TAKE TWO_ Who says you can't ma - Heather M. Orgeron Page 0,56
the table for a dry towel and tying it around her chest. “Hijo de puta.” Son of a bitch, she mutters to no one in particular.
“I got a bite!” Nya’s first fishing trip is proving to be a good one. She’s already landed a few smaller skipjack and seems to be completely over our earlier shark scare. Each time she reels one in, it’s a sight to behold. Even Manu seems to be getting a kick out of her theatrics. She’s got her own little touchdown dance going on. Truth be told, it’s kinda hot, and I don’t mind if she’s the only one to catch anything all day as long as she keeps shaking her ass in those little booty shorts.
“You keep catching like this, and we’ll be able to feed the whole resort.” I can’t help but roll my eyes as she puts on a big show of struggling with her pole.
“No…I really think it’s a big one this time.”
She said the same thing about her last catch, which ended up being a baby we had to throw back in, so until I see her pole bending, I don’t take her seriously.
“Aren’t you gonna help me?”
I connect my pole to the rod holder and cross the deck to see what she’s got going on. At this point I’m thinking I should just throw in the towel and make this a couple’s sport. Every time she casts, she hooks something. I have yet to get a bite.
“Looks like a big bull,” Manu says, setting his ukulele down to assist us. “Give it a tug to the right then reel slowly. Keep that up until he’s a few feet out from the boat.”
Manu has been really good about giving instruction and not taking over, not wanting to steal Nya’s glory.
When she really starts struggling, I reach around her back to help hold the pole, so she doesn’t lose it. It’s extremely hard to keep focused on the task at hand with her sunscreen-slicked, bikini-clad body pressed to mine.
“You keep it up with that filthy Spanish and we’re gonna lose this pole and get busy right here on the boat,” I murmur into her ear when she hisses a string of profanity. “Big hulking islander be damned.”
She grins back at me over her shoulder, shimmying her ass into my crotch like the tease that she is before returning her attention to wrestling with the pole.
“Oh, that’s a big one. Thirty pounds at least.”
“That’s what she said,” I whisper.
All of a sudden, the fish flings itself into the air, bucking like an enraged bull, and I can clearly see how it’s earned its name. He’s varying shades of blue and green fading into a yellow belly. His head is huge and bulging. I’m beyond impressed that Nya’s been able to hold him for as long as she has.
“What kind is it?” She wobbles before bracing her feet on the wall of the boat and leaning further into me.
“Mahi Mahi.” I wrap a hand around the one she’s got white-knuckled on the reel when it starts slipping and help her bring it in. She’s vibrating with anticipation.
“Just hold it right there.” Manu comes back with a spear and harpoons the fish. “Easily a thirty pounder,” he says as he hauls it over the side of the boat. “Maybe thirty-five.”
Nya morphs from excited to horrified as quickly as that. “Manu! What did you do? He’s bleeding!” My bronze-skinned princess starts turning a little green.
“This is how you bring them in. A fish this size’ll snap the pole in half.” The poor guy looks like he just hit a puppy, obviously upset to have freaked my wife out this way.
“You know they’re gonna behead, skin, and gut this thing before cooking it when we get back tonight, right?” I ask, gripping her shoulders to turn her away from the blood bath.
She shudders.
“It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” Nya’s eyes comb the scene awaiting us, drinking it all in: A private table mere feet from the water. The ripples that barely qualify as waves rolling onto the shore. Tiki torches casting a warm, romantic glow over our little slice of heaven. There’s a heart drawn in the sand with flowers, and a clear night sky with an endless view of twinkling stars.
This place knows how to do romance.
It’s undeniably beautiful, but my wife sheathed in a red floral wrap dress with her hair a cascade of beach waves down her back is what’s stealing