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She eyed him and nodded. “You go get cleaned up and I’ll get us each one. Then I think you’d better brush up on your schoolwork.”
“Why?”
She stood, wrapped both arms around the post supporting the roof and stared across the creek. “Summer’s almost over, Cody,” she said reluctantly, her fingers scratching the peeling paint from the post. Soon Chase and all the problems he brought into her life would be gone. And those problems would be replaced with new ones from Caleb Johnson. “Go on. Scoot,” she said to her son.
“Aw, Mom—” He let out an exaggerated sigh. “I’ll start tomorrow night. Okay?”
“Is that a promise?”
Cody nodded but bit at his lower lip.
“I m going to hold you to it.”
“I know, I know,” he mumbled as he slipped through the creaking screen door and hurried up the stairs.
A few minutes later Dani heard the sound of water running in the pipes. She folded her mending and glanced down the hill to Johnson’s side of the fence. All the equipment was still in position, but no one was in sight. They’d probably all gone up to the house for lunch.
“And good riddance,” she murmured, but the ache in her heart wouldn’t subside.
* * *
Water was still dripping from Cody’s dark hair when he bounded down the stairs half an hour later. He grinned at his mother when he saw the two glasses of Coke on the table.
“I saved you from a fate worse than death,” Dani remarked, shooting him an indulgent look. She was standing at the stove and frying Cody’s trout. Both small fish sizzled as they browned in the pan.
“How’s that?” he asked.
“We’re eating the fish you caught for lunch.”
“Wait a minute—”
Caref
ul not to spill the grease, Dani scooped the fish from the pan and set them on a platter lined with paper towels. “That way you don’t have to have them for dinner tonight.”
“Mom—” he began to protest, but she placed the platter on the table between her plate and his.
“Eat, son, and I promise not to give you any lectures on starving children in the rest of the world,” Dani said as she sat at the table, took a fish and wedge of lemon and began squeezing lemon juice on the tender white meat.
With a grimace, Cody speared the remaining fish and placed it onto his place as he sat down. Drinking plenty of Coke between each bite, he mumbled and grumbled to himself.
“Great trout,” Dani teased, her eyes sparkling.
“Don’t rub it in.” But Cody returned her smile. “Have you got the mail today?”
Dani nodded.
“Was there, uh, anything for me?” he asked, staring down at his plate.
Dani forced a smile she didn’t feel and the piece of trout she was chewing stuck in her throat. “Not today.”
“Oh.” Her son slowly speared another piece of fish and Dani’s heart twisted.
The phone rang and Cody raced to get it. After a short conversation, he hung up and returned to the table. “That was Shane. He wants me to spend the night.”
“Tonight?”
“Uh-huh. I told him it was okay. It is, isn’t it?”
