Page 74 of Catch and Release

“But don’t you have a paid tour today?” she asked, remembering that he usually did tours on Saturday afternoons, and she’d never forgive herself if he’d canceled it for her. “I thought you were booked solid for the month.”

“They canceled at the last minute,” he said. “Which means I have all the makings for the perfect boat picnic.”

“But—”

“They had to eat all the fees, so it’s completely free and it’ll be fun.”

Willa bit her lip and looked back out the window.

This felt an awful lot like a date.

But Shawn was her friend, and he’d insisted on them maintaining the friendship part of their arrangement, and he was just trying to cheer her up after a weird day. Plus, she had won a free, chartered boat ride with him. So no point in overthinking it.

Right?

Shawn was staring at her hesitantly. She beamed at him and threw her arms around his neck.

“Thank you,” she whispered into his ear. “But I have one stipulation.”

She pulled back and he grinned. “Name it.”

“I want you to fuck me on that boat.”

His eyes darkened and dropped to her mouth.

“I’ve never done it on a boat before,” she continued.

“Me neither.”

Her jaw dropped. “You’re joking.”

He shook his head, his lips curving up slowly.

“I don’t believe you.”

“There have certainly been… opportunities,” he said. “But I was always captaining the boat. And it felt unprofessional, not to mention unsafe.”

“So are you saying you won’t do it, then?”

He winked. “I might be willing to make an exception.”

It had been a long time since Willa had seen this much of the Bay. She grew up taking boat rides in the nooks and crannies of Perdido Bay, had gone back in the Bayous and rivers that only locals knew about, but it had been years.

Once her grandparents started getting older, it became more challenging for them to get the boat out and ready. She knew how to drive it, of course. She’d had a boating license since she was a teenager. But the upkeep and management of boat ownership became too much for her grandparents, and over the years, the boat rides became less and less.

Shawn took her all over the Bay, to all the places she remembered experiencing as a kid. All the while, he had a backwards cap on and a beer in his hand. She was feeling the inklings of a light buzz and leaned into Shawn’s side, then looked up at him.

His strong chin jutted out, and she wanted to run her fingers along his jawline. But such casual familiarity felt beyond the scope of their arrangement.

They’d been boating around for hours, occasionally tossing a line in the water to see if any fish would bite. They’d caught a few flounder and one trout, which Shawn said Willa could keep. She was itching to get home and filet them, maybe fry them for dinner or breakfast tomorrow.

The sun still shined brightly in the sky, and Willa suddenly felt the desire to swim.

“Can we anchor and jump in?” she asked him, her voice barely carrying over the sound of the engine.

He nodded. “We’re close to a good spot for that.”

A few minutes later, she was tossing the anchor in the water as he turned the boat off. They were in a relatively private area. Some boats went by occasionally, but it wasn’t the most popular spot for swimming or fishing. It was hidden away behind some grasslands with water deep enough that Willa couldn’t see the bottom.

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