Read Sweet Serenade (Riverbend Romance 3) for Free Online

shoulders and jumped down. “That better?”
    “Yes, thanks.” He sat down on a log. “Where’d you learn to paddle?”
    Memories washed over her. “My dad. He wrote adventure books in the off-season, and we canoe-tripped all summer for several years.”
    “Just you and him?” Reed’s gaze studied her.
    Carly nodded as she settled beside him. “It was after Mom died. We paddled the North Saskatchewan nearly from the headwaters to Hudson Bay. We paddled the Nahani the summer I was thirteen.”
    Reed’s eyebrows rose. “That’s some serious tripping.”
    Campfires. Mosquitoes. Cast-iron frying pans and canvas tents. Three changes of clothing to match the weather. “It was a great way to grow up.” If only Dad hadn’t succumbed to the cancer. They’d had so many more rivers they wanted to run. So many more memories to make. Dad had so many more novels he wanted to write.
    Reed must’ve read her mind. “What kind of books did he write?”
    “Stories about the outdoors and survival for boys.”
    “Sounds like the kind of thing I would’ve enjoyed as a kid. Maybe I even read some of them in between all the playing outside I did in every type of weather.”
    “He had nine books out.” Carly poked at a pinecone with her toe. “I still get a small royalty check from his publisher twice a year.”
    “That’s cool. You going to write books, too? Or maybe you already do.”
    “Me? No. I can’t sit still long enough. And besides, I don’t really know how normal kids think. My upbringing was far from average.”
    “Kids these days are glued to their computer games. If they get outside, it’s for organized sports. So few are even curious about God’s handiwork.” He swatted a mosquito. “They think nature is only about bugs and dirt. They don’t get how much more there is out here. How close to God it brings a person.”
    Carly inhaled the forest air. “I know. I feel closer to God here than in a church building. Creation shows me His love as surely as anything else.”
    “You shall go out with joy and be led forth in peace.”
    She glanced at him with a grin. “The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you.”
    His eyes focused on hers. “And all the trees of the fields shall clap their hands when you go out with joy.”
    “Isaiah fifty-five. I love singing that chorus.” She began humming the tune.
    Reed dug into his pocket and came out with a harmonica.
    Really? He carried it with him everywhere? As he played the familiar worship song, she reveled in the moment. This would be a memory right up there with the best from her canoeing trips with Dad.

    ~*~

    “Ready?” Reed stood at the canoe’s bow watching Carly. This business of letting someone else control his beloved craft was new... and more than a bit terrifying. Everything about Carly was terrifying... and exhilarating.
    She stood in a few inches of water with the canoe between her knees. “Go for it.”
    He pressed his paddle across the bow for balance as he climbed in and settled himself, knees against the braces. As soon as he held the paddle in hand, he felt the shift as Carly pushed off and climbed in. Seconds later they were in the middle of the current, shooting downstream.
    Everything looked different from the bow. Upfront and personal. He used his blade to help guide the canoe around the rocks and through the deepest water, but most of it was up to Carly. He could only hope she hadn’t puffed her experience.
    He began to relax a little as they blasted through the chute. She might not be as familiar with this river as he was, but she knew what she was doing. As long as she was strong enough to pull the canoe out of the current and into the eddy at the bottom.
    Carly was plenty strong. The memory of her jumping into his arms would never leave him. Was there a chance this could become something more than a mere friendship? He hadn’t known he was looking for someone like her but, now that they’d met, he knew with