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His brother narrowed gray eyes. "Wait a sec, are you into Eva?"
"Hell, no." Jake threw in beside a hollowed cypress tree.
"Good, because she's totally wrong for you."
Jake nearly dropped his way too expensive rod. "Why would you say that?"
"Because Eva's the kind of girl you don't mess with. She's solid and good. She's not like the other girls you date.”
“What’s wrong with the other girls I date?”
“Nothing. It’s just they’re the kind who know the score going in. You aren’t interested in financing a mortgage with them or helping them breathe through labor. You’re interested in bagging them."
"You make me sound like a caveman."
Matt laughed. "Nah, I don't mean that's bad. You're just not like me."
"You mean living at the camp on weekends?"
Matt hesitated before saying, "Ouch."
Jake immediately felt like a cow patty.No.Like the fly larvae on a cow patty. "Sorry. Uncalled for."
"I get it. You're defensive because you're attracted to her. But I know you, Jake. You're bored. I'd suggest you find someone else to scratch that itch. Eva's too important to this community and our family, to break." Matt casted onto the other side of the stump and jiggled the bait a bit. ''And make no mistake, you'd break her, Jake."
At that moment a huge bass struck. Matt set the hook, and the big lunker flew up out of the water, thrashing in the waning light of day.
"Get the net," Matt yelled, reeling and working the line.
Jake nearly tripped over the tackle box lying in his path, but he grabbed the net just as the big fish tried to go under the boat Jake scooped the net in the water and grunted when he lifted. The bass was a monster.
"Woo,'' Matt crowed, reaching in and detaching the treble hooks from the wide mouth of the fish.
''This one's gotta be over eight pounds. Damn, he's a monster." Jake hooked his thumb in the mouth of the fish and lifted it, The big boy obligingly flipped his tail back and forth, still fighting against his captor.
Jake took a picture of his older brother smiling... something that rarely happened these days.
"Send it to me," Matt said before lowering the fish to the side of the boat.
"You really think I could hurt Eva?" Jake asked.
Matt looked up. "Yeah. She's had a thing for you as long as I've known her.”
Jake felt as if his brother had punched him in the gut. "No, she hasn't."
Lowering the fish into the water, Matt swished it for a few seconds, flushing water through its gills. "It may not have been obvious to you, but I've known it for a while now. She looks at you like you're the lead singer in a boy band. It's that bad."
Eva had a thing for him? He couldn't quite wrap his mind around that. He just couldn't see it. They’d been friends forever. Hell, he'd even farted in front of her a few times. Probably scratched his ass and admitted dumb things like how he liked to watchPride and Prejudice.Damn it, he'd done things a dude didn't do in front of a woman who was into him.
"I can't believe that. I mean, she never gave me any signs. I never knew."
"You didn't want to," Matt said, giving the fish a final swirl. "But trust me, you want to let her go."
Matt released the fish, and with a swish of its tail it disappeared beneath the muddy depths.
For a few seconds he and Matt stood there and looked at the water. At the trail of shimmering light the sun left as it sank into the depths. At the rippling surface that hid things that didn't need to be brought into the light of day.
Matt cleared his throat. "Yeah, sometimes you just have to let things go."
