Chapter 8
“So, you’re telling me Ben Lawrence, the nerd you’ve been in love with since sixth grade, is back in town, and you threatened
to shoot him?”
Jodi sat cross-legged on the floor, perfecting a feather jig—a weighted fishing lure. It was Saturday, but with the fishing
tournament coming up in just a few weeks, they’d been spending weekends at the warehouse working on the welcome bags for the
competitors. The warehouse had been where Hook, Line, & Sinker made their products for the last five years. Before that, Mylie
and less than a dozen employees rented a cramped building downtown in between the ice-cream parlor and a jewelry shop. When
they’d finally begun to make a profit, Mylie decided that the business was here to stay, and she could take a risk on buying
a building. The warehouse, located on the edge of town, had once been a shoe factory in the 1970s. It was, to say the least,
a lot of work to make the space usable again, but it was the only thing they could afford. Now, it was her pride and joy and
employed nearly fifty locals.
Mylie held up a naked hook at her friend. “Don’t say it like that. It sounds bad when you say it like that. And trust me,
he doesn’t look like a nerd. Not anymore.”
“Oh really?” Jodi placed a jig with hot pink feathers into a plastic case and looked over at Mylie.
Mylie shook her head. “Nope.”
“So, he’s hot now?” Jodi asked. “Is that what you’re telling me?”
“What I’m telling you is that I have never been so embarrassed in my entire life,” Mylie replied, avoiding Jodi’s question.
Honestly, she didn’t know how to answer it. Yes, Ben Lawrence was hot. There was no denying that. But since she’d always been
attracted to him, well, the way he looked now just felt like a bonus. He still looked like Ben, just older. She thought about
the way he’d stared at her in her nightgown the night before. From the look on his face, he’d been surprised by her appearance,
too.
“It wasn’t your fault,” Jodi said. “ He tried to break into your house.”
At least that part was true.
“You haven’t even Googled him?” Jodi pressed.
Mylie looked down at the hook she was still holding in her hand. “I mean, sure, I Googled him once or twice over the years,
but he has like, zero online presence. All I knew was that he was living in Chicago, and last I checked, he was working on his doctorate degree
in economics.”
“Sexy,” Jodi said dryly.
“Says the woman who looks at spreadsheets for a living,” Mylie shot back.
“The man hasn’t been in town twenty-four hours, and you’re already defending him.” Jodi made a little clucking noise with
her tongue. “I mean, I get it. I always liked Ben. He was a good friend to both of us.”
“He was,” Mylie agreed. “But that was a long time ago, and now I feel like we don’t know each other anymore.”
“Because you don’t,” Jodi replied. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t get to know him again.”
“I guess,” Mylie said.
“Hey,” Jodi said. “Seriously, are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Mylie replied. “It’s just weird, that’s all.”
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, Sheriff Oakes didn’t say a damn thing about it this morning at the Cracked Egg,” Jodi
said.
“Really?” Mylie asked. “I’m pleasantly surprised.”
“He couldn’t get a word in edgewise,” Jodi continued. “Robbie Price was there bitchin’ up a storm about how you fired him.”
“You were there, too,” Mylie grumbled.
“He’s telling everyone who will listen that you fired him because you didn’t like him,” Jodi said. “You know, because it had
nothing to do with him stealing and drinking on the job.”
Mylie groaned. “I bet everyone within a three-mile radius knows about it by now.”
“Let’s stop for the day,” Jodi offered. She stood up and walked to where Mylie stood near the office door. “We’re weeks ahead
of schedule, and the lake is so nice right now. Let’s take the boat out, find us a cove, and enjoy the rest of our Saturday.”
“Far away from people,” Mylie added.
“Yes, of course,” Jodi agreed. “Far away from people and hot neighbors.”
“And the sheriff,” Mylie continued, shutting off the lights. “And everyone at the Cracked Egg!”
“You got it, sister!” Jodi called after her. “You got it!”
Mylie hadn’t realized how much she needed this. Jodi’s pontoon boat bobbed in the lake as the two women lay out in the sun.
It was still a little chilly outside, but by this point, people were ready to be on the water. Besides, with the sun on them,
it was almost warm enough to justify a bathing suit.
Jodi handed Mylie a White Claw. “Isn’t this nice?”
“Mmmhmm,” Mylie murmured.
“So, I probably shouldn’t ruin it by asking you about Ben, huh?”
Mylie sat up, adjusting her hot pink bikini top. She loved this bikini. It was a boat-stopper. In the summertime, she and
Jodi had garnered many a free drink with this bikini.
“Do you remember that time you nearly crashed Kelly Parker’s pontoon boat on the Fourth of July?” Jodi asked. “Lord, I thought
we were headed straight to jail.”
“It was her daddy’s pontoon,” Mylie corrected her. “And I was only driving it because Kelly was drunk as a skunk and had been since noon.”
“Yeah, well, you drove like you’d been drinking since noon,” Jodi replied. “I still can’t believe we just anchored it right
there in the water and left it.”
“I didn’t know what else to do,” Mylie said. “Besides, Ben and I went back later and got it in the slip just fine.”
“You mean Ben got it in the slip.”
Mylie smiled at the memory. She’d gone home a wreck because she was convinced she was going to be in trouble for leaving a
boat on the water. Ben, who’d refused to go out on the boat that day, probably for good reason, had been the one to calm her
down. They’d taken his grandfather’s speedboat out that night, and he’d managed to get the pontoon started and back in the
slip before anyone found out.
“He was in love with you, Mylie,” Jodi continued.
“I wish that were true,” Mylie said.
Jodi raised herself up on one elbow and caught her friend with a look. “You aren’t an insecure person. I never understood
why you didn’t just tell him how you felt. You always tell everyone how you feel.”
“It was different with him,” Mylie admitted. “I always knew he was going to leave after graduation. I always knew I was going
to stay. I didn’t want to mess up our friendship.”
“You can’t always know anything,” Jodi replied. “But I understand not wanting to be hurt.”
“It was easier to just be friends,” Mylie said.
“Well, now you can change it.” Jodi took another drink. “You’ve been given a second chance.”
Mylie felt her cheeks warm. “I don’t know him anymore,” she said. “He could be a completely different person.”
“Yeah, a hot person,” Jodi replied.
“I don’t care about that.”
“Bullshit,” Jodi said. “He’s hot. You’re hot. And you’re not kids anymore. I don’t see the issue with the two of you hooking
up, at least while he’s here.”
While he’s here . The words rang in Mylie’s head. That was it. The reason she didn’t want to talk about Ben, about his being here. He wasn’t
going to stay. She didn’t even have to ask him. She knew the answer. Maybe they were ten years older, maybe they looked different,
but really, nothing had changed.
Nothing ever changed around here.