sound was narcotic, and after a while Kate began to relax for the first time in as long as she could remember.
Maybe life doesn’t count out here,
she thought lazily.
Maybe time stops out here, and nothing matters. Maybe it’s magic.
She smiled and watched the clouds, filtered through the curtain of willow leaves above her.
After a while she looked over at Jake. His chest was rising and falling in slow deep rhythms, and unconsciously she started to breathe with him, feeling the last of the tension drain from her body as the boat drifted gently in the water.
It was a shame he wasn’t her type. He wasn’t bad-looking, even with the broken nose, and he was certainly the most restful man she’d ever met. But he definitely did not fit her plan. He didn’t have a distinguished or aggressive bone in his body. In fact, looking at him now, she wasn’t sure he had bones in his body. He just sort of flowed everywhere. He’d get eaten alive in the city.
Still, it was nice to relax with a man for a change. Even if he was unconscious.
Her line jerked.
She sat up and grasped the pole, catching the reel as it played out. There was definitely something tugging on the other end.
“Jake,” she said softly. He didn’t move, and she could tell by his even breathing that he was still asleep. “Jake,” she said louder, but he slept on.
The fish jerked against her line. “Jake!” she yelled, smacking him on the leg with her foot.
The breathing stopped. “What?” he said, from under his hat.
“I’ve got a fish.”
“That’s nice.”
“I don’t want it.”
“Throw it back.”
“Jake.”
He yawned and sat up slowly, pushing his hat back on his head. “If I’d known you were going to be this energetic, I wouldn’t have brought you.”
“I didn’t do this on purpose.” She reeled her line in and a tiny sunfish broke the water.
“You got an aquarium?” Jake asked.
She brought the pole around to grab the fish, but it flipped and struggled and she couldn’t catch it After it had flipped past his face twice, Jake reached up and caught it, easing the hook out of its mouth and tossing it back in the water.
“Thank you,” she said.
“You’re welcome.”
“Do you have a knife?”
“Depends on what you want to use it for.”
“To cut this damn hook off before any more fish try to commit suicide on my line.”
He grinned at her and gave her his pocketknife. She cut the line above the hook and handed both the hook and the knife back to him. Then she dropped her line in the water and leaned back in the boat. “Thank you,” she said. “Sorry to have bothered you.”
“Not at all.” He started to lean back and stopped. “Do you have to be back by any certain time?”
“I’m playing golf at two with Peter somebody,” Kate said. “If I set foot on shore much before that, Valerie will make me play with the other kids. I am in no hurry, trust me.”
“Valerie is nobody to mess with,” Jake agreed. “So you’re playing vertical golf, are you?”
“What? On that hill? Absolutely not,” Kate said.
“We’re playing on the wimp course in back of the hotel.”
“Want to bet?” Jake said.
“Do you know something I don’t?”
“If this is the Peter I’m thinking about, he cheats,” Jake said. “And it’s a lot easier to cheat on the hard course.”
“He doesn’t cheat,” Kate said, looking at Jake with disgust. “Just look at him. He has ‘man of distinction’ written all over him, just like in one of those expensive liquor ads.”
“Those are usually the ones who cheat,” Jake said. “Don’t bet money with him. Or anything else you’d hate to lose.”
“Very funny,” Kate said. “I don’t believe it. Who says so?”
“The caddies.” Jake settled back down in his end of the boat.
“The caddies love him,” Kate said. “Penny said they actively beg to go around with him.”
“Sure, they do,” Jake said. “He tips them so they won’t rat on him. The