Romance on the Edge 01 - Hooked

out his father. He’d been doing it all his life. Sometimes he wondered if the money he made fishing every summer was worth the aggravation of having to tolerate the man. He placed the gun in the dry hold of the stern. If he handed the Glock back to Earl, it was bound to go off “accidentally.” He engaged the outboard engine and got back to the business of fishing.
    “Lana, hook that running line.” Aidan maneuvered the skiff to where the line floated free.
    “What are you going to do, Aidan?” Lana’s voice shook. She grabbed the boat hook and moved into position at the side of the skiff, careful not to step on the net roped into the bottom of the boat.
    Her scared and worried expression tugged at Aidan’s temper, and he suddenly felt ashamed over his actions. He shouldn’t have shot at the Albatross . What if he had actually hit someone? If he wanted to pick a fight with Kendrick, he should do it when Lana wasn’t around. There had been a major absence of thinking on his part this morning.
    “We’re going to tie a Bruce Anchor to the end of the line so we can fish today. Later, when the tide goes out, we’ll replace the running line.” It would shorten the length of line the Fish and Game allowed the set netters to fish, but he’d be able to fish this tide instead of waiting it out and miss catching anything.
    They hooked the line, and working together, attached an anchor to the line and then their net. Then it was a matter of waiting to pick what fish swam into it.
    A few hundred feet down the beach he heard Sonya laugh. The musical sound carried easily over the water. Aidan glanced over to see Sonya and Peter joking it up as they laughed and picked fish from their net. The Double Dippin’ lay anchored at the end of their running line like it was sleeping the afternoon away. She and Peter were picking fish from one of their four sites with their skiff. He didn’t see Wes or Nikolai, but knew they’d be showing up soon, probably with a big lunch that Margaret had lovingly packed for all of them. All Aidan had grabbed was a package of jerky and some fruit snacks for him and Lana to share later.
    The Savonskis had the best sites on the beach, lying right at the mouth of the river. They raked in the biggest catch as the salmon swam along the shoreline into the river to spawn, while the Hartes always seemed to pick seconds of what their nets caught.
    Soon that was all going to change.
    One way or another, Sonya would be his. He’d make sure Kendrick got what was coming to him too.

    “Aidan’s not having a good day,” Peter said, resting against the side of the skiff, and wiping the sweat from his brow with the sleeve of his sweatshirt. “Shouldn’t we offer to help?”
    Sonya dropped the salmon she’d just picked out of the net into one of the brailer bags. She glanced over at Aidan and assessed his situation.
    “Aidan can take care of himself.” He’d more than proved that this morning when he’d shot at Kendrick. No doubt Kendrick deserved it, and Sonya wouldn’t mind seeing the last of him, but she didn’t approve of Aidan’s methods.
    Peter frowned. “That’s not very neighborly. What happened between the two of you, anyway?”
    “Nothing. We just didn’t suit.”
    “So, because you don’t ‘suit’ we can’t lend him a hand?”
    Sounded good to her. “Fine, when we get this net picked, we’ll run over and see what we can do.” Sonya had a feeling what Peter really wanted was to talk with Lana. Sonya glanced back at the Harte’s sites. Lana was fishing with Aidan instead of Crafty. She couldn’t imagine how tough Lana’s life had been with Cranky and Crafty as relatives. For that matter, how had Aidan handled it all his life?
    They finished up and headed over to see what they could do for Aidan. Neighborly or not, Sonya didn’t want to spend time with Aidan. She didn’t want to encourage him. There was no chance of a reconciliation between them, but she had a feeling Aidan didn’t see it that way.
    “Hey, Lana,” Peter greeted with a smile as they came alongside her and Aidan in their skiff.
    “Peter.” Lana nodded, her face pale, her eyes wide as though she was trying her best to keep it together. She didn’t return Peter’s engaging smile.
    Sonya’s heart immediately went out to the girl. She glanced around to see where Cranky and Crafty were and saw them down the beach, picking the other Harte net. Good, wrangling with Aidan was enough. She didn’t want