“Crystal Bugger, Crystal speaking.”
“Daniel Waltham. I’m told you guide fishing trips.” The voice held none of the soft southern notes of a local. He spoke quickly, almost cutting off the ends of some of his words in his hurry to get to the next ones.
“Sure do. Half day or full, lake, river or stream. I make each trip custom to exactly what you're wanting.” In spite of her initial annoyance at his tone, excitement bubbled in Crystal's chest. She hadn't had many tours lately, and a good one could pay enough to meet the regular bills and maybe have some left over for all the repairs the shop needed. She crossed her fingers and hoped he'd say he wanted a full-day trip. Maybe even for a whole group.
“I need you for the next month,” the man said. “I'll pay your daily rate plus an extra hundred a day to cover the loss of any business you might have to turn down this month that might have resulted in repeat customers.”
Crystal paced the area behind the desk, pressing the cordless shop phone to her ear. “Wait, what?”
“Fine, two hundred. That seems more than fair, but this is short notice. We’ll start tomorrow.”
Crystal’s thoughts scattered like a school of minnows with a rock tossed into the middle. All month, plus bonuses—this could keep her going for months if it worked out right. She'd have to ask Bran, an old friend of her grandfather’s, to watch the shop all month, but it was so hot this time of year the old man wouldn’t want to be outside anyway.
She hurried back to the desk and grabbed a pen and notepad. “How many people will be participating?”
“Just me.”
“Great. Do you have your own tackle, or will you be wanting to rent some?”
There was a muffled noise through the phone line, then the man said, “We can work out details when I get there. I'll meet you at your shop at nine a.m.”
A click signaled the end of the call, and Crystal lowered the receiver and stared at it. If this was a prank, it was a good one. What if she asked Bran to cover all month and then this Daniel never showed?
Then again, what if he did, and she had to spend an entire month with the man who spoke in clipped sentences and hung up on people without saying goodbye?
Crystal looked around the tiny shop again, one wall lined with rods and reels, another covered in brightly colored bass lures, and her favorite wall with the handmade wooden trays full of hand-tied flies. For this place, she would put up with however rude this Daniel guy turned out to be.
Grabbing her navy blue cap off the peg on the wall behind her, she ran to the door and flipped the sign to closed. She might miss some lunchtime customers, but Bran didn't have a cell phone, so lunchtime would be the easiest time to find him. It would be worth it if this paid off.
Chapter 3
Daniel switched the phone over to answer his mother's call. One of the nice things about having a private jet was that he didn’t have to turn off his phone at all in-flight.
And the fact that he was currently sprawled across a couch.
Or the king-size bed in the back.
Or that his in-flight peanuts and pretzels were dipped in Belgian chocolate.
Okay, there were a lot of great things about having a private jet.
His mother picked up on the first ring. “You didn't tell me you were leaving town! What did Dr. Myers say?”
“I'm sorry, Mom. I was too busy setting up vacation plans as per the doctor's orders.”
“Oh good! Tell me you're going to a beach somewhere and that you will lie under an umbrella and have fancy drinks brought to you until your blood pressure drops.”
“I would lose my mind.”
His mother's voice turned teasing. “But think of all the pretty women who might be waiting for you on that beach. Maybe if you slow down enough, you'll be able to notice them.”
How did she always manage to make him feel like he was somehow not living up as a son in spite of the fact that he'd made enough money to pay off the mortgage on her house and ensure she never wanted for anything?
“Actually, I was on the phone with a girl when you called the first, second, and third times. I finally had to cut the conversation off to see what you needed.” There, let her feel a little guilty too.
“Eleanor doesn't count.” She didn’t sound guilty at all. “She's nearly my age.”
“I wasn't talking about Eleanor. The girl’s name was Crystal.”
“Who?” His mother's voice jumped an octave in her excitement. “Is she pretty? How old?”
Daniel levered himself upright and reached for the glass bowl of chocolates on the table beside him. “I don't know,” he admitted.
Her voice had been low and smooth, almost like one of the female crooners from the fifties. He could picture a girl with soft blonde waves around her face and deep red lipstick, wearing one of those sparkly black dresses that emphasized an hourglass figure. He had no trouble imagining the owner of that voice as quite pretty, but he wouldn’t admit that to his mother.
“She didn't have a picture on her website.”
“Her website?” His mother's disappointed tone said it all.
“Look, I really am going to take a break like the doctor ordered. But I can't just sit around or I’ll go crazy, so I picked a nice, boring hobby to take up, and she’s going to teach me. I booked her for the entire month.”
“What kind of boring hobby?”
“Fishing.”
His mom's burst of laughter made him pull the phone from his ear. “Fishing. You.”
“It's kind of like golf,” Daniel admitted reluctantly. “Lots of rich people do it for bonding time and to cement deals and business agreements.”
His mother coughed a few times, trying to get her laughter under control. “And you hired a local girl to teach you how?” He could practically see the look on her face, a cross between amusement and consideration. “Well, a lot can happen in a month. Who knows? You might fall for her.”
Daniel snorted. Like he would ever fall for someone who wasted all her time lazing around waiting for fish to bite. “Maybe it will be good for my character. Then again, you know what they say—give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he'll sit around in a boat and drink beer all day.”
“You don't even drink.”
“No, but after a month of enforced quietude, I may want to.”
His mom fell silent for a moment. “Remember how when you were little you used to lie in the sunny patch on that green carpet in your room and read for hours?”
“Are you telling me to pack a book?”
“No, it’s just... you didn’t used to be afraid of a little quiet.”
Daniel prickled with annoyance, which he tried to keep out of his voice. “And you used to get mad at me for lying around reading when I was supposed to be cleaning my room.”
“True.” His mother laughed. “I guess I’m just missing the little boy who did things because he liked them, instead of just working all the time.”
“I like my job.”
“I bet you’d like a beach with cute girls, too.”
His mom would never understand. Daniel had a reputation for being focused, someone who was hands-on with his business. He needed that image to draw investors, and hanging out on a beach didn’t send the right kind of signals. “I’ll try to relax.”