Page 7 of Catch and Release

“Yes, ma’am,” he said.

“Well, I appreciate you trying to save me the money, but I think I’ll buy it anyway.”

That was… odd. But Shawn wouldn’t fight her on it.

An extra $60? He’d take that any day. She went back to perusing and stopped at the small section of cast nets. She ran her fingers over a few of them, and Shawn caught himself watching her and got back to the task at hand.

As he finished putting shrimp in the bucket, she approached the cashier stand with a box of hooks, a few bobbers, some fishing line, and one of the smaller nets.

“Cast net, huh?” he asked.

She pressed her lips together as she looked at him.

“Yep.”

“Going on a tour?”

“Nope.”

Why she was dropping $150 on something she probably didn’t know how to use, Shawn didn’t know. But he’d learned his lesson with the bait bucket. He wouldn’t comment on the net. He closed the bait bucket and grabbed a spare hook nearby.

“If you’d like, I can show you how to put the shrimp on your hook,” Shawn said.

It was the least he could do, since she was spending so much money at his shop.

She glared at him.

“No, thanks,” she responded curtly.

“You sure? It seems simple, but it’s easy to lose all your bait if you do it the wrong way.”

She put the cast net on the checkout desk and stalked over to him. She grabbed the bait bucket from the floor and fished a shrimp out with a bare hand, then snatched the hook from his hand. Her long, delicate fingers perfectly hooked the shrimp, and she glanced at him expectantly.

Well, shit.

She knew exactly what she was doing.

Probably thought he was a condescending dick.

“Seems like you know what you’re doing,” Shawn said tightly after a beat of silence.

She pursed her lips.

“Indeed.”

She unhooked the shrimp and tossed it back in the bucket before handing him the hook. Then she walked back to the cashier stand and crossed her arms. Her auburn waves flashed in the bit of sunlight that was peeking through the windows of the store, and Shawn ran his fingers through his hair nervously as he tried to figure out what the fuck just happened. She cleared her throat and he startled, realizing she was waiting on him to check out.

He stumbled over to the cashier’s stand and started scanning her items, wondering if he should apologize. Would that be weird? What would he even say? Sorry for assuming you didn’t know how to hook your shrimp?

“That’ll be $223.63.”

Shawn’s voice sounded smaller than normal. He scanned her credit card and he bagged the smaller items.

“Need help carrying anything to your car?” Shawn asked, hoping it would make up for earlier.

“I think I can manage,” she smirked.

The door jingled as she walked out.