Read Online Wicked Eddies by Beth Groundwater - Free Book Online Page A

guide. They weren’t cheap. Here was yet another need for the money that would come from selling Uncle Bill’s place.
    But how could she begrudge giving her friends some income during the lean shoulder season between summer rafting and winter skiing? Like many in the valley, Kendra and Gonzo had seasonal winter jobs at the Monarch ski area. Kendra had worked as a children’s ski instructor last winter, and Gonzo, like Mandy, was a ski patroller. Though this year, with the need to help Rob manage RM Outdoor Adventures, Mandy wasn’t sure she’d be able to do both. She’d barely been able to keep up her river rangering this summer.
    Gonzo yanked on his line and ducked as the two hooked flies on the end sailed out of the bush and past his head. “Controlling this line is a lot harder than it looks. It’s damned frustrating!”
    â€œHey, try tying on a fly with these triple-looped knots using skinny fishing line,” Kendra retorted. Her tongue stuck out while she stared intently at the line in her fingers.
    â€œYou using dry-nymph combos?” Steve asked Rob.
    â€œYep. Got plain old San Juan worms hanging under green caddis flies.” Rob pointed downstream a few yards. “As you can see, the caddis are hatching.”
    Mandy spotted the cloud of buzzing flies rising out of the water. Two black swifts circled overhead, a sure indicator of a hatch if you weren’t close enough to see it yourself.
    With an “Aaargh!” Kendra held out her line for Rob to inspect.
    Rob rolled his eyes at Steve and bent over the tangle she’d managed to create. “We’ll have to cut it off and start over.”
    â€œAnd this is supposed to be a relaxing sport?” Kendra replied.
    Gonzo snorted in agreement.
    Steve laughed. “It takes hours on the water to get the hang of fly-fishing. Don’t beat yourself up about it. ”
    Rob turned to Steve and Mandy. “We spent the morning on the ballfield practicing casts, and I thought I’d give them some time by the river this afternoon. Being Wednesday, we only had one rafting trip scheduled to go out. Dougie and Ajax are handling it.”
    â€œI know you have a seasonal fishing license, Rob,” Steve said. “What about these two?”
    â€œI’m thinking positive and bought them both seasonal licenses, too,” Rob replied. “Want to see them?”
    â€œI trust you. Had to ask, though.” Steve donned his PFD.
    Mandy cinched her fanny pack with emergency medical supplies around her waist and picked up her PFD. “Well, I wish you all luck.” She watched Gonzo fling a lopsided cast and grinned. “Looks like you’ll need it.”
    â€œI’m not giving up on these two,” Rob replied. “If we had some trained fishing guides other than myself, we could have gotten more guiding business from this tournament. A lot of the competitors came in a week early to fish the sections of the river that weren’t blocked off for the competition.”
    With a wave and shouts of encouragement to Kendra and Gonzo, Mandy and Steve launched their raft and settled into a steady paddling rhythm. While they steered the raft in and out of the shade of cottonwood trees flanking the burbling river, Mandy’s thoughts turned to her Uncle Bill. Whenever she was on this section of the Arkansas since he’d died in June, she was drawn to the memory of scattering her uncle’s ashes at Big Bend just downriver. She felt his presence here almost more than when she visited his house, which had been her home for ten years.
    As if reading her thoughts, Steve said, “Thinking of Bill?”
    Manning the front of the raft, Mandy could feel that he had stopped paddling. She glanced back at him and nodded. “Yeah, I really miss him.”
    â€œWe all do. He was an institution in the valley.” Steve returned to his paddling, his silence respectful.
    She and Steve continued this