I nodded toward the trees. “Now you know why.”
She laughed, bright and unexpected. “You coordinated withSienna?”
“I bribed her with hiking boots of her choice.”
“Okay,nowI’m impressed.”
“Come on,” I said, holding out my hand.
She hesitated a beat, then slipped her fingers into mine like she’d been doing it for years. We followed the trail together, sunlight dappling through the trees overhead, the lake coming into full view with every step.
When we broke through the clearing, she stopped cold.
The canoe sat nestled along the shoreline, half in the water, bright red life jackets draped over one side. The picnic blanket was already laid out nearby, a checkered blue and white design, with the basket set neatly in the middle and two cold lemonades sweating in mason jars.
Fifi blinked. “Are you trying to kill me with wholesomeness?”
“Too much?”
“It’s dangerously effective.”
She leaned into my shoulder briefly, soft and warm. “I really needed this.”
“I know,” I said quietly. “That’s why I arranged it.”
Five minutes later, we were drifting across Buttercup Lake.
The canoe glided smoothly through the water, Fifi up front, with one hand lazily trailing in the glassy surface. The picnic basket was stashed safely behind her, and the quiet of the lake wrapped around us like a balm.
“You know,” she said, glancing back, “this is wildly romantic for someone who claims to be emotionally unavailable.”
“I never claimed that,” I replied, dipping the paddle again.
“No, but your general air of mystery kind of implied it.”
She twisted around a little more to look at me. “So what’s the deal? What do you do when you’re not fending off Midwestern women and their flying chickens?”
I smirked. “I’m an attorney. I told you that.”
Fifi let out a low whistle. “That explains the wrinkle in your forehead, but you didn’t say what you do.”
“Where do you practice?”
“Florida,” I said. “Downtown Miami.”
“Big firm?”
I hesitated. “Yeah. I made partner two years ago.”
Fifi sat up straighter. “Ben! That’s huge.”
“It was,” I said. “I worked for it. Years. Late nights. Weekends. Sacrificed a lot.”
She picked up on it immediately. “You say that like you’re not happy about it.”
I stared out at the water. “It came with costs.”
There was a pause. A quiet ripple of wind through the trees. Fifi didn’t push right away, but I could feel the question waiting there between us, thick with implication.
