“Are we going fishing?” She looked down at her outfit—a red silk blouse, a pair of light blue jeans, and the expensive ballet flats her parents had gotten her for her birthday. “I’m not really dressed for this.”
“Come on, it’ll be fun.” He took her hand and laced his fingers through hers. His blue eyes were pleading, the same color as the clear sky. “Please? You’ve got to talk to me sometime.”
Despite her anger, Laura still felt a little thrill as Brian rubbed his thumb along her palm. She felt herself softening. “Okay. But I’ve got to get to the restaurant by six.”
Brian grinned. “Deal.”
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TWENTY MINUTES LATER, they were floating in the center of the lake. They were the only boat in sight. A crow circled overhead and a lone fisherman was casting his line on the far shore.
Brian grabbed a piece of uncooked bacon and put it on the hook. “I know you’re really mad at me.”
She paused as she put her hair up in a ponytail. The wind was turning it into a tangled mess. “Of course I am,” she said bluntly. “Can you even comprehend how hard I worked to make that money?”
He threw his hook and line into the water. “I can,” he said. “And I’m sorry. I was just tryin’ to help us. I know this whole thing is my fault, and I was just tryin’ to fix it.”
“I appreciate that.” Laura pulled her notebook out of her backpack and looked for a pencil. She might as well study while they were out here. “But what happened is still real shitty, Brian. I have every right to be mad.” She found the chewed-up pencil and gripped it tightly.
“You do,” he said, grabbing a can of Coke from the cooler. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m probably more mad at myself than you are at me.”
She gave him a flat look. “I highly doubt that.”
“No, I am.” Brian rubbed his forehead and blew out a loud breath. “I’ve played football from the time I could stand up. It dictated everything: Every wake-up time, every meal, every workout . . . nearly every hour of my day revolved around football in some way. Without it, I’m . . . lost.” He groaned. “And now I feel like I’ve thrown my only chance away. This has been my dream for so long, and I blew it.”
His chin trembled slightly, and Laura felt a pinch in her stomach, her anger beginning to ebb. He hadn’t handled the last few months well—at all—but he’d been living a nightmare, too.
He shook his head and turned his attention back to the water. “Anyway, whatcha studyin’?”
“Math,” she replied.
Brian half-grinned. “Ugh, math. That was my worst subject.”
She rested her feet on the cooler across from her. “I know . . . I did your homework for you. Don’t you remember?” she joked.
“Well if you’ve already done it, why do you need to study?” he said, missing her tone.
She erased an equation from her paper and blew the red eraser specks off the page. “You were in general-level classes. This is advanced—all of my classes are, if you didn’t know—and I’m tryin’ to get an A.”
“Why are you tryin’ so hard, babe?” He pulled his line out and recast it. “I thought that going back to school was just something to distract you during the day.”
Laura shifted uncomfortably on her seat. Before Brian had lost all their money, she’d started looking into the LSU admissions site, wondering if she could join him there next year. Her grades were good enough, though perhaps not high enough for a scholarship. For some reason, though, she couldn’t bring herself to talk to him about it quite yet. Not when his own future was so uncertain.
“Well, I’m just trying to keep my options open, you know? It’ll look good to have my high school diploma if I want to apply to any other jobs.” She looked back down at her notebook, afraid he’d realize there was more to her words than she was saying. “Besides, I kind of like it. . . .”
Her gaze caught on a doodle Vince had drawn on the top right-hand corner of her paper and she smiled. It was a cartoon version of Mr. Leblanc with the words, “Math jokes. If you get them, you probably don’t have any friends.” The quote was from one of their teacher’s many inspirational posters plastered on the walls—the same posters that Laura had confessed to Vince that she actually loved.
“You’re a nerd,” Vince had said, his grin giving him dimples.
Laura had laughed, a little too loudly, trying to cover her embarrassment. “Oh, like you don’t secretly enjoy them a little.”
He’d leaned back in his chair. “Talk nerdy to me, girl.”
“A-ha!” She pointed at him triumphantly. “That’s the one by the window in the back! You love them, too!”
Brian’s phone rang, cutting through the silence, and Laura lifted her eyes from the doodle.
He answered it quickly. “Hell-o,” he said. After a brief pause, he said, “Yes.” Brian looked over at her as he listened, his eyes slowly widening. A grin spread across his face and he shot her a thumbs-up. “That’s awesome! Thank you so much, sir.” Immediately after he hung up, he threw his phone down in the tackle box and let out a whoop. He moved toward Laura, picking her up and spinning her around. The boat bobbed with their movement.
Laura laughed, feeling weightless. “Good news?”
“That was the insurance company. They’re gonna pay for my surgery. We did it, Laura!”
“What?” Laura screamed, giving him a hug. “That’s amazing!”
His arms tightened around her and she squeezed him back, filled with elation. Brian kissed her, slowly and passionately, and warmth filled her from her head to her toes. Eventually he pulled away, resting his forehead on hers. “It’s gonna happen, babe—we’re finally gettin’ back on track.”
“I’m so happy for you,” she said softly, trying to just live in this joyful moment.
“For us,” he corrected her, grinning.
Laura smiled back. “For us.”
Brian put his Oakleys on top of his head. “And see, we didn’t need that money anyway.”
A vice of anger wrapped around her again. “I don’t know about that . . .” she said, trying not to let her frustration ruin the moment. But she couldn’t help thinking that if Brian hadn’t been reckless, they would have twelve thousand hard-earned dollars saved up right now, money they could have put toward building their life together—or for her college tuition.
The two sat down on the bench and Brian wrapped his arm around her shoulders. For a moment, they just sat there, basking in the warm spring weather. All of the anxieties of the past few months melted away. Finally, finally, she knew that everything would be okay.
So why, when Brian kissed her, had she been thinking about Vince?
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