Nick handed Bella one of the fishing rods and watched in admiration as she pulled her lucky lure from her bag and attached it to the rod. Once she was set, they walked a few steps to the shore’s edge and cast their lines into the water. They stood there for a few minutes. Bella kicked off her shoes and dipped her toes in the water and pulled them out two seconds later.

“This is much colder than California waters.”

“Yes, but the fishing is better.”

Bella laughed. “That remains to be seen.”

Nick moved everything up a bit to where they were standing, and they settled into the two chairs he’d brought. Nick opened the cooler and pulled out several containers of food.

“Do you like guacamole?”

“Of course. Did you make it?”

“I did. I made a pimento cheese dip, too. We can have that with crackers for now.”

“I brought some cheese, too, just cheddar and Swiss slices. We can have those, too.”

“Sure, let’s do it.” Nick set everything on top of the cooler and they helped themselves. Bella poured a cup of hot coffee for each of them.

“I’ve never had pimento cheese before.” Bella spread some of it on a cracker. He waited anxiously for her reaction. This was his most-requested dip and it had just the right amount of spice and creamy mayonnaise binding the cheese and peppers together. Before she said anything, Bella was already going for seconds. After she ate her second one, she looked his way.

“That stuff is amazing!”

He grinned and felt a wave of happiness rush over him. Such a simple thing when someone said they liked his food, but it meant so much.

“I’m glad you like it.”

Bella raved about the guac, too, which he expected. He knew he made a good guac and was glad she liked it.

“I once dated a girl that hated guacamole.”

Bella laughed. “Obviously that relationship was doomed.”

“Yep, I think there may have been a second date. That’s when she actually told me that she didn’t care much about food at all. How’s that even possible?”

“Some people really don’t. My roommate in California was like that. Super picky and just didn’t really enjoy anything. I can’t imagine.”

“No. Neither can I. I love making people happy with my food. Really everything we do revolves around it. Family gatherings, celebrations, dates.”

Bella nodded. “You love your job. Did you always know you wanted to be a chef?”