Page 28 of Catch and Release
“Tourist season is always interesting,” he said, then paused in thought. “It’s busy, and I have a few local kids help me out at the shop so I can keep up with everything. But some of the customers can be… challenging for me to work with.”
“What, like Karens?” Willa asked.
“Sometimes,” Shawn said.
A beat of silence passed, and Willa looked over at him, brows drawing together. Where was the guy who winked at her a few minutes ago? The guy who sheepishly apologized for his grandmother’s not-so-subtle matchmaking? Something happened at work—that much was clear, based on his awkward silence and his white knuckles and the way she found him earlier, with his head on the steering wheel.
“But not today,” Willa said.
Shawn released a breath and glanced over at her. “Not today.”
He pinched his lips together as if in thought, then it all came bumbling out.
“I feel like this is going to make me sound like a cocky bastard, but?—”
“Language!” Grams shouted from the back.
“Thought you couldn’t hear us, Grams?” Shawn said, eyeing her through the rearview mirror with a bemused grin. “Anyway. I know this’ll make me sound like… well, like the word I said before. And you already probably think I’m a di—a jerk.”
Willa bit her lip at his attempt to watch his language.
“But sometimes, women come into the shop. Tourists. And they… well, they flirt with me. Pretty hard. And it’s just… I don’t love it. It makes me uncomfortable. I just want to sell them bait and take them on fishing trips, but the way they touch me makes me feel dirty. Used. Like all I’ll ever be seen as is a good time.”
Her heart ached for him—because she knew exactly how he felt. How many times had she made up a fake boyfriend to get a sleazy, disgustingly persistent man to leave her the fuck alone?
“There were a couple of girls who…” Shawn trailed off, as if deciding how much he should share. “Well, I thought it was the real thing with them. Thought they’d want to stick it out with me—make it work. Turns out I was just being stupid. They ghosted me the day they left. There was one who I later found out was here for her bachelorette party. I was her last hurrah before getting married. Made me feel like a piece of shi?—”
He cut himself off and checked the rearview mirror to see if Grams was paying attention. He smirked, then added, “Anyway, after that, I decided I was done with tourists. Unfortunately, tourists have not decided they’re done with me. And on days like this, it really sucks.”
So maybe this guy was not the emotionally unintelligent caveman she’d made him out to be when they’d first met. Maybe he was kind and caring and in touch with his feelings and dealt with some of the same bullshit she did. Maybe he wasn’t just nice. Maybe he was actually a good guy.
Fuck.
She was in trouble.
“This is the part where you say that I’m being stupid and if I were a normal guy, I’d just flirt back and give them what they’re after,” Shawn said.
“I would never say that,” Willa said, equal parts annoyed that he assumed she’d respond that way and empathetic that he clearly felt so insecure sharing this with her. So she threw him a bone—a peace offering, of sorts. “I know what it’s like to get unwanted attention from people like that. To be shamelessly flirted with and not know how to get it to stop. To be reduced to nothing but your body.”
Shawn looked over at her, surprise lighting up his eyes at her admission.
“I can imagine,” he said.
“And what is that supposed to mean?” Willa asked, crossing her arms and biting back a grin.
“Fuck, nothing, I just?—”
“Watch your language, Scooby. I won’t ask again.”
Shawn rolled his eyes.
“Grams, you either can hear us or you can’t. You don’t get to have it both ways.”
“Hmph,” was all she said in response.
Shawn sighed and muttered under his breath. Something about “eccentric old woman” and “give me a conniption.”
“Willa, look,” Shawn said. “I… fu—I mean, crap. I always say the wrong things around you, don’t I? All I meant was that… God, you’d have to be blind not to see how pretty you are. So I can imagine that it leads to unwanted attention, is all.”