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“Okay, everyone. Apparently, I’m leading the hike this afternoon. The quicker we find Basin Lake, the sooner Bennett will have to prove those stellar fishing skills he keeps bragging about,” Lucky announced.
I followed him up to lead the pack, laughing under my breath at the idea of Bennett as an expert fisherman.
“What?” Lucky asked as we began hiking down the far side of the pass. “Is B bullshitting us or something?”
I shrugged and said, “For all I know, he’s an expert now.”
“But when you were kids?” he asked with a grin.
“When we were kids, it was a whole different story. One time we watched a movie where a guy caught fish with his bare hands. So, Bennett and I decided to try it out in his parent’s koi pond.”
“Koi? What’s that?” Lucky asked, his brow furrowed.
“Those are those big-ass goldfish with the fancy tails, right?” Calvin asked as he sidled up next to us.
“That’s right,” I responded.
“So what happened?” Calvin prodded. He was walking next to Lucky, so I kept an eye on him just to make sure he didn’t try to mess with the younger guy.
“So we went to the pond and plonked right in there in these ridiculous rain boots we’d stolen from my dad’s work shed. Of course, as soon as the water level reached over the edges of the boots, they became swamped and came off with our next step. But we didn’t care. Just kept wading out to the middle like the guy in the movie had done.”
Lucky watched me with bright eyes and I noticed two more boys had appeared on the other side of me to listen.
“What happened next?” one of the boys asked.
“Well, your fearless leader found what he proclaimed was the perfect fish-catching spot. He made a big deal about getting in position so he wouldn’t accidentally tip over, and then he held up his hands like a surgeon waiting for gloves. ‘Watch and learn,’ he said and stupid me believed he could do it,” I continued, as a laugh bubbled up my throat. It felt foreign to me at first, but one look at the kids and I hurried on. “So, he lurched in with both arms when he saw one of the big goldfish swim past. Missed. Then tried again. Another miss.”
The boys had started chuckling as I described Bennett getting wetter and wetter with every attempt.
“Finally, he wiggled his ass to get ready for the ultimate attempt before giving up. Only this time I could tell by the look in his eyes, he was prepared to go all in.” I actually had to stop for a second because another round of laughter hit me unexpectedly.
“Then what happened?” Lucky asked, laughing since I was laughing.
“He… he saw one of the biggest koi swim toward him and took off in a giant flying leap just as his dad walked out of his office onto the back patio and saw us. Right when Mr. Crawford yelled, Bennett turned his head and landed in a giant belly flop on the water. I swear I saw three big koi splash up into the air.” I barely managed to get out the words as an image of Bennett’s startled expression hit me. “One of them landed on the stone surrounding the patio right in front of Mr. Crawford. He stood there gaping at it, and then just turned and walked back into his office. As if the whole thing was just par for the course with the two of us.”
The boys turned to call back to Bennett, who was presumably hiking in the back of the pack.
“B? Is it true you once captured a koi fish with your bare hands?” the kid called out.
I didn’t look back, but could imagine the mischievous grin sliding across Bennett’s lips.
“Who wants to know?” he called up to us. “Has someone up there been telling stories about me?”
The warmth in Bennett’s voice stroked over my entire body. Fuck. Why had I told this story in the first place?
“Yeah. Xander makes it sound like your technique involves cannonballing into the water and splashing poor unsuspecting fish onto shore,” Lucky called back over his shoulder. “That doesn’t sound like expertise as much as dumb luck.”
“I never promised I was an expert at it. Just that I was good at it,” he teased back. “We had that poor koi for dinner that night, didn’t we, Xander?”
I bit my tongue to keep from laughing. What we’d had for dinner that night had been exactly nothing. We’d been sent to Bennett’s room without dinner for fucking up the Crawford’s pristine decorative whatever.
“Xander?” Lucky asked when I didn’t respond to Bennett’s tease.
“Best damned koi dinner I’ve ever had,” I replied with a small smile, and I couldn’t resist the urge to look over my shoulder at Bennett. His warm brown eyes were on mine, and for the first time since he’d stepped off that bus, I let myself enjoy that memory with him. It felt so good to just laugh. I hadn’t even really realized until this very moment how long it had been since I’d done just that.
