Chapter 26

"All right, Nathan," Lee began to explain, "the first thing I'm going to do before we choke it and crank it is to go over what all those pedals on the floor do."

Nathan glanced down to the floorboard of the car and his eyebrows instantly shot up, eyes widening, lips pursed in confusion at what looked like complicated gadgetry. He then looked back up at Lee and let out a long, exaggerated whistle, "You're kidding me, 3 pedals? I only have two feet. Maybe this wasn't such a great idea. A horse is so less complicated."

Lee gave a small grin and responded back, "I guess we can always go back inside and listen to the women talk about wedding plans, flowers, dresses, trellises….." His voice drifted off.

Nathan let out a small grumble with the roll of his eyes and a smirk formed on his face, "Well you got me there. I don't think I want to get into the middle of all of that."

"Trust me, you don't, but I do know one thing and that's no one in Hope Valley can plan a wedding better than Rosie can. I can guarantee you it will be the most beautiful ceremony you could have possibly had and all you have to do is show up on the day of the wedding in your Sunday best, or in your case your Mountie best, and stand there to watch your bride walk down that aisle towards you. I guarantee you no one will even be watching you anyways. All eyes will be on Elizabeth."

"…..and not on the blubbering fool who can't even get a complete sentence out. That's what I'm hoping for. I'm so nervous that I'm going to be in such complete awe of her that I'll forget what I'm suppose to say when it comes time to do the vows."

Lee looked at him sympathetically, he knew how tongue-tied Nathan could get when it came to Elizabeth and it had only been recently that he had started getting to know him a little bit better. He shook his head, "No, Nathan, you won't forget the words. You're going to look at Elizabeth and suddenly you won't even notice that anyone else is even in the room and your focus will be all on her and trust me, I've seen Elizabeth as a bride already and you are not going to be able to keep your eyes off of her."

A small, vulnerable, shy shadow of a smile graced the corners of Nathan's mouth and he looked down into his lap, his cheeks slightly burning, "I already can't keep my eyes off of her."

Lee started laughing, "Yes, the whole town has known that for months now."

Nathan looked at him in surprise, "Wha….what do you mean the whole town?"

Lee started shaking his head, "Come on Nathan, you might not talk a lot or feel the need to say much, but you have a horrible poker face. When Elizabeth went to Union City with Lucas no one wanted to be the one to tell you where she went. Everyone could tell how taken you were with her."

Nathan rolled his eyes for the second time, "How could I forget, it was the worst day of my life. I felt heartbroken and devastated and thought that Elizabeth had made her choice. Poor Allie was the one who finally told me and even she was nervous to do it." He snickered under his breath, "She didn't want to hurt me, but she didn't want to keep it from me either. She was the only one that had the courage to tell me the truth."

Lee turned serious, "No one wanted to hurt you Nathan, especially Elizabeth. I think she may have just felt scared. I think even the she knew there was something between you and that her feelings for you were growing and she just wasn't quite ready to deal with that yet so she ran from them instead."

"It couldn't have been easy for her knowing that I was a Mountie. I suppose she was scared after what happened to Jack. I just hope that she doesn't feel fear every time I have to leave town. I just want to make her, Allie, and Jack my first priority and I want to make sure she knows that I will always do everything I can to come home to her. I'll never take unnecessary risks." He stared out the front window of the car his eyes fixated on a tall tree swaying in the wind off in the distance.

"You can't stop her from worrying about you, but Elizabeth is a strong woman. She's been through a lot and has already come out on the other side with even more strength and determination. She'll worry about you and you'll worry about her just like you did when she was stuck in the storm, but that just shows how much you care about each other. Take it from someone who knows, things will always happen and none of us are safe from risks in life, but its how you get through those times with each other that counts. You can't let it worry you so much though that you forget to enjoy all the other moments that come along and you will find so much joy in them. You'll draw from her strength and she will draw from yours and together you'll build your lives." He paused for a second and then added, "There is one thing I know for sure."

Nathan looked over at him, "What's that?"

"Elizabeth loves you. I can see it in her face when she looks at you and I love seeing her finally happy again. It has been a long time since I have seen that look in her eyes. She's got it as bad as you do."

Nathan chuckled. "Well then that's pretty bad…..so how about those pedals," he added, wanting to change the subject away from himself."

"Uh…right, the pedals. All right so there are three of them," he began by pointing at each one of them, "that one on the left is your clutch, the one on the far right is your brake, and the one in the middle is your reverse. In front of you is your steering wheel and there are two paddles behind it, one is a spark paddle that helps start the car and the other is the throttle that helps you to speed up and slow down."

Nathan shook is head in confusion, "A horse is so much easier."

"Only because you're more use to it. When you first started to learn to ride it took time to remember all the little things you needed to do to control the horse. It's the same with the car. Once you get use to it, you won't even think about it anymore and then you can surprise Elizabeth with your newfound skill. Ok, we're going to choke it first. See that lever down there?" Lee pointed to a small switch in the middle of the car, "That's the ignition switch that we use to start the car. We're going to leave it in the middle while we choke it. Now we have to get out of the car and pull the lever in the front three times." They both got out and Lee showed Nathan how to hold the lever and pull on it, "Now we are going to go back inside the car and pull push the ignition over to the right and then will crank her up."

In a matter of minutes, the car engine was on and running and they were both sitting in it again. "All right, that was the easy part, now what do we do," asked Nathan.

"The lever by your left hand that attaches to the floor is your brake release, push it forward and then the pedals on the floor are ready to be used. The car has two gears, low and high. If you press the left pedal all the say down that's low gear, if you press it to the middle that's neutral, and all the way up is high gear. Got it?"

"Got it," Nathan repeated. He wasn't sure he completely understood the importance of all of that, but it was simple enough to figure out how far to push it in for each gear and the fact that it only had two gears made it seem a bit easier. Now if you asked him what a gear was it wouldn't have been able to tell you.

"In order to make it go, you're going to put the spark lever down and then the throttle down a little ways. You then press all the way down into low gear on that left clutch pedal. When you want to speed up after you get moving, you push the throttle all the way up and completely let go of the clutch and that will shift the car into high gear. Now the important part, stopping. When you want to stop you're going to push the clutch halfway down into neutral and then press on the brake pedal with your right foot. If you need to stop quicker you can push on both the reverse and the brake at the same time while pushing halfway down on the clutch. All right, lets get her rolling."

"You mean we are actually going to go somewhere?"

Nathan looked nervous and Lee looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "Yes, you didn't think we would just sit here did you? You're not going to learn unless we actually try driving. Come on now you're going to do just fine. Move your levers." He watched as Nathan put the two levers on the steering column in the correct positions, "Good, perfect. Now push all the way down on that clutch and the car should move forward."

Nathan did as Lee instructed and to his pleasant surprise the car lurched forward, but in his excitement, he completely forgot to grab the steering wheel and all of the sudden he was brought out of his shock by Lee's voice, "Nathan, grab the steering the wheel!"

"Oh, uh ha….ok." He wrapped both of his hands around each side of the steering wheel and gripped it firmly with his long fingers.

"Easy, Nathan. You don't have to hold it so tight. Your hands will get tired doing that. Relax and then try turning the wheel. It will go in whichever direction you turn it. If you turn the wheel to the left, the car will go that way. Keep it low gear so we don't go too fast and practice turning."

Nathan turned the wheel and watched as the car turned in the same direction. He practiced doing it a few more times and then Lee instructed him to push up on the throttle and to release the clutch all the way. He did as he was told and the car started to pick up speed. "Now you're in high gear," Lee told him.

"Wow, I'm doing it. This isn't so bad," Nathan exclaimed.

Lee looked over at him. Nathan had a huge excited smile on his face like a kid in a candy store spending their Christmas money. "I told you, not so hard. You're doing great."

Everything was going well until Nathan took his eyes off of the front window and looked over at Lee. He realized it was a mistake, but it was too late and he couldn't think fast enough to correct himself. "Look out," Lee yelled.

Nathan turned his attention back to the front of the car just in time to see the row of bushes in front of him lining the side of the road. 'Oh no,' he thought, 'what was that on how to brake? Push down halfway and then all the way on the brake pedal.'

His thoughts turned rapidly into panic as he came closer to the bushes and then he heard Lee's voice speaking out louder and higher pitched with every move closer to the bushes, "Brake…brake…brake…" Lee's voice died off as the front of the car careened into the bushes and came to a stop. Lee and Nathan both let out a huge breath they had been holding at the same time and then slowly turned their heads until they were staring at each other wide eyed and in shock. They sat there for a moment trying to let the adrenaline die down and then Lee finally spoke one last time with raised eyebrows and a half, upturned mouth, he managed to squeak out, "brake…."

This was one of those times that Nathan chose to be more economical with his words and he just sheepishly shrugged and said, "sorry," with an embarrassed expression on his face.

"I think that's enough of a lesson for today, what do you think?"

"Yeah….." was all that he could manage to get out.

"How about you help pull the car out of the bushes and then I'll take over and drive us back to the house. Maybe we can see if the girls want to go grab dinner at the café."

All Nathan could do was nod in agreement. His adrenaline was still coursing through his veins and causing him to be in a complete stupor. They both got out and pushed the car back and after checking it out to make sure it was ok, Lee then started it up and they drove it back to the house, "Well I think that was a success for the first day."

Nathan finally found his words, "You're joking, right?"

Lee tilted his head back and forth, "Well, everyone is bound to have a mishap from time to time when learning something new."

Nathan kept staring ahead of him as they pulled up to the house, "I drove your car into a bush."

Lee slowly nodded his head and then tilted it to the side, "Yes you did, but it was a good effort."

They got out of the car and walked up to the door of the house, "If you say so," replied Nathan still a bit in shock.

Lee slapped him on the back as they opened the door, "It stays between you and me."

He finally got a small smile out of Nathan as the women greeted them back to the house. Lee looked up at them and gave them a huge grin, "How about we all go into town and have dinner at the café tonight to celebrate Nathan and Elizabeth's engagement."

Rosie spoke up and answered first, clasping her hands together, "I think that's a great idea! We will get our coats. How about we take the car into town?"

Nathan and Lee both looked at each other and then back at the women and then both spoke in unison, "Let's walk!"

Elizabeth and Rosemary both cocked their heads and gave them an inquisitive look, foreheads furrowed in surprise, but before they could even ask a question Lee quickly answered, "Uh, I mean, it's a beautiful night and we should take advantage of that and just enjoy the fresh air." He shook his head around, "Right, Nathan?"

"Uh..um….yeah," he nodded exaggeratingly with the corners of his mouth turned up in a goofy smile, "I agree, absolutely."

Elizabeth and Rosemary looked at each other and just shrugged and Rosemary answered, "Ok, if that's what you want."

Lee smiled a huge smile and replied back, "Great, let's go," and with that Elizabeth grabbed Little Jack and all five of them headed out the door, walking towards town.

TO BE CONTINUED…..