I survey the lawn, which stands taller than I’ve ever seen it. I despise mowing. If I could do anything I wanted to in this moment, it wouldnotbe mowing.What would it be?As I ask myself the question a vision materializes in my mind like it’s always been there, waiting for me to open myself up to it.
“Okay,” I agree. “I’ll take you up on it. Thank you.”
He nods toward my house, and I take off in a few steps before spinning back around.
“Hey, Miles?”
He lifts his eyes to mine.
“If no one has ever told you before… you’re a lot like your dad.”
The corner of his mouth lifts before he refocuses on his task. Something about him inspires a creative part of me I neverthought I’d feel again. I race inside to do the one thing I think I might have been missing.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
SUMMER, FOUR YEARS AGO
In all the times I’ve ever visited the fly shop, I’ve never seen Miles or his dad in anything other than fishing waders. I don’t own a pair, so I second-guessed every decision I made when getting dressed this morning. I have a heap of clothes on my bedroom floor to show for it.
I tuck my zipper-pouched lunchbox between my knees, wiping the perspiration that formed on the palms of my hands against the front pockets of my jean shorts, and pull back my hair into a high ponytail. With it slicked away from my face, it highlights the smattering of freckles that have pigmented my cheeks with the summer sun.
Here goes nothing, I think to myself as the little bell rattles above the door in a similar fashion to my pulse. Loud and erratic.
It’s just Miles today. I spot him right away, straightening a set of poles that have tipped in a tangled cluster. He pauses his pursuit long enough to glance at the door and does very little to hide his surprise when he jumps to a standing position. All the poles he worked so hard to unwind tumble to the ground again.
Maybe I should have told him I was coming.
I grit my teeth. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”
His shoulders slacken and he grips the back of his neck, looking down at the mess at his feet. “Oh, that? Yeah, I meant to do that.”
“Here, let me help you,” I say, moving toward him.
He swipes his arm through the air like it will hide the mess under an imaginary bed. “Oh, I’ll get it later.”
“Or I can help you right now? Since that’s why I’m here.”
“You came all the way over here to help straighten a bunch of fishing poles you didn’t know fell over?”
“No, not exactly that.”
This isn’t going like I expected.
“Your dad gave me a job, and today is my first day.”
His hazel eyes widen beneath the shop’s bright bulbs. “Ajob? He didn’t tell me he was hiring.”
I thought I could get away with not telling Miles the real reason I’m here, but I can’t lie to him.
“Okay, he wasn’t hiring. If you must know, Iaskedfor the job.”
“Youwantto work here? On your summer break?”
He sounds flabbergasted when he says it, and it’s making me kind of mad.
“Is it so hard to believe that I might want to work here? It’s boring without you and Reed around. I just thought this way you and I can hang out. And I do recall throwing it out into the universe that first summer.”And I can help lighten your family’s burden, I want to add, but don’t.
He brightens, changing his narrative. “Thank goodness you’re here then, because this a real mess.”
