Page 26 of A Little Campfire Blues

Smelly old fishes started swimming towards each other while we reeled, and soon we were all tangled up with flopping fishies on both lines, tails sending water all over us.

“Big fishies!” Axis declared, holding on to his pole and only reeling when Roman told him to.

“Big fishies and an even bigger mess,” Roman said as he finally gave up trying to untangle our lines from the shore, kicked his shoes off, rolled up his pants legs, and waded in to try and fix things in the water.

“Need a hand?” a voice called.

“Our fishies got tangled up,” I explained to Mackenzie.

“I’d love a hand,” Roman replied as he waded towards our thrashing captives.

Soon Mackenzie had his shoes off too and waded into the lake in board shorts to help Roman get our fishies untangled.

“You boys just hold on to your poles and don’t reel until we tell you to,” Mackenzie declared.

Working together, it didn’t take him and Roman long to get our fishies untangled and our lines separated. Roman held Axis’ fish in his hands, while Mackenzie placed mine back in the water for me.

“Now you can reel,” Mackenzie told me, so I did.

Slowly, carefully, inch by inch, I brought my floppy fishy to the shore with Mackenzie wading out behind it. Only after my fishy was safely on shore with Mackenzie helping to get the hook out of its mouth did Roman lower Axis’ line back into the water so he could reel his in too.

“Are we cooking or tossing back?” Mackenzie asked, with a firm hold on my fish.

“He’s big, so he’s gonna be dinner tonight,” I said, carefully pulling my phone out of my backpack so I could take a picture with it first. “Will you take a picture with me?”

“I’d love to, little one,” he replied, grinning as he went to one knee next to me so we were almost the same height and held my fish up in front of us while I took a couple selfies of us.

“Thank you, and thank you for helping to untangle him.”

“It was my pleasure,” he replied before straightening up while I skipped over to the cooler and opened it to show him the other four fish already swimming around inside. “Wow, you guys have done a great job already.”

“We turned some tiny ones loose after we took pictures of them, but Roman’s gonna cook the big ones while we blow bubbles and chase fireflies,” I blurted, proud of our fishies.

“Sounds like you have a fun evening planned.”

“Uh-huh. We’re gonna catch more fish too if you wanna have dinner with us.”

His eyes widened a little at hearing that, and he glanced from me to where Roman and Axis approached with the big one Axis had caught.

“Are you sure that’ll be okay with everyone?” he asked.

“I think we’d like that a lot,” Roman said, while Axis nodded, paci in his mouth, which he sucked on while he held his fish. “After a conversation we had earlier, we realized that we were all still on the same page about wanting someone who wanted to have a relationship with the three of us. We agreed that if you found us and still wanted to spend time with us, then we’d happily take you up on the offer and see how things went from there.”

“It’s not too late, is it?” I asked, folding my hands beneath my chin and staring up at him.

The bark of laughter that followed made his eyes look all sparkly where the sun fell across his face. “Not in the slightest.I’d love to join the three of you for dinner, fireflies, and bubbles. In fact, I have a bubble cannon in my cabin that I’ll pick up when we’re done here. I think you’ll enjoy playing with it and chasing all the bubbles it makes.”

“Ohh, yey, yey, yey,” I declared, hopping about, then catching Axis’ hands so he could hop with me.

Giggling, he joined me in dancing around Mackenzie and Roman, who shook his head at our antics.

“Alright, you two, if we’re going to have a guest for supper, then you’d better catch a few more fish,” Roman said, doing his best to look stern, though I saw the corners of his lips quirk up a little as he held back his laughter.

We stopped and unlinked our hands so he could step out of the circle we’d made and find the container of squirmy worms we’d been given at the start of the derby. Axis and I stood still with our poles in our hands while Mackenzie attached one to my hook and Roman did the same for Axis, who wrinkled his nose and looked away when the hook pierced the side of the worm.

“Why don’t Ezzy and I take a few steps this way, and you and Axis can take a few to your right, so there is less of a chance of them tangling their lines again?”

“Good idea,” Roman said. “I’d have had them spread out more, but it was easier to keep them close so I could help one without taking my eyes off the other.”

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