The sun shone bright in the room. I sat up and stretched.
Owen snored softly beside me and I leaned down to kiss his forehead before slipping quietly out of bed.
The house was quiet and I smiled to myself. I missed these mornings. I would normally be the first one awake. Drinking my coffee out on the back patio as I listened to the dinosaurs on the island waking up. It was my favorite part of the day. No one nagging me for anything. Just me and the sounds of the animals.
As quietly as I could I made a pot of coffee, making sure to place Owen's mug beside the coffee maker. This was always part of our morning routine. I mainly put it here because he was always running into the kitchen already late for work.
I snuck back in the room to grab my robe.
Making it outside without waking anyone up, I curled up on one of the chairs on the deck by the lake.
I watched a family of ducks cross the deck and jump into the lake. They swam in a line across the lake.
It was almost an hour later I heard footsteps behind me. They were heavy on the loose rocks. I knew it was Owen.
He leaned over the back of the chair to kiss my cheek before sitting in the one beside me.
"Thanks for the coffee." He said, raising the mug to his lips.
I wondered of he had gotten the hint after seeing his mug by the coffee pot.
"It's so beautiful here." I sighed.
"Wait until we go north. The mountains are just as beautiful."
I nodded. "They are."
By the tone of his voice I knew he was picking up on my little hints around the cabin. It wasn't changing his mind at all.
We were silent for a while. I wanted to tell him I didn't want to get back in the van at the end of the week. This was too perfect. I knew he wasn't ready to stay in one place, so I kept my mouth shut. There was no sense in starting an argument. Not when I felt so happy.
"Morning!" Maisie called out as she ran towards us.
"Hey, kiddo." Owen opened his arms when she came around to where we were sitting.
She wrapped her blanket around her before letting Owen lift her onto his lap.
The three of us listened to the sounds of the birds chirping and an occasional croak of a frog.
"Can we go out on the lake today?" Maisie asked.
"Whatever you want to do." Owen told her.
"Daddy, can we have a house like this someday?"
Knowing it would be difficult for him to deny her anything, I leaned on the arm of the chair waiting for his response.
"Maybe someday." He sighed.
That was enough for Maisie and she slid off his lap and handed him her blanket. She made her way down by the water and threw in some rocks.
Owen chuckled softly beside me as he watched her failed attempts to skip a rock across the water.
"Here, kiddo. Let a pro show you." He got up to join her.
I watched him only get a rock to jump four times before sinking into the water. Looking around the edge of the deck I found a perfectly flat rock and I grabbed it.
Stepping up behind Owen he turned to look up me.
"Here, kiddo," I mimicked his words. "let a pro show you."
I winked at Maisie and she giggled.
With an easy flick of my wrist the rock jumped across the water.
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight!" Maisie counted, her voice raising with excitement with each number.
I turned to face Owen who was watching the water with wide-eyes and his mouth hanging open.
"It's all in the wrist, baby." I reached up on my toes and kissed his chin.
"Where the heck did you learn to do that?"
"Took my dad an entire summer to teach my sister and I how to skip rocks. After that it was always a competition between us." I shrugged. "I always won."
Owen rolled his eyes. "Doesn't surprise me."
"Do it again!" Maisie handed me another rock.
"What about me?" Owen asked her.
She laughed and shook her head. "Mom does it better."
I threw the rock she gave me and she counted nine as she cheered beside me.
"Ok," Owen huffed behind me.
I shrieked when my feet were swept out from under me. Owen had me cradled in his arms and I gripped his neck tightly.
"How many times do you think she'll skip?"
I looked into his eyes. "I'll kill you."
"Do it!" Maisie chanted.
I locked my fingers around my left wrist and locked them against his neck. "I go in, you're coming with me."
He let my legs go and I stood up and smiled up at him.
Before I could say anything I was in his arms again and tossed in the air. My hands frantically searched for something to grab. At the last possible second my fingers locked onto Owen's wrist and he tumbled with me into the water.
Though the air was warm, the morning sun didn't have a chance to warm up the water, so it was cold.
"Jerk!" I yelled when Owen reached for my hand.
His laughter echoed across the lake.
Maisie was on her knees laughing in a fit of hysterics.
"Where you going?" Owen asked when I started to swim towards the dock.
"Getting out of here. God knows what's swimming around in here." I shuddered from the thought.
Something nipped the back of my leg and I screamed.
"Like that?" Owen laughed, pinching my leg again.
"When are you going to grow up?" I couldn't hide my smile as I splashed him in the face.
Just as I splashed him there was a bigger splash behind me.
"Oh!" Maisie gasped. "It's cold!"
She shivered and Owen took her into his arms.
They began to swim around and splash each other. I took the opportunity and snuck out of the water.
I tossed my now drenched robe over the chair and grabbed the blanket Maisie brought out to cover myself.
I stood and watched them play around for a few minutes until Owen looked over his shoulder to where he last saw me.
"Claire?" Slight panic spread across his face as he looked around the water.
Maisie giggled. "She snuck out!" She yelled, pointing at me.
"I'm going to get you guys some towels." I said and hurried inside to get warm.
After having to coax them out with the promise of pancakes for breakfast, they slopped towards the cabin in their wet clothes.
The rest of the day was spent dry in the paddle boat.
Maisie and Owen continues their swimming once we were out further on the lake.
The day ended with a campfire and once again, Maisie was asleep before her bedroom light was turned off.
The week went by too fast. Maisie slumped back against the couch in the van as Owen pulled away. I tried to keep a positive attitude since she was giving Owen a hard time. He didn't need it from both of us.
"Where are we headed now?"
"North." He answered.
"That's it?" I asked.
He shrugged. "Sit back and enjoy the ride."