Chapter Twenty-Five
Caleb
I was in a fantastic mood. I had woken up with the best idea ever and was on my way to making it happen. Matt and I were in the car on our way to pick up the girls. I had completely given up on having Hailey move in with me; she was clearly more comfortable living at the apartment with her sister, and I realized that the arrangement was probably for the best. She didn’t need to get stuck in the mix with my parents. It was awkward enough for me sometimes when I stayed there. Though for the most part, I now stayed in my apartment.
It was early, so Matt and I had picked up breakfast and lots of coffee. That had been the deal when I woke the girls up early with my plan – I had better have lots of coffee. The ladies weren’t morning people, and I needed to keep them happy at all costs. Matt and I had stopped at a local bakery before heading over to the apartment to get everything that we needed.
I had come up with a plan to rent a boat and take everyone deep-sea fishing. It had been awhile since Matt and I had gone, and I thought it would be an awesome adventure for the girls. Neither of them had ever gone, so it sounded like it was going to be a blast.
We pulled up to the apartment where the girls were waiting for us outside. They piled into the back of the car where I proceeded to hand over the coffee.
“So, where did you get this bright idea, Caleb?”
“I’m not sure where my brilliance comes from, Mandy, but you are going to have a blast. How are you this morning, Hailey?” I looked back at her, but all I got in response was a yawn. I smiled and turned back to Matt. We were ready to go.
When we arrived at the marina, there was a man waiting for us. I had called ahead to make sure he had a boat ready for us. It was exquisite.
“It looks great, my man, thank you.”
I finished signing the papers and paying the man before I met everyone back outside. Matt was helping the girls into the boat and showing them around. He hefted a cooler into the boat and went out to grab another. The coolers were full of food and some beer for the day. I couldn’t wait to get out on the water.
“So, what is the difference between deep-sea fishing and regular fishing?” Hailey asked me as I got into the boat. Matt got out and started to untie the boat from the dock. The man was definitely efficient. He was going to drive us where we needed to be.
“Have you ever watched Deadliest Catch?”
“No, but I’ve seen the previews.”
“Well, it’s like that. You never know what you’re going to catch. Anything could come up that line because we’re in the ocean. It might not be a little fish like you see in a lake.”
“Oh!” She looked out into the water. I knew that she was probably thinking about sharks. It would be pretty hilarious if we were to catch a shark; she would probably flip out.
“I’ve never done anything like this before.”
“Don’t worry; I will teach you. You look beautiful, by the way.” And, she did. She was wearing a pink bikini and a sheer t-shirt over top of it. I leaned in and kissed her on the mouth. She looked at me with surprise.
“Just keeping up appearances you know. The paparazzi are everywhere, my dear.”
She smiled, “No problem.”
I couldn’t have cared less who was watching. I had a hard time thinking about anything but kissing Hailey these days. I wanted to do it all day long. I would have to try to reel it in a bit, but it was going to be hard. All I thought about was putting my hands on her. Matt started up the boat, and we started to pull away from the dock.
It was going to be a nice relaxing day in the sun, and I couldn’t wait. There was a chance we would catch some fish, but even if we didn’t, we would have a blast. The girls started to apply some sunscreen, and I started pulling out the breakfast that we had brought. We all ate silently as we drove into the ocean. It was a beauty of a day, and I couldn’t have asked for better weather. We drove for about twenty minutes before Matt stopped the boat and anchored us into a spot. He and I proceeded to get the rods in position.
“Why are there chairs in front of the rods? Are you guys that lazy?” Mandy asked.
Matt laughed, “No, that’s in case you get a really big fish. Some of these suckers are really heavy, and they could pull you into the water. By sitting, you can brace yourself, and you have a better chance of reeling the fish in the boat.”
“Oh, I see. What kind of fish are we expecting here? A great white?”
“You never know,” he said with a wink.
I moved all our stuff and put it away from the deck. The deck was likely to get wet, and I didn’t want any of the girl’s bags to get soaked; plus, we all needed room to pass.
“Have you guys ever caught anything big before?”
“I haven’t, but Matt caught a swordfish one year. It was nuts, that sucker fought like crazy.”
Matt dropped the lines in the water and then turned back to the group. “Now, we wait.”
Lunchtime was rolling around, and no one had caught anything yet. It didn’t matter because we were still having a blast. The beers started to get passed around as we relaxed in the sun. Everyone was getting a tan despite the sunscreen, and there was so much laughter on the boat.
I was glad to see Hailey having so much fun. I had a hard time keeping my hands off her all day, but she didn’t seem to mind. Though she was probably just staying in character because that was her job. I needed to be careful – the last thing that I wanted was to remind her of the night we slept together. As much as I loved the memory, I knew she wanted to forget it, and I didn’t want to do anything that would cause her to leave.
“So, how often do you guys come out here?” Mandy asked.
“We haven’t been out in awhile, actually. We used to come out all the time. It’s a great way to unplug from stress and the work day, ya know? Just come out here and forget everything,” I said.
“It’s beautiful,” Hailey said.
“Yeah, it really is,” I said looking at her with a smile. She blushed.
“What are we likely to catch?”
“We could catch anything from mackerel to sea bass, maybe even a barracuda.”
Hailey raised her eyebrows. “Cool!”
One of the rods started to move. Matt got up quickly. “Whoa, I think we got something.”
I grabbed Hailey’s hand. “C’mon, I’ll show you how it’s done.” I motioned for her to sit in the seat across from the moving rod. I moved the rod so that it was in the hole right in front of her.
“Okay, Hailey, we definitely have something here, so now we have to reel it in. We want to do that slowly so that the fish doesn’t get the better of us and we break the line.”
She nodded, but I could tell that she was nervous.
“C’mon, Hailey, you can do it,” Mandy called out.
I showed Hailey how to reel in the fish. It fought her, and I was surprised at how well she handled the pressure. She didn’t let the fish get away. She was a total natural. With simple instructions, she easily let the line out when it was appropriate and then brought it back in when she had the chance. She fought some good solid ten minutes with the fish before she tired it out. When she reeled it out of the water, she squealed. It was a decent size red sheephead.
“Oh my God, I did it!” She was out of her seat and jumping around with her sister. I had never seen two girls more excited about catching a fish. Matt finished reeling it in and took it off the hook. It flopped around on the deck before it took its last breath. Matt picked it up off the deck and laughed. “She’s a good size, Hailey; good for you!”
Hailey was beaming and looked so beautiful when she did. I loved the idea of making her that happy, she deserved all the happiness in the world, and it certainly didn’t take much to make her that way.
“Let’s get a picture of you with it,” I said.
She smiled and came over, and Matt handed her the fish. “My God, it is heavy.”
They all laughed as she held the fish while her sister took a bunch of pictures with her phone.
“Congrats, Hailey.” I took the fish from her and Matt put it away. “How about we have some lunch and some more beer?”
Everyone agreed, and I pulled out some sandwiches and cheese and crackers from the cooler. We all had a big appetite at that point and ate a lot. We then settled in for the day to see if anything else would bite while we had a beer. I leaned over and kissed Hailey’s shoulder blade. I watched with interest as her skin puckered with goose flesh.
“Are you having fun, Hailey?”
She looked over at me and smiled. “Yes. This is awesome. I would never have done this on my own. It’s so much fun, and I’m really proud of myself for reeling in that fish.”
“Well, you should be. You did really well, especially for a first timer.”
Another rod started moving, and Matt called out. He sat down in the seat, and we all moved around him, cheering him on. I was happy that I had decided to get the group together because we always had a good time. There was just a natural chemistry that you couldn’t fake if you tried. We continued to cheer Matt on as he pulled out a massive white sea bass from the water. The girls were screaming at the size of it, and I couldn’t help but laugh. Their reaction was priceless. We got it onto the deck, and Matt was standing while holding the massive fish. Mandy went about taking pictures as we all cheered for him.
“What do you do with these fish?”
“Well, we are going to eat them, of course. We will grill them up one night for you girls.”
“Oh, really?” Hailey said with a laugh.
“Don’t worry; we won’t make you filet them.”
She frowned, “Well, that’s a relief.”
We relaxed for the rest of the day before we headed back to shore. Everyone was exhausted from the sun. We were thinking of going somewhere that might offer us a bit of shade for dinner. It had ben a long day, and we were all pretty weary. We took the opportunity to do a bit of swimming while we were out there, keeping an eye out for sharks. But when the girls got out, and it was closing in on dinner time, we couldn’t help but start to think about food.
All I could think about, however, was the beautiful Hailey and how I wished I could wrap my arms around her and never let her go.