“Shut up,” I growled. “At least I don’t still need a cup of warm milk at bedtime.”
“Hey,” Jace said loudly. He pointed at me with mock irritation. “That’spinkmilk, not warm milk. Because that shit’s just nasty.”
I chuckled and we both fell into a more comfortable silence. I cast my line back out.
“Jace,” I said as I kept my eyes on the water.
“Yeah?”
“If it helps, I don’t think there’s anything average about you.”
He was quiet for a really long time. “Caleb?”
“Yeah?”
“It helps.”
I found myself smiling wide, but I kept from looking at him.
“Caleb?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you want to know what you’re good at?”
I didn’t answer him. I heard him shift his weight and then sensed him behind me, but I didn’t turn to look at him, though I really wanted to. I shivered when his fingers briefly drifted over the back of my neck. Then his lips were dropping to the top of my head and his fingers curled around my throat until they were resting on my thrumming pulse.
“All the stuff that really matters. Don’t forget that, okay?”
He didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, he reached past me to grab my nearly empty water bottle. The move put his face precariously close to mine. “Will you watch my line for a second?”
I swallowed around the knot of anticipation in my throat. “Yeah,” I choked out.
Then he was gone and I finally managed to take in a deep breath. Seconds later I heard a clanging sound behind me. I looked over my shoulder just in time to see Jace’s fishing pole bounce along the bench and then disappear over the side of the boat and splash into the water below. I let out a bark of laughter as I realized Jace had forgotten to put his rod in one of the holders to keep the pole from going overboard in case a fish took the bait.
I began laughing.
And laughing.
And laughing.
And that was how Jace found me.
Bent over my own rod, tears of laughter streaming down my face.
“What?” he asked. “What happened?”
I managed to point at the place his pole had been.
“Oh hell,” he muttered. “Not again. Dalton’s going to fucking kill me.”
That just sent more peals of laughter bursting from my throat.
Jace had been right.
He couldn’t fish for shit.
And it was in that exact moment that I lost the first little bit of my heart to Jace Christenson, and I just knew it would only be a matter of time before the rest followed.
