Page 18 of On the Line

“It is.”

“You haven’t taught me anything.”

“I’ve taught you plenty.”

“Not about fishing.”

Fair enough. I take the rod and show her the knot, slowly, and she watches my hands and then tries it herself. This time it holds.

She beams at me. “See? Natural talent.”

I shake my head, and she casts. It’s not bad, actually.

We sit side by side on the dock with our feet hanging over the edge. Her bare foot keeps nudging mine. The lake is still quiet this early, and most of the weekend crowd is sleeping off Saturday night.

I should probably wait. We’ve got one more night, and I could keep things easy until then. But she said last night that Monday was going to be hard, and I know what she meant. Monday is when this stops, and I don’t want it to.

“What are you doing next weekend?”

She glances over. “What?”

“Next weekend. What are your plans?”

“I don’t know. Nothing, probably.”

“Come back.”

Her face changes. “Liam.”

“What?”

“Our fake relationship ends tomorrow.”

“I know.”

“So why would I come back?”

“Because I’m asking you to.” I set my rod down on the boards. “And I’m not talking about pretending.”

The smile slides off her face. I keep going before I can talk myself out of it.

“I like you, Delaney.”

“I like you too.”

“No, I mean I really like you.” Understatement of the century. “This weekend hasn’t been fake for me. Maybe the first hour was. After that, not so much.”

“We met on Friday.”

“I know.”

“That was two days ago.”

“I can count.”

“That’s insane.”

“Probably.”