Page 22 of Lovewell Lane (Honeyfield Dreamers #1)

Margo

Something tapping on my door pulled me out of sleep. This was my one day to sleep in. I’d been getting my body used to waking up before the damn sun to prepare for opening the diner every day. If it was the fucking duck that woke me, I was rehoming him to the nearest lake.

I swung the door open and looked down to find Tessa. She looked way too chipper for it still being dark out. “Good morning,” she sang loudly.

“Good morning, Tess.” I tried smoothing down my bedhead. “How can I help you on this fine day?”

“We’re going fishing. Can you come with us?”

I’d never been fishing in my life. My eyebrows scrunched just thinking about getting out of my pajamas and going to a cold lake instead of my warm bed. “Um—”

“Pleeeeeease,” Tessa begged. She literally put her hands up and clasped them together. The kid had the puppy eye routine down pat.

“Okay, can I have a few minutes to get ready?”

She nodded graciously and ran back inside her house while I stared blankly, wondering what I just agreed to.

“Is this some new Weston family ritual that I wasn’t privy to?” I asked Derek.

This was the first time I’d had a real conversation with Derek since I got drunk off my ass on Kenny’s punch. It was the perfect setting to break the ice, considering it was before the sun was fully up and below sixty degrees. Sarcasm felt like the way to go.

We were all piled in his truck. And by all, I meant Derek, Sam, Tessa, and I. In the bed of the truck were enough fishing poles to feed a small village along with four mysterious coolers. I just hoped I didn’t have to pick up or touch any slimy fish.

“No, this was all Tess’s idea,” he answered.

Tessa kicked her feet excitedly in her little boots. It nudged Sam’s chair and he turned around to playfully scold her. “Cool it, Tess. It’s only a ten-minute drive.”

“Sienna and her mom are ready, right?”

“I texted Lila and she says they are awake and ready for a good morning fish,” Sam said.

Is this what small-town life was like? Spontaneous fishing trips at six in the morning? This whole time I’d been waiting for the other boot to drop, and I should’ve been looking out for a fishing trip invite.

“So do we eat the fish?” I asked hesitantly.

“No!” Tessa answered. “We are doing catch and let go.”

“Catch and release,” Derek corrected.

“Same thing,” Tessa huffed.

We pulled up to the lake situated behind the Lakeside Inn. Somehow, I’d never walked around here before. It was stunning. I helped the others unload the truck and set up for a day of fishing. Mostly, I watched what Sam and Derek were doing and tried to follow suit.

When the chairs were all set up, Tessa claimed her small blue one with bumble bees printed on it. Derek inconspicuously handed me a thermos, and I opened it to find steaming hot coffee. I gave him the best sleepy smile that I could muster to show my gratefulness.

He just crinkled his eyes and did that short quiet laugh of his.

Ever since I got sloppy drunk and probably said a lot of embarrassing shit to him that I didn’t remember, he’d avoided me.

Or I’d avoided him. I wasn’t sure who was the originator of the avoidance, but we both managed to never make eye contact or speak to each other, despite living and working right next door.

I was grateful he wasn’t making this awkward.

Out of the corner of my eye, someone sprinted up to us. “Sienna!”

“Tessa!”

The two girls shared some very intense giggles and whispered to each other like they were middle aged women gossiping in a hair salon. We adults watched with interest when Lila walked up.

“Hey,” I greeted with a smile.

“Good morning,” she said quietly. While I was sure my eyes were swollen and my hair was still frizzy from sleeping, Lila looked like she just walked off of a modeling job. She was stunning, and her silky blonde hair hung off of her shoulders in waves.

Sam got up from his chair to walk over to her and give her a quick hug. “Thanks for letting us crash so early.”

“Of course, Sienna was very adamant.” Lila shot Derek and me a nervous look. “The boat is already tied to the dock if you want to try it out. Like I said, it’s old and I’ve never tested it, but Imogen takes it out all the time.”

Lila looked at me and clarified, “Imogen is our chef and maintenance person.”

Well if Imogen trusted it, can’t we all. I nodded with the most reassuring smile I could muster.

I walked out on the small wooden dock to take a peek at what we were working with. And, oh boy, was she right. It was a wooden boat, and the paint was so chipped it had a permanent gray look. There was no way we could take small children out on that thing.

As if she read my thoughts, Lila called. “Maybe you guys should test it out to see if it’s okay for the kids.”

“I have life vests,” Derek answered. He walked over and confidently stood in the boat to see if it would sink. He had the grace of someone who’d been born and raised on a plank of wood floating in the ocean. “It looks good to me.”

I turned away from watching Derek to catch a glimpse of Sam, Lila, and the two girls huddled together whispering something by the bank. Lila was the first to notice me watching and she smiled before clearing her throat.

Derek was on a mission and started gathering supplies to set in the boat before… take off? Did row boats move fast enough to consider it a launch? He got everything set up and turned to the rest of us.

“It’s not big enough for all of us, but I can probably take the kids out with one of you three.”

“Actually, Daddy,” Tessa said, her voice the smallest I’d ever heard it. Which was saying something. “I don’t feel good.”

Derek stared at her like she’d grown an extra head. “What do you mean? Are you scared of the boat? I promise it’s safe, honey, I wouldn’t let you on something that wasn’t.”

“No, I’m not scared. I just don’t feel good. My belly hurts.” If the kid was an actor, I’d cast her in a commercial. Derek looked like he was about ready to go drown himself in the lake, though.

“I don’t feel good either. I think the grape juice was bad,” Sienna added. She held up the juice boxes that her and Tessa were sipping on as Derek set up the boat. “But you guys should go. We want to see you fish!”

Tessa’s voice turned excited again. “Yeah, we want you to catch a big fish!” Sienna nudged Tessa with her elbow. The stomach ache must have come back because her voice sounded pitiful again, “And we don’t feel very good.”

“Maybe we need to go home then, honey,” Derek said, crouching down to be at Tessa’s eye level.

“No, I feel good sitting here. I just think I’ll get seasick. And I don’t want to throw up.”

Derek stood up again, not looking totally convinced. “What if Sam and I go on the boat, and you can see that it doesn’t make us sea sick. Would that help?”

“I think you and Margo should go,” Tessa said quietly. “Margo is brave. She’s been all over the world.”

Derek laughed under his breath and shut his eyes like that would help him find patience. Then he turned to me. “What do you think?”

I glanced over at the rickety boat, and again at Tessa’s puppy eyes, that were now directed at me. “Okay, sure. I’m brave.”

The girls cheered and quickly stopped when Derek turned his scrutinizing gaze on them.

“Lila and I will stay with the girls while you two test it out,” said Sam. He’d been suspiciously quiet this whole time. I wasn’t sure if it was the early morning, but something about this was extra fishy. No pun intended.

But I was a sucker for puppy eyes, so I followed orders. Derek grabbed an adult-sized life jacket and fastened it on for me, tightening it without looking me in the eye once. It felt weirdly intimate, letting him get me suited up. I tried not to focus on his forearms too much.

“I have no idea how to get in this thing,” I confessed. I stood on the dock, staring at Derek gracefully standing in the boat. Something told me it wasn’t as easy as he made it look.

“You’ve traveled the world, and you don’t know how to get on a boat?”

“I opted out of the gondola ride when I was in Venice.”

He reached out a hand. “Lean on me, you have to balance your feet.”

I white-knuckled his hand as I stepped onto the boat. Thankfully, his weight balanced it out, so I didn’t struggle too much. Not wanting to risk falling in, I sat down as quickly as possible. Tessa ran out onto the dock up to us.

“Wait, you forgot this,” she said.

I reached out to grab what she was offering. “An umbrella?” I asked. I looked up at the sky and saw no clouds.

“Murphy’s Law,” she said proudly.

Derek snickered and reached to unloop the rope that tied the boat to the dock. “Thanks, honey. Stay by the bank with Sam and Lila. And listen to them, they’re in charge, okay?”

“Yes, Daddy, have fun!”

I watched her trot back to the bank where Sam was setting up fishing lines in front of their chairs.

As Derek sat and rowed, I vowed to myself that I would not watch him.

Something about his broad shoulders working those oars out of the corner of my eye was enough to set me on edge.

This was every woman’s wet dream. And I was forced to pretend it was just any Sunday morning.

I craned my neck to my right and found the most stunning start of a sunrise. Pinks and oranges swirled together to make gradients of beautiful watercolors. They reflected off the water, making it look as if the sky touched the water itself.

“It’s beautiful,” I murmured.

Derek hummed his agreement. Finally, he stopped rowing, and I allowed myself to look at him. He was looking right back at me. He looked stricken in awe, and I wondered if he thought I painted the sunset there myself.

We both looked away after a beat, and I scrambled for anything normal to say. “You’re good on a boat.” Not exactly normal, but I was desperate.

He laughed at me. “You aren’t.”

His laugh turned into a smile, and I found myself squinting for a new reason. He was genuinely smiling. Right at me. I had to look away to stop from smiling like an idiot back at him.

Between his smile and the sunrise nearly blinding me, I was wishing I’d brought sunglasses. “We’re in the middle of a lake. Do you really want to test me right now?” I asked.

He raised his hands in surrender. I watched him reach for a pole and mess around in a tackle box. I sat contentedly, admiring the view. Of the sunrise. And, maybe, him too.

“Do you know how to do this?”

“Absolutely not. I visited my dad in the summertime only. And he was always working. My mom wouldn’t be caught dead on a boat.”

He stood up to get closer so that I could see what he was doing. He crowded me, sitting on the same wooden bench as I was. “Let me show you.”

We bowed our heads, and I watched his thick fingers meticulously bait a hook before threading a fishing line through it.

I made a mental note to sign myself up for therapy for getting turned on by this.

Suddenly, I wondered if my problem in the past was that I’d never been attracted to a man enough to want a relationship.

Because I’d never seen a man be so… manly.

The rowing, parenting, and expert fishing skills were all so hot.

I didn’t catch a single thing he taught me.

He handed me bait and a hook of my own to try when I was saved by the bell. Or, the Ariel, more specifically. Suddenly, music was blasting over the lake toward us. It sounded magical as the music floated over to us. And then I realized what the song was.

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” Derek seethed. He glared at the shore so intensely that I was worried anyone there might have evaporated on the spot.