My cheeks go hot. I know he’s talking about my surprisingly solid fishing technique, which apparentlydidcarry over into adulthood, and not how great my lower half looks in these pants—but the way he’s phrased it takes a moment to properly register.
I don’t know what sort of magic happens next, but within thirty seconds—a minute at the most—something’s tugging my linehard.
“Ahhhh, Sadie!” Brittany says, clapping excitedly, forgetting about the fishing pole in her hands. It falls to the ground, but she’s far more invested in what’s going on with me. “Reel it in!”
Even Hunter and Trey are watching from a bit down the bank as I reel in a good-sized trout. My face hurts from smiling—I did it! I caught a fish all on my own!
“Talk about beginner’s luck!” Zoe says, still hanging on to Thorn’s line, which hasn’t moved even a millimeter.
It turns out to be so much more than beginner’s luck—it’s more like beginner’smiracle. Over the next half hour, I pull in six sizable trout. Brittany catches one, while Thorn and Zoe don’t have any luck at all. Combined with what the guys catch, we’ll have more than enough to feed us all tonight.
I’m so proud I couldburst. After days of feeling entirely out of my element and like I’m slowing the group down, I’m actually contributing something.
“Need anything else before I go help the guys prep the fish for dinner?” Thorn asks, glancing from Brittany to Zoe to me.
“A vat of hand sanitizer?” Brittany says, and Thorn grins.
“I’ve got extra up in my pack,” he replies. “Happy to share.”
Brittany follows with a spring in her step like she’s on her way to the spa.
Which, for the record, I would also be doing—but Zoe’s sitting on a nearby rock, elbows on her knees and chin in her hands, looking like she might just turn into a statue and stay there forever. Now that it’s just the two of us, I can sense a storm brewing from the tension radiating off her.
“Everything all right?” I ask. “It’s okay that you didn’t catch anything—Thorn didn’t, either.”
“It’s not that.”
Zoe toys with her engagement ring, the diamonds glittering in the lingering rays of the setting sun. She spins it around on her finger, then slides it off altogether.
“I’m thinking about breaking things off with Joshua,” she says, voice quiet and eyes low.
They present themselves as the perfect couple…but there are cracks. Clearly.
“And this is because Joshua wasn’t up-front with you about the trip?” I venture. “How you thought you’d be going to Hawaii or Fiji instead?”
She nods, biting her lip as she absently turns the ring over in her hands.
“That,” she says, her gaze hard, “and also a comment he made last night. He said he wants to keep diving with sharks even after we have a baby.”
Wait. Is she pregnant? Surely I would have remembered if she’d mentioned that.
“Oureventualbaby,” she clarifies, seeing the look on my face. “He knows how worried I get when he goes out on his dives. I just don’t think I can be with someone who’s willing to risk his life like that—it’sone thing when you’re single, but when you have a family depending on you, it’s just…ugh. He doesn’t get it. And those trips areexpensive, you know? Why would we dig further and further into debt for something that could end up killing him?”
She makes a lot of valid points, and I say so.
“Thanks,” she says with a rueful half laugh. “Honestly, I think he takes his entire life for granted. He thinks he can run off and blow money we don’t have to dive with freakingmonstersharks just because he loves the adrenaline rush, with no regard for what I think about it. He thinks he can spring a trip like this on me—onme, knowing I absolutely hate this sort of thing—and assumes I’ll go along with it without pushing back.” Her expression darkens as she stares at the placid water before us, still toying with her ring. “Are you seeing anyone?”
It’s an abrupt subject change, especially considering she hasn’t asked a thing about my life since our first hour on the trail together.
A heated rant about Caden forms on the tip of my tongue—
But I swallow it down. I don’t think it would make Zoe feel any better to know we broke up because hedidn’tinvite me out here. There are parallels, some shared common ground—both Caden and Joshua made some wild assumptions about us—but at the end of the day, I’m out here because I chose to be.
Zoe can’t say the same.
“I was,” I eventually say. “We broke up a few months ago.”
“Ugh,” Zoe says. “I’m sorry.” She swats at a mosquito. “Well, I told you all of my drama—you can tell me yours, too, if you want.”
