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At the edge of the gleaming inland lake, I snapped the buckle on Harper’s life jacket. “And what are the rules in the canoe?”
“Elbows in the canoe and don’t rock it,” Harper said smartly. “Try to stay in the middle and grab on the canoe if it gets rocky.”
“Right.” I looked over to Sam, who was finishing putting her life jacket on quickly and efficiently.
Finished with Harper, I went to double-check Sam. I knew she had done this a hundred times over, but I would not let her get into the canoe without checking. If I didn’t, and something did happen, Emily would probably slap me from the grave.
“I got it, Dad,” Sam huffed.
“I know, Sam, always the independent one, but I still want to check,” I said, giving her a small grin. “It’s the dad in me.”
With her jacket on the right way, I turned and held the boat for the two girls to step inside, then pushed the rowboat out and, after getting in, grasped the oars. The pristine lake sat before them with a family of ducks happily quacking and paddling in the distance. Puffy clouds hid the sun. I was grateful it would not be a scorching day.
When we got to a decent place, I handed the fishing rods out and fixed the worm on Harper’s while Sam had hers done in minutes.
“We’re in the perfect spot,” I said, looking around, taking in the warm scents of the forest and the creek, the coolness of the air on my skin. “And it’s so quiet.”
The point where I had taken us was relatively deep and wide, carving a path through the hills around us. Further up were the rapids and white-water sports daredevils loved, but this little offshoot was calmer. The flow was broken up by an islet of naturally gathered silt land.
Out here, surrounded by nature, I felt some of the tension of the last few weeks bleeding away—the vandalism, Brandon’s schemes, Sam’s trouble at the school, and the flickering worries about where this thing with Rayna was headed. They all flitted away, and none mattered out here except for the soft light dancing over the water, Harper’s constant and comforting chatter, and the rustle of birds in the trees.
Other than eating together on Sunday nights, this was the first real time we’d three spent together. As much as I liked it, I realized that I couldn’t remember the last time we had done this. Guilt pooled in my gut like an acid churn.
“Dad,” Sam’s voice broke through my musings. “I think I got something.”
“Okay, you know what to do. Take it nice and slow, and reel it in. Don’t jerk the line, now.” I coached her into bringing the fish in. She reeled in a six in Sunfish. It was a decent catch, but nothing we wanted. “You know what to do, Sam.”
She gently pulled the fish off and released it into the water. We continued fishing, with a few other catch-and-release, before Harper pulled in a big rainbow bass. I had to grab her to steady the line and hold her while she reeled it in, but it was quite a catch.
“There we go. That’s a nice one.” I praised her while I dropped the fish into the cooler. “Ella might like this one.”
When Sam reeled in another rainbow bass, I praised her. “You’ve got the angler touch.” I smiled broadly while taking it and dropping it into the cooler. “You’d do well on a nature test.”
“You mean like those where they dump you in a forest with a knife and a canteen?” Sam replied. “I think they do those in boy scouts. Tyler told me he had done a few of them last weekend.”
Astonished to hear that, I jerked the rod a little. When had she talked to Tyler since she had punched him? I kept my tone calm. “When did he say this?”
“A couple of days ago at recess,” she replied absently while her attention was on her fishing line. “He’s my friend again, and he said he was sorry about what he’d said to make me hit him.”
“And what did he say?” I asked.
“He said he was sorry for saying I wasn’t a girl,” her cheeks were pink. “He told me that he didn’t mean it that way, but what he meant was that I wasn’t girlie. He said he liked that I’m not like the other girls.”
I opened my mouth but shut it instantly before taking on another tactic.
“How did he suddenly come and apologize?” I asked.
“He said Miss Everett got him to tell her because his dad was going to do something nasty to us if he didn’t know what happened,” Sam said. “I think he said Miss Everett said he would take us to court. But that’s all gone now. All we have to do is meet with Tyler’s dad and explain everything.”
Wait? What? Wouldn’t that have been something Rayna should have told me when we spoke? How could she have left that out? I made a mental note to call Rayna when I entered the house. We needed to talk about this.
“Well, that's good, kiddo,” I said, smiling broadly. “I’m glad you two are back to being friends.”
“Me too,” she said. “I like Miss Everett.”
“You do?”
Sam shrugged a single shoulder. “Yeah, she’s nice and pretty.”
