Blunder

Pete chuckles as he turns on the engine of the car and puts on his own sunglasses. "Yeah... I think I'm happy about that, too."

Pulling out of the parking space, Pete watches for traffic then heads down the road, a little slower than normal. Conversation was kept at a minimum due to the wind blowing, but it felt good and the radio filled in the silent gaps. It wasn't all that uncomfortable though... in some ways, it felt to Pete like time had never passed. But maybe that's just the way it was with a good friend.

Finally getting to the lake, the sun was sinking lower in the sky but there was still some time left before it reached the horizon. Finding a parking space near the beach, it seemed to be a quiet day. Sometimes it appeared less and less people were coming, but that made it all the more enjoyable for the regular visitors.

Cutting the engine and taking off his seatbelt, Pete leans his head back and looks across the beach and out to the treeline where the sun would eventually disappear. "I always wanted to see a sunset on an ocean," he comments. "Where the sun touches the water instead of the trees."

Quiet again, a chuckle comes out of nowhere as Pete starts to laugh. "Do you remember the time we tried to grill hotdogs out here? The whole batch caught on fire and instead of using water and saving them, we just threw them into the sand." More laughter comes at the memory and Pete shakes his head. He'd been seventeen - the leader of the trio since he was oldest. Nikki had just turned thirteen and Lewis was just fourteen. They'd gotten the bright idea for a cookout one summer afternoon and it had ended at the ice cream shop after the hotdogs had been ruined.

Still grinning, Pete takes off his sunglasses, hanging them from his sun visor. "I don't think I ever did tell anyone else about that," he muses. "I was way too cool to admit to that blunder."


"Okay." Justin nods and goes to retrieve the other pole. Starting to reel it in so Beth could use it, the bobber suddenly disappears. Setting the hook, Justin realizes there's a fish at the end of the line and it felt like it was maybe a small bass or good-sized bluegill.

"Ooh, Beth, come here." He meets her halfway with the jiggling rod. "Here... take the rod and you can reel him in." Smiling, he offers her the catch. He'd already set the hook so it should be no problem. "Just hang on and reel it in nice and slow."