Chapter 3
“The fish aren’t bitin’, Beck. We should go visit the new foals.”
“Try casting out a little farther,” he suggests.
I do as he says and flick my fishin’ rod off to the side, casting the fly halfway across the width of the pond.
I smile. “Like that?”
Beck nods. “Yeah. My dad says the fish bite better in the middle.”
I like fishin’ with Beck. Sometimes, we come here to sit on the dock and dip our toes in the water. Other times, like today, we try catchin’ some fish.
“Hey, Beck?”
“Yeah?”
“Whatcha wanna be when you grow up?”
Beck recasts his line, too. His fly doesn’t get as far as mine did, but I don’t rub it in because my mommy says that’s not nice. “That’s easy. I’m gonna be a rancher like my dad.”
“On a horse ranch like ours?”
“Maybe.” He takes a moment to think about it. “Or cattle. I really like the horses, though. I think it’d be cool to work with ‘em. My dad says he’ll let me help with the birthin’ next summer.”
I scrunch my nose up. “Birthin’ is messy.”
Beck shrugs. “I don’t mind.”
“Well, I’m gonna be a famous actress.”
“That’s cool. You sure are pretty enough to be in the movies.”
Beck always says nice things to me. “Mama says I can’t stay in Hope Springs if I want to be in movies or on the TV. She said I’d have to move to a big city like Hollywood or New York. I told her I don’t mind ‘cuz I think livin’ in a big city would be fun. You could come with me, too. I bet we’d have lots of fun in the city.”
Beck’s eyebrows pull together. “I like living here.”
“Me too, but I wanna see the whole world.”
“I bet you’ll be super famous, Pres.”
I smile. “I can’t wait to be a grown-up. You just wait and see, Beckett Armstrong. I’ll be a big movie star and make lots of money so I can buy a big ol’ piece of land like this and tons of horses. You can be the rancher and take care of ‘em. Then, you and me can get married.”
Beck holds my hand, ‘cuz we do that sometimes. “Okay.”