Page 47 of Butterfly Sisters
His eyes widened. “We’d better get started sooner rather than later if we want to catch enough fish for six,” he teased. “When does your mom get home?”
“She said by noon,” she replied. “Let me text both Mom and Meredith right now.”
“Excellent.” His phone rang, pulling him toward the call. “That’s my designer,” he said. “We’ve got a slight issue with the manufacturer and I need to get this.”
He left her typing madly on her phone, as someone else pulled him away with a warm hello, his eyebrows rising in greeting, his phone to his ear. With the prospect of spending a day not thinking about the fate of the cabin or her job search, it was shaping up to be a great one.
That afternoon, when Leigh had finished slipping on her jeans to get ready for the boat ride with Colton, her phone pinged with an email. She checked it, surprised to see that she’d already gotten a response from Rycroft Enterprises, the job she’d applied for. She opened it and read the message asking her to respond with a time when she could come in for an interview.
Her pulse quickened as she read that they were interested in her. But then, as she held her phone, standing still in the middle of the room, she considered all the things she’d been thinking about lately. Should she respond? Was this job what she really wanted?
At the end of the day, she had to make a living. If she got this particular job, her life could go along as it always had. Literallynothingwould change, apart from not having to deal with Phillip and Rebecca. With two more clients to hear back from for Greystone, and the other two doing in-person visits next week, she’d have to think about when she could get back to New York for an interview. She opened the email, pondering her options.
Just then, the rev of a boat motor sailed through her bedroom window and Elvis’s bark drew her attention to it. She laughed to herself when she saw the dog barking relentlessly at Meredith as she neared the boat, while Colton tried to quiet him. Leigh clicked off her phone. She’d better get to the boat to help soothe Elvis so her mother and sister could board.
Slipping on her hoodie and flip-flops, she left the cabin and jogged down the grassy hill to the dock, Elvis abandoning his protective stance, jumping off the boat, and running to her.
“Hey, boy,” she said, bending down to give him a quick cuddle as she eyed Colton. “You ready to take a ride with me?”
Colton flashed a smile at her before jumping off the boat to help them on.
The dog panted, wide-eyed and happy, his tail wagging furiously as he followed Leigh back to the boat. Colton reached out for Leigh’s hand, his firm but gentle grip and the smile lingering on his lips giving her a flutter. While Leigh distracted Elvis, he helped Mama and Meredith on.
Mama sat on the cushioned bench at the back of the boat, wearing her large sun hat and dark glasses, her cotton shirt rippling in the soft breeze off the lake. Meredith lowered herself down beside Mama, her curls knotted up in a bun at the back of her head. Elvis paced between them as if guarding their every move while Colton untied the boat and pushed off the dock, steering away from it until he could hit full throttle on the open lake.
Normally, they always went left from the dock toward his parents’ house, but this time Colton took them right, upriver. “I found an excellent cove with tons of fish over here the other day. Here’s hoping we’ll have the same luck today,” he said. He was wearing a tattered ball cap and jeans, looking deliciously casual.
Leigh held her long blonde hair back with her hand, the boat speeding toward its destination, cutting through the water and leaving a foamy trail in its wake.
The boat bucked gently as it fought against the choppy current caused by a passing vessel, the buzz of the motor in Leigh’s ears. Elvis was positioned between Colton’s feet, but Leigh hadn’t braced herself, so when they hit a swell, Colton jolted and reached around her to keep her steady. It had only been a second—an instinct—and then his hands were back on the wheel, but she had to remind herself to breathe. As she took in the open water, her mind was busy. She couldn’t deny the fact that she and Colton were tumbling effortlessly back into their old ways, those same flirty, affectionate moments falling upon them as easily as the air they were breathing. But unlike her youth, they were adults now, and once-a-year flings weren’t what she wanted anymore.
The boat slowed to a stop, and Elvis, who had finally ventured out from between Colton’s feet and had been sitting in the corner of the boat, got up and peered over the edge as if assessing his surroundings. Colton dropped anchor and set a bucket of bait on the stern before pulling four rods from their holders in the center of the boat.
“There’s a bunch of bluegill and white bass that swim through here,” he said as he loaded one of the hooks with a minnow. “I caught four last week, so fingers crossed.” He handed the rod to Leigh and asked, “Remember how to cast it?”
She fumbled with the reel. “It’s been a while…”
Colton reached around her and flipped the lever, releasing the spool, his large hands covering hers. Then he tipped the rod back and cast it out, the spool unraveling, the hook and bait sinking into the water until the bobber floated on the surface. “Like that,” he said into her ear.
Her heart pounded like a snare drum. Before she could recover, he was helping Mama cast her line down the boat.
Meredith grabbed her rod herself, worked with the reel and figured it out, casting hers smoothly.
When everyone had their bait in the water, Colton loaded his rod and cast it out on the other side of the boat. Elvis sat by Leigh’s leg as she kept an eye on the bobber, waiting for a tug on her line.
“You’ve made a forever friend, it seems,” Mama said, pointing to the dog.
Leigh smiled, switching her rod to her other hand briefly to give Elvis a pat. She was starting to love that dog. “He’s so sweet,” she said.
Meredith turned and wrinkled her nose at Elvis, waving at him and sending him into a barking frenzy.
Leigh threw her head back and laughed. “Why are you so mean to her?” she asked Elvis, who turned his head to the side as if he were trying to understand. He seemed to, because he looked back over at Meredith suspiciously, only making Leigh laugh harder. But then her attention turned quickly to her rod as it bent down toward the water. “I’ve got something,” she said. “Colton, help. I can’t hold it.”
Colton quickly set down his rod in one of the holders on the side of the boat and ran over to her, his arms around her once more as he helped her reel in the fish on the end of her line. His spicy scent assaulted her when he tightened his grip around her, his fingers working over hers to get the fish reeled in.
“Dang, Leigh’s got a fish that’ll feed all of us,” Meredith joked. “We can all go home now.”
Her excitement mounting, Leigh pulled with all her might to keep the rod steady while Colton reeled in the catch. When it finally lifted above the water, it was a massive striped bass that felt to be about fifteen pounds.
