“I’m listening,” Ty said.
Even though Ty still had the feeling something wasn’t right with Rachel, he also couldn’t help liking her. She was clearly an attentive mother who took good care of Katie, and was raising a respectful, smart little girl.
As Rachel explained about appealing to parents to give their children a connection with nature instead of being constantly tethered to technology, he got out the fishing poles.
He hadn’t known what Rachel would say to his suggestion of going fishing, but he was glad she’d so readily agreed. Not only had he promised Wanda something to fry up for dinner, but spending time with a pole in his hand also gave him the tools he needed to think through things. Maybe it would help him sort out why, when Rachel seemed like a nice-enough person, he had all these danger alarms going off in his head.
Ty handed Rachel a fishing pole, then turned to Katie. “Which one do you want?”
“Yellow, please,” Katie said, giving him the charming smile she’d obviously inherited from her mother.
It was a shame Rachel didn’t smile more. She was lovely when she did so, but it seemed to be a rare indulgence, and her smiles were almost always replaced by a scowl.
Why was she so afraid to enjoy herself and be happy?
One more reason he wasn’t sure he could trust her.
But her ideas about the ad campaign made sense. He’d told her they were doing just fine, and that was true. However, Ricky’s vision for the place was much bigger, and they were only doing a fraction of what he’d hoped for. A decent ad campaign would get them the attention they needed on the ranch, and maybe it would also get people to forget about the whole Cinco business.
Yes, Ty would still look for Cinco’s kid; he owed Ricky that much. But he had private investigators on it, and even though they hadn’t had any success so far, surely they were close.
He led them to the dock, where he gave them a quick tutorial on how to use the fishing poles. Rachel caught on quickly, leaving him to help Katie. The little girl’s questions and chattering were a good distraction from wondering more about Rachel and her agenda.
“I think I have something,” Rachel said, bringing his attention back to her.
The pole was bent at an angle that told him whatever was on the other end was a decent size.
“Keep hold of yours,” he told Katie. “I’ll be back.”
When he got to Rachel, she was struggling to reel it in. He reached around her to hold the pole steady. “Crank the reel,” he said.
It took them a few minutes, but as they reeled the fish in, the large bass squirming at the end surprised him.
“Wow,” Ty said. “I haven’t seen anything this big come out of the lake before. Can you hold it?”
He grabbed the net and scooped the fish up. Definitely a record for their lake. The bass flailed about on the dock.
“That’s a big fish!” Katie shouted, dropping her fishing pole and running over to them.
He unhooked the fish and tossed it in the cooler. “It is.”
“Can I pet it?” she asked.
“Sure.” He made room for her to come in front of the cooler to touch the fish. It was good she wasn’t afraid. So many people freaked out over touching a fish.
Katie reached her hand in and stroked the fish. “He’s a nice fish. We should name him. What do you think his name should be?”
She looked up at Ty like she relied on his opinion.
“I don’t rightly know. I’ve never named a fish I caught for supper before.”
“Supper?” Katie looked confused. “He doesn’t look like the fish we eat. That has bread on it, silly. We won’t eat him. He’s going to be our pet. I think we should name him Nathan. Nathan was my friend in preschool, but he moved away.”
A fish named Nathan.
No, a prize-winning fish named Nathan that this little girl wanted to make a pet of. As in, not bring back to Wanda to cook for supper. Though if Ricky saw the fish, he’d probably want to keep it and have it mounted, for the size of the thing.
Ty took his tape measure out of his pocket and measured the fish. A record for sure.
“Nathan is a big fish,” Katie continued. “Do you have a fish bowl big enough for him? The one we had for my goldfish is too small. He died. His name was Larry.”
“Sorry, kiddo, we don’t have a fish tank at the ranch that can hold Nathan. The lake is his home. At least until we cook him up for supper.”
Katie looked confused. “But I already told you. He’s not the kind of fish you eat. He doesn’t have bread on him. Those fish aren’t alive like Nathan.”
Right. The little girl from the city had no idea where her food came from. No clue that at one point, the breaded fish she ate for dinner were once just as active as Nathan.
Great. Now he was referring to the fish by name.
Next to him, Rachel made a strangled noise. Like she, too, hadn’t considered that fact.
“Great point,” Ty said, squatting beside Katie. “I think we should take a picture with Nathan, then send him back into the lake to his home. If he stays out of the water much longer, he’ll die.”
Which wouldn’t be such a tragedy if he was going to be supper. He couldn’t imagine either Rachel or Katie being willing to eat Nathan, though.
At least a picture would prove that they’d caught such a large fish.
“But Nathan is going to be my pet,” Katie said. “Why else would we go fishing?”
Ty looked over at Rachel, hoping she’d help him out.
“Ty said that Nathan is too big to
