“Nothing’s happening,” she finally said.
“Give it time. Fishing takes patience.”
“Now you sound like my dad.”
“Your dad’s right. You have to wait them out. One will come along eventually.”
“I don’t know how you can sit here for so long and do . . . nothing.”
“I’m not doing nothing. I’m thinking.”
She shifted her gaze from the line in the water to him. “About?”
“A lot of things.”
They had taken twenty steps backward in their relationship. This was like day one all over again, and she didn’t have the patience to start over again. “Okay, I can see you don’t want to be bothered by me. I’ll take off and leave you alone to your thinking.” She pushed off to stand.
“Don’t leave.”
She paused.
“Wait right here.” He handed her his fishing pole. “Hold this. I’ll be right back.”
When he got up and started walking away, she said. “What if a fish bites?”
“Pull it in,” he said, then disappeared.
She stared at the pole and the line sunk into the water. “Pull it in. Whatever.” She hadn’t fished since she was eight years old. Could she even remember what to do with a fish if she caught one? Was it like riding a bike—one of those things you never forgot how to do?
She kept her gaze trained on the line, while alternately searching for Logan’s return.
When she saw him approach with another fishing pole and a cooler in his hands, she rolled her eyes.
“Want me to bait it for you?” he asked as he sat down next to her and handed her a pole. He stuck his in the ground.
“I didn’t realize I was going to be fishing.”
“It’s good for you. It’ll relax you.”
“Do I need relaxing?”
“Yeah.”
She could think of several other ways to relax, none of them involving fishing or a pole—at least not a fishing pole—but she kept her comments to herself. “Fine. Where’s the bait?”
He pulled a smaller cooler out from the side of the tree and handed it over to her.
She opened it up, wrinkling her nose at the smell of the fish bait. “Lovely.”
“You’re a tough girl. You can take it. You need me to do any of this for you?”
“No, I’ve got it.”
She got her hook on the line, then selected a piece of the bait and hooked it on before casting her line in the water. Logan was right about one thing, though—she was already regretting the white pants. At least she had on dark tops.
She settled in against the tree again and studied her line, while Logan opened the other cooler.
“Beer, pop, or water?” he asked.
“Water is fine for me right now.”
He pulled out a bottled water and unscrewed the top, then handed it over to her. He popped the top of a can of beer for himself.
“Thanks.” She took several long swallows, put the lid back on, then set it to the side.
She sat there and stared at the line, her gaze wandering over the water.
“I’m sorry about that day after the Fourth,” he said.
She glanced over at him. “It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay. I acted like an ass and I pushed you harder than I should have.” He turned his head and met her gaze. “I’m going to ask for your forgiveness, but I don’t deserve it.”
The wall around her heart fell. “You have it. I understand that what we have—whatever has been going on between us—is confusing.”
“That doesn’t ever give me the right to treat a woman—to treat you—the way I treated you that day. And it won’t happen again. You’re a guest on this ranch and I care about you. I just don’t know what to do with all these feelings I have for you. It’s kind of mixed up in my head.”
She admired his honesty, something she rarely got from a man. “I understand. It’s complicated.”
His lips curved. “Yeah.”
“We don’t have to do anything about what’s between us, Logan, other than enjoy each other while I’m here.”
He nodded. “I know. And I think I felt some pressure that there had to be more than that.”
Which meant he didn’t want more than that. Okay, now that she knew where she stood with him, she could make her remaining days here work. “We can just have fun, like we did at the beginning. And when it’s over, it’s over.”
“Right.”
Now that that was all settled, she felt just so much better.
Or not at all.
But then her line twitched. At first she thought she imagined it, but it pulled again.
“I think I’ve got a bite,” she said.
“I saw that. Just hang on to it for a second until he latches on, then start reeling him in.”
Excited now, she pushed to a standing position. Logan did, too, just as she felt a hard tug on her line. “I think this might be a big one.”
He came up behind her and helped her hold on to the pole. “Okay, start reeling him in.”
She unlocked her reel and started pulling in the fish, gently, so he wouldn’t break the line. With Logan’s help, they pulled the catfish out of the water and Logan grabbed hold of him.
“Fairly decent-sized one, too.” Logan removed the hook and held him up in front of her. “Want to take a picture?”
She laughed. “No. I’m good.”
He tossed the fish back in the water.
“Not keeping him?”
“Nah. I might catch him again, though.”
She shook her head. “All that effort for nothing. And I was already anticipating fish for dinner.”
“You haven’t eaten?”
“No. Have you?”
“There’s a sandwich in the cooler here, but I haven’t eaten it yet.”
“I see.”
He grabbed the poles. “Come on. We’ll go back to the house and we can eat something there.”
“Martha said she and Ben had to leave early tonight.”
“I can cook.”
“You. You cook.”
“Martha isn’t always around to fix food for me. I can make my way around the kitchen. Not like her, of course, but I manage.”