“Yeah. Nice of him to take me.”
“Hal Garrity is the nicest man on the face of the earth,” she told him.
“He obviously thinks the world of you, too,” Grady noted. “He said he thinks of you as a daughter.”
“I wish to God he was my dad.” Mia stopped working and turned around. “I’m sure my life would have been very different if he had been. Beck and I had the same mother, but not the same father.”
“Sorry.”
“So am I. Not about Beck, but about… oh, whatever.” She smiled wryly and turned back to the work at hand. “So what did you think of the Shady Lady?”
“Who? Oh, you mean Hal’s boat. It was great. I’d never fished from a boat before. The only fishing I’ve ever done has been in mountain streams-freshwater fishing.”
“That’s with the skinny rod and reel and the funny little things that are supposed to look like bait?”
“You mean flies. Also called lures. They’re supposed to mimic, well, flies or other critters that the fish in the stream would eat.”
“I knew that part. I just couldn’t remember what they were called. It’s been a long time since I thought about fishing.”
“So you’ve been?”
“No, but one of my mom’s exes used to go all the time. He had this metal box that he kept all his stuff in.”
“Tackle box.” He finished washing and looked around for a towel.
“Right. He had one of those and he had all these little things in there with hooks on them. Some had feathers and some looked like little tiny fish.” She gazed out the window, as if remembering. “And he had these little silvery things, like little weights, he sometimes tied onto the lures.”
“Sinkers.” He nodded. “Depending on what kind of fish you’re after, you might want a lure that sits on the water, or one that goes beneath the surface. In the latter, you want something to take that lightweight lure under.”
“Funny. I barely remember what that stepfather looked like, but I remember his fishing stuff. Oh, and he had these long boots. They came up to here.” She tapped the top of her thighs.
“Waders. So you could walk into the stream.” He couldn’t help but smile at her. She looked so earnest, remembering.
“Do you have those?”
He nodded.
“And those rubber overalls?”
He nodded again.
“He used to bring home these fish and stand at the kitchen sink and cut them apart and pull the guts out.” Vanessa made a face. “I couldn’t watch.”
“Well, if you’re planning on cooking and eating your catch, you need to clean it.”
“Do you do that?”
“When I catch for food, sure.”
She wrinkled her nose, and he laughed.
“Well, you wouldn’t cook it with the organs still inside. I don’t know for sure, but I imagine that could make you sick,” he told her. “I guess I eat about a third of what I catch.”
“What do you do with the rest of it?”
“I release the fish and let it go.”
“What’s the point of catching it if you’re going to let it go?”
“You go for the sport.”
“So you hurt the fish just so you can have a little ‘sport’?”
“I usually flatten out the hook so it doesn’t pull the fish’s mouth when I take the hook out.”
“Seriously?”
When he nodded, she asked, “What’s the big deal with the whole sport thing, anyway?”
He hesitated before answering. He’d never really thought about why he did it, other than the fact that he liked it.
“Well, I guess because it makes for a peaceful day. You have to stand real still so you don’t scare off the fish, and you don’t talk or make any sound for the same reason. There’s just the sun and the water flowing downstream and the fish, and you. It’s just a good excuse to be outside, in nature, all by yourself.”
“But aren’t you always by yourself anyway?” she asked.
“When I’m home I am,” he admitted. “Most of the time, anyway.”
“Where else would you be?”
“Hiking, backpacking, camping in the mountains.”
“Isn’t that dangerous, to do that by yourself? Aren’t you supposed to always go with a buddy? At least, this article I read-”
“When I go for more than a day, it’s almost always with a group that I’m taking on a prearranged trip,” he explained.
“You mean, like a guide?”
“Exactly.” He spotted a towel on the counter and he pointed to it. “Can I use that to dry this stuff?”
“Sure.” She nodded. “So you take people on camping trips?”
“And hiking and backpacking through the mountains, sometimes the state parks.” He picked up the towel and began to dry the measuring spoons. “Sometimes it’s a day hike, sometimes it’s for several days. Depends on what type of experience they want. Sometimes it’s part of their package at one of the nearby resorts or lodges. When things get slow, I advertise in outdoor magazines, and on the Internet, but I’ve only had to do that twice.”
“How did you get into that?”
“When I moved out to Montana, I spent a lot of time hiking on my own at first, to become better acquainted with the area around the house. I graduated to backpacking because I wanted to do longer hikes, then I wanted to try an overnight. As you mentioned, camping alone can be dicey, especially in areas where there are a lot of bears. But after a while, I got bored being off by myself all the time. I’d be walking along and I’d see something… maybe an eagle swooping down, or a stand of trees that had turned a brilliant color, maybe a bighorn sheep. You know, the sort of thing that makes you turn to someone else and say, ‘Hey, look at that!’ Not so much fun when there’s no one else around. So I joined a hiking club and went out with them and a guide a couple of times. Since I was thinking about staying in Montana awhile, I looked into becoming a guide myself. I took some courses at a wilderness training center, then I took a few more. I stopped in at the lodges and a couple of resorts in my part of the state, talked to the managers, gave out my cards.”
“How often do you take people out?”
“A couple of times a month in good weather.” He grinned wryly. “Not so often in the winter, unless it’s a really experienced group, I know the terrain really well, and there are no storms forecasted for that week but that’s really rare.”
She sat on one of the chairs and rubbed the small of her back with her hand. “Wait. Do people pay you to take them into the mountains?”
He nodded. “Sure.”
“Does Mia know about this?” Vanessa looked puzzled. “Because to hear her tell it, you never leave your house and you go for weeks without talking to anyone, and you don’t work.”
He laughed out loud. “Mia has never asked me if I have a job. She assumes that I don’t, so I haven’t brought it up. If she ever asked, I’d be happy to tell her. But she doesn’t ask. She has this image of me as a tragic loner, so I just let her hold on to that pitiful picture.”
“That is just flat-out evil.” Vanessa’s eyes narrowed but there was a glint of humor there. “Your sister’s worried about you and the solitary life she thinks you’re living. She believes that you hole up in that house and only occasionally venture out into the hills with no companion other than a horse.”
“My sister is going to have to learn not to assume.” He paused. “You’re not going to tell her, right?”
“She’s my friend. Come Saturday, she’ll be family.”
“Well, then, let’s just consider this a family secret for the time being.”
The oven timer went off, and Vanessa appeared to be thinking while she took one tray out and put the latest one in.
“Doesn’t it bother you to know that your entire family thinks you’re a pathetic recluse?” she asked.
“My entire family doesn’t. Only Mia.”
“You mean everyone else knows?”
He nodded.
“Even more evil than I thought.” She laughed. “But all right. Your secret is safe with me. Of course, it will cost you.”