A horn honked and she raised onto her tiptoes to peek out the window. Tommy arrived in his old, black F-150 pickup that pulled a fourteen-foot Lund with an outboard motor. “If my brother could see me now,” she thought, “he’d make me pay for some carbon offsets for riding in such a gas guzzler or forever be labeled a hypocrite.”
Tommy popped out of his side and came around to open her door. She didn’t recall any guy ever doing that for her. Though, to be fair, most of the guys she dated didn’t drive. They were city kids who charged rides to their parents’ Uber accounts.
Her stomach did a little flip, a feeling she’d not had since her breakup.
“Hello!” she called, waving to Tommy. She climbed into the pickup, settled Pippi on her lap, and buckled her seatbelt. Tommy made sure she was fully in her seat before he gently closed her door.
“You look great!” Tommy said through the open window, and for a moment, Harper believed him.
ONCE THEY WEREon the water and Tommy had found a spot he liked to drop anchor, he grabbed the tackle box and handed Harper a fishing pole.
“So, how do I do this?”
“Well, first you need some bait.”
“Please don’t tell me you actually use...”
“Some of these.” He pulled out a small bowl and took the lid off.
“Tommy! That’s so gross!” she said as she spied night crawlers writhing around in some muck.
“Might be gross to you, but it’s lunch for them.” He pointed to the fish below the surface of the pond.
She tried not to gag.
“I’ll do it for you, don’t worry.” He took her line and starting baiting the hook.
She turned her head around and tried not to look.
After the worm was on the hook, Tommy wiped his hands with a cloth and then came behind her on the boat.
“Now let’s get these little suckers in the water,” he said, putting his hands over hers and showing her how to cast a line. She was glad when the squiggling night crawler was out of her sight.
He repeated the routine for himself, and they both sat down and looked around the lake. The water was clear that day, the sun a bright blue with some puffy white clouds for decoration, and the treelined shore hugged the narrow sandy beaches.
“This is like being in a postcard,” Harper said, grateful for the breeze that cooled her skin.
“One of my favorite spots,” Tommy said. He reached into the cooler and brought out some flavored seltzers.
“A cocktail, madame?” he asked, faking a British accent.
“Don’t mind if I do.” She tried to mirror his attempt. “Have you thought of everything, Mr. Darcy?” She surprised herself with a flirtatious tone.
“Hope so, Miss Bennet. Because it’s a long way back to the truck,” he said.
That he was well-versed in Jane Austen made her smile. She thought of Kai and how he only looked at hot chicks on Snapchat or surfers catching double overheads.
They sat for a while in comfortable silence until Harper wondered what was next. Pippi was fast asleep on her back, all four paws in the air, not a care in the world.
“So, now what do we do?” she asked Tommy.
“Now we wait.”
“For how long?”
“Until they bite.”
“How long until they bite?”