Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 91937 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91937 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
“For?”
“I’m leaving you here all alone. If he comes back, he’ll see your car is not there and leave. If it’s there, he’ll probably come and find you here,” I fill her in. “I have an alarm system. I’ll show you how to arm it once we leave.”
“Okay.” I can see the exhaustion all over her face.
“Why don’t you do that after and just go lie down,” I suggest, and she shakes her head.
“It’ll take me the same amount of time to clean up that it takes you to get dressed.” I nod, turning and walking back up the stairs to the bedroom. I slip on jeans and a T-shirt before going to brush my teeth. She is not lying. When I get back downstairs, the kitchen is spotless, as if she didn’t bake a million cakes today.
Wyatt is standing by the door, bouncing off the walls. “Ready?” I ask. He jumps up and down, and I can’t help but smile.
“Here,” she says, handing me a wrapped cake. “It’s a new flavor. Give it to Autumn.” She smiles. “Just don’t, you know.”
“I know.” I am about to bend and kiss her lips but remember Wyatt is here, so I look over my shoulder. “Come and say bye to your mom,” I tell him, and he comes over, gives her a hug, and runs out of the house.
“See you later.” I kiss her lips and point at the alarm panel. “Two, four, one, seven, stay.” She nods at me. “At all times, I’ll disarm it when I come back.”
“Okay,” she agrees, closing the door but watching through the window as I walk to her car. I stop at Charlie’s place with Wyatt, give Autumn the cake, and then grab a couple of the kids’ fishing poles he has for his nieces and nephews when they come to visit.
We get to the spot my father always took me to, seeing a couple of people out and trying to catch something. We walk over to the edge. “Careful not to get too close,” I warn him. “Do you know how to swim?” I ask, and he nods.
“Mom taught me this summer,” he informs me as I set down the tackle box. I look at him and smile.
“She’s pretty cool,” I say, and he smiles at me. “Which one do you want?” I ask of the poles I have.
“This one.” He picks up a blue-and-green one as I grab the bucket of earthworms that Charlie also had.
“So first thing is make sure you don’t stab yourself in the finger while you put the worm on the hook,” I instruct him, and he watches me with all his attention. I pick up a worm. “When I was younger, my father would make me stab the worm, and the guts would fly out.” I laugh. “But when I got older, I learned from my friends that there was a better way. Grab a hook and follow me.” He grabs a hook and then grabs a worm without being squeamish. “You stab the bottom of the worm.” I do it and watch him do it right away. “Push it up to the top of the hook.” I show him. “Now wrap the worm around the hook until a little is left, and stab it again.” I show him, and he slips the first time but gets it the second time. “Good job,” I praise him, and he smiles at me and everything, and I mean everything, in my body shifts. The smile is one that I will always, always remember. It’s also a smile I’m going to spend the rest of my life making sure he has on his face. “Now we fish.”
He nods at me. “Now we fish.” He stands next to me, and I show him how to cast into the water.
“Nice and slow,” I tell him, reeling mine in. We do that for about two hours before he gets a nibble on his line.
“Brady!” he shouts my name, reeling it in slowly. “Brady, I think I have something.” His excitement is everything. I watch as he brings it even closer, and the fishing rod curves a bit.
I step behind him to offer him help if he needs it. “You let me know if you need help,” I say as he reels it in faster and faster, the anticipation too much for him. The minute the fish is out of the water, he is so excited he almost drops the rod.
I catch it right before it slides into the water. “Sorry, Brady,” he says, his voice soft. I see him start to get nervous and my stomach goes tight. “I didn’t mean it.” His voice is shaking,
“Hey.” I laugh, trying to get him to see it’s not a big deal. “I did the same thing my first time,” I share with him, reeling in the line. “Except my rod is stuck down there somewhere.” He looks at me, then I hand him back the rod. “Take it out of the water, buddy.”