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The time spent away from Nathaniel is absolutely dreadful, but before I even realize it, school is over, and I find myself back in the comforting embrace of Nana and Pops' house. I arrived here late last night after Mom dropped me off. As expected, she had already left by the time I woke up this morning. Just once, it would be nice for her to not abandon me at the first opportunity she got.
"Good morning, darling," Nana coos as I walk through the kitchen door.
"Morning Nana, morning Pops." I smile, bending down to give them both a kiss on the cheek.
"So, I'm guessing you won't be spending your morning helping me make a dozen cupcakes for the coffee morning at St. Mary's." Nana sighs, taking in my dress and jewelry. She looks like she’s gonna cry, but she doesn’t.
"Nah, she's too grown up for us old fogies now. She's more into boys than baking," Pops teases.
"I’ll never be too old for you, plus boys still smell. Nathaniel is just the exception,'' I joke back, poking my tongue out at Pops when I think he's not looking.
"I saw that, young lady."
"How? You weren't even looking!" I reply, my mouth gaping. "How does he do that?" I whisper to Nana.
"Because I'm your Pops, I know everything.'"Seriously, does this man have super hearing and superhuman sight?
"Well, you didn't know where your glasses were this morning, did you? No, you had me hunting the house high and low, and they were on top of your head," Nana says with a playful roll of her eyes.
"No fair, you girls don't get to gang up on me. It’s mean," Pops groans, pouting like a child.
"Now you know how I felt for close to thirty years. Not nice being the odd one out, is it?" Nana laughs.
I leave the two of them playfully bickering in the kitchen and head upstairs to finish getting ready. I also pack a bag full of goodies for meeting Nathaniel in ‘our spot’. Nana was kind enough to pack me a picnic of sorts, and I have carefully chosen a bag full of toys and activities to do. I just hope and pray that Nathaniel will already be there when I arrive.
"Hurry up Izzy, I'm leaving in five minutes," Pops calls up the stairs. I quickly grab my backpack, take one last look at myself in the mirror, and run down the stairs, ready to jump into the car with Pops for the ride to his work.
As soon as we pull up near the cabin, I see Nathaniel excitedly bouncing from foot to foot. I barely have time to close the car door behind me before he envelops me in a tight hug.
"I've missed you soo much." Nathaniel beams, and I can feel his nervous, happy energy radiating off of him.
"I've missed you too," I reply, hugging him back just as tightly. The beep of a horn brings me back to reality. "Have fun, you two. I'll be back around 2:30 to pick you back up, Izzy," Pops calls out the window before reversing and driving away.
"I've got a surprise to show you," Nathaniel says proudly before taking me by the wrist and leading me towards the forest.
"Where are we going?" I ask when we head in a direction I don't recognize.
"We’re here," he replies. It's then that I recognize where we are. We're near the lake with the broken tire swing I saw when I got lost out here. . Except, it's no longer broken with worn-out, tattered rope. It's been replaced.
"Do you like it?" Nathaniel asks. Even though he's smiling, I can hear the uncertainty in his voice.
"Did you do this?" I ask before kicking myself for stupidly assuming he'd do this for me.
"Kind of. It was mostly Gabe, though," he adds, lowering his head slightly.
"I love it!"
Instantly, Nathaniel's head shoots up, and the biggest grin spreads across his face.
"Thanks! Gabe got the rope and a new tire from work. We had to roll the tire here since it was too heavy to carry, but Gabe tied it all together."
Nathaniel takes me by the hand and leads me even closer.
“So both me and Gabe have tested it out to make sure it's safe and that the rope is strong enough to hold us, so we don't fall in the lake. But I brought you a spare shirt and some shorts, so you don't get your clothes dirty,'' Nathaniel says, bending down and retrieving a plastic bag from beside the tree. "You don't have to wear these clothes if you don't want to, but Gabe said girls don’t like getting dirty, so I brought them just in case."
Looking down at my pale pink shorts, white vest top, and pink beaded jewelry, I decide he's right. This outfit doesn't exactly scream, let's go swimming.
"Thank you," I say, before taking the bag of clothes from him.
