Page 13 of Catch and Release

He really didn’t know how to shut up.

She sighed. She knew she was short-tempered right now, knew her trauma and heartache were making her abrasive and rash and unkind, what with everything she was processing. But every time he opened his mouth, he just became more punchable. Where was her zen when she needed it?

“They think they’re bottom feeders or whatever,” he added.

She smirked. “They are bottom feeders.”

Shawn crossed his arms.

“I grew up catching mullet in the morning and eating them for lunch,” Willa’s said, her eyes narrowing.

She dropped the cooler and turned around, heading back toward the wharf. When she came around to the back of the house, she found the brownies where he said they’d be. She pulled the tin foil back and smiled at the full plate—too many for her to finish tonight. But she grabbed one and took a bite. She groaned. It was the best brownie she’d ever had.

She turned around, licking her lips. His gaze dropped to her mouth, and she knew she didn’t imagine it this time when his eyes blackened with desire. She raised her eyebrows and smirked at him, before he looked away.

“Want one?” she responded. “It’s just me. There’s no way I can finish them all.”

He eyed the plate.

“Grams wouldn’t be happy with me,” he said solemnly. “She told me I couldn’t have one.”

Willa stifled a giggle, both exasperated and amused.

“It can be our secret,” she said conspiratorially.

Shawn narrowed his eyes.

“You don’t understand,” he said, frowning. “She’d know. The woman always knows.”

Willa couldn’t hold back a full-blown laugh this time.

He barely showed any emotion since he’d come over, but was shaking in his boots at the thought of his grandmother scolding him for eating a brownie.

She turned on her heel, shoving the rest of the brownie in her mouth, and walked out toward the wharf.

4

Shawn gaped after her as she swung her hips, walking back on the wharf, where he could vaguely see a fishing light shining at the end of it.

He couldn’t believe his fucking luck. The redhead from earlier—Willa—lived right next door to him.

When he first left his house, he could see her casting the net from his backyard in that tiny little bikini. Her tits were perky and supple, and as he’d gotten closer to her backyard, he nearly drooled over the way they bounced slightly every time she tossed that fucking net in the water.

He observed her for longer than he’d like to admit as she cast that net before finally making himself known. And he hadn’t lied when he said she knew her way around a cast net. She was far better at it than he was, a fact he wasn’t too proud to admit to himself. Each of her casts spread the net open wide, a perfect circle. She methodically searched for schools of mullet before sending it to the water, and she caught at least a few fish with each cast, often tossing the ones she judged too small back into the water.

And that laugh.

He thought a smirk or belittling glare was all she was capable of, but when she laughed at him, her eyes lit up, showing warmth he hadn’t seen before.

She was gorgeous, but when she laughed—God, she was absolutely stunning.

Shawn watched her walk away for all of ten seconds before grabbing a brownie, shoving the entire thing in his mouth, and chasing after her. He was ten steps behind her when she picked up the cast net from where she’d left it and continued walking.

“If you’re going to join me, you could be a little quieter,” she quipped. “I’d rather not scare all the fish away before I even toss a line in the water.”

He slowed his pace, feeling like a chided schoolboy. Then he grinned to himself.

He had a crush.

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