Page 34 of The Apple Tree

I didn’t need his help, but I liked how my hand fit into his. “You didn’t tell me which dock. And there are three at this lake. I drove to the other two first.”

“Oh, I thought there was only one.” He gave me a half grin. “Sorry.”

“Yeah, I can tell,” I said before nodding to the engine. “Okay. What’s the first step?”

“Oh, you're driving it today?” He narrowed his eyes.

“Yes. What did you think we were doing?”

“Fishing and filleting.”

I shrugged. “Well, show me how to drive the boat, and I’ll take us to the fish; then we can catch and fillet.”

“Okay. First, make sure the engine is fully tilted down like this.”

I nodded.

“Then you need to squeeze this priming bulb until it’s full.”

I squeezed it. “Now what?”

“Make sure the throttle is in neutral.” He showed me that. “Key on. Choke out. Pull the cord.”

I followed his steps. “Ouch!” I grabbed my shoulder after a failed attempt at pulling the cord.

Kyle chuckled. “You have to use your muscles. Do you have any?” He playfully squeezed my upper arm.

I batted his hand away. “It’s not funny,” I said, but I laughed anyway. “Let’s skip the starting part. I just want to drive it.”

“Eve, if you can’t start this boat, I won’t let you fire a gun. And there’s no way you can pull my bow back to shoot an arrow.”

I frowned. “Fine. I’ll try again.” I gripped it harder, and again, it didn’t start, but at least it didn’t hurt my arm as much.

“You’ll flood it if you don’t get it started soon.”

“Yeah, yeah.” On the third attempt, it started. “I did it!”

“Sit. You’re going to fall out of the boat. Let’s try less celebrating and more concentrating.” He showed me how to make it go, how to steer the tiller in the opposite direction from our intended direction, and how to stop when we reached our spot to fish. Despite his repeated eye rolls and smirks, I thought I did a great job.

“Do I need to show you how to put the worm on the hook?”

“No.” I wrinkled my nose. “I know how to fish. My grandpa taught me.”

“But he didn’t teach you how to drive a boat?”

I shook my head, putting the worm on my hook. “He just fished off the dock. Catch and release.”

Kyle cast his line. “That’s all we’ll be doing. I don’t think we’ll catch anything worthy of dinner in this lake.”

We reeled in our lines and cast again.

“I didn’t get a chance to ask what you and Josh did this afternoon,” he said.

“We picked apples, chased butterflies, and then he played in his room while I snooped around in yours,” I said and bit my lip to keep from grinning while my attention stayed on my line.

I felt his gaze on me briefly before he watched his line again. “I know you’re trying to get a reaction out of me, but I also don’t think you’re lying either. You just think I’m going to think that you’re lying. So, did you find anything interesting in my room?”

“Besides yourPlayboymagazines? No.”

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