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As I was leaving the tent, I finger-combed through the ends of my wavy brown hair and smoothed down the front of my t-shirt. Red was my color, or so Jen liked to point out. I knew I looked good in the t-shirt, slim black jeans, and black Converse, but I wanted to check my face before finding Dean. What if cake frosting was smeared all over my mouth? What if my mascara or liner had run, making me look like Alice Cooper? Now that I had finally, after more than twenty-five years of knowing and pining, decided to pursue a romantic relationship with Dean, I had to look perfect.
I moved off to the side of the tent and fished in my purse for a compact. I opened it up and checked my face. Sure enough, there was a smudge of dark green fondant in the corner of my mouth. Taking a tissue out of my purse, I dabbed at the fondant, muttering benign imprecations about both of the Baxters. They’d been looking at my face all this time and hadn’t bothered to tell me I looked like I was slowly turning into Oscar the Grouch. After making sure the fondant was completely wiped away, I returned the compact and tissue to my purse and glanced around the immediate area. I spotted Dean standing amongst a group of people, who were talking and laughing with him.
I waited for a moment until the crowd around the sheriff dispersed. The wait afforded me the opportunity to observe him. He really was incredibly handsome—tall, well-built, and tanned from hours spent outdoors. He had short, sandy blond hair, intense green eyes, full lips, and a dimpled chin. He was an Adonis, a god of masculine beauty who graced Saxon Lake with his presence. I had been interested in dating Dean since our sophomore year of high school, but we’d ended up being just close friends. If he hadn’t been a genuinely nice person, I doubted my infatuation with him would have lasted much beyond that year. But he was as kind and generous as he was handsome, and both qualities were irresistible to me.
Dean must have felt me staring at him across the lawn, because he looked over and smiled. I could feel fire rising in my cheeks, but managed to hide my embarrassment as I approached him. My heart was pounding in my chest, and my palms were sweaty. I was a little disgusted with myself for having such a ridiculous reaction to him. He was just a guy, after all. But man, oh man. Whatta guy.
“Afternoon, Bryony,” Dean said once I was standing next to him. “Enjoying the Fest so far?”
“I am. You?”
“Yeah. Nice turn out.” He glanced away, eyes narrowed against the sun, bringing out the crow’s feet around them. My heart contracted a little. So handsome. “Nice day, too, even if it is a bit chilly.”
“Going to watch the fishing derby judging?”
“Yeah, for a little while. I should circulate, though. Gotta keep those lowlanders straight.”
I smiled at his characterization of the tourists. “Walk with me?” I asked, shocked by my own boldness. But I figured I’d wanted to go out with him for the better part of the past three decades. Perhaps a little boldness was in order.
Dean looked at me for a moment, an unreadable expression on his face. Then he smiled, and my heart did a backflip. “Sure.” He offered me his arm, and I tucked mine through it, resting my palm on his forearm. It was as hard as wood, and he was so warm I could feel it through the layers of our clothing. I was pretty sure I was about to melt into a puddle of goo.
“Jennifer and Mark and the kids here?” he asked as we traveled over the expansive lawn towards the lakeshore.
“Yeah. Kim’s off with her friends; I suspect that boys are involved in the equation.”
“She’s, what, thirteen now?”
“Yes. Almost fourteen, in fact.”
“I remember. The opposite sex was a strangely enticing subject at that age.”
I chuckled. “Still is.” My brain caught up to my mouth, and I rushed to say, “I mean, for some people. You know, some people our age who are still obsessed with the opposite sex. That’s all they talk about. They still have crushes. And...” I trailed off, hoping against hope that a hole would open up in the ground in front of me and swallow me. “Oh, bother.”
Dean laughed and patted my hand where it rested on his forearm. “I understand what you’re saying. And you’re right. For some people, the search for a mate is all-consuming. I don’t understand that.”
“Yeah,” I said, my heart dropping into my stomach. “Me, either.” Was he talking about me? Did he somehow know that I had been crushing on him since we were sixteen? Did he know that I was trying to summon up the courage to ask him out on a date? Was he preparing me for the eventual let-down? I obsessed over his words and barely registered the people who greeted us as we passed them.
We arrived at the lakeshore before I could puzzle out the answers to all my questions and skirted around the edge of the crowd already gathered until I spotted Mark and Jennifer. I steered Dean towards the couple and let go of his arm when I saw the twin knowing looks on the Baxter’s faces. I gave Jennifer a narrow-eyed glare before taking a step or two away from Dean, not enough to make him wonder if he smelled badly—he didn’t; he smelled great, like leather and pine trees and ozone—but enough that I wouldn’t generate any gossip if Adele caught sight of us arm in arm. That’s all I needed; my mother hearing about this. She’d milk it for months.
“There you are,” Jennifer said to me. “About time. Did you get lost? Or were you... distracted?” Her smile was wicked.
“Where’s Stephen?” I asked, squashing down the urge to slug Jennifer in the arm. “Did he catch anything?”
“We don’t know yet,” Mark said. “They’re still calling them in from the water.” He turned to Dean and held out his hand. “Afternoon, Dean.”
“Hey, Mark,” Dean said, shaking Mark’s hand before pulling him in for one of those complicated, one-armed, back-slapping sorts of man hugs. They released each other, and Dean gave Jennifer’s shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Jennifer. How are you today? Is Stephen competing?”
“Yeah,” Jennifer said. “He’s out there, hoping to catch Melville, just like everyone else.” She shook her head. “That sucker has got to be the Einstein of fish by now. So many people have tried to catch him.”
Dean chuckled. “Yeah, I doubt anyone ever will. If he even exists.” He turned to look out over the lake and nodded towards it. “Looks like everyone’s coming up.”
We all moved forward a couple of steps, crowding closer to the small wooden platform that had been set up on the edge of the water. Jakob Jørgensen, Mayor Bartlett, and Sam Cohen stood with half a dozen others—men, women, and children—waiting for the official weighing and measuring of the fish. As each entrant’s biggest catch—in one unfortunate man’s case, only catch—were weighed, their measurements were called out.
It came down to Barry Shubitz, the only lawyer in Saxon Lake, and Stephen. A man from the Fish & Wildlife department carefully measured and weighed each of their best fish. He reported his findings to Jakob, who frowned and called a conference with the mayor and the librarian. Barry and Stephen exchanged nervous, confused looks until Jakob returned from the brief conference.
“Well, folks,” he said, a bewildered expression on his handsome face. “We’ve got an unprecedented occasion today. We’ve got a tie. Mr. Shubitz’s fish is heavier than Mr. Baxter’s, but Mr. Baxter’s is longer. We’ll be awarding $500 to each man! Congratulations!”
Jennifer squealed and jumped up and down before hugging Mark. There was applause from the crowd, and people waited to congratulate each contestant. I caught sight of Viki Childress, the twenty-something girl who worked in my mom’s bookshop, pushing through the crowd, rudely shoving people aside in her hurry to speak with Barry. They seemed to have a heated argument once she’d reached him, but I was too far away to hear anything. Barry’s bearded, weathered face turned red with anger, but as Viki kept hammering at him, his expression became frightened. He finally shook his head and made a slashing motion with his hand before turning away and disappearing into the crowd. Viki watched him go for a moment, a dark and dangerous look on her face, her fists curling and uncurling at her sides before stomping off in the opposite direction.
“Hey, did you guys—” I looked around for Jennifer, Mark, and Dean and found that they’d left me to go congratulate Stephen. I huffed in annoyance and went to join them.