“Do you want to go sailing?” Jack asked as he slid each piece of bacon onto a paper towel-covered plate.
“I’ve never been on a boat. My friend Aiden has one and he and his dad go fishing on it all the time. M
y dad doesn’t fish.” He added this last part so wistfully that Daisy’s heart squeezed a bit.
“Well, here’s what I’m thinking,” Jack continued. “Why don’t we eat breakfast, then we can pack a picnic before we head out for a day of sailing on the lake. Maybe even do a little fishing of our own if you want. We can eat on the boat, or we could go inland and have lunch on the beach. Your call.”
“We can go fishing? Really?” Paul asked, his brown eyes wide and shining with excitement.
“If it’s okay with your mom.”
Daisy smiled at her son as a wave of gratitude toward Jack for making her son’s entire day surged through her.
“I don’t know,” she teased. “Who’s going to be doing all the gutting and deboning of those fish?”
“A true fisherman does it himself,” Jack said.
“I want to take guts out!” Natalie said, wanting in on the conversation.
“On that note,” Daisy said. “Why don’t you two set the table, and then run upstairs and get the older girls.”
With everyone occupied with their tasks, Daisy grabbed the coffeepot and refilled their cups. “Thank you,” she mouthed.
He nodded and, lifting his coffee, gave her that poster board, heart-stopping grin that made breathing almost impossible.
Danger, Daisy Sorensen.
She looked away, taking a breath.
Busy work. That’s what she needed.
Something to ground her. Remind her that fairy tales weren’t real.
That the witty handsome prince always ended up with a princess—something she most definitely was not.
No matter how much this place almost—almost, tried to make her believe it was possible.
…
“That is so gross,” Lily said from her perch on the bench aboard the sailboat as she watched Jack teach Paul and Natalie to bait their hooks. “I’m not eating fish, I don’t care how many you catch.”
Jenna sat as far away from Lily as she could, looking just as disgusted.
“You used to love fishing with me,” Jack said, remembering the days when Lily was about Natalie’s age, her hair in braids and a wide smile, happy to hang with her dad.
His daughter rolled her eyes. “That was ages ago before I had a life. And, apparently, a working sense of smell.”
“How about you, Jenna?” he asked. “Do you want to give it a try?”
“No thanks. Are you sure you’re not hurting them?” she asked, staring at the worms writhing on the end of their line.
“Not in the least.”
He didn’t point out that soon they’d be fish food anyway. He glanced at Daisy, who was holding a rod alongside her two youngest. Her long hair drawn back in a braid, white pants rolled up mid-calf, and a white tee covered with a red flannel shirt, she looked sexy and carefree, her smiles coming more easily.
Their security watch for today was sitting at the back, giving them their privacy, while Glenda was at the house on puppy-sitting duty, having claimed a propensity for seasickness.
“Careful with your hook, we don’t want to catch anyone’s hair,” he said as Paul’s came within a few inches of his sister. Jack demonstrated tilting his rod back behind his shoulder, looking to see them all following suit. “Okay, and with one quick movement in your wrists, we’re going to whip it out into the water. On three. One…two…and three.”