Page 38 of Save a Wish

“I’m happy to be your practice dummy,” Beckett said with a grin.

“Maybe I’ll practice tonight,” I said. “On our date.”

Beckett closed his eyes and hummed before he repositioned our hands so they were clasped again. He tugged me along as we walked on a dirt path toward a collection of structures. As we neared, it became clear they were animal enclosures.

“What else do you want to do on our date?” he asked. “We could go to dinner. Or if you’re not opposed to starting the date earlier so we have enough daylight, we could do something fall-ish like the corn maze—”

“A corn maze?”

“Yeah. A farm not too far from here cuts this huge maze into their cornfield every year,” Beckett explained. “They always post an aerial shot of it.” He dug out his phone and tapped at it before saying, “Opal Hill Farm Corn Maze, Greenridge, Vermont.” After another tap, he held the phone out to me. “This year it’s a dragon.”

I took the phone in my free hand—because we hadn’t let go of each other—and gaped at the detailed dragon cut into a huge, yellow field. “That’s incredible. How do they do that?”

“You can ask them because after seeing the awe on your face, we’re definitely doing the corn maze today. Is like 3:00 too early for our date?”

I checked the time on Beckett’s phone. “It’s only noon now,” I said. “So if we speed through this tour, I can get my materials home, freshen up, and—”

“And I’ll pick you up because the maze is close to Slater’s Pond,” Beckett finished.

“Okay.” Having Beckett come to my doorstep sent a jolt through me.

Then I considered having him come to my bedroom and I nearly turned to ash due to the heat that caused to rush through me.

“We can still have dinner too.” Beckett took his phone back and got us walking toward the enclosures again. “We’ll go after the maze if that sounds good to you.”

“That sounds great to me.”

We paused in front of an enclosure that housed a lovely goose with a long, sleek, black neck and white and black body. Several patches of feathers were missing, however, where Beckett’s brother had attended to the bird’s injuries.

It let out a honk at us that startled me, making me jump.

“She’s a real trumpet player, isn’t she?” Beckett laughed. “She’s doing well though. Isaac said she’ll be good to go back into the wild next week probably. There have been some geese hanging around near a small pond on our property. We think she belongs with them and they’re waiting for her.”

“That’s wonderful.” I glanced at the other enclosures, many of which were filled. “You help so many animals here. It must be so rewarding to be a part of something like this.” I wandered to an enclosure with an owl in it. Its yellow eyes tracked me as if I was prey. It was both fascinating and haunting. “You’re the business guy, Vanessa is the artist, and Isaac is the veterinarian,” I said. “What do your other family members do here?”

“Logan is our groundskeeper and handyman. He keeps everything in top shape,” Beckett said. “Joshua works as a wildlife enforcement officer at Granite Cliff National Park with his fiancée, Sylvie. They both recently were promoted to lieutenant actually.” The pride he had for his family was endearing. “So they carry our mission out to the larger population. And Darius is a wildlife biologist and professor at Northeast Kingdom College. My mom pretty much oversees everything, but she’s been having us handle more lately.”

“While she enjoys time with Jimmy?” I arched an eyebrow at Beckett. “They are so cute. Jimmy came to see me this morning with a heart-shaped rock. He wants me to make a pendant with it for your mom. He was so sweet about it.”

“That is pretty charming.” Beckett shook his head. “No one would have guessed that Jimmy Slater was a romantic.”

“Maybe he just needed a reason to be romantic.”

“And my mom is that reason,” Beckett said.

I nodded. “And I never told you about the pendant order. I think Jimmy wants to surprise your mom with it.”

Beckett put his index finger to his lip. “The secret is safe with me.”

Which made me wonder how good he was at keeping secrets. If I told him who I really was, could he keep that knowledge to himself? I considered how close he was to his family members though. He’d probably want to tell them, and that would definitely be too many people knowing my real identity.

Too many people that might let it slip out. Information traveled so quickly these days. How long would it be before news reached Verdalach? I’d convinced myself my family and Cian no longer cared where I was, but my disappearance had surely caused a commotion at court and among our subjects by now. If they could bring me back, it would be quite the victory and victories always increased power.

My father and Cian loved power.

More than they loved me, but I still hadn’t caught sight of any public searches for missing Verdalachian princesses in the news. Maybe no one aside from my family and Cian knew I’d left home.

Still, I dismissed the idea of revealing my true self to Beckett. Too risky. My business had been successfully launched today. I had a date scheduled with a wonderful man. I had so much to look forward to and didn’t want to jeopardize anything.