Chapter 15 #2
The boat was a simple thing, nothing like a speed boat at all, and together they were caught up in the beautiful sounds, smells, colors and life of nature.
Eagle Rock Lake brimmed with a subtle fog, just enough to cause a little haze.
All around the birds called from the tree lines, and every now and then they would hear the flopping of a fish above the water.
That still, lovely, dark water. Evie took the squirmy and slimy thing and laughed.
“Ew! My hands are gonna smell so bad after this.”
“That’s what washing them in the water is for,” Caleb happily replied.
After a few tries, Evie finally got it, and Caleb taught her how to cast a perfect line. She launched it, but it only went about five feet before it slapped in the water. That made Caleb laugh hard, lean over, and slap his leg.
“I suck at this game!” Evie joked.
“You sure do! Try releasing the button a little later.”
She reeled it up, and a cold wind made her shiver a bit. Being on the water was much colder than being on land. Once more she cast and onward and outward it sailed, catching the wind before plopping down under. Her anxieties never crossed her mind. She was having too much fun to care.
“I did it! You’re a great teacher!”
“Nah.” He blushed. “You’re a fast learner.”
Evie waited. “So now what do we do?”
“Well,” he said as he reached for a beer, “we just sit here and wait until the little bobber bobs.”
“That’s it?”
“More or less, yeah. Want one?”
She shook her head and playfully shoved him. “Oh, that’s a great idea! Let me just throw myself off the boat right now.”
He laughed. “You really are a lightweight, aren’t you?”
“Uh, yeah. Embarrassingly so.”
He took a swig and then shook the rod. “Nothing embarrassing about that.”
Together they sat. And sat. And sat. And just for a little change of pace, they sat some more. Evie smiled at him and scooched closer, in which Caleb then turned and kissed her. “You sure are pretty.”
She looked down. “Thanks. I really appreciate that.”
He noticed her withdrawing. “You don’t think you’re pretty?”
“It’s not that. I wish I could tell you something that’s been on my mind, but I’m afraid you’ll think I’m weird.”
“I know you’re weird. That’s why I like you.”
She snickered looking up to the sky. “You think I’m weird?”
“Most definitely!” he insisted. He pressed his forehead down to hers, bonking it gently. “I mean, you gotta be some sort of weird to buy that goofy ass funhouse you live in. Buy your cat a whole bed and a laundry basket of toys, read Stephen King books.”
Evie held her mouth in amusement.
He encouraged her, “Go ahead. I promise I won’t judge. What’s up?”
Evie thought and lifted her head to see the pristine view of the lake.
Quietly, she began, “A long time ago, well before Pawpaw died, I stopped to pick flowers on the side of 42 for him. He loved those black-eyed Susans. When I got to put them in the back, I got that ad for your company, the one I told you about when you pumped up my tires.”
As he looked at her, her face became soft, and her eyes looked downward again.
“I thought you were really cute when I saw the ad. And then I saw you again at the general store in town. I didn’t put the two faces together because you had a totally different style each time I saw you, but when I saw you at the drugstore, I was really sick with the flu and also missing Pawpaw.
Your smile and your kindness were like… I don’t know… medicinal.”
He listened.
She gave a nervous laugh and continued, “I wanted to ask you out or at least ask your name, but you left before I could get it. I don’t think you know how much that simple gesture meant to me.
Sure, some people are nice in Laysville, like Hunt, Joey, Myla, and my neighbors.
But some can be really judgmental. I was feeling like an outcast because I was so new.
You brought happiness to me when I was at my lowest. I was then going to ask your name and ask you out to say ‘thank you’, but I saw… ”
She looked down.
He asked, “My ring?”
“Yeah. But I was happy for you. It wasn’t until I met you at the air pump that everything clicked.
And when I saw you didn’t have a ring on, I was honestly sad for you.
I was worried maybe you were a widower. But when you sent me a friend request that night, I can’t lie.
I was giddy like a fucking dumb school girl. ”
He smiled.
“I was so happy that I went into the salon to get my nails done, and that’s where I heard from Sandy and Kelly that you were getting divorced.
” She stopped for a moment, now shifting her glance to the bobber that never bobbed.
“I’ve had a little crush on you for quite a while.
So sometimes it’s hard and difficult for me to believe when you are around me.
I count my blessings with every text, every call, every social media reaction, every kiss, every smile.
” He rubbed her back and she finished, “Everything.”
She had finished talking, and he was without words to say.
There was literally nothing he could have said to her that would’ve sufficed the emotions her confession had stirred within him.
“I don’t know what to say. I can’t believe you’ve liked me for that long.
We’re talking almost two years now. What was it that made you like me other than my looks?
I don’t post much on Facebook, so how did you really start to like me without really knowing me? ”
“It was what you posted. The fact you liked the same music I do, how great of a dad you are, how smart you are, the fact you play guitar, how much you get up and go at life despite all the stuff you gotta take care of. Your horses, being a Christian man, and even your job.”
“My contracting work gets a lot of girls going,” he joked.
“No,” she said.
He looked at her.
“Your military work.”
Caleb sat upright, rubbed his leg and sighed. “Oh, that thing.”
“Is that bad?”
“Kinda. You see, a lot of women have this fantasy about military guys. I get it. A big strong dude going off with a big gun to protect the country. But they don’t understand the shit that comes with it.
They never do. It’s all bells and whistles until the bells crack and the whistling stops.
And you being a hopeless romantic Pisces girl, it’s a fantasy.
I respect it, but it’s a fantasy nonetheless.
And it’s not as glorious as you think it is. ”
“I never said it was glorious because of it being romantic, Caleb. It’s glorious because you’re doing something so selfless to protect people like me.
You are doing what I can’t do. I can’t even live on my own without having panic attacks.
I get overwhelmed doing a load of dishes.
I can’t go to the movies anymore because of just being afraid of everything.
Hell, I’m surprised I haven’t gotten anxious out here on this boat yet.
But of course, I’m with you. Yet here you are, leaving your home for up to a year at a time, I’m assuming. You come home and still function.”
“Sometimes I don’t.”
She looked at him firmly. “It’s a shame you don’t see how amazing you are. I don’t give a shit if the bells don’t ring and the whistling stops or whatever it is that you said. You’re brave. You’re selfless. You’re strong. You’re everything I’m not.”
He reeled up his line and cast it again, then took another drink of beer. “You say that until I leave for deployment.”
Evie never stopped looking at him as his eyes fixed on the bobber.
“Watch me,” she said firmly. That caught his attention.
“People get mad at their spouses for the stupidest things because they’re selfish.
They don’t know what they’ve got, and they take it for granted.
They act like everyone is replaceable, and they’re not.
It’s called being faithful, and it’s called being proud of someone and loving them regardless. ”
“Alright. In less than two months, I’m holding you to that,” he warned.
“Hold me to it now. I don’t care.”
They locked eyes and he saw her friendly smile. “If you want me to be, I’ll be here when you leave and when you come home.”
Evie’s bobber went down, and she freaked out, causing Caleb to laugh and urgently tell her what to do.
About five minutes later he took a photo of her holding up a four-pound bass. She was proud of it. The lips felt slimy and weird in her hand, and she felt horrible for holding it out of the water. So, without consulting Caleb, she threw it back.
“Why’d you do that?” he yelled laughing with his arms outstretched.
She held her mouth. “Oops! Was I supposed to keep it?”
“What’s the point of fishin’ if you don’t keep what you catch?”
Luckily later on, Caleb caught a nice-sized catfish, and when he taught her how to prep it on land, she didn’t like the idea of that one bit. He teased her and went back to scaling it. “I thought you wanted to be brave and strong like me. Afraid of a little ol’ fish?”
She whimpered nervously, “I don’t like hurting sea life.”
He stood up and strutted over to her, leaning his head to the side and then handed her the knife. “It’s not sea life. It’s lake life.” He raised a brow and shrugged. “If I wasn’t here and you were starvin’, what would you do?”
She did it. And with it she learned how to make a saltwater ice slurry and how to store it properly in the cooler, and even how to bleed it. Afterwards, the cooler was put in the truck bed. He assured Evie that with the cold temperatures, the meat would last until tomorrow easily.
The night carried on with them lying by each other in the motel room, the same one they had previously.
While Evie slept on his naked chest after making love, Caleb looked up to the ceiling with his arms behind his head.
He couldn’t get out of his mind what she had said, how passionate she was towards him.
He was unsure if it was even real, for how could anyone, any human truly be that invested in someone?
It was difficult for him to grasp the concept that a woman had liked him for almost two years, and she had turned down every suitor that came her way.
He only knew that because she regularly posted up how frustrated she was that men wouldn’t leave her alone on Facebook.
“Evie?” he asked quietly.
“Hmmm?” she cooed with her eyes blissfully closed. Her hand rested lovingly across his heart.
“Why did you always turn down other guys who came after you?”
“Just because there are plenty of fish in the lake, doesn’t mean they’re all a great catch.”
He snickered and smiled, and it made her smile as well.
She fell asleep with her soft snoring. The snoring that he didn’t mind.
Caleb reached over to his phone on his nightstand and brought up the app for her ring camera to see if there had been any action.
There was something two hours ago, but it was Deputy Hunt doing a little look around with his flashlight.
Checking on things. Other than that, there was absolutely nothing.
Perhaps no one was stalking her, or there were two different people in on it.
One could have seen her at O’Malley’s, and the other could have seen him kiss her at her house.
He put his cell phone on the nightstand and turned off the lamp to go to sleep.
But his cell phone lit up.
The app detected movement.
He grabbed his phone and opened the app to see a black sedan parked down at her mailbox at the end of her driveway. With the blue light blinding his face, he turned down the brightness not to wake Evie. He narrowed his eyes and studied it. It only stayed for a brief moment before it left.
It could’ve been someone stopping on the road for a moment.
But that next morning, he saw the car had appeared again at 7:00 a.m. doing the same exact thing.