The Widowed Don Hired a Doctor for His Son, and She Brought Two Boys Who Wore His Face novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: Fishing Rods
We went fishing on the fifteenth of December.
It was a Sunday, cold and bright, with a hard blue sky and a wind that came straight off the Gulf and found every gap in a coat.
Nico drove the truck to the end of Broadway, to the stretch of seawall past the jetty where the rocks run down to the water.
The old men fish there for sheepshead.
He had loaded the bed with four rods, two buckets, a cooler, and a tackle box that had been his father's.
Teo sat in the front seat between us with his red plastic rod in his lap.
The twins rode in the back in matching yellow boots and knit caps that Carmela had made in the dark.
"Do we catch a shark?" Gianni said.
"We catch what the Gulf gives us," said Nico.
"Sharks are not what the Gulf gives you at the seawall in December.
"They're a thing in Florida."
"That's a lie," said Luca.
"You said there were sharks."
"I said there might be," Nico said.
"You said it like a promise," said Luca.
Nico looked at me over Teo's head.
"They get this from your side," he said.
"They get it from yours," I said.
"They have your chin."
"They have my chin and your mouth," said Nico.
We unloaded.
I will not pretend it went smoothly.
Gianni cast his line into Luca's cap.
Luca cast his into the truck.
Teo had been told to hold his rod with both hands, and he held it with both hands and stood perfectly still for twenty minutes.
The line dangled a foot from the rocks.
Nico crouched beside him.
"Teo, you have to let it go in the water," he said.
"I'm afraid it'll go away," Teo said.
"The line?" said Nico.
"The fish," said Teo.
"Then you'll catch another," Nico said.
"They keep coming."
"Like Mama?" Teo said.
I had been unpacking a thermos.
I did not turn around.
I heard Nico draw breath.
"No," he said.
"Not like that.
"Fish come back.
"People don't.
"But you can be sad about a thing and still go fishing."
Teo thought about it.
Then he lifted the rod over his head and flung it, with great determination and no skill, into the Gulf.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of The Widowed Don Hired a Doctor for His Son, and She Brought Two Boys Who Wore His Face are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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