Chapter 44

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"Derek, I still don't understand why you thought this would be a good idea. I don't even enjoy outdoors activities." I say to Derek, who I let talk me into going fishing with him. He says it's supposed to help me relax.

"Stop complaining, this is fun." He smiles making me side eye him.

"Come on, give it a chance. It's a great way to clear your mind. If you won't try to enjoy it for yourself, try for me. You know this is one of the few enjoyable things that I can still do until my hand is 100 percent again."

"Fine." I sigh making him smile, before we begin fishing.

"Derek, I'm telling you that we should fish in that spot over there. We've been over here for like an hour now and we have not caught anything." I sigh breaking the silence we were sitting in.

"It's probably because the fish can hear you. They don't like noise." He side eyes me.

"Quiz me. Is this a spinner bait?" I ask ignoring what he just said and picking up one of the many baits on the boat.

"I'm not quizzing you. I'm fishing."

"Fine." I sigh "We should really move the boat to the other side of the lake like I suggested." I sigh.

"No, this is a good spot." He shakes his head.

"Is this typical? To fish this long without a bite?" I ask.

"The only thing predictable about fishing is that it's unpredictable." Derek answers.

"I don't agree. If a lake has fish in it, which this lake does and if we use the right bait, which we are we should be able to get more bites than none per hour, so the fish must be elsewhere." I say.

"Even if we went elsewhere you would scare the fish away with your incessant chatter. Fishing is supposed to be quiet."

"It's supposed to involve actually catching fish also, but we don't seem to be doing that, even though we would if we just moved the boat." I sigh in frustration.

"Just stop. Stop talking, stop worrying, stop thinking, stop." Derek says.

"I can't just stop, I can't just turn my mind off. If I could I would, but I keep thinking about the plane crash, I keep thinking about Mark and Lexie and I can't... I can't stop." I admit.

"Yes, you can. Just relax and focus on fishing, nothing else." He says. So that's what I do, I just focus on fishing no talking, just fishing until I feel the fishing rod being pulled.

"Oh my god, oh my god! I think I have a bite. What do I do, what do I do?" I ask excitedly as I stand up.

"Stay calm, stay calm. Sit down, sit down." He smiles coming over to me.

"I don't know what to do next. What do you do when you catch a fish?" I ask.

"Let it run, just let the fish run a little. Let it tire itself out."

"Okay." I nod

"Now let's reel it in." He says helping me reel the fish in.

"Oh my god, oh my god. I'm fishing!" I yell excitedly.

"You're fishing." Derek laughs as we get the fish on the boat. After that we go back to the dock and into the lodge for the fish to be weighed.

"28 pounds. One of this biggest we had this year." The guy smiles as he weighs it.

"Look at that." Derek laughs looking at me proudly.

"You want a picture?" The guy asks me.

"No, no that's fine." I shake my head.

"No, we want a picture." Derek says dragging me with him over to the fish so we can get our picture taken, and after that we get in the car to head home.

"What's wrong?" Derek asks looking over at me as I sat in the passenger seat with a tear sliding down my face.

"Mark is dead, Lexie is dead and we were in a plane crash, but Derek I think I'm going to be okay. We're going to be okay, we survived." I smile.

"We did." He smiles taking my hand into his reassuringly.