Page 50 of Lovewell Lane

“Lila and I will stay with the girls while you two test it out,” said Sam. He’d been suspiciously quiet this whole time. I wasn’t sure if it was the early morning, but something about this was extra fishy. No pun intended.

But I was a sucker for puppy eyes, so I followed orders. Derek grabbed an adult-sized life jacket and fastened it on for me, tightening it without looking me in the eye once. It felt weirdly intimate, letting him get me suited up. I tried not to focus on his forearms too much.

“I have no idea how to get in this thing,” I confessed. I stood on the dock, staring at Derek gracefully standing in the boat. Something told me it wasn’t as easy as he made it look.

“You’ve traveled the world, and you don’t know how to get on a boat?”

“I opted out of the gondola ride when I was in Venice.”

He reached out a hand. “Lean on me, you have to balance your feet.”

I white-knuckled his hand as I stepped onto the boat. Thankfully, his weight balanced it out, so I didn’t struggle too much. Not wanting to risk falling in, I sat down as quickly as possible. Tessa ran out onto the dock up to us.

“Wait, you forgot this,” she said.

I reached out to grab what she was offering. “An umbrella?” I asked. I looked up at the sky and saw no clouds.

“Murphy’s Law,” she said proudly.

Derek snickered and reached to unloop the rope that tied the boat to the dock. “Thanks, honey. Stay by the bank with Sam and Lila. And listen to them, they’re in charge, okay?”

“Yes, Daddy, have fun!”

I watched her trot back to the bank where Sam was setting up fishing lines in front of their chairs. As Derek sat and rowed, I vowed to myself that I would not watch him. Something about his broad shoulders working those oars out of the corner of my eye was enough to set me on edge. This was every woman’s wet dream. And I was forced to pretend it was just any Sunday morning.

I craned my neck to my right and found the most stunning start of a sunrise. Pinks and oranges swirled together to make gradients of beautiful watercolors. They reflected off the water, making it look as if the sky touched the water itself.

“It’s beautiful,” I murmured.

Derek hummed his agreement. Finally, he stopped rowing, and I allowed myself to look at him. He was looking right back at me. He looked stricken in awe, and I wondered if he thought I painted the sunset there myself.

We both looked away after a beat, and I scrambled for anything normal to say. “You’re good on a boat.” Not exactly normal, but I was desperate.

He laughed at me. “You aren’t.”

His laugh turned into a smile, and I found myself squinting for a new reason. He was genuinely smiling. Right at me. I had to look away to stop from smiling like an idiot back at him.

Between his smile and the sunrise nearly blinding me, I was wishing I’d brought sunglasses. “We’re in the middle of a lake. Do you really want to test me right now?” I asked.

He raised his hands in surrender. I watched him reach for a pole and mess around in a tackle box. I sat contentedly, admiring the view. Of the sunrise. And, maybe, him too.

“Do you know how to do this?”

“Absolutely not. I visited my dad in the summertime only. And he was always working. My mom wouldn’t be caught dead on a boat.”

He stood up to get closer so that I could see what he was doing. He crowded me, sitting on the same wooden bench as I was. “Let me show you.”

We bowed our heads, and I watched his thick fingers meticulously bait a hook before threading a fishing line through it. I made a mental note to sign myself up for therapy for getting turned on by this. Suddenly, I wondered if my problem in the past was that I’d never been attracted to a man enough to want a relationship. Because I’d never seen a man be so… manly. The rowing, parenting, and expert fishing skills were all so hot. I didn’t catch a single thing he taught me.

He handed me bait and a hook of my own to try when I was saved by the bell. Or, the Ariel, more specifically. Suddenly, music was blasting over the lake toward us. It sounded magical as the music floated over to us. And then I realized what the song was.

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” Derek seethed. He glared at the shore so intensely that I was worried anyone there might have evaporated on the spot.

16

Derek

Tessa Weston fell in love with her favorite movie at age two, and her love for it hasn’t waned since. I could recite nearly every line because it was the only thing that played on my television for a solid two years straight. Her absolute favorite moment in the movie was the nightmare I was currently living out.

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