“Yeah, it’s not great.”
A moment of silence ensued as they stacked boxes along the perimeter. Apparently he didn’t want to talk about his mom. That was all right. They had their work cut out here, and this wasn’t a real relationship.
“Hey, what’s this?”
She glanced up, cringing at what else he might’ve found. Her baby teeth? The sophomoric poetry from her middle-school years? Her Justin Bieber doll?
But no, it was just the boat.
Liam whipped off the tarp.
She’d saved up for the used wooden dinghy when she and Evan were dating. She wanted to share her love of the water. The peace she found as she paddled around the quiet tributaries like an explorer of old. Evan hadn’t been interested in kayaking, and a rowboat seemed more romantic. Turned out, he hadn’t enjoyed that either, so the thing had just sat at the end of her pier for a season. She hadn’t bothered putting it back in the water since.
Liam ran his hand over the mahogany gunwale. “Reminds me of the one Ledger and Cate take out on the water in that one scene.”
It was exactly the boat she’d pictured as she wrote it. “Well, they say to ‘write what you know.’”
“We should get it out on the river. It’ll clear up some space in here. We can take her out when we’re done and talk more about Ledger. What do you say?”
“Today’s supposed to be your day, and you’re already waist-deep in my junk.”
“I’m sure they got plenty of photos of me entering your house. Besides, I’ll be rowing a boat like this for the movie and—full disclosure—I’ve never done that before. I’d rather not look like a dweeb.”
Chloe laughed. “Since Ledger’s a boatbuilder, he’d definitely know how to row one.”
He stuffed the tarp under the shelving. “Exactly. This is great. I was a little worried about that actually.”
Liam seemed so confident—even in the face of her doubts. It hadn’t occurred to her he might have uncertainties. It made him seem a bit more human somehow. More relatable.
“What are some things you’ve had to learn for parts in movies?”
“Well, I had to learn to ride a horse forUnbridled. And not just sit the horse—I had to have a really good seat.”
Chloe glanced over as he bent to pick up a box, then jerked her gaze away from his backside.
“The character managed a horse ranch, so I had to be a proficient rider. Took a few months, but I think we pulled it off. I still ride occasionally. I was a chef in a movie that you wouldn’t have heard of. That’s when I actually started getting into cooking. There was a lot to learn inValorabout being a Marine and living as an amputee. I learn new things with every role really. Keeps things interesting.”
“What do you know about boatbuilding?”
“I’ve been doing my research, don’t you worry. Your boat is a wheelbarrow dinghy, which makes it easy to transport on land.” He pointed to the front of the boat. “That’s the bow. Port is left, starboard, right. This is the gunwale. The oars are made up of the blade, shaft, and loom.”
“Very impressive. Now we just have to teach you to row.”
Chapter12
It took a bit of doing, but Liam managed to maneuver the rowboat away from the pier into the middle of the river where it flowed gently toward the ocean. However, they were sideways. He used the paddles to point them the right direction, then began powering them downstream.
He sat in the boat’s center facing backward, and Chloe sat at the stern, leaning toward him, elbows on her knees. “You’re doing great.”
Generous, given it had taken him ten minutes to get this far. He chuckled. “Let’s just say I’m glad this isn’t happening in front of the cast and crew, much less the cameras.”
“You’re getting the hang of it. You’ve got good instincts.”
He didn’t know about that, but all this upper-body work made him grateful for his daily workouts. “Don’t you ever use the boat?”
“I thought it would be nice to come out here with my ex-boyfriend, but he didn’t like it much.” She stretched out her legs, her feet coming alongside his.
It was a small boat. Cozy. Every time he leaned forward to pull back the oars, it brought them closer together.
