Page 5 of Fishing for Keeps

"My fault?” Liam puts down his slice. "You stood up in a twelve-foot boat to celebrate a catfish."

"It was a big catfish!"

"It was a medium catfish, Trent!"

"And this argument," Joel says to Josie, "happens every single year. You could set a calendar by it."

Josie's laughing now, her eyes shining in the string lights, and I already know what I'm about to do. I knew it the second she walked out of that parking lot in a yellow dress. Maybe I knew it when she told me her engine and she were quitting each other.

"I'll be your partner," I say.

The table erupts.

Liam makes a sound like I've stabbed him. "We're a team."

"We're a curse, Liam. Nine years. It's time to let each other go."

"Unbelievable. He meets a girl and I'm out on the street,” Liam mutters.

I roll my eyes. "You'll land on your feet, buddy.”

“Besides,” Chrissy says, “You wouldn’t want to get in the way of Trent’s chance to spend time with a pretty girl, would you?”

My cheeks start to burn and I glance at Josie. She’s twirling a strand of hair around a finger, looking apprehensive. As my friends continue to tease about the possibility of a blooming romance, Josie holds up a hand.

The whole rowdy table quiets for her. She looks right at me, and there's something careful in her face.

"I need to say the fine print out loud," she says. "I'm not here for romance. I’m selling Grandpa’s cottage. Once it sells, I'm gone. I’m just here for the summer. Well, what little is left of it."

Some of the guys snort, as if to say, ‘Just here for the summer… riiiight.’

I ignore them, looking at Josie. "Understood," I say. "Just for the summer."

I have never meant anything less in my life.

"Then okay." She sticks her hand across the table, businesslike. "Partners."

I shake it. Her hand is small and warm, and she doesn't let go too fast, and neither do I.

"First practice is Saturday," I tell her. "Sunrise. I'll have the Penny running by then."

"Sunrise," she repeats, faintly horrified, and the whole table laughs, and Rayna hugs Dani, and Ace whispers something to Chrissy that makes her grin, and under the table Liam kicks my ankle in a way that means congratulations and also I hate you.

Mikki, the owner of Mercury Slice, leans out of the pickup window. "Somebody want to tell me why it sounds like a party out here?"

"It’s Trent’s turn for love!" Ace hollers.

"I'm not—" I start.

"Ooey Gooey Sticks on the house," Mikki says. "This I gotta see."

Chapter Four

Josie

Trent wasn’t kidding about meeting at sunrise.

He's tied up at my grandfather's dock at first light, two coffees in hand, the Lucky Penny purring behind him like it never made a single goose noise in its life. The lake is flat and silver, mist sitting on the water, and the only sounds are loons calling across the cove.