" It’s so pretty up here,” she says, sighing with what sounds like contentment.

“Yep.  I love coming here to decompress.  I do it several times a year, but usually not in winter.”

“I like the river,” says Liam, looking up from his coloring.  “It’s cold but I still swim in it.  Daddy says I have merman jeans.  But he’s silly cuz mermans don’t wear pants.  They have fish tails so they have scales.”

“Not jeans.  Gene.  Like in your DNA.”

“I know.  That’s what I said.  But I don’t wear my jeans in the water, cuz that would make them all wet, and I don’t like to have wet pants or wet underwear.”

Nicole laughs softly, turning to look in the back seat.  “Are you going to show me how you swim in the river, Liam?”

“Yep.”

Brian looks in his rearview mirror at his son again.  “We need to show this girl how to fish, Li-Li.  She’s never fished before.”

Liam keeps coloring.  “I’ll show her how.  But she has to bait her own hook.  That’s the rule.”

Nicole faces Brian.  “What do you fish with?”

“Worms.”

She grimaces.  “No, thank you.  I’ll just watch.”

Brian smiles, knowing he’ll be able to convince her to try.  He’ll bait her hook as long as she needs him to, rules be damned.  He just has to explain to Liam that it’s okay to bait hooks for girls and that it’s not sexist to want to spare them the ickiness of it.  The kid probably won’t understand though; he thinks squirmy worms are fun to play with.  Brian’s had to dissuade him from putting worms in his pockets for years. "

― Elle Casey , Don't Make Me Beautiful