in the background. Dave chuckled. “Rach said to tell you that if you too would like a nice meal cooked by a loving wife, she has the perfect girl to set you up with.”
For the first time, Luke was tempted to say yes. When he’d dropped off his cache of fish to Rachel, she’d questioned him about knowing Taylin Nichols. She’d more than hinted that if he ever wanted a date with Taylin, she would be more than happy to set them up.
When Luke mentioned Taylin had a boyfriend, Rachel had rolled her eyes and said, “Taylin isn’t in love with Jared. She just needs a good incentive to finally dump the guy.”
“Tell her I’ll think about it,” Luke said.
Rachel cheered loudly after Dave relayed the message. When he came on the phone, he gave a low whistle. “It’s a good thing you like fishin’ because you just opened a big can of worms.”
Luke laughed as he pulled out onto the road and made his way toward the hotel.
“Speaking of fishin’,” Dave said. “How would you feel about letting a group of kids from the youth center come fishing on your property?”
“That sounds great. What day did you have in mind?”
“Well, here’s the deal. The kids are all out of school next Friday for a teacher prep day. I know that’s the day we’re planning on moving you into your house, so I thought maybe the kids could come help us before we take them fishin’.”
Luke welcomed any help he could get, and he’d love to share his passion for fishing with kids who likely spent most of their time playing video games or texting.
“I think that’s sounds great, but I only have one boat.”
“Jackson McCall has a boat he said we can use and then some of the other kids can fish off of the dock while we take turns out on the lake. Of course, there’s always gonna be a few who just want to hang out and not fish.”
“About how many kids are you thinking will come?” Luke asked.
“Our census has been pretty low this year, but usually we end up with about twenty kids between the ages of fourteen to eighteen. We can probably count on half that number to actually show up.”
Dave went on to explain that in addition to the kids, he had several regular volunteers who would be helping, and that Rachel planned on organizing a potluck for after.
Immediately, Luke wondered if Taylin would be one of the volunteers. He resisted the urge to ask Dave.
“If it’s okay with you,” Dave continued, “maybe we could have a camp fire and roast marshmallows? My wife wants to introduce the kids to S’mores. A lot of them have never been camping, let alone roasted a marshmallow over a campfire.”
Fishing, campfires and S’mores were familiar to Luke, bringing on mixed emotions of both comfort and nostalgia. He and his family went camping on a regular basis. Some of these kids might not ever get that opportunity.
“Sure, I think that would be fun.” Luke approached an intersection and tapped on the brakes until he came to a stop to wait his turn. “I was thinking that if you could round up enough tents, some of the kids might want to stay overnight. I know that might be a little more complicated, but I wouldn’t mind.”
“You know, that isn’t a bad idea. The weekend retreat we’d planned at the end of August was canceled because of a hurricane. Let me do some calling around and I’ll let you know.”
“Sounds good.”
Dave thanked him and ended the call. The rest of the drive to the hotel, Luke mentally started a list of equipment he’d need Dave to round up, like fishing poles and life jackets. They didn’t have much time to prepare, and with Luke working four days, plus moving into his house, it could be difficult to pull it off.
Still, spending the weekend fishing and camping would be a lot of fun. And if a certain blonde happened to show up, then it could prove to be even better.
Chapter 7
T aylin finished giving report to the oncoming nurse and hurried to change out of her scrubs before heading home.