At some point in the middle of the night I felt the bed shift and a Nathan's familiar scent surround me. I was too tired to check the time so I just snuggled closer to him.
The next time I woke up the sun was spilling in through the windows and Nathan was still laying next to me. I checked the clock on the bedside table and saw that it was 8am. Did he mean for us to sleep this late? I was debating whether or not I should wake him up when I felt his arm tighten around me.
"Good morning Peanut." I settled down closer to him and smiled in return.
"Good morning Honey. How was your night?" Did they find anything?
"Boring. What was only a few hours felt like days. My eyes literally hurt by the time I was done. I felt much better when I climbed in next to you. How was your night with Mr. B?" Does he know? Did Owen tell everyone that we kissed? Would Nathan be mad?
"It was fine, I helped him fill out some information on Volto. I like feeling helpful." There, not lying, just not telling the whole truth. Nathan lifted himself up so his hand was holding his head up.
"That's good. You have been helpful a lot Peanut. Don't sell yourself short." He looked over at the clock. "Shit is that the time? I can't believe we slept so late. I wanted to head out by 8:30. Do you think you can get ready by then?"
Meanie had already picked out my outfit for today, so I just needed to take a quick bath and get dressed. "Yup. I just need about 20 minutes."
"Alright, you start getting ready and I will get our packs ready to go. We can make a quick breakfast sandwich from the freezer and then head out." I started to move off the bed when Nathan grabbed my arm and pulled me back closer to him. He placed a soft kiss on my lips and I was tempted to show him what I learned last night. Before I could decide if I should or not he pulled away. "Okay go, before we are later than we already are."
After getting dressed, I walked into the kitchen to help Nathan with the breakfast sandwiches and stopped short. On the kitchen table was a giant bouquet of purple dahlias. "They are stunning Nathan." I walked closer and gently touched the tip of my finger to one of the small petals.
"I tried to find something that made me think of you. Looks like I chose well." I blushed at the compliment and didn't know what to say in return. Nathan saved me the trouble by handing me a paper wrapped sandwich and made his way to the front door.
Nathan drove us out onto the highway and set the cruise control.
"There's a park about 30 minutes away with a few different trails. We can stop at the main trailhead and get a map, then decide which trails we want to hit."
"Sounds good. What did you pack in our bags?" When we had walked out to the car he had two backpacks that he threw in the back seat.
"A few bottles of water, some sandwiches and fruit for lunch, a couple granola bars, a first aid kit, flip flops…"
"Flip flops? You packed us sandals? Why?" I never thought of packing those to go hiking.
"A few of the trails have a stream crossing. I thought we could take our shoes and socks off put on the sandals and cross the water. Then we can put our socks and shoes back on and continue on."
"That's a really good idea Nathan. Better than having wet socks."
We had exited the highway and now Nathan was turning down a side road. I saw signs for various turn offs for the park. One for a picnic grove, one for a boat launch, Nathan picked one that just said parking area. He parked the car and we both got out. The sun was shining but there was a light breeze and I was glad Gabriel had picked out a light fleece pull over for me to wear. I was wearing a pair of black capri yoga pants and under my red pullover I had a pink fitted t-shirt. Nathan grabbed the bags out from the back seat and handed one to me. It felt pretty light for everything that he mentioned. I looked at his and it looked heavier. "Did you put most of the stuff in your bag Honey?"
Nathan hefted the bag over his one shoulder. "Of course I did Peanut. What kind of gentleman would I be if I made you carry everything? You have a bottle of water, a couple granola bars, and your sandals. I have that plus the food and a picnic blanket. It's not like I am carrying bricks, my bags not that heavy."
"Then let me carry it." I reached for his bag, but he pulled away.
"Nice try Peanut. You are not winning this one. Let's go pick out a trail before I take your bag and start carrying both."
We walked over to a big board that had a map of what must be the park and a case with a few different pamphlets. Nathan started looking over the big map which had trails marked with different colors. "What do you think Sang? I think we could do the blue trail, which is 3 miles with a view of the whole park at the top, or we could do the yellow trail, which is 6 miles, but pretty flat. It goes along the river at times though, so that would be nice." He looked at me, waiting for me to answer.
I shrugged. "Which one do you want to do?"
"Okay, I won't force you to make a decision so early in the morning." He winked at me and smiled. "How about the blue trail? I nodded in agreement and we walked off towards the first blue marker.
It was a pretty gradual incline to get to the top and it took about two hours to get the top of the trail. There was a grouping of large rocks, mostly flat on the tops. We scrambled over the tops of the rocks until we reached the one that jutted out over the cliff. Nathan walked out first, stopping at a spot in the middle of the rock. He took his bag off and set it, then gestured with his hand for me to join him.
"Ready for our picnic lunch Peanut?" I looked around. I did't think we were that high up, but the view was amazing. We were the only ones on the trail that we had seen and from up here it felt like we were the only ones in the world. I couldn't imagine a more romantic place for a picnic.
"Yes. Definitely." I walked up next to him and knelt down by the blanket he had laid out. He took out two small cooler lunch bags and started pulling out our lunch. Sandwiches, an apple and orange, cheese sticks, and bottles of water.
"Are you having fun Sang?"
I had just taken a bite of my sandwich so I nodded my head and smiled. I took a few sips of water and answered "I am. Thanks for bringing me here. I love being out here, walking around the woods, seeing everything."
"I knew there was a reason I liked you." He winked at me as he said it. "I get into a depression if I can't spend time outside."
"I can relate to that. I would take any time I could to get out of the house and walk in the woods. Sometimes it was the only time I could take a real breath without worry that my step-mother was going to find a reason to punish me." After I said it I realized how odd that was. I always risked her punishing me if she decided I was gone too long, or thought I was lying about where I went. Still though, I felt safer on my walks. I looked up to see Nathan nodding his head in agreement.
We finished our lunch with light conversation, but mostly we enjoyed the view and the peacefulness of day.
The way down the hill was much steeper than going up. I am glad we were going down that way and not up. According to Nathan we only had a little over a mile left on the trail when we reached a wide clearing. In the middle of the clearing the stream was weaving its way through the tall grass. Nathan had stopped to gather his bearings and pointed to a spot in the far corner. "We just have to cross the stream and make our way to that corner of the field and we should find the next blue marker." I nodded my head and started to walk towards the stream. When we were both standing in front of it, it looked a lot wider than I thought it would be. It looked like it would only be about ankle high, but the water was clear and moving rapidly. The bottom of the stream was filled with rocks and sticks stuck between.
"It is probably ten feet across, let's put our flip flops on and cross." With our socks stuffed in our shoes and our flip flops on I made my way to lead us across the stream. I placed my right foot in the stream and before I could put it all the way down to the bottom my flip flop slid off my foot and started floating down the stream. I yelled out something incoherent and pointed at my sandal floating away while my left foot still hovered in the air. I didn't want to lose both sandals. I heard Nathan move behind me and mumble something and then I saw him splash into the stream. Before I knew what was happening Nathan stopped moving forward and stared off towards my sandal. He turned back to look at me and the last time I saw that look on his face, Luke had just swiped the last piece of pizza. "What happened Nathan?"