Page 36 of Family Bonds- Jarrett & Andi

“Doesn’t look like you forgot much.”

He baited his line and then did the same on the other side of the boat and the two of them sat there.

“How often do you catch something?” she asked quietly.

“Not as often as I wish,” he said. Though it seemed he was catching something else as he looked at Andi.

“Then we can sit in silence,” she said. “Maybe it will help.”

But when her line got taut and she yanked it back with a flick of her wrist, then started to reel it in, he shook his head. “Man, you’re going to show me up, aren’t you?”

There was some laughter to that. Joyous gleeful laughter he wasn’t sure he’d ever heard on a fishing trip.

With his brothers and father, it was more boasting and busting.

But this was excitement and the sounds of it had blood pumping in his body.

“Look at this,” she said. “It’s huge.”

He grabbed the net and helped to bring it over the side. It was easily a five-pound bass.

“We could be eating well tonight,” he said.

“Do you know how to clean and filet it?” she asked. “That wasn’t part of my duty and the thought of it makes me queasy.”

“Yes,” he said. “I can if you want bass tonight, I’ll do it.”

“I could eat it,” she said.

“Then we’ve got ourselves the start of dinner.”

And at the end of three hours, there were three fish in the boat, none that he’d caught.

Talk about a humbling experience, but he wouldn’t trade it for anything.

And he hoped for many more like it even if he noticed Andi looking nervously along the shore several times.

12

SOME SPACE

On Thursday, Andi walked into Bond Dental to get her two teeth repaired and lighten her savings account while she was at it.

“Hi,” she said. “I’m here for an appointment with Dr. Bond. Andrea Benson.”

It still was odd for her to say that name, even after two years.

She wondered if it would ever feel natural to her.

Or if she’d get rid of the jitters that she had right now.

Sure, the dentist wasn’t anything like the ER she’d been in last week. Or when she fell down the stairs almost two years ago.

But it was still nerve wracking to her and she felt as if she had no one she could even talk to about it now. She wouldn’t call and whine to Jack. He didn’t need that on his shoulders.

The hardest part of hearing her name now was that her grandfather always said, “You look just like your Grandmother Andrea.” Thinking of those words that first year cut through her.

Good thing it was also her middle name and had been used toward her in the past. It made life a little easier but still hard to not say or answertothe name she’d had for almost thirty years.

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