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“You two’ll never agree on how to fish.” Frank shook his head. “The proof’s in the catch.” He eyed the pail beside him with three good-sized trout in it.
“Dad showed me the Silver Nymph he tied. He swears by it, so I tied myself a couple. Seems to be doing okay.” I pointed to my own two fat trout and went back to fishing.
I let my mind drift as I relaxed, and I glanced across the lake. It was good to be able to see our hard work at Shadows from this prospective. It was important to learn every inch of the land around our safehouse. Zack and I had the advantage over Frank because we’d grown up and played there as kids, but there was still a lot of unexplored land, and things had grown up a lot since then. The more we hiked and explored, the more knowledge we’d have, and that knowledge could save your life.
“So,” Zack grinned as he sipped now cold coffee from a stained Snoopy cup, “Daniel has Sue in his sights, but what about you, Frank? Anyone catch ournumber guy’seye?”
“Nope.”
“Bull!” Zack saw what I did. A lie flickered across Frank’s face so quickly that it was almost missed. “Come on, spill it!”
“Whatever.” He drew his line in and cast again so hard the canoe rocked. We waited impatiently for him to go on. “Okay, okay. I was in Washington a few weeks ago, and there was this woman who caught my attention. And before you try to drill it out of me, her name is Heather.”
“Would that be Mia’s mother?” I spilled my secret with a sly grin. I felt he deserved it because he’d run his mouth to Sue.
“Wait, who’s Mia?” Zack looked between the two of us. “If this is a secret, I need answers, guys.”
“Ah,” Frank tossed his fishing rod at me, “fine. Let’s keep the score board even.” He growled as I grinned happily at Zack. “All I said was if I ever had a daughter, I wanted her name to be Mia.”
“Come again?” Zack questioned.
“I don’t know what the big deal is. I mean, women often pick out names for their kids when they’re younger. Why is it strange for a man to do it?”
“It’s not,” I added to show I wasn’t making fun of him forthatreason.
“Why Mia?” Zack tried to follow.
“Because,” he glanced at me, and I welcomed his answer to the world with open arms because it was funny as shit, “because any man who might try to hurt her will have to deal with me and will be missing in action.”
“MIA,” I added for the full effect. Zack’s lips pressed together as he tried everything in his power not to laugh. That lasted about three full seconds.
“I’m not laughing at the name, honestly, brother. It’s more the explanation of the name.” Frank punched Zack, which only made him laugh harder.
“Okay, okay,” I held a hand up in an attempt to stop the teasing. I didn’t want to be too cruel to our friend, “let’s just be happy he isn’t going to name her after his blanket Woobie.”
“You’re such a bitch tit, Logan.” Frank glared at me. Zack tried to keep his seat while he belly laughed in the wildly rocking canoe. Watcher licked his face as he tried to catch his breath.
“I promise our secrets at the lake stay at the lake,” I said to Frank in a very serious voice with my hand over my heart. He snatched his pole from my hands and suggested we should start back.
Daniel
We trained, we worked on Shadows, we ran errands in town, and repeated. That was how each day went. Every spare moment I had, I spent it with Sue. She never asked what I was up to. She just seemed to know I was doing something I needed to do with the guys, and that was enough for her.
“That’s really pretty.” I admired her bracelet as it caught the sunlight. I flicked on the blinker as we were about to pull off into the grocery store parking lot. I was pleased to have a day off with her. When I stopped the truck, I lifted her wrist to study the bracelet more closely. The flat oval stones were smoothly polished, and when you studied each one, you could see the small, intricate grain that ran through each stone.
“Thank you. My mother gave it to me.” She held it up. “I love black stones, so this was perfect.”
“Blackstone,” I repeated and thought how perfect that sounded for a team name. I really liked the sound of it and also knew it would always remind me of Sue. “Thanks for that.”
“For what?” She zipped her coat.
“Nothing.” I kissed her hand and let it drop back to her lap.
“Are you flirting with me, Mr. Logan?”
“I am.” I gave her my best smile, the one she’d commented on to Tracy. I was lucky Tracy had ratted her out to me about it, because I planned to turn it on whenever I felt it was needed.
“You think you’re pretty charming, don’t you?” She tried to play it strong, but I could see she was falling deeper into my hold each day by the way her cheeks pinked up.
