by Carol Ross
* * *
“CAN YOU TELL me what’s going on with Scarlett?” Seth asked over plates of fish tacos. They’d walked along the waterfront, checking out menus at the beachside cafés and bistros before settling on one as much for the view as the food. Luckily, the tacos were delicious.
“It’s a long story, but the highlight is that Austin is insisting that she go to this event with him on Friday, but she already has plans to go to a play with Quinn’s family, plans that were made months ago. And Austin’s event is a boring fundraising dinner, nothing that a kid would enjoy.”
Victoria hadn’t talked specifics about her relationship with her ex-husband. But she’d said enough for Seth to conclude that Austin wasn’t the most engaged of fathers. He was trying not to judge the other man, but if he had a child, he would never miss his appointed time outside of a full-fledged emergency. Especially if that child was a daughter as awesome as Scarlett.
“Is it during his visitation?”
“Yes, but he hasn’t ever stuck to the parenting plan. Until recently.”
“What changed?”
“He’s running for district attorney.”
“Ah. And now he wants to project a certain image to the public?”
“Exactly, and Scarlett is old enough to see through this. She hasn’t mentioned it yet, but it seemed inevitable. This fundraising dinner is the first time she’s balked at having to go to her dad’s. But I knew it would happen. It had to. He only wants her at his convenience.”
“That is bad.”
“You have no idea. His image, his reputation, has always been the most important thing to him. He will do whatever it takes without regard to anyone else to make sure it remains intact. His goal is to be governor someday. Or more.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, he’s a piece of work. His dad and their cronies wield a lot of power in western Louisiana and are always wanting more.”
“Am I in danger of being arrested on some trumped-up charge when I come and visit you guys?” he jokingly asked.
But Victoria didn’t laugh. “I honestly don’t know what the man is capable of. But you’re safe where dating me is concerned. There is no love lost between us. I can promise you that. Especially since I put my foot down about this dinner. She’s going to her play and he is not happy.”
“I don’t get it. I cannot imagine why he let you go.”
“He didn’t have any choice.”
“So, you ended it?”
“Well, it was mutual,” she answered with more than a hint of sarcasm. “In that I didn’t want to stay married to a man who was sleeping with someone else who he actually did want to marry. And not because she was pregnant.” And because he wanted to keep her quiet.
“Oh, wow.”
“I know. It’s humiliating.” She wanted to add that it was all part of a larger, worse experience she’d suffered at Austin’s hands. But that was a story that she was even less proud of, and one she couldn’t ever tell. To anyone.
“It shouldn’t be. Not for you anyway.”
“Thank you for saying so. Enough about me. Is there anyone in your life who I should know about?”
“No. As I mentioned before, I’ve never been married. Never been engaged. Had a few girlfriends. There was one I was hung up on for a lot of years. You should know that because someone will probably mention her at some point.”
“Years?”
“Yeah. It took me a while to realize that I could never be what she wanted.”
“Are you kidding me?” Victoria gestured at him. “What else could she possibly want?” Leaning forward, she reached under the table and squeezed his hand. Seth marveled at the way her touch sent his pulse racing. Then she sat back and looked at him expectantly, waiting for an answer.
“Money, status, a lifestyle that I couldn’t give her, and wouldn’t even if I could. Ashley likes nice things, and I’m not exactly a crystal and china type of guy, you know?”
“Ha. Yes, I think I do.” Reaching over, she picked up her glass of lemonade, and raised it in a toast. “It sounds like Ashley would be a perfect member of Team Triple A. That’s what I call Austin, wife Amber and daughter Avery. As if they needed another way to exclude Scarlett from their circle, they named their daughter an ‘A name’ to match theirs. Austin is all about appearances, money and what you can do for him.”
“Yes, it sounds like she would. There’s a bit of irony about my situation now. Ashley told me that she didn’t want to be married to just a fisherman.”
Victoria grinned. “That is funny. Does she know that you’re in the running for this job where you will be like a superstar fisherman?”
“She does. We are sort of friends now. We had lunch last week.”
“Hmm, you’re nice to be friends with her, which leads me to my next point. How she could ever believe that you are just a fisherman is an absolute mystery to me.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“GOOD AFTERNOON, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Romeo Reels casting competition!” Marissa’s voice boomed through the sound system. The crowd erupted with cheers and applause. Victoria, Henry and Seth waved from where they stood on a dais making them level with “the pond.” Marissa took a moment to let everyone settle in.
The enormous indoor pool had been constructed for angling demos and fun challenges where show-goers could try out products, test their skills or play games. Now, people were gathering around it shoulder to shoulder to watch the event just as Marissa had predicted.
Victoria wasn’t nervous. Bolstered by Seth’s pep talk the night before, a good night’s sleep, Scarlett’s happiness at being allowed to go to the play, and then a successful morning of interviews and appearances, she drew energy from the crowd. A voice in the back of her mind cautioned against depending on Seth too much. Only to be countered by another, pointing out that he truly cared about her. Not to mention the fact that he believed she deserved to be up here standing next to him. And that all felt so good.
Marissa was speaking again, explaining how the competition would be scored. A series of targets had been arranged around creative obstacles, each worth a point value determined by their level of difficulty. One hundred points for the simpler casts, increasing in increments of a hundred up to one thousand. There was a single, impossibly difficult target valued at three thousand points. Each of their “lanes” had been set up with the same configuration.
Different targets than their practice session, but the same idea. Studying the course now, Victoria felt confident that she could hit some of the more challenging ones. And she knew she could kill it with the easy casts. Leaving her pondering whether it would be better to rack up a bunch of the lower scores quickly or attempt the more difficult ones and hope her aim was as good as she thought? No matter what, this was going to be a blast and probably a very tight competition.
“And now,” Marissa said, “time to meet our competitors. As most of you are probably aware, these three talented anglers are also the finalists in Romeo Reels’ current search for our next pro staff team member and company spokesperson.” She motioned to them and then gave the audience another moment to cheer.
Once they’d quieted, she began the introductions in an impressive, booming style reminiscent of a boxing bout or a professional wrestling match, “And now, making his stand in the far lane, I’d like to introduce ice fishing enthusiast, fly rod Jedi, and a man who is rumored to have once hooked the biggest muskie ever to get away in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Hailing from Flat Rock, Minnesota, please welcome Henry Foster.” The crowd went wild. Henry grinned and did this cute, shy wave. Victoria stepped over and gave him a high five.
“Ready for battle in the middle lane, we have a bass angling virtuoso and gulf water wizard who, according to her grandmother, was jigging for sac-a-lait before she could walk. From Perche, Louisiana, give it up for Victoria Thibodeaux.
” More cheers and applause. Victoria waved. Hearing her name shouted from the crowd evoked a thrilling combination of excitement and adrenaline, along with just enough embarrassment to keep her humble.
“Our third contestant, locked and loaded, is a grayling guru, steelhead slayer and all-around salmon sovereign who once hooked a halibut so huge it pulled his boat all the way from the Bering Sea to Kachemak Bay. From Rankins, Alaska, I present to you, Seth James.”
The roaring crowd went mute. Or at least, in Victoria’s world it did. The scene shifted into slow motion while a woman hurried up the stairs and onto the dais. She then rushed toward Seth, threw her arms around him, and planted a kiss on his cheek. He looked surprised but not upset. While the woman continued to cling to him, he angled his head and whispered in her ear. The move looked so familiar and intimate that Victoria felt herself wince. Adoring smile in place, the woman produced a scarf from her pocket, then reached up and wound it around his neck where she tied it neatly in place.
“Surprise, Seth!” Marissa’s voice cut through Vic’s haze. Toward the audience, she announced, “A very special friend of Seth’s by the name of Ashley has flown all the way from Alaska to cheer him on. Several members of Seth’s family are here, too.” She pointed into the crowd, but Victoria didn’t look. She couldn’t. She’d gone numb.
Ashley? The woman he’d loved. The one it had taken him years to get over, and that he’d lunched with just last week. Here. Kissing him on stage. Kissing him for years, apparently, while she’d been busy fishing and raising her daughter. What was she supposed to do with this? She didn’t even know how to feel.
And then suddenly, Henry was by her side, sliding one arm around her shoulders and pointing at something that she knew meant nothing. “Smile,” he whispered near her ear.
“Henry, I can’t...” But he squeezed her arm, so she forced a smile.
“Oh, yes, you can,” he encouraged gently. “You get it together right now, young lady, you hear me? I don’t know what is going on over there with Alaska, but right now, you and I, we are going to make him walk that plank. All you need to do is cast, which we both know you can do in your sleep. Can you focus on that right now? If you can, then he’s going down.”
She bobbed her head in agreement.
“Good. Let’s do this,” Henry murmured, but before he moved away, he added, “And it won’t be our fault if he drowns.”
* * *
PANIC MODE. That’s where Seth was and he had no idea what to do next. What was Ashley doing here? He’d asked, of course, those very words, “Ashley, what are you doing here?” And all she’d said was, “Surprise. I came with Bering. He needed help. We’ll talk later. Good luck!”
Glancing toward the audience, in the general direction that Marissa had pointed, he saw Bering and Tag wave from the front row. Hazel stood beside them, scowling. He hadn’t known his brother was coming either. He wasn’t surprised by Hazel’s presence, just that she’d arrived without letting him know.
Back to Ashley. For the life of him, he could not conceive what he could have said or done that would make her think that flying all the way here from Alaska was a good idea. Especially the storming the stage part. Seth had made it very clear at lunch last week that he was over her. Thanked her, even, for not reciprocating his affection all those years ago.
None of that changed what had just happened, what Victoria had seen. What was she thinking? Whatever it was, it could not be good. If Austin had stepped on the stage and hugged and kissed her, he probably would have thrown the guy in the pond.
She was holding it together remarkably well. The stricken expression on her face had lasted only seconds but would haunt him forever. Thankfully, Henry had stepped in. Whatever he’d said seemed to have helped because now they were smiling and joking.
Marissa was talking about the rules, but Seth had no idea what she was saying. Beside him, Henry got into position, so he did the same.
The buzzer sounded. Game on. Seth tried to set his reel, but his fingers felt thick and clumsy. Every move felt sluggish like he was slogging through a vat of thick syrup as he fumbled with his line.
Henry’s movements, on the other hand, were nimble and efficient, casting approximately five times to every one of Seth’s attempts. Somehow, Seth managed to land a five-hundred-point target keeping him from being completely skunked.
Marissa’s voice penetrated his fogged-over brain. “Victoria is off to an early lead with a high-dollar cast into the bucket hanging from the rock ledge. But Henry isn’t far behind, and my goodness his hands are like lightning. Another five-hundred points for Henry! Oh! And that’s another high pointer for Seth. He’s catching up...”
On she droned, and Seth felt like the round was never going to end. All he wanted to do was talk to Victoria, to explain. What exactly he was going to say he had no idea.
A glance at the scoreboard told him that Marissa was being kind. They were nearing the halfway mark, and while he’d gained some ground, Vic was still ahead. But only barely; she and Henry were now neck and neck. Resisting the urge to lay his pole down and be done with it, he flicked the line without aiming and then watched, spellbound, as it landed in the tiny plastic cup in the far end of the pond. Pure dumb luck. He did it again.
Marissa let out a whoop. The audience cheered. “That’s six thousand big ones for Seth right there. Oh boy, this competition is suddenly a three-way fight again.”
Miraculously, he’d pulled close to Henry. Time was running short so he decided to play it safe and see how many short casts he could accumulate. With only seconds to go, the crowd erupted again, even louder.
“Another ringer! This time for Henry! Three thousand for Henry on top of a thousand right before that one puts him securely back into the lead. Oh! And there’s another thousand. Henry is on fire!”
The timer sounded. “And that’s game over.”
Henry looked right at Seth and gave his head a little shake. Waving and smiling at the cheering crowd, he glided toward Seth and commented in a low tone, “I suspect that’s true in more ways than one for you, Alaska.”
Seth offered a weak, “It’s not what it looks like.” He didn’t know what else to say, and could only hope Henry’s comment wasn’t true. He could not lose her over something like this. And after she’d just confided in him about her history with Austin. The timing literally could not have been worse.
Marissa announced that Seth and Victoria would be “walking the plank” in a few hours and invited everyone to gather at Pier 3 to watch it go down. “Morning Wire has a big surprise lined up for the losers, or maybe I should say a tall surprise?”
Up until this point, Seth hadn’t wanted to let himself think about not winning because he had a slight fear of heights. Okay, more than slight. But hopefully, all it meant was walking off the end of the pier and how far down could that be, ten, fifteen feet? Twenty at the most. He could handle that. Probably.
They descended the dais. He didn’t know what to do first, find Victoria and try to explain, or talk to Ashley. Victoria disappeared into the crush of the crowd as Hazel materialized in front of him, saving him from having to decide.
“Seth!” she hissed and dragged him behind one of the huge potted trees that lined the room. “What is going on? What was that?”
“I was hoping you could tell me.”
“I have no idea! I flew in separately. She came with Bering and Tag. I guess Bering wanted another person to work the show so he could do some networking, and he and Tag could take a charter boat fishing one day. Tag volunteered Ashley, although my guess is Ashley volunteered herself. And Tag, being our clueless big brother, agreed. Iris swears she knew nothing about it.”
“Hazel, this is a nightmare. Victoria and I just got to this really great place where we—”
“I know! You wrote me and Iris a long, flowery text...book about it, remember?”
&nbs
p; “Yes. I don’t know what to do. I can’t think straight.”
“Right now, you need to go find her and just... I don’t know, tell her you think that she’s crazy cool or superpretty or whatever. I believe those were two of your key phrases. Pick one. No, pick several.”
“I don’t know where...” Seth gazed helplessly around the crowded room.
“I heard her tell Henry she was going up to her room.”
“How did you—”
“Really?” she interjected with an eye roll. “You want me to detail my eavesdropping technique, right now?”
“No, I’m going.”
“Hurry.” She pushed him away, but then pulled him back by one sleeve. “She is superpretty, by the way. And she’s way better at casting than you. Although, you were seriously off your game.”
“I am aware.”
“And now you have to walk some sort of plank?”
“Right off the end of the pier.”
“What? And you agreed to do it? You know what, never mind, we don’t have time to discuss what you were thinking. Go!” She pushed him again, and this time he took off through the crowd.
Seth caught up to her just as she was about to get on the elevator. “Victoria!”
“What?” She stepped inside.
“I can explain.” He followed her.
“Can you?”
“Actually, no, I can’t, but I can tell you—”
“Seth!” a breathless, giddy Ashley leaped into the car, threading her arm through his. “There you are, big guy!” He let out a groan. This was like a bad sitcom. “I’ll go up to your room with you and we can—”
Reaching out, Victoria pressed the button for the top floor. But before Seth could process her intention, she tapped the door-close button and slipped out.
* * *
“THAT WAS A pretty slick move,” A voice called out from behind her. Victoria knew it had to be directed at her. Face flushing with embarrassment, she pretended she hadn’t heard the remark and beelined for the stairwell. Maybe several flights of cardio would help calm her down and clear her head.
