Page 46 of Keeping it Local

“You’re driving me to work on my day off?” she joked at me.

We parked next to the shop, but that’s not where we were headed.

“Not quite.” I put the car in park, let Oberon jump out my door, then slammed it shut, nodding to the marina with a smile. “Come on.”

She paced behind Oberon and me, as we walked down the rows of docks out to where the fishing boats were. Once we got to the end, I turned around and smiled at her.

“I’m taking you out fishing.”

I leaned down and started unsnapping the boat cover. I brought my backpack with me, but for the most part, all of my fishing gear was either on the boat already or in the storage locker that Ted let me keep my poles in.

The used fishing boat was one of the first purchases I made when I made the move to Port St. Clair almost three years ago. Coming here with my grandpa growing up, I always loved when he took my cousins and me out on the bay to catch fish—bass, walleye, bluegill. It didn’t really matter what we caught but just that we did it together. I had gotten decent at fishing since getting the boat, and I had figured out where the good spots were to troll or cast. The early morning was always my favorite time to come out, and I wanted to share it with Beth.

“How come I didn’t know you had a boat? Or went fishing, for that matter?”

I shrugged at her. “It didn’t come up?”

“Johnny!” She put her hands on her hips. “I work in a boat shop.”

“You work in a rental shop that happens to rent bikes and boats.”

She gave me the side-eye. “Same difference.”

“Are you going to keep chirping over there, or are you going to help me uncover this so we can watch the sunrise?”

At that, she leaned in, helping me take the rest of the cover off and get all the tackle and poles set up. With two people, it only took a few minutes, and we were off, gliding through the marina with the few other fishing boats trying to make it out before daybreak.

She sat up front on one of the fishing seats, holding her coffee, bundled up in her sweatshirt and windbreaker. Her hair was tucked low in a messy bun under her baseball cap, and she curled her legs up underneath her. There were a few wispy hairs that flew out as we moved, and as we made our way into the sunrise, she was a perfect silhouette.

“I’ve never been out here at sunrise,” she said. “It’s so peaceful.”

“Yeah, kind of figured you hadn’t been out here this early and knew you’d enjoy it. Most people are still in bed at this time. Town doesn’t start to really bustle until nine or ten.”

“Yeah, even when we rent the fishing boats in the morning, it’s not like I’ve been out on the water in the morning.”

“Most people haven’t.”

“I’m still mad at you for not telling me you had this though.”

“I know. Am I forgiven yet?” I smirked at her.

She glanced back at me in the driver’s seat with a cute smile that spanned the width of her face. She was trying to hide it. “Working on it,” she said, smugly.

We silently rode for about twenty minutes until we arrived at the small cove I liked to frequent that was just north of town, and as we rode, I couldn’t help but feel this was the most relaxed I’d been in… longer than I could remember.

As I pulled up, there was only one other fishing boat in the distance, and I nodded at him as I cruised up a few feet from the rocky shore.

She looked around her. “This is it?”

“This is it. It’s my secret honey hole.”

She quirked her mouth at me, which I fully expected from her at this point. “Maybe not so secret if Greg is here too.” She waved out at Greg, and he returned the giant wave back to us.

I shrugged. “He’s not up on the rock wall though.”

“That he isn’t.”

She looked at me with those big brown eyes, stuck her tongue out, and my cock immediately hardened in my pants.