Another Saturday Night and I Ain't Got No Body (A Page Turners Novel) (27 page)

“He’s not so bad,” Cassie said. “I like his smile, and he seems pretty relaxed. He said he was laid back.”

“Oh, my gosh.” Maggie laughed. “He wants to take her in that canoe. She’s going to have a fit.”

They watched as Phil reached for Sunny’s hand, and her crazy slide into the canoe.

“Oh, no
!
She almost fell,” Cassie cried.

“Oh, crap
!
Wait. He caught her. Good job. Score one for Phil,” Maggie said, as she watched Sunny try to regain her balance. “Ahhh. Take off two points. He totally copped a boob- feel.”

“What
?
He did not. He was helping her.”

“He was helping himself…to a handful of Sunny’s goods.”

“No, Sunny, don’t put on that hideous life vest.” Cassie groaned as she watched Sunny pull the vest over her head.

“Oh, man, she looks like an orange Stay-Puff marshmallow man,” Maggie said. “We should have brought a camera instead of this stupid Frisbee.”

* * *

“Isn’t this great?” Phil asked. “Sunshine, a cool breeze, a pretty girl…” He winked at Sunny. “And goin’ fishin’. What could make a day better?”

Some food.
I’m starving.

Phil pulled the cooler to him, unzipped the top and pulled out a round Styrofoam container.

Oh, thank goodness, he brought some takeout.
But he pulled the lid back, and to her horror, the container was full of dark soil and wriggling earthworms. She thought she might gag.
Maybe I wasn’t as hungry as I thought.

“Prime night crawlers.” Phil pulled a worm from the soil. The worm tried fervently to inch back into the dirt. Phil pulled the worm’s body harder only to have it break in half. The first half disappeared into the dark soil, and the other half continued to wiggle, pinched between Phil’s thumb and forefinger.

Sunny looked at the half of a worm in disgust. “I thought you used flies.”

“Flies are for stream or river fishing,” he explained. “Worms are for pond fishin’.”

She watched as he settled the pole between his knees, pulled the line free, and threaded the worm onto the hook.

Blood, dirt, and shiny worm-skin goo mingled on the tips of Phil’s fingers.
Please don’t make me touch that.

He skillfully tossed the hook into the water and passed her the fishing pole.

“Now, I put a bobber on yours,” he explained and pointed to the little floating red and white ball that bounced along the top of the water. “You watch that bobber. When it goes under the water, you’ve got a fish.”  He reached down to claim his pole as Sunny watched the little red ball bob under the water.

“It just went under,” she said.

“What?”  Phil’s head popped up. “Are you sure?” 

He watched as the bobber disappeared under the water, and the line of her pole started to unreel.

“Set the line!” he cried. “Reel it in!”

She stared at him blankly as she didn’t know what either of those instructions meant.

“Start winding that little black crank thing.” He pointed to the reel in her hands. “Wind it around toward you.”

Okay. She understood ‘little black crank thing’, and she grasped the little handle and cranked it around. The more she cranked, the harder it became as the line grew taut, and the fish pulled away from her. The pole bent forward with the strain of the fish’s weight.

“Keep cranking!” he hollered. “You’ve got a big one!”  He stood up in the canoe and reached for the pole. The boat tipped and wobbled, but he planted his feet on either side of the boat and steadied the small craft.

Sunny was happy to pass him the pole and she gripped the sides of the canoe. He rocked forward and back, teasing the line, as he tried to reel in the huge fish.

Suddenly, he pulled back, whipped the pole around, and an enormous fish flew out of the water, sailed across the boat and landed…smack dab in the middle of Sunny’s lap!

“Aaahh!” she shrieked and jumped up, trying to get away from the giant flopping flounder. In her haste to get away from Flipper, she must have teetered when she should have tottered, because without warning, the canoe rolled sideways and tipped her, Phil, and the massive mackerel right into the lake
.

Sunny went under, but the life vest popped her back to the surface where she splashed and sputtered. Through her splashing, she saw Phil swim to the canoe and work to get it right side up again. He hauled himself into the boat and dog-paddled the canoe toward her, then she felt his strong hands grasp the front of the vest and haul her back into the righted boat.

“You okay?” asked a worried Phil as lake water dripped from his clothes and puddled into the bottom of the canoe.

Sunny pushed her dripping bangs out of her eyes and nodded. She took a deep breath and clutched her arms around the fat sodden life vest. She peered over the side of the canoe where Phil’s fishing cooler, pole, and her romantic floppy straw hat floated side by side in the water. Phil had already collected his pole and the oars, and he used one now to lift his fishing cooler and pull it back into the boat. He paddled closer and reached for the fishing pole, which suddenly jerked out from under his hand and started to glide across the water.

“Son of a gun!” Phil grabbed an oar and pulled it through the water. “That sucker’s still on the line.”  He paddled by Sunny’s hat, reached down, grabbed it and tossed it into the canoe without missing a beat, as he chased after the fishing pole that now
zig-zagged
across the water.

* * *

“Oh. My. Gosh. He handed her a fishing pole,” Cassie said from their lilac bush hideout.

“Does she even know what to do with it
?
Has she
ever
been fishing before?”  Maggie asked.

They had set up their soccer chairs behind the lilac bush for a full scale stakeout. Cassie had brought them each a cold can of iced tea that they sipped as they watched Sunny’s date unfold.

“Aaaaa
!
I think she has a fish.” Maggie stood up from her chair to get a closer look.

“She does. She’s reeling it in,” Cassie said. “No, Phil the Fisherman took the pole from her. He must not trust her to pull it in. Geez, he’s really working that line, it must be a big fish. Wow, there it is.” She watched the fish fly through the air, then gasped as it landed in Sunny’s lap.

Cassie leapt from her chair, knocking over her can of tea as they watched the boat capsize, then Sunny’s head pop back up over the water. “Oh, no! Where is she? Wait, there she is, she’s okay.”

She gripped Maggie’s arm as they watched Phil pull Sunny back into the boat.

  “Poor girl.” Cassie felt Maggie’s arm tremble in her hand. “She’s okay, Mags,” she said and turned to her friend to console her worry. But Maggie wasn’t trembling from concern. Instead her arm shook from glee as Maggie doubled over in hysterical laughter.

“Why are you laughing?” Cassie asked in a shocked voice. “She could have been hurt.”

“Did you see that fish…landed in her lap…she fell out of the boat.” Maggie gasped between gales of laughter. She crossed her legs and bent double to keep from peeing herself. “Look at her hair.”

* * *

“Yeehaw,” Phil cried, as if he were a cowboy chasing a steer instead of a guy, in a cleverly worded t-shirt, chasing down a fish still hooked to a pole his blind date had dropped in a lake. With Phil paddling his little heart out, they chased the fishing pole to the middle of the lake where it came to rest. It had stopped several times, and Phil almost had a hand on it, but each time the fish took off again. They watched the pole criss-cross the water as if the fish knew they chased it. The pole sat immobile for several minutes as Phil paddled to it. He carefully reached into the water so as not to startle it and grabbed the pole.

“Got it!” He lifted the pole in triumph. He grabbed for the little crank handle thing and again tried to reel the fish in. The line was tangled and knotted as it came out of the water, and Sunny cringed backwards as she tried to brace herself for another lapful of mackerel.

Phil strained against the line and braced his knee against the side of the boat. “C’mon, you dirty bastard,” he coaxed. Suddenly, the line snapped, and Phil fell backwards into the boat. He looked a little stunned as he landed in the bottom of the canoe, then he looked up at Sunny and burst into laughter.

“That was awe-some!” He pushed up from the bottom of the canoe and settled back onto the bench seat.

“I think I’m ab-bout done f-fishing.” Sunny’s teeth chattered from the cold, wet clothes she wore. The sun was warm, but not enough to dry her out under the wet life vest.

“Oh, sorry.” He picked up the oar and paddled them back to shore. “I’m about ready to eat lunch anyway.”

Her mouth watered at the thought of lunch, and Sunny hoped for thick sandwiches, some crunchy salty chips and a soda or even iced tea.

The boat slid up to the bank with a thud as it hit the shallow bottom, and Phil jumped out to pull the canoe further up the bank.

He took her hand and helped Sunny over the side of the boat. The bank side was rough against her feet which were pruny from sitting in the watery boat bottom.

She made it to the blanket, and Phil helped her off with the life vest. He pulled it over her head, looked down, and looked away as a blush crept up his neck.

Sunny looked down and gasped, then quickly plopped down on the blankets and wrapped the green sleeping bag around her body. Evidently getting her white sundress, white bra and white panties wet left little to Phil’s imagination as to what her body looked like. The cold, wet fabric had her headlights standing erect, and she resisted the urge to rub her chest to get them to go back down.

Phil busied himself with going to the car and retrieving a picnic basket.

At least he has the good sense to give me a minute of privacy to pull myself together
.
And he did blush and look away
.
Although, she was sure he got quite an eyeful first.

He came back to the blanket, but continued to look off into the park, apparently not quite ready to look directly at her.

“Those gals sure are having fun playing Frisbee.” Phil nodded to two women playing nearby
.

Sunny looked over his shoulder to see two familiar women. One held a Frisbee and looked concerned, and the other intermittently clutched her chest and doubled over with laughter. Doing a double take, she realized ‘those gals’ were Maggie and Cassie. Cassie had said they would be around, but Sunny didn’t realize they would be watching her the whole time
.
She sent a glare at her two best friends, then changed her expression back to a smile when Phil turned back to face her.

“They’re probably drunk,” she said sweetly. “What’s for lunch?”

He placed the wicker picnic basket on the blanket between them. It was lined with a red and white checked cloth, and the price tag still hung from a little plastic ring around the handle of the basket.
Nineteen ninety-nine. Not bad.

Phil opened the basket and pulled forth two Mason Jars full of a thick green sludge. He handed one to Sunny. “You should definitely start with this. It’s a Spirolina shake. I made it myself. It
'
s green algae powder mixed with soy milk and organic bananas. It will give you energy.”

She unscrewed the lid of the jar, held it to her nose, and took a discreet sniff. It smelled kind of like seaweed and bananas. Phil watched her with an eager look on his face, as he waited for her to test his home-made concoction. She put the jar to her lips and took a sip. Sunny tried to keep her face neutral as the thick, gritty liquid filled her mouth.
Swallow it. Don’t gag. You can do it.
She gulped down the mixture that tasted like banana-flavored grass and put on her best smile for Phil. “It tastes…fine.”

His face beamed. “I knew you would love it.”  He twisted his mouth from side to side and handed her a napkin. “You’ve got a little something there on your lip.”

“Oh, thanks,” she said, embarrassed. Sunny took the napkin and wiped the gooey green mustache from her top lip.

Phil pulled more food from the basket, and she watched in dismay as he set small Rubbermaid containers of unknown substances on the blanket between them.
Where was the fried chicken and potato salad
?
Where are the sandwiches and chips
?
What kind of picnic was this?

He pulled the lid back from one container to reveal a super creamy yellow mixture, then handed her a little Ziploc of baby carrots.
Okay, I can do carrots.

“This is my own recipe for hummus. It’s sort of like a bean dip, but made with garbanzo beans. You’re going to love it.”

She’d had garbanzo beans in salads before and knew they were kind of a bland little mushy bean, so she grabbed a carrot, dipped it in the hummus and took a bite. Her mouth exploded with flavor as the oily dip hit her tongue.