“Alright!” he told her, pulling the line forward so that the fish fell on the floor of the boat. “You got a bass, babe.”

“I did?” Imogen stared at the fish jumping around, then smiled. “Well, of course I did.”

Ty laughed. “Exactly.” He released the fish from the hook and dropped it into the small cooler he had brought with them. “Very impressive.”

Imogen beamed at him. “I caught a fish. Wow. I can’t wait to tell my mother. She’ll never believe me.”

“What’s your mother like?”

“She’s like me, actually. Logical, boring. She owns an art gallery.”

Somehow that didn’t surprise him. He knew the world of art galleries and traffic and fine dining was Imogen’s home, but sometimes he had a hard time swallowing it. While she had big-city polish, she also had small-town curiosity.

“Babe, there is nothing boring about you at all.” He meant that straight up. She entertained him every second she was with him.

“Thanks.” She gave him a sheepish smile. “So do we keep fishing? Is there a goal in mind for the number of fish we want?”

His goal had simply been to relax and introduce Imogen to something he enjoyed, nothing more. “Nope. In fact, I’m thinking we should jump in and go swimming. I didn’t bring these inner tubes with us to let them go to waste.” Ty shucked off his T-shirt. “You ever been tubing?”

“I don’t even know what it is, so I don’t imagine I’ve done it.”

“I don’t know,” Ty said with a grin. “Sometimes you do things without knowing they have a name, and then you find out that the thing that gives you so much fun and pleasure is actually called something.”

She shot him a suspicious look. “You’re talking about sex again, aren’t you?”

Ty touched his chest. “Did I mention sex? I think you have a dirty mind, girl.”

“Probably,” she said. “Because right now I’m wishing we were back in the tent instead of in this wobbly boat.”

That made him grin and go hard, all at once. “Don’t worry, we can make something work.” He tossed the two tubes he’d brought with them into the lake and glanced around. They hadn’t seen anyone in the whole hour they’d been out on the water, which was a good thing. “Now we just jump in.”

Ty stood up and dove into the water, hearing Imogen shriek behind him when the boat rocked. He hit the water in an arc and came back up to see Imogen gripping the sides of the rowboat. “Come on in, the water’s nice.”

“It’s October, you know. Isn’t the water cold?”

“Nah. It’s over eighty degrees outside, the sun is shining. If this was spring, it might be chilly, but the water holds its temperature in the fall.” It was a little brisk, but he wasn’t going to admit that. Ty paddled over to an inner tube and climbed into it. He sank in and relaxed. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”