Complete Pelican Lake Series

Chapter 9

Ashley let her self-satisfied smile free once she was on her Ski-Doo and on her way home. She"d managed to evade her mother"s questions about why her Jet Ski was still there without having to lie. Instead, she"d used distraction and just avoided answering.

Her mom hadn"t bothered to wait until Jared was gone before asking, so Ashley had used the excuse of helping him find what he needed as a way to ignore her questions. Then she"d made excuses for why she had to go shortly after he had paid his bill and left.

Now, she tilted her head back and enjoyed the sun on her skin and the wind in her hair. She had the whole day ahead of her and she was going to enjoy it.

Ashley pulled the last load of laundry from the dryer, carried it into the bedroom, and dropped it on the bed. As she took things from the pile and hung them in the closet or folded them, her mind drifted back to the night before. She wasn"t inexperienced, but there had been something different with Jared. She couldn"t put her finger on what, but no one she"d ever been with had haunted her thoughts like this. At random moments, she would remember the taste of his kiss or the subtle musk of his skin and shivers would run through her body.

When the laundry was done, she walked through the house making one last pass, looking for anything that needed to be done before she called it good and went out to play. With her house work and chores done, it was time to enjoy the rest of her day off. Quickly, she changed into shorts and a bikini top, packed a cooler with water and ice, so she wouldn"t have to be trekking inside all day, and headed outside. She set everything up at the end of her short dock—her cooler, a chair, her tackle box and fishing gear, and most importantly, her e-reader—and settled in to see what was biting.

Ashley checked her line, making sure nothing had happened to it since she"d last used it a few days before, then baited her hook, cast it out, and sat back to wait. Her skin warmed beneath the sun, it was a nice contrast to the cool breeze coming off the water. Ashley kept one hand on her pole as she watched the tourists play on the lake. Yes, locals played too, but she knew their boats and Jet Skis. There were a couple of windsurfers, but they were too far away for her to see well or recognize their rigs. She wondered where Jared was and what he was doing.

Where had that thought come from, and why couldn"t she keep him off her mind?

Ashley pushed him from her thoughts again and picked up her e-reader, hoping a good mystery would help.

She didn"t know how long she"d been sitting there, but she"d read several chapters and landed several little sunfish, only to toss them back. She was hoping for a good-sized trout, or maybe a small bass, for dinner. Besides, most of the bluegill she"d caught weren"t even as big as her palm. They needed to grow a little more.

Her pole twitched in her hand again and she gave it a quick jerk to set the hook, then set her e-reader aside, stood, and started reeling. This one didn"t come in easily like the little ones had, and her hopes were high this would be her dinner. If it was as big as she hoped, another set of hands would make it easier to land, but she"d make due.

She"d been reeling a while, letting the fish run a bit then pulling it back, only to let it run again. She was playing with it, letting it tire itself out so it would fight less when she was ready to land it. From the way it pulled and fought, she suspected it was good size, and she was afraid if she was too aggressive, it would snap her line and she would have to start all over.

"Looks like you"ve got something." Jared"s voice behind her startled Ashley. She glanced back while still reeling and saw him standing at the head of the deck.

"I"ve got something. Not sure what yet." She caught a glimpse of the fish in the water before he darted off again. "Can you come grab the net for me?"

His footsteps on the wood decking echoed across the water as he hurried out to her. "You"ll need to tell me what to do, I"ve never even seen this done."

"Wait until I get it close to the dock, then just reach in and scoop the fish out of the water. It will try to avoid the net, but it will be on my line so it’s limited as to how far he can go."

"I"ll try." Jared picked up the net, which was lying not far from where she"d been sitting, and moved closer to the edge of the dock to wait.

"Here he comes," she warned as she caught the silver flash of sunlight on the fish"s scales.

"I see it, it"s huge." Jared knelt to get closer to the water.

"Let me see if I can get him closer." Ashley took a step back and moved around until Jared was between her and the water. The fish looked like a big one, but she knew seeing it through the water was misleading, it might be big or it might be small. "Try to net him before he ducks under the dock." She lifted the pole over Jared"s head. "If the line hits the edge it could snap."

She lost sight of the fish as it got closer. Jared dipped the net into the water and she held her breath. The line went slack and, for a second, she thought it had broken.

"I got it!" Jared stood, taking the net with him.

"Careful, they can still jump out."

The fish thrashed in the net, making Jared jump, but he didn"t drop it. She had to give him credit for that. She"d dropped it the first time one had done it to her, and she"d talked to a lot of others who had as well. He turned and she saw the fish for the first time out of the water. It was larger than she"d hoped.

"Hang on a minute." Ashley grabbed her forceps from her tackle box and stepped close. "Try to hold it steady."

She set the butt of her pole on the dock with the tip leaning against the rim of the net, grabbed the line in the same hand that held the forceps, and reached into the net. She stuck her thumb in the gasping fish"s mouth, got a good grip, and lifted it just enough so she could get her other hand into his mouth to remove the hook with the surgical clamps she kept for that purpose. She made sure not to lift the heavy fish free, in case he thrashed and got loose. It was hard to tell with it half curled in the net, but she guessed it was at least eighteen inches long.

"Will you grab that wire thing for me?" she pointed with her pliers.

"What about the net?"

"Hand it here." She tucked her forceps into the back pocket of her cut-offs and took the handle of the net. She tried to estimate what the rainbow trout weighted while he took the basket. It was at least two or three pounds, not bad.

"Here." Jared was back.

"Hold it up and hold on tight." She lifted her catch from the net and lowered the fish tail first into the live catch basket. Once the spring-loaded lid closed, she took the basket from Jared and lowered it into the water, wrapping the stake chain around one of the boat cleats on the dock. "Thanks for the help."

She knelt on the edge of the dock, slipped her hands into the lake, and washed them. She knew they weren"t clean, but they were better. Looking past Jared, she noticed his Jeep wasn"t in the drive way. "Where"d you come from?" She frowned and looked around. She would have noticed if he"d come in on his skiff.

"I walked." He shrugged. "When we left this morning, I realized this place isn"t far from where I"m staying. After I took care of everything this afternoon, I decided to take a walk, maybe see how close you really were."

"Hmm." She glanced around, wondering which of the surrounding cabins he was staying in. "How far was it? Which direction?" It had to be one on the water, or at least some water frontage, for the skiff.

"I was walking for about thirty minutes, but I wandered a lot and took my time. I figure if I came straight here and didn"t waste time, it would take five, maybe ten minutes." He waved one hand to the north, in the direction of the store. "My place is just a little ways it that direction."

Ashley blinked once, looked up the shore a second, then turned back. "You"re staying at the Turner place."

Jared frowned. "How did you know?"

Ashley smiled. "I told you, we moved up here when I was a kid. I know the families who own most of the cabins up here, unless they"ve been sold recently. But the ones that really stick in my mind are the ones who came up more than once or twice a year."

Jared shook his head. "I should have remembered that. Yes. Brant, my friend who loaned me the cabin, is a Turner. I didn"t realize they used it that often."

Ashley gathered her fishing equipment and put it away. The one trout would be plenty, even for two. "I haven"t seen Brandt in a few years, but his brother has been here every summer." She frowned then looked up at him. "In fact, Drew was here a couple weeks ago."

It was Jared"s turn to frown. "Brandt led me to believe no one had been up here in a while, that I was doing him a favor by coming up to take care of the place for the summer."

She latched the tackle box, stood, and smiled as she closed the distance between them. "It sounds to me like you have a good friend there." She wrapped her arms around his waist and looked up at him. "He said what you needed to hear so you would take what he offered, what he could see you needed."

"I needed to spend the summer two hours from anything on a lake?"

"Maybe. Maybe what you needed was to get away from what was haunting you. Now you can get your head on straight, then deal with whatever it is that’s been bothering you. Maybe what you need is to have a little time closer to the earth, I don"t know.”

"Maybe it is." Jared wrapped his arms around her middle where she still stood face to face with him. "I have to say, my first week has been amazing. Far better than I expected when I agreed to come up here."

She turned in his arms and they stood together and watched as the sun sank lower on the lake.

"Since you"re here, how about you join me for dinner? I"ve got plenty of fish."

"Are you sure? Bumming a meal wasn"t my plan. I can go back to my place."

"I"m sure, I want you to stay. Help me carry this stuff up to the house, and then I"ll come out and clean this guy." She waved one hand toward where the fish was splashing as he tried to escape the basket. Together, they put her gear away, emptied the cooler, and dealt with the empty bottles.

"You"re welcome to go inside and make yourself at home. I"ll be in in a few minutes, I just need to take care of him so he can be cooked."

"Do you mind if I come along?"

She turned back and looked at him for a long second, considering him. "Sure, if you want."