Page 23 of The Voices are Back

“We’ll catch some bait fish right here,” he explained as he stopped near a bridge.

We were one of twelve other boats catching bait fish.

He handed me a fishing pole with a small bait on it and said, “Just throw it out there.”

Sure enough, that was all it took.

With zero background in fishing, he showed me exactly what to do to “throw it out there.”

Once I got the hang—somewhat—of casting the pole, I caught fish after fish after fish.

I did that over and over again until Aodhan said, “Okay, that’s enough.”

I looked down into the tank holding the fish at the back of the boat, then looked up as Aodhan once again started moving the boat out.

Farther and farther we went from shore until there was nothing but a dot on the horizon where land used to be.

I sat in a seat facing his back, watching the muscles play in his shoulders behind his faded gray t-shirt. After today, I was going to make it my mission to steal that t-shirt.

All too soon, my own private show stopped, and he turned around to stare at me.

I looked at him with raised brows as I said, “Yes?”

“Ready to fish for the big boys?”

The only answer I had was “of course.”

It was literally the best day of my life.

• • •

“Come on, it’ll be fun,” Aodhan promised. “I’ll take care of you.”

This was Aodhan. With those pleading eyes, and that pouty bottom lip rolled over, how could I ever say no?

I couldn’t.

There was no way I could ever say no to Aodhan, even when he was a full-grown adult male doing the pouting thing.

“All right,” I groaned. “How long will you be out?”

“For twelve hours,” he answered, his eyes getting excited at the prospect of me going.

Could it be that he’d missed me as much as I’d missed him?

Sure, we may not ever be able to have a relationship again, him dating his wife and all, but we could be friends. I could be platonic friends with Aodhan McBanks, right?

At least, I deluded myself into thinking I could.

“And you’re sure that the man coming to fish with you won’t mind?” I confirmed.

“Sure, sure,” he promised. “He already told me that he may even have to come back into port. He changed from the overnight to the twelve-hour one, but still paid us for the overnight one. I think he’s just doing this so he can say he did it while he was here.”

That was weird.

“And this guy’s not a complete creep?” I asked. “I’m not really dressed for this.”

I looked down at my t-shirt, short shorts, and flip-flops.

---