For the next week we saw each other almost every day, though we didn't go ice skating again. We were waiting to keep our promise to Pippa. She was getting better, Jack told me, and I went over to visit her a few times, sneaking her a few more pastries. Her mother probably wouldn't approve of the sweets I was giving her because it probably wouldn't help her health, but she got over her cold with no dangerous complications arising. Still, her mother wanted to keep her inside for a few days.
A week and a half passed and suddenly the weather began to warm up. A lot of the snow metled and our outside antics turned from snowball fights to playing ball and hopscotch. However, with the warmer weather and the end of winter drawing near, both I and Jack had more chores to do. Some of the animals were coming out of their long winter sleep so there was more meat to cook. It still wasn't warm enough to grow anything because the ground was still frozen, but my mother began to prepare slightly bigger meals for us which meant that I spent more and more time inside, helping her. I still got to see Jack and the other kids every couple of days, but more often than not I had to stay in until dark.
Jack would come back from hunting trips or wood cutting and often stop at my house, knocking at our door. My mother began to become a bit suspicious about him stopping by so often, but she was also rather fond of Jack because he offered to help my father and James and Isaac with hunting and finding firewood. He and I didn't get to see each other alone anymore, so there was none of that holding hands or him kissing my cheek, but I still got that warm feeling whenever I saw him. When he stopped by, I sometimes handed him another pastry for him to deliver to Pippa, whom I didn't get to see almost at all. The first time I'd gone to hand him one, the small bun wrapped in a bit of cloth, he looked carefully over my shoulder before catching my hand in both of his and kissing it before accepting the pastry. I had blushed while starting to shiver from the cold outside the door, and I didn't know what it was about him but sometimes I just couldn't get proper words out. Through chattering teeth all I could say was, "Jackson Overland, your hands are too cold." I tried to smile and he laughed, so I knew he wasn't offended.
He continued to kiss my hand every time I was able to sneak a pastry for Pip, though we didn't have them all the time and Jack stopped by nearly every day. I was disappointed when I didn't have a pastry to offer him, though I don't like to admit it, more for my sake then Pippa's. When I could though, I gave him two so he could have one as well. He told me that Pippa had begun to lose a couple of her baby teeth and probably would have a hard time eating the pastries anymore, but I instructed Jack on how to warm them over a fire to soften them up for her. It seemed to work pretty well, and as the weather warmed up even more, sometimes she'd come visit with her brother. She would always whisper a "thank you," to me, very quietly since I'd told her that it was our little secret.
I did learn though that it hadn't stayed a secret. I visited the Overland house occasionally when I could get away from mine. One day when I was over, helping Jack's mother prepare a meal, Pippa was running around between us and Jack. "Mother, I'm hungry!" she said.
"I know you are, Pippa, but you can't eat yet, you'll spoil your appetite for dinner," Mrs. Overland said. She looked sideways are me while she continued chopping vegetables and spoke still to Pippa. "Besides, it seems as though you've been spoiled enough already, hmm?"
I blushed in embarrassment and shrugged apologetically, ready to take whatever sort of reprimand she had, but she nudged my shoulder gently to show that she wasn't too angry. Then she turned to look at Pippa. "But you know, if you eat too many sweets, Pippa, your teeth will go bad. You wouldn't want that to happen now, would you?"
Pippa came over and hugged me around the middle on the side opposite her mother. She peeked out and said, "But I like the sweet pastries that Tabitha gives me."
I knelt down to her level. "No, she's right, Pippa, you'd better listen to your mother."
"See? Tabitha agrees with me," said Mrs. Overland. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jack rolling his eyes as he set out plates on the table.
Pippa frowned, pursing her lips in an adorable pout. "But you're the one who gives me the sweets! They won't make my teeth go bad!" she said.
I looked at her for a moment and then said, "Show me a smile, Pip. Come on, or I'll have to tickle you." I reached my hands toward her belly and she giggled, smiling wide. There were a few spaces where she'd lost her baby teeth and new ones were starting to take their place. "Ahh, mhm, I see," I said in a very professional manner.
"Wha-, wha-?" Pippa asked, her mouth still open.
"Jack, come look at this," I said, raising my eyebrows at him. He nodded and came over, kneeling next to me and inspecting Pippa's mouth. "It seems important, wouldn't you agree, Jack?"
He nodded, rubbing his chin as though deep in thought. "Why, yes, Tabitha, you're most definitely correct."
"Whaaaa-?" Pippa continued.
I took her hands and said very seriously, "It is very important that you don't eat anymore sweet pastries for a while, Pippa. You've lost baby teeth and you'll lose more, which isn't bad, but if you keep eating sweets, your new teeth will go bad before they're even all in." She clapped her hands over her mouth in fright.
"Really?" she whispered.
Jack nodded solemnly. "Really. But you can still have a sweet every once in a while, just not as much as Tabitha's been giving you," he said.
"Oh, don't you try to blame this on me, Jack," I said, giving him a playful shove that knocked him off balance. Pippa giggled and jumped on top of him. I straightened up, still looking at him. "I've been giving youpastries too, haven't I?" Pippa's eyes widened and she looked at Jack in surprise.
"You've been getting them too?" He nodded and laughed and she hit his chest saying, "Jack's teeth are going to go bad!"
"We'll just see," he said. "I'll make you a deal - I won't eat anymore sweets for a while if you don't, ok?" He held out his hand to shake on it.
She looked at him dubiously and then grabbed his hand, "Ok. But sometimes we can have one, right?"
He nodded and ruffled her hair. "Only if Tabitha makes them," he said, smiling at me. I didn't understand how he could get me so flustered and tongue-tied so easily so I turned to continue helping his mother with the meal.
The conversation eventually turned to other things, including the recent warm weather. Jack's mother mentioned that soon the flowers would begin to bloom if the weather kept warming up like this. Pippa ran over to window and stood up on her tiptoes to look out, while I told her mother how much I loved the first flowers of spring. "I just love to see all of the colors after the white and gray winter," and we shared a smile.
"Aw, come on," Jack said teasingly, "winter's not all that bad."
"That's because you, Jackson, don't have to worry about keeping a family fed and warm," she said, gesturing to him and Pippa with a cooking spoon. Her tone was joking though.
"I'm sure Jack helps out, doesn't he, Mrs. Overland?" I asked. I knew he spent time with his father just as Isaac and James did with ours. Jack made a show of throwing more firewood into the blaze in the hearth and stoking it so that the flames roared and crackled.
"Oh, I suppose he does, then," she said with a joking reluctance. "But I'll still be glad for the spring and the flowers. They do certainly bloom prettily here, I love to have bouquets of them to light up the room," she said.
Under his breath and masked by the roar of the fire, Jack said, "They're not the only pretty things that light up a room." I glanced over at him, not sure I'd heard him right, but he gave me that crooked smile and his eyes sparkled. I felt myself blush as I turned to continue chopping vegetables, grateful that Jack's mother had been moving a pot at the time and hadn't heard. I felt as though I ought to say something to break the moments of silence that followed but I couldn't think of anything to say and I could just barely hear Jack chuckling over the crackling of the flames.
It was Pippa who broke the silence, finally turning from the window to give me and Jack an accusing look. "Flowers are nice, but you promised to take me ice skating!" she said indignantly.
"Aw, Pip," Jack said apologetically, "It's probably going to have to wait until next winter, I'm sorry."
"But whyyyyyyy?" she asked, running over and tugging on his sleeve.
I walked over and scooped her up in my arms. "Because the ice on the lake is starting to melt, and that means we can't skate anymore this season." She looked up at me with a disappointed frown.
Jack tickled her stomach and said, "But that doesn't mean we can't still have fun, Pippa!" She giggled and he tickled her more. "We can play hopscotch and tag and play ball and all sorts of things!"
She giggled more and when she caught her breath, she looked at him very seriously. "But you'd better keep your promise, Jackson Overland." She looked up at me with the same look. "You promised too, Tabitha!"
I laughed and hugged her. "Of course we'll keep our promise. Don't worry about that."
