Unplanned - A RDR2 Fanfic (OCxArthur)

Chapter 10: Fishin' For Compliments

Jack giggled and sat down in the coarse sand. The breeze carried brisk air off the water, rustling through his sandy hair. "I wanna show Pa this."

"I'm sure he'll love it." I thought briefly about the predicament of John Marston, that mysterious greasy-haired man who was Jack's dad. He seemed to care enough about the boy and his mother to stop in and check on them, but rarely was he seen with his son otherwise. In fact, I'd seen Arthur Morgan with him more than his dad, and he was gone on various camp quests all the time.

"You must be quite the artist, boy." Almost like my thoughts had summoned him, the large figure of Arthur had sauntered into my field of vision, heading towards Jack. He had gestured at the doodle as he spoke.

"Uncle Arthur!" Jack cheered, running up to him. My heart warmed as I saw the man gently lift Jack off the ground and into the air, setting him on his shoulder.

"Whatcha been talkin' about with Ms. Summer?" Arthur's voice had taken on a lighter, gentler tone. There was a twinge of something warm and comforting in my chest.

"Drawing. I'm gonna show it to Pa." Jack played with the pencil in his fingers. "And that someday I'll be as good as you!"

Arthur chuckled. "Now we'll see about that." He had set the boy back down on the sand, glancing at me. My cheeks felt warm as I lowered my eyes to the ground to avoid prolonging contact. 

"Can we go fishin' now?" Jack gazed up at Arthur, his eyes round and pleading. "I've been practicin' with Pearson."

"Sure." Arthur put his hands on his hips. "Is she joinin' us?"

"Me? Oh, well..."

Jack ran up to me. "Pleeeease, Ms. Summer? It will be so fun!"

"Well, alright. Guess I could learn a thing or two myself." I brushed the dust off my dress as I stood.

I snatched one of the fishing poles that lay by the dock as Arthur prepared the small camp boat. We clambered in as he pushed the boat out into the water, arms flexing with the effort. I found myself looking and turned towards the water again. Dangit, Summer, don't go eyein' an outlaw like that. 

Arthur rowed us out a ways from the coast then stopped, picking up his own pole. "You remember what to do, Jack?"

"Yeah." Jack's little fishing pole was grasped tightly by his hands. "You just pull back, and then...!" He swung the pole sloppily backwards and thrust it again, where it plopped two feet away into the water. 

"Not bad," Arthur mused, "but ya might wanna put on the bait first."

"...Oh. Right." Jack reeled it in quickly. 

"How 'bout you, Ms. Summer Grace?" Arthur had turned to me, a curious glint in his face. "You a fisher?"

"Can't say I am," I admitted, fiddling with my dress. "But everything's worth a shot, right?"

"Sure." He gestured to my pole. "Why don't you show us?" 

I mainly agreed to this for Jack's sake -- to be honest, I was a pretty awful fisher. Both Mama and Dad weren't really big for it anyway, and I had never caught on easily. Besides, Dad knew it was probably better for me to pour energy into learning a gun rather than a fishing pole. I hesitated, then sat up, gripping the rod as baiting it. With a strong start, I thrust the rod forward, only for the line to fall a few feet away into the water. "Don't look too hard," I groaned, seeing the small smirk playing on Arthur's lips. 

"Maybe Uncle Arthur could teach you," Jack giggled. He was just playing by moving his lure around in the water and watching it. "He's pretty good."

"Now I wouldn't say that, but Kieran did give me some pointers. Guess there's some good comin' from that man." My heart started to pick up as Arthur squeezed past Jack, stopping next to me. He was looking down at me, catching my eyes as he gestured to my arm. "May I?"