No Vacancy (The Aveline Series Book 2)

Chapter 38

DARCY

We settled in,and Penn got the hang of fishing like a natural. His fingers were no longer getting tangled in the line, and he was able to cast without my help.

“I’m impressed,” I said to him, nodding my approval. “You learn quickly.”

“It’s kind of like riding a bike.” Penn cleared his throat and looked out at the creek. “I haven’t been fishing since I was a kid.” He paused. “Since my grandpa died.”

I drew in a breath and suddenly felt guilty for bringing him here, thinking we could have done pretty much anything else that didn’t remind him of someone who was gone. “Oh, I’m sorry. We didn’t have to come here.”

“No,” he said, looking over at me. “No, I wanted to come.”

I bit the inside of my cheek. “Can I ask why you haven’t been since your grandpa died? It’s okay if you don’t want to answer.”

“No,” Penn replied. “It’s okay. My grandpa used to take the three of us fishing all the time. It was our special thing with him. My grandpa had his own fishing boat, and we would get up really early in the morning before the sun came up and go out on the lake with him almost every Saturday. I was only nine when he died, but it never felt right to go without him.”

“Then why would you want to come here now?”

What I really wondered but didn’t want to ask was why would he want to come now... with me.

He shrugged, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. “It seemed like a really nice day for fishing.”

I smiled, looking up at the sky and letting the warmth of the sun flood over my face. It was a beautiful spring day. “You’re right. It is.” I turned my head toward Penn. “Do you want to talk about him?”

He nodded. “Yeah, some time I would like to, but right now, I think I actually have a fish, and I don’t want to lose it! It must be huge, too, because it’s strong!”

I laughed and dropped my pole, running over and helping Penn reel in a fish that was no bigger than my fist.

We had a really great day, and by the end of it, I realized I had been way too pleasant and I was losing sight of Operation AA. Penn and I drove back into town, and I looked over at him, noticing the slight pink of his cheeks.

“You got some sun.”

“So did you,” he gestured to my nose. “You got burnt a little, I think.”

I touched it gently with my fingers, wincing slightly. “I didn’t even think to put on sunscreen. I always do this on the first really sunny spring day. It gets me every time.”

I pulled up to Green Gables Inn, and Penn looked at me, his fingers around the handle of the door. “I’m hungry.”

I arched my eyebrow. “Cool?”

He chuckled and looked down, fidgeting with his hands. “I was just thinking that if you were hungry, too, that maybe you would want to go get something to eat with me?”

I smiled, taking off my bucket hat and trying to straighten out my hair. “Well, I am hungry.”

Penn laughed and nodded. “I’ll take it. I guess I should track down one of those town books for some suggestions on where to go.”

“Oh, no. Not here. We’ll go to the next town because if we eat here, we’ll have all of Aveline peeking in the windows and watching every bite we take. Trust me, you don’t want that.”

Penn stepped out of the car. “Okay then. Where to?”

“Leave the restaurant to me. I’ll pick you up in an hour.”