggie described the ticking noise her car was making I throttled up a little and began to ease the boat out towards the buoy. Nina dropped her hand to my knee again and smiled at me. I was able to read her thoughts. She was thinking that bringing Maggie along was a good idea after all.
Conversation became impossible once I passed the buoy and throttled up the engine to full. It screamed with horsepower, driving the boat along at 45 MPH, the bow bouncing over the chop on the surface of the water, tendrils of spray occasionally wetting us. It was thrilling to be on the lake again, to be at the controls of a boat after all that time. I felt the thrum of the engine beating through my chest, felt the bow bouncing up and down in the waves, felt the sun beating down on my shirtless body, felt the hand of my beloved on my thigh.
I headed in a NorthWest direction, hoping to find a reasonably deserted portion of the lake so we could do some skiing and maybe find a nice island to hang out on. I looked at Mike at one point and mimed the act of drinking with my hands. He got the idea and fished in the ice chest, pulling out a frosty can of beer for me. While I opened it he pulled out three more and distributed them. Nina, who had recently sworn off alcohol opened hers and took a huge drink.
Finally finding an empty spot I throttled down the motor and let the boat drift.
"Who wants to ski?" I asked.
Nina and Mike had never done it before so Maggie volunteered to be first. She stripped off her shirt and tossed it onto her seat. Her bikini top was red and was very brief, allowing her large breasts to bulge out the side. I tore my eyes away from the appetizing sight of this and looked at Mike instead. His eyeballs were nearly bugging out.
She put on the life vest and then jumped into the water.
"How is it?" Mike asked her.
"A little chilly." She admitted, suppressing a shiver. "It's making my nipples hard."
I looked over at Nina to see if this statement would offend her but she only giggled and took another drink from her beer. Mike, on the other hand, was staring agape. This made both of us laugh even more.
Maggie smiled up him. "The water might make Nina's and my nipples hard," She said, "But wait till you see what it does to you and Bill. Does the word "shrinkage" mean anything to you?"
We all laughed at this and Mike, trying to compose himself, finally picked up the water skis and put them in the water for her.
"Thanks." She said, gazing at him. While he blushed she began the process of putting them on.
She fumbled around in the water for a few moments and finally mangaged to get the skis on her feet. Mike tossed the rope to her next and I instructed him to face backward and watch her carefully.
"No problem." He assured me, watching her legs bobbing up and down.
"And tell me if she falls." I added.
"Oh yeah." He nodded.
I throttled up a little until the rope was tight and pulling Maggie forward.
She got into position and then gave me the thumbs-up. I throttled up more and she was pulled neatly out of the water where she began sliding across it's surface, a huge grin on her face.
Maggie turned out to be quite an accomplished skier. I turned left and right and she hung in there, turning gracefully behind me, maneuvering herself so that she went back and forth across the wake. Finally I turned a little too sharp and she hit the wake at the wrong angle. She went down in a tumble of arms and legs, her skis flying free.