Threading the Needle

Thank you Terry, careythomas and snow for all your help in editing and improving this chapter. I couldn't have done it without you.

Like almost all of my series, this one will only be understood if you have read the chapters before it. Thank you to my readers for going along this journey with me.

Threading the Needle

Chapter 8

After a week of rain, the Seattle weather made the type of change that Winnie was still getting used to. The grey skies were nowhere to be seen, and instead the skies were mostly blue with a few fluffy white clouds. The air was crisp and felt fresh. She looked over at Lena and smiled.

"This is going to be a good day," Winnie said. "I can feel it."

Lena grinned and nodded. She pulled her arm across her body in a stretch, and then did it with the other one. Not wearing any rain gear over her wetsuit was nice. This early in the morning, it was still cold enough to raise a few goosebumps. By the time they were actually on the river, however, it was supposed to be warm up. Even if it didn't, she liked the feeling of the air on her body.

With the events of the last few weeks, Winnie found herself with a new appreciation for Lena's body. The wetsuit she was wearing fit her like a glove, as it should. Since the customers weren't there yet, she left it a little unzipped. The effect was a bit like a bustier. The top of her one-piece bathing suit was barely visible with her breasts pushed together. They looked bigger than they actually were. Winnie's eyes kept being drawn to them. If she realized how aware Lena was of the attention, she would have been mortified.

"Hopefully if Winnie is noticing, so will Liz," Lena thought to herself. Before Liz left on the shuttle down to the takeout, she only had a few minutes to talk with her. At least there would be more time. The plan was for her to go as Liz's guest in her boat, as long as there was room. Otherwise, she would go down in the guide boat, along with Winnie and Bohdi with whom they drove. There were a few other first and second year guides in the guide boat.

With Bohdi in the car, Lena hadn't told Winnie yet about making love with Liz. Even when Winnie mentioned what happened to Rikki's friend, she only said that she had heard about it. Although most of why she hadn't mentioned it was because of Bohdi, part of her still felt the attraction to Winnie from the last weekend. Lena was realistic enough to see that being with Liz was an iffy thing and keeping her options open made sense.

Still, if she rafted with Liz today, it would soon be clear that things had changed. Like Liz, Bohdi was shuttling his car down to the takeout. For now, they had some privacy, especially since Logan was doing the same thing. Lena stood up and came over to sit on the rock next to Winnie.

With her heightened awareness of Lena's body, Winnie felt suddenly shy with her friend. She didn't say anything as Lena craned her head close to her ear. One of Lena's hands rested on the rock behind Winnie to stabilize her. That made the rest of her body press lightly against the quiet blonde.

"So, it finally happened," Lena said quietly, making sure that only Winnie could hear her.

"What?" Winnie said as she turned to look Lena in the eyes. Their faces were close enough that all it would take was one of them swaying forward an inch or two, and then they would be having that kiss they flirted with a week ago.

"Liz," Lena said. Her smile grew dreamy as she thought about how Liz made her cum.

"Really? You mean a date?" Winnie said, moving to put slightly more distance between them.

"Not just that."

"You kissed?" Winnie asked. When Lena wiggled her eyebrows, Winnie broke out giggling. "Oh my god, you did it, didn't you?" she said. "Although I'm not 100 percent clear what constitutes all the way with lesbians," she added with another giggle.

Giggling too, Lena said, "Well, she made me cum so I'm pretty sure that counts."

Although unsure why, Winnie felt her face turn red as if embarrassed. Maybe it was hearing about someone else's love life, she thought, refusing to admit that the image of Lena's face as she came kept flashing in her mind. She tried to cover it up. "Did you do...?" she asked.

The question stopped Lena's giggles. "No," she said with a little shake of the head. "We got interrupted. Rikki called about her friend and Liz left before I could return the favor," she told Winnie. "I mean I understand, but it was still disappointing, you know?"

"I can guess," Winnie said. Her mind did a complete switch, with her thoughts of Lena cumming with Liz replaced with worry about her friend. The day before at work, it surprised Winnie just how depressed Marika seemed. More than once, she wanted just to hold her until it went away. One time, Marika's face was so despondent, Winnie almost acted upon her impulse. She could tell Marika sensed it and a part of Winnie wanted to believe was disappointed when she held back.

The sound of the bus approaching brought the group to their feet. So much of a day on the river was hurry up and wait. Now that the clients were here, the fun would start soon and they were all eager.

Stepping forward, Lena looked through the windows of the bus to try to find Liz. When she found her, it was like a punch to her stomach. The bus was close to full and in the back, Liz was sitting with a woman in her lap. Despite the plan of their being together, even from there, Lena could see that they were flirting. As they came out of the bus, her heart sank a little more as she saw the woman head over to Liz's boat. A group seemed to follow her.

Liz watched them for a moment and then turned to scan the group of guides. When she spotted Lena, she came over. Her face was vaguely apologetic, but it didn't go very deep.

"Sorry, Lena. The group that I have is seven people. They are repeat customers and asked for me. Since they are all from one office, we can't break them up. I can't have 9 people on this river," Liz said. There was even less regret in her tone of voice than in her expression. "You'll need to go with the guide boat."

Trying to hide her disappointment, Lena nodded. "I get it," she said. "Another time, I guess."

"Yeah, there will be lots of chances," Liz said, as she turned around and headed back to her raft. Even as she watched, Lena noticed how Liz loosened up as she approached the group. The cockiness that was her hallmark returned with each step. She felt Winnie's hand on her shoulder.

"I'm not sure I like Liz sometimes," Winnie said softly as she squeezed her hand.

Turning to look over her shoulder at Winnie, Lena nodded. "I know the feeling," she replied. "I just wish it felt like she would rather I was with her. As it is, I could believe she picked them and not the other way around." She watched as Liz helped the flirtatious woman tightening her life jacket.

Moving closer, Winnie whispered in her ear. "I don't get it. You are way better looking that she is, and just flat out sexier." She blushed again a little as she said it, but she hated to see her friend discarded like this. Moreover, it was the truth.

Lena turned her head and gave Winnie a friendly kiss in the cheek. "Thanks Winnie. That was the right thing to say," she said. As she watched Liz again, she sighed. "It's just that the fucking grass is always fucking greener, isn't it?"

"I hope she gets crabs grass!" Winnie said.

Laughing, Lena pushed Winnie away. "Don't say that! We have another date tonight and I still want to get between her legs!"

Although once again turning a little red, Winnie laughed too and the two of them headed over to the guide raft to finish getting ready. As she looked back one last time at Liz chatting with the other women, Winnie couldn't escape a thought. "I hope she keeps that date, Lena," went through her mind, but she didn't say it aloud. That would be cruel.

When they got to the raft, Logan was there talking with all the other guides. He waved them over, giving Winnie a big smile. "I was just telling everyone that the river is really screaming today. This is going to look like a whole other river. Everything is one grade harder, so watch how the rafts in front of you run it. It won't be the same way we ran it before," Logan told them. "When we get to Boulder, Weston wants me to come back up and guide you through the Drop. So just watch the runs until I get back."

A chorus of disappointed voices rose. The second year guides were the unhappiest. After a year of guiding, they all felt like they were ready. Of course, most of that was on the Wenatchee. They had relatively little experience on rivers like the Sky. Not surprisingly, most of them thought they were better than they actually were.

Watching them, Logan shook his head. "Dudes, you have no idea," he told them. Looking over at his own raft, he started to get up from sitting on one of the tubes. "Just you wait," he said with a big grin.

Before going back to his own boat, he went over to Winnie. Giving her a little nudge with his elbow, he smiled. "I'm glad we'll have a chance to raft together for a little bit. And when you see it, you'll be relieved to have someone who knows what they're doing, rather than one of these clowns," he told her quietly.

No realizing she was doing it, Winnie gave him a bit of a glare. Although she didn't really want to guide the Drop, spending all this time with the other new guides built a bond. She had a loyalty to them that was stronger than her attraction to Logan. Cocky was the word that came to mind, and not for the first time.

"We're good guides too, you know," she said.

"I'm sure you are," Logan said in a voice that implied the opposite. "You just have no idea what the Sky is like at high water. You'll see." He headed back to his raft shaking his head.

Winnie watched him. He was good looking, and his body was worth watching, but his self-confidence wasn't as attractive. It bordered on arrogance. Still, the way his shorts hugged his ass counted as a mark in his favor. She wasn't willing to write him off yet. He would be fun in bed. She giggled to herself, feeling a bit naughty.

As she helped the rest of the guides carry their raft over to the river, Winnie thought about how her view of the world was expanding. While she wasn't close to being a virgin, every guy she slept with was her boyfriend. The idea of casual sex was new to her, but it didn't bother her the way it once did.

Her feelings about Lena, Indigo, and yes, Rikki, were a little more disturbing. Dabbling in kissing girls at bars during college was as much as she ever did with another woman up to now. Over the last few weeks, she thought about those times a lot. Now, she could admit to herself that even then, she wished it had gone further, but her curiosity frightened her. Being labeled a lesbian had consequences in a conservative place like Oklahoma. She never had the nerve to see if any of her friends that she kissed had a desire to go further.

Now with opportunities to explore presenting themselves, Winnie was reexamining her fears. The consequences of experimenting were suddenly low. The difference in attitudes between her new home and her old one was huge. There was no fear of her parents finding out and precipitating a fight. She would have ample warning if they were going to visit. Nor did she know anyone from Oklahoma in Seattle.

She wasn't even sure how they would react. It wasn't something they ever discussed. They weren't especially conservative, and while they attended church, faith wasn't a particularly strong pillar of their life. They went because that is what everyone did. Nevertheless, Winnie wasn't interested in finding out their reaction. If it ever came to that, she would prefer to wait as long as possible.

Shaking her head, Winnie tried to clear her head. "I haven't even done anything yet," she thought. In some ways, they might be more upset about Rikki being married than a woman. If she wasn't helping to carry to raft, that thought would have halted her in her tracks. Instead, the momentum of everyone else carried her along. She tried to dismiss it, but she couldn't succeed. Deep inside her, she knew that while Lena and Indigo were more likely partners, it was Rikki that drove her interest in exploring.

When everyone else started to lower the raft down, Winnie automatically did it too. Her mind was elsewhere until she heard a collective gasp from her fellow guides. It only took a moment to see what caused it.

All the past weeks, they carried the rafts down a small path, put them in the water and then lined them up along the riverbank. Today the path was almost completely underwater. The river was racing past them. The volume of water in the river was almost five times more than that first weekend. With less snowpack last year, it was the first time the second-year guides had seen the river like this. They were just as shocked.

Weston was with the first of their seven rafts with Logan behind him. Liz had the final raft with customers, just behind Indigo. There were a couple of senior guides in between them. Winnie only knew them from the Initiation Weekend. Beyond that, it was the first time there were other companies at the put-in.

While Weston's company was one of the biggest, it was still one of many in the area. That often translated to waiting for others to get on the river or run a rapid first. Generally, the different companies got along, but it required a constant effort at cooperation. There were a couple owners who didn't uphold that standard, and Winnie hoped they weren't around today.

As they got closer to the shoreline, Winnie could see that there was no possibility to wait for all the rafts to get on the river together. Once a raft was in the water it took two people to keep it from being pulled out into the current and allow the customers to get in it. As soon as the last customer was in, the raft began to be caught by the river and the guide jumped in, usually already calling the first command. The next raft was already going into the water by then.

Up until now, the day was a typical one full of waiting. That was done. Within a couple of minutes, their entire float was on the river. Where there were rocks and shallow spots to avoid in the past, those were gone. The river channel was deep and fast.

Leaning over, Lena spoke into Winnie's ear. The river was loud enough that she had to speak up a little to be heard. "Don't tell anyone, but I'm glad Jack is guiding."

"No kidding," Winnie answered back. "It doesn't even look like the same river." Thinking for a moment, she spoke again. "But don't tell Logan I said that!"

"No way, he is cocky enough as it is," Lena said. She had a smile, but she was serious. His attitude was one of the reasons she didn't care for the senior guide. That jealousy was another one didn't bother her much.

Lena admitted her mild interest in Winnie to herself, but right now Liz held her attention. Thinking about Liz made Lena look ahead to the raft in front of them. Liz made it look effortless to guide her raft down the river, despite the high water. Certainly, she was doing it better than Jack was. He wasn't bad; it was just that none of them were as good or experienced as Liz.

It wasn't just her skills that Lena admired. Like most of them, Liz was wearing her wetsuit. It was just too warm for a drysuit. Her bare arms showed off their muscles as she leaned out and pulled hard with her paddle. Her body was almost vertical over the river and as she pulled, the boat spun in a perfect setup for her next command. From under her helmet, Liz's long hair hung down and over her shoulders. It was wet from the waves that crashed over the river, but it didn't bother her. Even from twenty yards away, Lena could see the white of her teeth as she smiled in the joy of the moment.

A slight fly in Lena's ointment was the flirtatious woman seated just in front of Liz. The smile slipped from Lena's face. The woman had a huge grin on her face despite looking like she had no idea what she was doing. Her paddle was barely in the water and never in synch with the rest of the boat.

"Liz would bite our heads off if we paddled like that in guide training," Lena thought, as she watched the woman turn to look back at Liz after they went through a series of waves. Rather than criticizing her, it looked like Liz gave her encouragement to keep on doing a good job. The woman smiled even wider. Lena ground her teeth.

Out of the blue, Lena felt a paddle smack the side of her helmet. It didn't hurt but it shocked her. Looking around, she saw that Jack was the one who hit her.

"What the fuck was that for?" she asked with a glare.

"I said all back. I said it twice, and you didn't even notice," Jack yelled back at her. "I fucking need every one of you." Having made his point, he went back to looking downstream, and setting up for the next rapid.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'll do better," Lena said. Once she knew why he did it, she couldn't argue with him. Resolving to ignore Liz for the rest of the trip, Lena focused on watching Bohdi's paddle right in front of her and matching his movements. Within a few minutes, the thrill of the ride had erased any more thoughts about Liz.

A little while later, they all looked up at the sound of a shrill whistle. Liz was standing up in her raft and holding her paddle sideways above her head. She was energetically pointing with the wide paddle end to the right. Without waiting for Jack to respond, she sat down and started to set up for a run as far right as she could go.

Jack immediately copied her, moving the raft to the right and pulling away from the current that wanted to push them to the left of the river. Winnie recognized a couple of landmarks and was surprised. They usually ran this rapid to the left of a couple of boulders in the center left of the river.

Entering the rapid, their momentum accelerated, and Jack found it increasingly hard to stay to the right. "Paddle harder, everyone! All back!" he yelled at them as he angled the boat to move them to even further to the right..

"Fuck!" Winnie said, as she looked downstream and saw why Liz wanted them to run right.

The two boulders were gone. In their place was a frothing, bubbling caldron as the high water ran up and over them, only to plunge into the depression behind them. She could see a strong flow of water back upstream to form a huge hydraulic hole. If they went in there, they were unlikely to come out. Best case would be the raft flipping and all of them taking a long swim right above Boulder Drop. Worst case was some of them being caught in the circulating water and "maytaged" repeatedly, and then coming out and having the same long swim.

Jack didn't need to tell them to paddle harder again. Each of them reached down and gave it everything they could. Finally, as the river straightened out, they felt the pull to the left lessen. There was no time to rest, however, as they could see everyone pulling off to the right side of the river and dragging their rafts up on the rocky shore. With everyone still paddling hard, Jack made a perfect landing and they were soon all standing on the side of the river.

Most of the customers were up on rocks looking at the Drop. The power of the river was mesmerizing, even for novices. For the guides, it was amazing. Just like the hole above, Boulder Drop looked like a completely different rapid. Airplane turn was gone, replaced with big boat flipping holes. All the routes that they knew were missing. Instead, it looked like the boats were all running to the far right.

Logan came up to Winnie and the other guides. He laughed at the looks on their faces. "Told you," he said. "We are all running Mercy Chute. I'll eddy out down below and run back up. By the time Liz is going, I'll be at your raft. Watch Weston and I run it, then get back to the raft and be ready. The next company will probably be here by then."