Chapter 23
Declan
“You have to pull up,” Sean scolds me. “Then you lower it while you reel in. Whatever you’re doing is not going to work.”
“God, you’re hot when you’re bossy,” Frankie tells him, fanning herself with a paperback with a shirtless dude on the cover. The motion makes her book light start to slide off from where it’s clipped to the back of the book, but she manages to grab it before it flies overboard.
I ignore them both. I’m still not sure how I ended up on a boat with a fishing pole in my hands at the crack of dawn – on a work day, no less – but here we are.
I haven’t fished since I was a kid, when my grandfather used to take me down to the docks early in the morning during summer vacation.
I was probably twelve or thirteen the last time I let him talk me into it.
Before I turned into a little shithead teenager who didn’t want to spend my time catching fish that I wouldn’t even eat.
Speaking of –
“I don’t even like fish,” I point out. Sean ignores me, casting his line and whistling an obnoxious tune.
Frankie leans over from her seat at the wheel of the boat. “I don’t think he cares,” she whispers loudly enough for her husband to hear.
“You eat seafood,” Sean calls over his shoulder.
“Everything except fish.”
“More for Frankie and I.”
“And baby,” she adds, her voice casual as she flips to the next page in her book. When she looks up at me and grins, the meaning of her words clicks.
“Holy shit,” I yell, jumping up from my seat. I nearly drop my pole overboard in my excitement and Frankie cackles.
“If you drop that, my husband is going to kill you.”
I set the pole down and grab Frankie by the hands, tugging her out of her seat so I can give her a proper hug. She laughs against my shirt and squeezes me back.
“I’m so happy for you,” I tell her. “Wait a sec.” I pull back, holding her at arms’ length. She’s beaming at me, and I can already tell she’s going to be one of those pregnant women who has that glow people talk about. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen her happier.
“Should you be on a boat right now?” I ask.
She rolls her eyes and shoves me away. “I’m not an invalid, you neanderthal.”
“Quit pissing my wife off,” Sean says, setting his pole down and making his way over from the front of the boat.
When he gets close enough, I clap him on the shoulder and pull him into a bone-crushing hug.
We’ve never hugged before, but I’m having a rare sentimental moment about my friend becoming a dad.
“Congrats, man. I couldn’t be happier for you two.”
“Thanks, Deck,” he says, sounding suspiciously choked up. “Means a lot.”
When we break apart, he immediately reaches for Frankie, grabbing her by the waist and tugging her close.
They share a smile that’s just for the two of them, one full of memories of the years they’ve spent together and a new giddiness at what’s to come.
I look away, picking my pole back up. For as long as I’ve known them, Sean has always looked at Frankie like she hung the moon and the stars.
I can only imagine how he’ll be with a child.
It’s surreal to think they’ll soon have a tiny version of the two of them. Someone who will become the new center of their world, the sun they’ll now orbit around. What a lucky kid, coming from a love like theirs.
Fuck, when did I get so sappy?
“Alright, let’s catch some damn fish,” Sean says, patting Frankie on the butt before heading back to his spot at the head of the boat.
“You know, you guys could have told me the good news on land. And at a normal hour of the day.”
Never mind that it’s actually been a good distraction from what went down with Elsie in the greenhouse yesterday. I’m dying to see her this afternoon, to make sure she’s going to keep good on her promise not to hide from me.
And if I manage to steal her away for a few minutes to remind her why she shouldn’t keep her distance… well, that would just be a bonus.
“Where’s the fun in that?” Frankie grins. “Besides, baby has been craving fish.”
“And I know better than to deny a pregnant woman what she wants,” Sean says seriously. “Dragging your grumpy ass along just sounded fun.”
As the sun rises higher in the sky and we catch enough fish for the dinner Frankie promised to cook us tonight after work, I can’t help wondering if a future like theirs is in the cards for me.
I’ve never wanted to settle down, do the whole getting married and having kids thing.
Growing up the way I did – with an addict for a mom, no clue who my father is, and grandparents who had to pick up my mom’s slack throughout my entire childhood – I didn’t have the best example to learn from.
The whole white picket fence thing, it wasn’t something I ever gave much thought to.
Now, though…
It doesn’t seem like such an impossibility anymore.
Living in a small town, meeting someone I can’t stop thinking about – it’s doing something to me.
Making me think a future like Sean and Frankie’s could actually happen one day.
It’s still early – fuck, I haven’t even taken Elsie on a date yet – but I can see it, I think.
Can see it with her, if it happens at all.
Looking back, I think I’ll realize that this is the moment everything changes for me. Sitting on a boat with a fishing pole in my hands, listening to Sean and Frankie bicker over what they’ll name their baby, something just clicks into place.
Whatever this thing is between Elsie and I, I want to see it through. I want to see if there’s a possibility we can have something tangible and lasting, something to build a real relationship upon.
Bringing her to orgasm in the greenhouse was easily the hottest moment of my life, and fuck, I definitely want more of that. But for the first time, it’s not the only thing I want. I also want the sappy shit I sometimes can’t bear to watch with Sean and Frankie.
I want her to look at me like maybe I hung the moon, too, or at least a few stars.