Mac was woken up by bird's singing, which managed to come through the closed windows. She opened her eyes and started to become aware of where and with whom she was. She raised her head and realized that it had been resting against Harm with his arm still wrapped around her. Between the two of them Isabelle was lying sleeping. Slowly Harm was starting to wake up as well.
"Hey," Mac said. It was a rather awkward situation somehow. Even though Mac had raised her head up she was still lying very close to Harm and he was missing the warmth her head had provided on his chest.
"Good morning."
"Sleep well?" She didn't know why she didn't get up from the awkward position, maybe it just felt a little bit too good.
"Yeah. Or well, at least I think so before I've started moving. Have a feeling I'm a bit stiff."
"Yeah, me too."
Their voices had by now also woken Isabelle up.
"I'm hungry," was her first words as she yawned and stretched out her body.
"So am I," Mac agreed and now she did get up from the floor. "Let's go and see if we can find something to eat."
They walked out to the kitchen, but Harm remained lying on the floor. Mac got out the things that she and Isabelle would normally eat for breakfast and took them out to the porch where they would have it. When Harm still hadn't showed up, Mac went back into the living room where Harm was still lying with his eyes closed, smiling like he was thinking about something very pleasant.
"You need some help getting off the floor, old man?"
"Very funny," Harm now really did get off the floor. Not very fast, but neither had Mac ten minutes earlier.
"We're having breakfast out on the porch," Mac said and this time Harm followed her first out to the kitchen to get some breakfast and then they joined Isabelle out on the porch.
"Can we go swimming now?" Isabelle asked when she had just stuffed herself with the last of her sandwich.
"We have to wait a while after eating," Mac said. "But I think it sounds like a good idea. Today seems to be a great day." Except for the still wet ground and some puddles of water in front of the house, nothing seemed to be left of the thunderstorm that hat blown over the house the same night. The sun was shining and the sky was clear blue.
"Are you coming too, Harm?"
"I ,,, I don't have any swimming trunks with me," Harm said and though it was true it was more like a convenient excuse than the real reason he was unwilling. "But I could still come with you."
Isabelle got up and ran back into the house. She came back with a rather funny looking pink swimming trunks and gave them to Harm.
"You can wear these. They're Grandpa's, but I picked them out for him."
Mac laughed and Harm couldn't help joining in.
"Don't look at me," Mac said when Harm looked at her for a good answer to give the little girl.
"OK, OK, I'll come with you and I'll even go into the water."
An hour later they were making their way through the woods towards the lake where all three of them had gone swimming before, but this was the first time they were doing it together. They were wearing their bathing suites under their clothes and as soon as they got to the little clearing in front of the lake, Isabelle started taking off her clothes and running into the water. After Mac had unloaded the things she had been carrying she also started taking off her clothes and preparing to go into the water. Harm was just slowly spreading out the blankets and towels on the ground.
Mac had stopped moving and just stood there and looked at him.
"Harm, I know this is hard for you, but it will be OK. Really it will." She had correctly guessed that he was scared of taking off his shirt and showing Isabelle what his back looked like. Mac's reaction to it yesterday certainly hadn't helped either. She realized that too.
Harm had been looking down, but now his eyes slowly traveled up her body until they rested on her face. The sight of her not so covered body made his body react in a way, that convinced him that getting into the cold water was the only option anyway. When Mac saw that he had started undressing she wanted to give him some privacy and followed Isabelle into the water. Isabelle was standing with the water up to her knees and had almost started to shake from the cold.
Mac ran past her and that splashed water up on her. Isabelle then followed her a little further into the water and started using her arms as much as she possibly could to splash water on her mother. Mac retaliated and turned around to do the same thing. They were soon both completely drenched even though the water just went up to the middle of Isabelle's thigh.
Harm couldn't help laughing at the sight of the two of them waving their hands around in the water like their life depended on it. He ran into the water and past them where as soon as he could he dived into the water and took a few swimming strokes. It felt great to be in the water. When he had run past them Isabelle forgot about the water fight with her mother and started swimming after her father. Mac followed as well.
"I'm glad you convinced me," Harm said to both of them. He had stopped swimming, but since they were at a dept where not even he could reach the bottom, he was still paddling his feet "This is wonderful."
"Yeah," Mac agreed.
They continued to play in the water until Isabelle was shaking from the cold and Mac could finally convince her to come to the land at least for a little while.
Isabelle wrapped herself in the towel and sat down on the blanket. Mac lay down on her towel, her back facing up. She wanted to catch some sun if it was possible. Harm lay down on his back and looked up on the sky.
"Why do you have those marks on your arms and back?" Isabelle asked looking at Harm. Mac turned her head so that she had them both in view in case Harm would need some help with her rather inquisitive daughter.
"When I was away there were some people that hurt me and these marks are scars after that," Harm said and sat up to face her.
"Oh, does it still hurt?"
"Only some of them," Harm answered deciding that he wasn't going to lie about that to either Mac or Isabelle. Isabelle moved a little closer and bent her head over to kiss one of the big ones on his right arm.
"Feel better?"
"Yes, much better," Harm said and that was very much the truth.
Isabelle got up and picked up her butterfly net. She had caught sight of an orange butterfly flying close to the edge of the woods.
"Don't go further than you can see us and we can see you, OK?" Mac said.
"'K."
"So how did I handle that?" Harm asked Mac and she looked a little guilty.
"Perfect." She smiled at him and he smiled back. He had taken his towel and wrapped it around his arms remember something the doctor had said to him during his medical evaluation.
"Is there anything you can do to make them better?" Mac said seeing that he was trying to protect the scars from the sun.
"Not really other than keeping those parts out of the sun."
Mac raised her eyebrows sensing that he was hiding something.
"Well, I got this ointment to put on that will help with the healing, but it's rather hard to put it on your own back."
"All you have to do is ask me, Harm," Mac said and looked at him sincerely.
Harm nodded and smiled deciding that he was going to do just that.
-------------------------------
That evening the three of them returned home from the Bensons completely stuffed. They'd had a wonderful time there and Mr. Benson had taken Isabelle out to the lambs and let her help him making sure they had all they needed for the night, so she was even more thrilled. It wouldn't take much to get her into bed tonight, that was for sure. After having made sure Isabelle had brushed her teeth and gotten into bed, Mac went out to sit on the porch. It was her favorite place of the whole house. Especially sitting here when the house was calm and watch the sun setting in the distance.
She soon heard the squeaking of the door being opened and Harm appeared on the porch as well.
"Hey," Mac said and glanced sideways at him, but her eyes went back to watching the beautiful sunset.
"Hey," Harm remained standing watching Mac and she got very self-conscious and looked back at him and saw the ointment jar in his hand.
"Do you …?" Mac started asking.
TBC