Chapter Seventeen

When they piled into Riley’s truck at exactly six am the next morning, Stella was surprised at all the things Riley had brought just to go fishing. Yes, of course there were the poles, even the extra poles were understandable. And yes, of course they needed the tackle box—she hadn’t considered it yesterday. But he also had a bucket, which was to hold the fish they caught. He had an old margarine bowl filled with worms. Its lid was tightly in place but it had small slits in top to allow air. He explained that his preferred bait was wax-worms but corn was also fine so he had also brought along an ear of corn.

In the back of the truck were folding chairs, and a cooler, which Stella had filled with bottled water, soda and sandwiches.

As Riley pulled out of the driveway, Stella realized something. This was the first time that she and Adam had spent time alone with a man not related to them. Riley was the first man that she’d allowed around her son, and she was surprised to see that Adam seemed to enjoy the experience.

She peered at them as they discussed the different types of fish they might catch.

“Blue gill is the most common in these parts. But I’ve caught trout and there’s always catfish.”

“Which is the best?” Adam asked.

“Trout is good and it’s big. But I like blue gill. They’re smaller and their bones are harder to get at but if you know what you’re doing you can slide the bones right out. The meat is real sweet and flaky. My mama sure knew how to fry up some fish.”

“Did she teach you how to fry fish?” Adam asked.

“Yep. I’ll fry us up a batch.”

“If we catch some.” Adam replied.

“Nah, we’ll catch some.”

Stella listened to them and with a jolt she realized that she felt comfortable. Driving through the mountains with the first blush of sun rising in the horizon, listening to Riley and Adam chitchatting, it dawned on her that she had never felt this way because she had never opened herself up to allow a man to give her this feeling.

Maybe…maybe she could warm up to the idea of letting someone into her life. She peeked at Riley who briefly met her look. Their eyes locked for just a split second and in that moment Stella didn’t feel as if she was with a stranger. In that moment looking into grey eyes that were familiar to her because they were nearly the exact eyes that she looked into each day when she looked at the face of her child, made her feel as if everything was in it’s right place.

 

 

Riley drove confidently through the narrow roads taking a turn off into a nearly hidden path that made Stella grip her armrest. How in the hell had he even seen this turn off? But she trusted that he knew what he was doing. Also the sun had risen so she could at least see what was in front of them.

A short time later they reached a small lake. Flat rocks surrounded it and it was obvious that although in an obscure location it had been used by others, evidence by a small weathered pier.

They carried their items to a spot at the lake’s edge and not onto the pier.

“No shade there. When the sun comes up it’s going to get blistering hot.” Riley explained when Adam asked.

Stella set up the chairs and Riley tried not to watch, he tried to be casual. But in the truck there had been something—he’d felt it like an electrical jolt. She’d looked at him and it was as if a current had passed between them. He couldn’t deny that he liked them both but was he ready to like someone again? It had been years since Jasmine…plus where was Adam’s father? How did a schoolteacher and single mother afford to drop a grand for a month in a country cottage and afford to drive a Lexus?

Before the day ended he intended to find out the answer. In the meantime he just wanted to enjoy himself and to relive the joy of fishing by teaching Adam. It had been something that he’d loved doing with his father and grandfather. Even when they did it because they needed meat to add to the dinner pot, it had been something that had given him a sense of peace. He supposed because fishing allowed him isolation from everything else, and during those times he could forget the ugliness that he so often saw.

Riley got their fishing poles prepared. He even had a smaller one just perfect for Adam. Stella noted how patient he was when he taught Adam to bait his hook and the best way to cast. She was then very grateful that he was here because she had no idea half of what it took to fish.

He offered to put a worm on her hook but she puffed out her chest.

“Nope. I can do it.” But when the guts began to ooze out she squealed and dropped the reel and did a tap dance that lasted several seconds. “It got on my hand!” She cried while shaking it out in front of her.

“Mom!” Adam hissed. “You’re going to scare away the fish.” He placed his reel neatly to the ground and then dug a tissue out of his pocket and grabbed her hand. He wiped it carefully. “There.”

Riley tried not to smile at the look of shame on Stella’s face. Riley grabbed the corn and handed it to her.

“Thanks.” She said quietly. She caught the look of amusement that Riley was trying to hide and ignored it. She was prepared to be the first one to catch a fish and she wouldn’t squeal once, even when she had to take it off the hook.

They sat in their chairs and relaxed. Even Adam appeared to appreciate the quiet, and didn’t seem to miss his Gameboy.

Stella found herself peeking at Riley, appreciating his long legs in worn jeans and the way his muscles moved whenever he cast or reeled. And Riley made every effort not to keep looking at Stella. She wore jeans with holes strategically place along her knees and thighs. She also wore a simple shirt that looked old but he thought that she wore it too well for it to be anything less than designer.

Today her hair was once again pulled up but instead of an Afro puffball it was a silky ponytail that nearly touched her shoulder blades. It was a hair weave or hairpiece but he liked it. He couldn’t always say that he liked the wigs and weaves that the girls wore down in Eastern University. Sometimes they had been just ridiculously fake looking. Stella’s at least looked real, and he might not have ever known the difference if he hadn’t seen her wearing the other one.

Adam caught the first fish half an hour after they arrived. He called it small but Riley told him that it was just right for a blue gill.

“I can eat three of these.” Adam complained.

“Well you better get back to fishing if we’re going to catch enough to fill us all up.”

Riley placed the fish on a string and set it back in the water. Within the hour there were four more fish to join it. When Stella caught her first fish she bravely removed the hook from it’s mouth but couldn’t bring herself to place it on the string. It seemed Barbaric. She asked if they could just put them out of their misery and filet them now. Riley explained that they would start going bad. But he didn’t make fun of her for asking and she appreciated that.

“So you’re a school teacher.” Riley finally stated. “I might have taken that up while in college if I thought I’d be able to drive a Lexus.”

While Stella normally didn’t like when men wanted to know something but were too polite to just come out and ask, but she thought Riley’s method of asking about her finances was pretty cute. Besides, he was the father of her son. He had a right to know.

“The rumors are true that school teachers don’t make all that much. I’ve been lucky.”

He nodded. It seemed so.

Stella crossed one of her long legs. “When I was a teenager, I read that the typical millionaire has at least six streams of revenue.” Her eyes locked onto his and her expression became serious. “I have three…for now.

“I invested in an up and coming wig company while I was in college.” She’d used part of her college loans to do it and by the time that she’d graduated she had earned enough to pay them off in one year.

The company made wigs and hair weaves for black women to purchase online. Now purchasing hair online was common but the company that she had partnered with had been one of the trendsetters.

She made more money with her investments than she made as a teacher but she didn’t get the same joy. Plus, if she hadn’t been a teacher she would have never met Adam.

Riley’s eyes moved up to her hair. “I definitely took the wrong career path.” He joked.

“I think you had different plans,” Stella said.

Riley nodded and then looked out at the lake.

When it was close to nine am they decided to leave. Adam, of course wanted to stay longer but he was beginning to get sunburned and Stella hadn’t brought any sunscreen.

“We have enough fish for a proper fish fry.” Riley announced as he transferred the fish to the bucket and placed it in the back of the truck. They had caught nine and for the three of them it would be plenty.

“Are you going to clean them?” Adam asked Riley, while trying not to look at his mother. Stella opened her mouth to offer but couldn’t bring herself to say the words.

“Yep. You gonna help me?” He asked the young boy.

Adam nodded enthusiastically.

“Do you have to work today?” Stella asked him.

“Yeah but not until six.” He would be closing for the rest of the week and then doing stock, which was fine with him. His teenybopper supervisor seemed to think that being a cashier was a privilege.

“When we get home Adam and I’ll get the fish cleaned up. Then we can meet in the back yard at about…lets say eleven, and I’ll get the deep fryer going.”

“Sounds like a plan. I’ll make something to go with the fish.” Stella said.

“French fries,” Adam said.

“French fries it is,” Stella agreed.

Once home they unloaded the truck. Adam and Riley headed for the backyard to clean the fish and Stella decided that she would just watch from a far. She didn’t think that she was ready to leave Adam and Riley alone but once she saw the blood and guts appear on the newspaper clad picnic table, she decided that she would go back to the cottage and get a bath. Yes. Tonight had to be the night that she told Riley about Adam. After seeing them together it was no longer a question.

She ran a hot bath and as she soaked she felt the nervous knots build in her stomach at the prospect of telling Riley about having a son. She was afraid, maybe even a little guilty. She wasn’t afraid that Riley could take Adam from her. She had already made sure that he couldn’t legally gain custody of him. But the idea that she’d known that this man had a child out in the world and she’d sat on that information felt wrong. Even though she knew that it was in her and Adam’s best interest to check him out first, she still felt bad. It wasn’t just that. She also felt bad that she’d kept Adam away from his father. Seeing them together over the last few days proved that he could benefit from having his father in his life.

Stella was a firm believer that having a dick didn’t make one a father. People said that it took a man to raise a man. As a single mother she had always fought that idea. She knew that there were plenty of men out there that made babies but were in no way father material. How did knocking up a woman make you equipped to be a good parent?

She knew she was both a good mother and father to her son. And for anyone to have the nerves to even suggest that a man could do a better job just might cause her to flip out. She was raising Adam to be the man that would thrive in this world. She was equipping him with knowledge and skills, while reinforcing his sense of self-worth and she would be damned if some idiot was going to suggest that she couldn’t be successful at it because she didn’t have a dick.

But after seeing Adam and Riley together a new idea began to surface. There actually was something that she couldn’t give Adam, and it had nothing to do with her sex, her skills, her love, or her dedication to her child. What she couldn’t give Adam was simply a second perspective.

 

 

Stella got out of the tub just when Adam returned home. She got his bath prepared as he went on and on about Riley, fishing, and how gross the fish guts were but that he hadn’t been afraid.

“Mom. Do you think it would be okay if I watched sports with Riley sometime?”

She lathered his washcloth. “You’ll have to ask him about that. But I don’t want you to bother him too much, okay? He’s been nice but we don’t want to be pests.”

“Okay,” Adam said, his body seeming to deflate.

Stella washed his armpits but he didn’t giggle like he normally did. “You like Riley?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s good. I’ll talk to him about it, okay? Right after we eat. You can come back here and maybe play a video game or something while I talk to him about it.”

Adam smiled suddenly. “Okay.”

She took in a deep breath. There was no backing out now.