Jake didn't say good bye to Bethany. He didn't say anything for that matter. He opened the sliding glass doors and ushered me through, following closely behind me. Jake took my hand and led me down the backyard to the dock, and when we got there, he sat me down on a plastic bench that doubled as a storage trunk for all of Georgia's pink fishing gear. I picked up a little pink visor with the words DADDYS LITTLE FISHING GIRL monogramed across the front that had fallen behind the bench. I ran my fingers over the raised lettering and sighed to myself.
We'd come so far in such a short period of time. Georgia and Jake both acted like they'd always been part of each other’s lives. Sure, I may have birthed her and fed her and clothed her on my own for years, but then Jake showed up and BOOM.
Daddy's little girl to her very core.
I wouldn't have it any other way.
In my life, I'd never experienced the type of love that exists between a father and daughter. The closest thing I ever had to a father was Jake's dad Frank, and although he would always hold a special place in my heart for all he did for me and Georgia, he was rarely sober enough to show off the fatherly side of himself.
I knew nothing of the love between a parent and child until Georgia came along, and she became my entire world.
Watching Jake with Georgia was always a new experience for me. They wore their love for each other on their sleeves. There was no doubt that when anyone looked at the two of them together that they would see that they were enamored with one another.
I know Jake loved me, and that love was limitless. But I knew that the love he felt for Georgia was on a whole other level.
Jake's fishing boat, a twenty foot outboard that used to belong to his brother, sat up on a lift he'd built to keep barnacles from growing on the hull and the saltwater from eating at the paint, he'd just put a new motor on it.
Jake was taking Georgia out early the next morning for their inaugural fishing trip on the newly fixed boat. Meanwhile I would head out while it was still dark to photograph the sun rising over the beach for my newest set of post cards.
It's funny actually because Georgia had to literally be dragged out of bed on most mornings when the sun was already high in the sky, but when Jake was taking her fishing, her eyes sprang open before the sun had even started to peek over the horizon and was usually the one bouncing on our bed to wake Jake up first.
Jake picked up some sort of netting that was spread out on the grass above the seawall. He wrapped it around his arm a few times and set it in a bucket.
"What's that?" I asked him as he set the bucket down next to the storage bench.
"I'm teaching Gee how to throw the cast net tomorrow. Since she likes fishing so much, it's 'bout time she learned how to catch her own bait," he said, his southern accent had grown thicker since he'd come home to Coral Pines. I sometimes forgot that with all of Jake's inner turmoil, and all the things he was capable of doing, that some part of him was just a southern boy who liked to fish and tinker with trucks.
"That net thing is bigger than she is. How much does it weigh?" I asked, noticing that Jake’s very toned bicep muscles strained when he'd lifted the bucket.
"Oh, it's pretty heavy, but that one isn't hers," He said. "This one is." Jake reached behind the bench I was sitting on and grabbed a smaller bucket. He opened it and tilted it toward me so I could see the noticeable smaller net inside.
Of course, it was pink.
My heart broke in the best of ways.
"Duke over at the bait shop is starting to question my sexuality with all this pink fishing shit," Jake said with a smile. "Gonna have to start going to the big chain stores in Logan Beach to dodge the rumor mill."
"Fuck the rumor mill," I said. And I meant it. Anyone who came between Jake and Georgia doing something they loved together would have to answer to me.
"Yeah, fuck them, baby," Jake said, adding the smaller bucket to the boat. He lifted the panel cover for the electric to the lift and hit the switch to lower the boat into the water. It creaked and groaned, the sound of metal on metal made the hairs on my arm stand on end as the heavy wires that held up the boat slowly uncoiled from the spinning wheel at the top of the lift.
"What exactly are we doing?" I asked.
Jake ignored me and pointed to the back of the boat once it was fully floating on top of the water. "Do you think she'll like it?"
"Of course, you know she loves the boat. You put a lot of hard work into it and..." I stopped myself from saying anything else because I realized that it wasn't the boat he was talking about. It was what was written on the back of the boat. In bold cursive lettering to one side of the motor it simply read 'Gee'.
My throat felt like something was caught in it. "No Jake, she isn't going to like it. She is going to love it and freak out and not be able to stop talking about it for days."
Jake lit a cigarette. He looked pleased with my reaction and with himself. "That's what I was going for. You know it was between that and buying her a pony. I'm not cleaning up horse shit."