Rip Tide (A Ripple Effect Cozy Mystery, Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

work better than the anchor, why would anyone pay to put one on his boat? It seemed clear to me at that point that neither Reggie nor her husband had a lick of sense when it came to spending money.
    * * *
    I followed the men into the water by ungraciously swinging my butt and legs over the side of the boat and sliding off. Rip attached the nylon cord from the bait bucket to a metal loop on my wading belt. The belt had been a last-minute purchase he'd felt driven to buy for each of us at the tackle store, as if we needed one more cumbersome accessory.
    The bottom was soft, and my wading boots sank several inches with each step, making me ungainly and a little uneasy. I tripped and fell to my knees at one point, and it wasn't an easy task to get back up to my feet. I was on edge, thinking any given step could land me in a quicksand-type hole that'd have me up to my eyebrows in water before I knew it.
    Propelling my body through the thick grass in the water was a chore. Milo, wading beside me, appeared unfazed by the thick underwater foliage and mucky bottom. In comparison to me, he looked like a kid running through a field of clover. After I regained my foothold following my fall, he was courteous enough to help me restore my balance and get my bearings before letting go of my arm. He warned me to be more cautious, as if I were rushing recklessly through the muddy and grassy water to get to my fishing spot as rapidly as possible. In actuality, I was doing nothing more than doing my dangest to keep putting one foot in front of the other without doing a face plant into the muck.
    "You need to tread slowly, Rapella," he said. If I moved any slower I'd be drifting backward and be back at the boat before the men reached their fishing hole. "There are potholes out here where there's no grass, and it's hard to tell how deep they are. Those potholes are a great place to catch a redfish that's waiting for a bait fish to swim by in the clearing. But they can also be deadly if they're deeper than you anticipated."
    "How so?" I asked, not sure I really wanted to know. I felt anxious enough as it was, scanning the surface of the water constantly for menacing dorsal fins moving on a direct path toward me. I swear I saw at least two humongous bull sharks swim by about thirty yards out. When I anxiously pointed them out, Milo laughed. I let him know I wasn't amused and he promised me all I'd seen were a couple of large bait fish. They were skimming the surface, occasionally flying out of the water like tiny sailfish, as if fleeing a larger fish hunting for its breakfast.
    Milo explained. "Those are mullet, just like we'll be using today for bait, only larger. Keep an eye out and you'll probably see another one breaching the surface soon."
    I watched for a few moments until I spotted another mullet, probably a foot long, flying in and out of the water five times as it scooted swiftly away. It was like watching a shiny rock being skipped across the top of the water.
    "Don't forget what I told you earlier," Milo said, after the bait fish had at last submerged and not resurfaced. "If you were to accidentally step into a pothole over your head, your waders would instantly fill up with so much water you likely wouldn't be able to surface. There aren't too many really deep ones in this area, but there are a few scattered out there, so it's always a possibility. And it seems like at least one wade-fisherman drowns out in these bays every year."
    "Oh, swell. Thanks for bringing my anxiety level down a notch. You're making wade-fishing sound like more and more fun with every comment you make."
    "You'll be okay, Rapella. Just be careful and walk slowly. You'll feel more at ease as you get accustomed to wading," Milo assured me. Rip was already twenty feet ahead of us, not a care in the world. "Soon you'll be perfectly at ease out here. And trust me, if you fish for any length of time at all, it will get into your blood."
    After Milo felt confident I could