Page 11 of Love Puck

“Fuckers,” Trey said while he dealt with his catch of the day. “There must’ve been a fish on there, too. I swear to God it was pulling like hell.”

At this point, I could hardly breathe. But somehow I managed to say, “It must’ve been huge. Those tightie-whities ain’t small.”

Beau doubled over and held his stomach. Even Trey finally started laughing, too. “Jesus, you guys can be assholes sometimes.”

After we’d teased him just the right amount—we got our rods and re-baited. Beau even did his own this time.

Turns out, he was a quick study.

Ten minutes later, he felt a tug on his line. And the look of excitement on his face made me grin. It took a bit of coaching, but he managed to reel in a decent-sized Trout.

I mean—decent if you weren’t all that hungry.

Unfortunately, we were all hungry.

And Beau was the only one who caught anything all day. Well, besides Trey’s underwear—which we said we’d frame for him. All he did was shake his head and swear at us.

Later that night, around the campfire—we sat and ate our beans.

Straight from the cans.

Our tiny portions of fish didn’t take long to eat.

“This can of beans is not going to do the trick,” I said, scooping out the last spoonful. I set my can down and reached into my bag. When I pulled out the jerky, my teammates smiled. “Thank God,” Trey said over a mouthful of beans. “I’m fucking starving.”

Beau nodded. “Me too.”

I threw them each a package and they dug into it immediately. So did I.

We talked and ate the jerky and—it was nice. It felt like it had been ages since I’d relaxed this much and laughed as much as I did.

I cleared my throat and set down my jerky. “Thanks for coming out.” I looked at my teammates as they chewed. “I know this wasn’t exactly your dream trip to go on, but thanks for taking a chance and coming fishing with me.”

They both smiled genuinely at me.

“Thanks for the invite. It was fun. Even though it was cold as balls,” Trey said, and we all laughed.

Beau pulled his duffle bag closer. “Don’t tell Gigi,” he said, his hand digging inside the bag. “But I broke into her stash.” He pulled out a white shopping bag and opened it. We watched him pull out a full-sized Mars bar.

A Canadian Mars bar.

“Oh, my God.” Trey held his hands out and said, “Chuck one of those babies over here.” Beau did what he asked and threw a Mars bar at Trey. Then he tossed one over to me.

“It’s been nice knowing you, man.” Trey ripped open the wrapper and took a huge bite into the chocolatey goodness. “Because your fiancée is going to kill you when she finds out you stole these.”

Beau’s shoulders bounced and he said, “I’ll have to think of a way to make it up to her.”

Trey instantly covered his ears. “Stop! Don’t say anything more. That’s my best friend you’re talking about.”

Beau tossed what looked—and sounded—like a box of Smarties at him. Trey caught it and grinned.

Beau asked him, “Who’s your best friend, now?”

Trey chuckled. “You, man. It was always you.”

Beau lobbed a box of Smarties over to me, too. Canadian Smarties. Tiny, colorful chocolates in a hard candy shell.

Delicious.

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