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Matt chuckled. “Well at least I know my girlfriend isn’t attracted to your heart and soul.”

“Yeah, so she ogles over Ty’s body instead. Nice.”

With a laugh Stacie said,
“Well, Matt always wanted me to stop staring at
Chris’s
body… So now he’s got his wish.”

A
s everyone laughed, I leaned closer
to Jayden and asked, “Should I put my shirt back on?”

She gasped. “Heck no! You’re
my
eye candy. If I have to share the view then I guess that’s what I’ll have to do.”

“Jay, you wanna go out first since you didn’t go yesterday?” Chris asked her
.

She shook her head. “Nah, I’ll wait.”

Matt unloaded a wakeboard and got into the water while Shawn hooked up a rope and threw him the handle.
The next coup
le of hours consisted of
the guys wakeboarding (minus me and Josh) and Stacie going out on a tube.
Silvia
went with
Josh
on the tube, but she would only do it if Jayden drove the boat. She didn’t trust any of the guys, especially Shawn, which seemed to be a common theme among them. Cali was the same way, but she decided she wasn’t going to go in the water at all.

After a while, Jayden pulled me up and told me I was going tubing with her. She also tossed a second tube in for Matt and
Shawn
. She stripped off her clothes to reveal a bright blue two-piece bathing suit, but the upper half was one that was more like a tank top. She had the best body out there and covered it the most.

“Where’s
your
bikini?” I teased her when we were lying across the tube.

She laughed. “You think I want to lose my top out here?”

“Through your life jacket?”

She laughed again. “You’d better hold on
tight
, sport
. This is the tough group, and
Chris has no mercy
on us
.”
She looked across at Matt and he had the biggest smirk I ever saw.

“You’re going down,” he
told her
.

With that
,
the boat took off
.

After about ten seconds I realized that my life was in danger. When both tubes were whipped around the first turn and Matt and Shawn were close enough to us, Matt stuck his foot out trying to flip us over. Jayden fought him off but we were separated again, being thrown into the wake like we
were white-water rafting
—
triple
speed
. It was probably the wildest ride I had ever been on, and if
I
was having a hard time hanging on, I didn’t know how
Jayden
was hanging on.
I concluded that she was probably just tougher than me.

After several minutes of battling back and forth each time the tubes came close enough, Shawn and Matt’s tube rose up on a wake right next to us. Jayden took advantage of the opportunity and flipped them over with her foot.

It was a pretty brutal crash.

I could hear everyone on the boat cheering and our tube began slowing down
to circle back to them
. I looked from the guys in the water to Jayden’s smiling face and it was one of the funniest things I ever saw. She began laughing when she hea
rd groaning in the water
. She sat up on her knees and asked if they were okay.

“Nice timi
ng,” Matt scoffed with a smile, as he
pulled
himself
onto their tube when it got close enough. “I think that one beats the last time you and I crashed because of Chris.”

“Seriously?
Ouch!
I’m sorry!” she laughed. “You were halfway in the air—I couldn’t resist!”

“Yeah, I’m sure you’re really sorry,” Shawn
playfully accused
.
“At least I don’t have a concussion this time.
I pretty much lost my shorts though,
”
he added, seeming to be pulling them up in the water as he grabbed the inner tube.

Jayden scowled and said, “Just get ‘em up before you—”

He was mostly covered up when he pulled himself onto the tube, except
six inches of his crack
.

“Oh, jeez,” Jayden scoffed, rolling her eyes.

Shawn laughed and tugged his shorts up all the way and retied them.

We went again for a few more minutes, but apparently the second time around warranted just a ride and no battle between the
tubes. It was still a wild ride
though, and I thin
k we even lifted off the water
a few times. We bumped tubes
, but no one tried flipping anyone over.

When Jayden gave the signal to call it quits,
Josh pulled us in and he and Chris each took a tube to themselves. The battle between the
two of them looked pretty harsh, so
I was sure ours had looked just as bad.

I couldn’t believe Jayden did this stuff all the time.

Chris finally sent Josh into the water and they came in after that. Shawn wanted to battle Jayden one more time but she told him she was through for the day.

“You’re chicken,” he smiled at her.

“Yep, you know me.”

“You wanna board?” Chris asked her.

She shook her head and said, “Nah, that’s okay.”

“You sure?” he pressed. He seemed a little surprised.

“Maybe tomorrow
.”

Everyone was done with the water activities, so Chris drove the boat to the dock and unloaded us. Jayden took my hand and we walked back to the campsite. It was almost five o’clock and it was our night to do dinner, so she began unloading what she needed from the cooler.
When the
meat
was grilling in the pan
, I kept an eye on
it
while she took a shower and changed her clothes.
When she returned, she cut up bell peppers and an onion and toss
ed
them in
with
the
meat
.
I just enjoyed staring at he
r, so I really wasn’t much help, and then
I curiously watched he
r prepare a peach cobbler in a cast iron cooker
.

“Is that a cherished camping recipe?” I asked.

With a smile she replied, “Nah
. I do this on the back porch sometimes. It’s pretty easy. It’s just cake mix and canned peaches.”

“Do you guys always bring a grill with you?”

“Yeah, usually. It’s the easiest way to make the best meals. I’m not really into ‘roughing it’ too much
when it comes to food
,” she smiled.

“Yeah, I don’t think I’ve ever had fajitas while I was camping.”

She laughed and said, “I dare to be different.”

“I’m sure you do,” I replied, moving to where she was standing. I took her into my arms and kissed her for quite a while. Everyone else was busy doing various things within the area
,
so
it was nice to have her to myself for a bit.
“Are you feeling okay?” I eventually asked her. “Chris seemed pretty shocked that you didn’t want to go wakeboarding. Is that something you usually do?”

“Yeah
it is, but I am
really
tired,” she laughed. “I wasn’t
sure if I was
feeling up to it. I might actually sleep more than just a few hours tonight.”

And she did. She was out five minutes after her head hit the pillow that night.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Sunday finished up our camping weekend. Everyone did more of the same, and by
four
o’clock we were all packed up and
headed
for home. I helped Jayden unload all of her
gear
we had come home with—tents and such that Matt had taken up for us on Friday—a
nd Matt arrived around the same time to unload the bikes. Joe pulled them back into the garage
while he
asked Jayden about her weekend.
He particularly asked about the motor
cycle riding
, and
Matt couldn’t help but share all of Jayde
n’
s little antics on the trails—e
specially the new one from that morning. Jayden was determined to try that jump when Chris came with us. I was very worried when Chris
also
tried convincing her not to do it, but she did i
t anyway
.

Joe looked at me with a stern eye. “And you let her do it?”

I thought he was pretty mad at me, but Jayden and Matt just started laughing.

Finally Joe smiled and said, “I’m kidding. It’s not like any of us have been able to stop her.” He cast a playful scowl at his daughter and entered the house from the garage.

I hadn’t seen much of Joe lately, and I
still
felt slightly guilty for Jayden being gone so much, but he had actually become pretty cordial to me within the past few weeks.
I didn’t exactly fee
l that he approved of the idea of marriage
, but it was still kind of soon and I could understand his reservation.

I spent the rest of the evening at their house. I think Joe was glad to have
his daughter
around as we talked about other parts of our camping trip; he seemed to enjoy hearing about it. Jayden boasted about sending Matt and Shawn into the water and her dad gave her a high five. It seemed to be a long-standing competition.

“Who do you battle next?” her dad asked.

She thought for a second before replying, “I think Chris.”

“Ooh
, that will be interesting,” Joe said. “What about doubles?”

“Uh, I think it’s me and Josh versus Shawn and Chris.”

He nodded his head and then looked at me. “What do you think of their little tubing competitions?”

“I think they’re all crazy,
”
I admitted. “Especially this one here,” I added, nudging Jayden.

Joe chuckled. “Yeah, I’ll agree with you on that one.”

“Hey!” she protested, pointing a finger at
her dad
. “
This
guy’s the crazy one,” she told me. “He’s the one that taught me all my madness.”

Joe smiled. “Yes, but you seem to t
est limits. You’d think I’d be used to having a daredevil for a daughter.
I think Max Calloway and myself need to start a support group for single dads that have crazy daughters. You and Camryn are gonna do us in.
”

Jayden ended up making us dinner, and while she was in the kitchen, Joe and I talked about something other than just sports for once. We talked about Jayden. He told me what she was like as a kid and all the activities she’d been in. He particularly discussed her musical abilities, and how gifted she was. I was most surprised
when
he talked about the
woman
that walked out on them, and how he felt it had affected his daughter. He still seemed a little bitter
, even though he
admitted it was
a blessing in his life since he got Jayden from the whole mess
.

“Good people aren’t exempt from tribulation, I guess,” I offered. “I think
Jayden’s
strong enough to take
on
anything.”

He slowly nodded
, seeming to contemplate. “What about you?” he asked.
“What has your life been like?”

I was caught a little off guard
, so it took me a few seconds to respond. “Well, uh, probably not the best,” I admitted. “But since Jayden, things have improved immensely,” I added with a smile.

“It’s not something you want to talk about,” he stated.

“What’s th
at?”

“Your life before Jayden.”

Right. Why would I? I could hardly deal with what I
had come
from
myself. I hadn’t answered yet, hoping he’d re
alize how uncomfortable I was, b
ut he still seemed to be waiting.

With a sigh I asked, “Are you
talking about my alcoholic, abusive father?
”

He raised his e
yes and seemed very surprised.
I had assumed he was
asking because he already knew, and b
ecause of my background, I was sure he didn’t think much of me.

He paused for a long time
, and f
inally he said, “I know that your father
is
an alcoholic;
I know of his
different troubles with the law.
But domestic violence was something I did not know. There were no reports,
”
he added.