I gave a stern nod. “Next time. Now why doesn’t your mom give it a shot?” I turned to Sage.
Her eyes widened. “No way.”
“I promised I’d teach you.”
Sage crossed her arms. “I think Avery wants to keep trying.”
Avery held the pole in her mom’s direction. “You can have a turn.”
Sage gave a tight-lip smile, clearly wishing Avery hadn’t said that. “Are you sure?”
Avery nodded. “Super sure.”
Sage stood, coming forward to reluctantly grab it from her. “Alright.”
Avery ambled over to the blanket where she had a pile of rocks she was collecting and sat, sifting through them.
Sage held the pole toward my chest. “Teach me, ol’ wise one.”
I cocked a brow. “Wise one, huh?”
She shrugged, pink tinging the apples of her cheeks as a small smile played on her lips. “You seem to be very knowledgeable in a lot of areas.”
I wrapped my hand around hers on the pole, pulling her toward me and then spinning her so her back was to my front. My other hand grabbed the one she didn’t have on the pole and led it to the reel so she could get a feel for it before casting out. But instead of telling her what each part did and how to use it, I did the most ludicrous thing I possibly could have done.
I held my chin just above the shell of her ear, the both of us looking out at the water. “I can teach you a lot of things, Sage,” I murmured.
Her chest rose and fell as her breathing deepened. “Can you?” she asked breathlessly.
Her hair brushed the stubble on my cheek. “Like you said, I’m knowledgeable in a lot of areas.”
What the fuck was I doing?
Playing a dangerous game of how far can I go was not how I had planned this to turn out. But here I was, standing behind Sage, hoping like hell that my boner wasn’t touching her ass, all because there were a lot of other things that popped into my mind the moment she said that.
I should definitely not be thinking of her this way. Especially on our first date.
Blinking the thoughts away, I adjusted her hand on the pole. “You hold the bail as you cast, then release it when it’s out. It’ll stop your line when you’re ready. Then wind here—” I moved her hand to the handle on the reel. “—to bring the line back in.”
She studied the reel for a moment. “This seems too easy.”
I took a step back, gesturing to her. “Have at it, then.”
She tested her hands, trying a few different positions to get comfortable with the feel of it, then slung it over her shoulder carefully, eyeing the hook. “It won’t bounce back and stab me, will it?”
The question was cuter than it should’ve been. “No, Sage, it shouldn’t.”
She nodded, looking back out at the water. I could tell she was hesitant to cast, so I came back behind her, wrapping my arms around her to fold my hands over hers on the pole. “Like this.” I slowly swung it behind us, setting a finger on the bail, then cast it out, her arms easily moving with mine. When the hook hit the water, I released the bail, letting the end of the line sink a bit. I tugged on it gently, mimicking the movements of a fish with the bait, and slowly reeled it in with my hand still placed over hers.
She let me have complete control, watching each movement like if she didn’t memorize it, she’d fail the test. She didn’t have to know how to fish or ride a horse for me to be entranced by her. Opposites attract, right? And though Sage wasn’t my opposite in every way, she didn’t have to know everything I did for us to have fun or get along.
I got the feeling she’d been through a lot more than I had in life, and that was fine. I’d take Sage for who she was, and if she wanted to learn things, I’d show her. But I wouldn’t mold her into someone she wasn’t.
I stepped back, letting Sage try her hand at it on her own. Taking a seat at the rock she was sitting on previously, I watched her get a feel for the weight of the pole and how to get the hook to land where she wanted it to.
I glanced over at Avery, who was making some kind of tower out of her rocks, but it kept falling over when it got too high. Scanning the ground, I found a few flat rocks and made my way over to her, taking a seat next to her on the blanket.
“Maybe these will be easier to stack,” I told her, placing the rocks next to her pile.
She picked one up, studying it like the shape of the rock was the difference between life and death. “This might work.”
She began her stack again as Sage’s phone buzzed on the blanket next to the basket. I shouldn’t have done it, but I glanced at the screen. Whoever had texted her, the number wasn’t in her contacts.
“Do you think we can come back here after my next lesson?” Avery asked, keeping her focus on the rocks as she balanced another on top.
“You’ll have to ask your mom. But if she’s okay with it, I’d love to.” Maybe I could teach Avery how to skip rocks next.
Stop it.
Avery was a student, and Sage was her mother. Thinking of future plans with them was not what I needed to be doing. It was one date, and chances were, Sage wouldn’t want to continue whatever this was.
This could very well be nothing, though.
One date didn’t mean jack shit, yet here I sat, my unforgiving brain growing attached to something that didn’t even exist.
Lost deep in my thoughts, I didn’t hear when Sage walked up to us in the grass.
“We should probably head back,” she said.
