There was a large, wrap-around porch and I could imagine sitting out there with some of Max’s tea, watching a dog chase a ball or a lightening bug. I was more than a little surprised at how much I loved the place, being a city girl and all.
Max had taken me to a late dinner at a little bar and grill downtown. It was a hole-in-the-wall and I never would’ve known it even existed if he hadn’t walked me through the wooden door. He said that he and Cane always ate there—it was tradition.
We spent the night cuddling and talking and making love—just finding our mojo again. Just being away from everyone and everything was amazing; I hadn’t even realized how much I’d needed it. Max had gotten annoyed with his phone and turned it completely off, sticking it in the glove compartment of his truck. It had been going off over and over again and I knew it was really frustrating him. He wouldn’t say what it was, only that it didn’t matter and he wasn’t dealing with it.
We lay on the couch, my cheek pressed into his chest, and watched the Discovery Channel. It always made me laugh when he watched shows like that. When I first met him, I saw total man candy. I still saw man candy, felt man candy as I ran my fingers down his chest, but I also saw something else. The intelligence. The spirit that wanted to make other people better. The man that wanted to figure out how everything worked.
Max ran his fingers through the length of my hair and I closed my eyes and just enjoyed the feeling of him touching me. A part of me kept looking for something to worry about, something to push him away about . . . but there was nothing. He knew my secrets and had come back to me when I had given him the chance to walk away. For once in my life, there was nothing to be scared of. Nothing to fight against. Nothing to worry about.
The peace that settled over my soul was bliss. It was something I never thought I’d find, something I hadn’t even bothered to go looking for, really.
“Wanna go fishin’?” Max asked out of nowhere.
“Really?” I wasn’t sure I heard him right.
Me? Fishing?
“Yeah. Have you ever been?”
I snorted. “Um, no. I’m a city girl. We don’t fish.”
“Aw, hell. You have to fish, Kar. Come on.” He moved me off of him and onto my feet, standing up himself. “Meet me at the pond.”
“You weren’t kidding?”
“Sweetheart,” he said, amused, “fishin’ is no joking matter.” He headed to the garage, leaving me standing there, watching the door shut behind him.
I had no idea what I was getting myself into. The closest to fishing I’d ever gotten was the little goldfish named Pepper I’d won at a fair before my mom died. It had jumped out of the bowl onto the kitchen floor and our dog had eaten it. Talk about traumatic. Now Max wanted me to stab a little worm in the gut and throw it out in a pond of water to be eaten alive?
Maybe I’ll just watch.
I slipped on my shoes and a hoodie and stepped outside. I stood on the deck, the view of the hills beyond Cane’s property was breathtaking. The air was still, cool, and absolutely quiet. You could smell the pine and a wood stove burning somewhere. It was everything Phoenix was not and while I never imagined I’d like the country, I really liked it here in the woods.
I walked to the lake below, my sneakers pressing into the soft grass. I could hear frogs jumping into the water as I approached, crickets chirping my arrival. I gazed out across the water, reveling in the fact at being able to be present. My mind wasn’t wandering like usual, I didn’t have a sick feeling in my stomach. I felt whole. At peace. Right where I was supposed to be.
I felt it for the first time ever.
I turned at the sound of a tackle box jangling behind me. Max walked down the hill, the rip in the knee of his jeans and his tight blue shirt making me shiver.
So gorgeous.
His hat was on backwards and a pair of dirty rubber boots were on his feet.
“Ready for this?” he asked, setting everything down. He attached a green spinning piece onto the end of one line and handed it to me.
“Um, we’re using an ornament instead of a worm?”
Max tossed his head back and laughed. “It’s called a lure and yes, we are. Go ahead and cast out.”
I held the pole in my hand and just looked at him. “And I do that how?”
“For heaven’s sake,” he grumbled with a smile on his lips. He stood behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist, grabbing the pole.
“We could just go back inside,” I said, half kidding.
He ignored me. “You just draw it back like this, pull it forward and press this button,” he said, doing it for me. “That’s all there is to it. Now you wait for something to bite or you can reel it in and toss it out again. Up to you.”
He left me standing there and got his own pole ready. His muscles rippled through his shirt, his skin peeking from under the hemline as he reached and bent. I sat down in the cool grass and watched the show.
Max cast his line in the water a few yards away from mine. The moon began to peek through the clouds, the light making my man look even sexier.