Page 17 of Beck & Coll
“I love salmon.” She started then stopped abruptly with the pull on her line. “I think I’ve got another fish.”
I watched her line bob. “I think you do, too. You want me to reel it in?” I had reeled in the three others she’d caught.
“No. I want to try to reel it in myself.”
“Do your thing.”
She planted her feet.
“Keep the tension in your line. Reel. Reel, Collins. Keep your rod tip up.” She was sexy as hell, biting her bottom lip and trying her damnedest to follow my directives as I gave them. “Keep doing the same thing. Keep the fishing rod up and keep the tension. Let me know if you need help.”
I looked on with pride as she worked to reel in her very first fish. She did a great job getting the fish out of the water and over the boat.
“Let me grab it.”
As I went to grab the fish, the damn thing bucked right in her face, causing her to throw the entire pole down and back away from it. While she was backing up, she lost her footing, and once again, ended up on her back.
“Damn, baby.” The words slipped from my mouth before I could catch them.
She didn’t notice. She was too busy trying to get off the floor of the boat.
“The wilderness doesn’t like me,” she mumbled once we were back in my truck headed toward the resort.
After the mishap, she had been quiet. She stared off at the horizon not saying a word while I did a cursory check of her body to make sure there weren’t any serious injuries. After I made sure that she hadn’t sustained any damage that would require immediate or medical attention, I let her make it.
“Don’t get discouraged, mama?—”
She cut me off. “How can I not? This is the second time I’ve fallen doing some type of outdoorsy shit.”
I didn’t mean to laugh, but she caught me off guard with the profanity. “Come on now, Coll. You can’t really blame the fact that you're clumsy as hell on nature.”
“I’m not clumsy.”
Before I could protest with my receipts, she giggled.
“Okay,” she said. “I am a little clumsy.”
“Why are fine ass women always clumsy?”Shit!I thought to myself. My mouth was getting out of control. The first time I said something unprofessional, she’d been too distracted to catch it. This time… there was no way she didn’t hear me. “I’m sorry,” I told her.
At the same she said, “So you're lumping me into the gorgeous but clumsy category? I won’t complain about that.”
I took my eyes off the road for a second to cut them at her. “Come on, girl. You know you’re beautiful.”
“My sisters and my mother are beautiful,” she corrected me. “I’mpretty.”
“That’s your opinion. You can’t tell me who I think is beautiful.”
“You’re right. Sorry. And thank you. I don’t feel very beautiful right now all covered in fish juice, dirt, and whatever else was on the nasty ass floor of the boat.”
I chuckled before teasing her. “You’re still beautiful, even while you smell like fish and bait… and…”
“Stop talking, Beckham.”
I did, but I couldn’t help the fact that I continued to chuckle.
I pulled my pickup to a stop right next to her rented Subaru outside of Sunset Cliff Cottage. “If you want to take a shower, I’ll swing back by here in an hour or so. I need to run over to the tour office at the lodge. When I get back, we can grab a late breakfast atSTG Homestead. You have to be starving.”
STG Homesteadwas the only restaurant on the property that served breakfast. Delicious breakfast fare was served from early in the morning well into the late afternoon. On the weekend, the restaurant served a brunch that locals flocked to the resort’s property to indulge in. Reservations were usually booked up to three months out, but I could get us in.
