Author's note: Thank you all so much for your patience as I worked to get Chapter 5 to you, and for your continual support of this story! I know the Fan Fiction website is experiencing some glitches again, so I really, really hope this chapter posts properly. This was a super fun chapter to write (though for some reason, it took me FOREVER to polish)—LOVE writing happy, flirty Nathan and Elizabeth! It did my heart good, and I hope it brings joy to your heart, too.
I'm aiming to write one final chapter for this story, detailing N and E's "family front porch picnic." I couldn't just leave you hanging on that by ending this story with this current chapter, could I? That would be heartless! I'm looking forward to officially finishing this story with my next chapter. Fully finishing stories is a rare accomplishment for me!
Also, another shoutout to my friend Paths Through Lavender fields for supplying me with more writing inspiration! Your line about Lillian being "the picture of piqued sass" with "her tongue sticking out" in Chapter 6 of your story Neither Diamond Sunbursts Nor Marble Halls inspired my line about Elizabeth sticking her "tongue out in unprecedented sass" toward Nathan in this chapter. Love our sassy lady characters, haha! Thank you, as always, for the inspiration (and for all your support of my writing)!
Have a blessed rest of your week, everyone!
The Page She Left Behind
Chapter 5: A Playful Race, a Sweet Slowing of Time
Sitting serenely by the pond, hands joined, with the afternoon sun cloaking their surroundings in a warm saffron yellow, Elizabeth and Nathan were perfectly content to remain there for hours, finding sweet solace in each other's presence, until the sun had bid its daily adieu to the earth. However, Elizabeth knew she had to start making her way home to relieve Laura of her babysitting duties and care for her son.
"Nathan, I...I would...l-l'd love to spend all evening here with you, but Little Jack...Laura...I should be getting home..." she noted, regretfully. She was looking forward to seeing her son, but quite sorry to leave behind the special moments of sitting by the pond—their pond—with her Mountie.
"I know, Lizbeth." As a parent himself, he knew, indeed. There was no need for Elizabeth to explain herself any further.
Nathan let go of Elizabeth's hands so he could stand up, and then he extended his hands to her once more to help her arise. As she gratefully took hold of them and made it to her feet, her heart hit was anew by the snug strength of his hands, by their comforting weathered texture that spoke of his toil in keeping the town safe. Now, they were her safe haven, and she was yielding to their shelter and protection.
Though tomorrow was not promised for either her or Nathan, her heart was infinitely thankful to rest her hands safely in his in this moment, and her soul was entrusting her and Nathan's future to God, praying and hoping that He would grant them many tomorrows.
She looked into Nathan's eyes, her own eyes two earnest messengers imparting the depth of her feelings, a shy smile dancing at the edges of her lips. Ruefully, she let her left hand fall away from his right but resolutely kept her other hand harbored in his as they started to head to their rowhouses.
With a tenderhearted smile of his own, Nathan gently rubbed his thumb against hers, expressing his affection in signature Nathan Grant style and confirming that his heart was in exact alignment with hers.
Elizabeth's smile then burst into its full width, swinging toward Nathan's as if their grins were now engaged in a lively ballroom dance for two, the wavering rhythm of their heartstrings supplying the music.
If walking home together, hand in hand, felt like a wonderful dance, Elizabeth couldn't help but ponder what actually dancing with Nathan would feel like. She hoped to find out soon.
She and Nathan both refrained from speaking for a few minutes, letting all they had said to each other that afternoon fully take root in their minds as they strolled home, the gravel road crunching satisfyingly under their boots.
"Rosemary was right," Elizabeth said softly under her breath, after some time, not even fully realizing she was voicing her thoughts.
"Right about what?" Curiosity cast itself upon Nathan's features as he kept hold of her hand.
Oh no. I said that out loud, Elizabeth cringed, an audible groan very nearly claiming its freedom from her lips, only to be locked in by them at the last minute.
"Oh...well, ummm..." Pink pitilessly pierced Elizabeth's cheeks. Good luck trying to get out of explaining this to Nathan...his Mountie Mode has officially been activated.
"That phrase was just supposed to stay in my head, as a thought. Not be spoken out loud. Pretend you didn't hear that," Elizabeth asserted, trying to act nonchalant.
"Nice try," Nathan teased, giving her the gentlest elbow in the side even as they continued to hold hands. He looked rather riveted by the blush on her cheeks, as if he was determined to decode its underlying message.
"I heard it, Lizbeth. And I really would like to know what Rosemary was right about..." he declared, acting quite chalant about the matter.
His curiosity took on the obstinate form of a broad, mischievous grin that called to mind the Cheshire Cat's.
"Why do you always have to be such a Mountie, Nathan Grant? Ceaselessly prying and investigating?" she bemoaned in teasing rebuttal, removing her hand from his so she could put both of her hands on her hips in indignation. She narrowed her eyes at him and slammed her eyebrows down on her eyes, but the traces of a smile that stubbornly remained at the tail ends of her lips showed Nathan that she was teasing. Somewhat.
She looked very much like a teacher on the brink of losing her patience at that moment, and her pose and facial expression set off a round of Nathan's laughter.
"I thought you liked that I was a Mountie. You said it yourself, just a short while ago," he protested, lightheartedly, amidst chuckles.
"I do, I do..." she sputtered, cheeks ever rosier, feeling frustratedly flustered, but enjoying her and Nathan's quick back-and-forth banter all the same. It felt as if they were tennis players about to reach the deciding point of their match.
"Haven't you kept enough secrets from me, Mrs. Thornton?"
He was going to win...she could feel it.
Still, Elizabeth kept resisting.
"What's one more secret, at this rate?" she shot back, equally stubborn, her tongue out in unprecedented sass and eyebrows now reaching toward Nathan's tall frame, cheeks still adamantly flushed.
"Tell you what, Nathan Grant," she proposed. "Race you the rest of the way back to my rowhouse. If I beat you, I get to keep this secret. But if you beat me, I'll tell you what Rosemary said. But you have to give me a 30-second head start. Because you and your fast legs will absolutely annihilate me in this race otherwise."
She then muttered, "They probably still will."
"Deal. And annihilate is a great vocabulary word, teacher," Nathan quipped, flirting a bit, his eyes engaged in a vivacious jig.
"I try my best to practice advanced vocabulary words," she sparred back. "I have to be a good example for—"
"3,2,1, GO, Lizbeth!" Nathan prompted her before she could finish her statement, giving her a gentle nudge forward. "I'll take off in 30 seconds!"
"...A good example for my students!" she finished, giggling wildly, as she began to dash away gracefully. She looked back at Nathan with a huge grin as her burnt caramel curls bobbed bountifully with each stride.
She is absolutely lovely, Nathan thought, standing firmly in place, a lopsided smile stuck on his face, his heart helpless to resist the pull of hers. After about 10 seconds of maintaining his frozen stance, lost in Elizabeth's world, he remembered he was supposed to count to 30, and so he started at "10."
Better late than never, he thought, bashfully, musing how the idiom held true for his and Elizabeth's courtship as well.
Once he reached the count of 30, he took off like his life depended on it. He just had to know Elizabeth's other secret about what Rosemary had said, that was besprinkling her cheeks with winsome rosy-hued dew...
It wasn't too long until he caught up to her, hurtling a now-triumphant grin her way like a horseshoe toward a stake. "Aha, I got you!" his smile seemed to say. Soon, he was in the lead.
"Oh, Nathan Grant...I'll catch up to you if I lose every last bit of my oxygen doing so!" she threatened from behind him, huffing and puffing in a volume that seemed to her to be louder than a steam engine, feeling more than a bit embarrassed by her non-ladylike breathing. He wasn't breathing nearly as loudly...if only she shared his robust stamina!
Despite the assertion she made to him, catch up to him she most certainly did not. He easily beat her to her rowhouse, making it there a full 30 seconds ahead of her.
Once she finally made it there herself, she bewailed, "You still beat me, even with giving me a 30-second lead!"
She pretended to be exasperated as she battled for breath, but she laughed vigorously and quickly followed up with, "I'm not surprised in the slightest."
"Normally, I'd be a gentleman and let you win, but I'm just too curious about what Rosemary said," a rather cheeky Nathan responded.
"Rosemary says a lot of things, you know," Elizabeth insisted, laughter bubbling up from the deepest crevice of her soul as she continued to gasp for breath. "What makes you so curious about this one?" Mock defiance rang in her tone.
"Just a hunch, but...something tells me it relates to us?"
The flush present on Elizabeth's cheeks from her rapid spurt of intense physical activity—and from the continuous tease-fest she had participated in with Nathan—grew painfully more pronounced, providing affirmation for his hypothesis.
"I knew it," Nathan stated slyly.
"How can you always read my mind, Constable?"
It was a rhetorical question. She knew her flushed cheeks betrayed her, time and time again.
He just laughed, tickled pink by her charming pink cheeks and her affectionate use of his job title to address him. "Let's sit down and catch our breath, Lizbeth."
Hmmm. Catch their breath. Elizabeth was beginning to think that was a task impossible for her to fully fulfill with Nathan Grant around. Still, she and Hope Valley's Mountie took a seat on the front porch steps of her rowhouse, him on her left and her on his right.
"So..." Nathan began, after adequate oxygen was restored to them both—though Elizabeth still felt more than a touch breathless. "What did Rosemary say?"
After he was met with silence on Elizabeth's end, he prompted, "A promise is a promise."
"Well, ah..." Elizabeth began in sheepish surrender.
"Rosemary...she said..." Elizabeth paused, her nerves in a state of tumult. Instead of experiencing her usual Nathan Grant-induced butterflies, this time, several invisible hummingbirds had taken flight in her stomach. Their even faster-moving wings were discomposing her even more than usual, making it hard for her to think properly and logically voice her thoughts.
Nathan waited patiently, his eyes sparkling with gusto, and a tiny, impish smile starting to spiral upward from the margins of his lips. He was clearly enjoying her flustered state, which only spurred those hummingbirds to flutter faster.
Before Elizabeth could completely lose her nerve, she let her words rush out from her lips like brisk-moving river rapids: "Rosemary said it'd be scarier to think of all I'd miss by not taking the risk of loving you than by taking that risk..."
Feeling shyness take over, she looked down at her hands, which were currently placed in her lap. She had a strong inclination that he'd request for her to expound on Rosemary's statement with her own thoughts...
And that he did. In a warmhearted and more muted tone than before, Nathan piped up, "I see. Wise woman, that Rosemary. What are some of the things we would miss, Lizbeth?"
Elizabeth started with safe topics. "Well, for one...me baking banana muffins for you..."
She left out the detail of how she planned to put them in his lunches when they were married, as she continued to stare at her hands that would make that banana bread dream a reality, shyness continuing to shimmy around her heart.
"You being Jack's rabbit racing companion..."
She looked back up at Nathan with soft eyes that suggested her words really stood as code for something infinitely deeper: You eventually being Jack's father.
Oh, how she admired how Nathan interacted with her son. He was so kindhearted, yet so firm and resolute in his guidance; playful and fun-loving with him at times, and imparting serious, long-hewn jewels of wisdom at other times.
Elizabeth couldn't bring herself—not yet—to share with Nathan the vision she had had of their baby. That would come in time...
"Jack and Allie continuing to develop a still-tighter bond, playing and exploring as they do..." And turning into siblings one day, her continuously soft eyes seemed to imply.
Nathan looked rather content listening to Elizabeth rattle off things they'd miss if they didn't pursue a relationship, so she opted to continue.
Always do what you're afraid to do...the reminder on the plaque Nathan made her, its source Emerson, spurred her forward.
"Other things w-w-we'd miss..." she began again, albeit unsteadily.
"Us holding hands regularly..." A sudden surge of courage prompted her to reach for his right hand with her left. She smiled at their rejoined hands. Distracted by how heartening it was to have his hand in hers again, she pressed on, not completely conscious of her next statement. "And us...ki-"
Awareness abruptly stopped her mid-sentence, mid-syllable. No, she had almost said it! Drat! Out of all the other possible things she could have said about what they'd miss...she just had to very nearly blurt out her thought about them kissing! A fresh torrent of heat swept across her cheeks, and she dropped her eyes to his Mountie boots.
They are quite fine boots. Of optimal quality, really. And quite stylish, worthy of studying intently, she deliberated to herself. If I stare at them long enough, Nathan will forget this topic of conversation and more fully appreciate them as well, and I can avoid finishing my sentence. Right?
Even better, maybe he'll just figure my unfinished statement was supposed to be, "And us kicking off our boots and relaxing together after long days..." It's possible, right?
Who am I kidding?! Nathan has most definitely already put two and two together about what I really was about to say...
"Us...what now?" Nathan prompted, interrupting her thoughts. By his lilting, gently teasing tone of voice, Elizabeth knew that her situation was a lost cause, and he had easily figured out her intended declaration.
Eventually, curiosity led her to displace her eyes from the safe zone of his boots and look back up at him. There was a hopeless half-grin on his lips that confirmed he'd guessed the rest of the only half-spoken word she'd started to say. Not to mention the fact that his eyes were now twinkling tenaciously in turbo fashion...
Mounties, she lamented internally. Hard to get anything whatsoever by them.
She fidgeted at first under his knowing gaze, but soon found peace in his eyes, whose azure twinkle was becoming more tender.
As awkward and unsubtle as my unfinished proclamation was, kissing him right now seems perfectly right, Elizabeth realized.
His teasing eyes were turning serious, and her eyes, a pretty capri blue, became infused with a blessed sort of serenity, similar to the peace he had noticed in them when she arrived in town with her journal yesterday afternoon and the afternoons before.
Again, Nathan and Elizabeth could feel the pendulums of their hearts reaching toward each other, this time prompting their faces to gradually move in closer...
Instead of fighting against the tide, something Elizabeth Thornton had done for years when it came to Nathan Grant, she knew she had to continue to surrender to it, just as she had done earlier during her very honest conversation with him and in her confirmation of their courtship.
She had to let herself take the leap, be pulled into both his love for her and her love for him, and tumble over that ever-present waterfall of fear and vulnerability.
She brought her face still closer toward Nathan's as he did the same toward hers, and, taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and did exactly that, conceding to the kiss.
Their kiss was brief and respectful, yet tender, a lovely exchange of her soft grace and his gentle strength. It was bright, beautiful, hopeful, and deeply meaningful in its fleeting life—like the mistflower that would bloom down by the pond in the late summer months. And as Elizabeth had imagined, it was unsurpassably sweet.
Elizabeth slowly opened her eyes, only to struggle to successfully make it out of the mesmerizing maze of Nathan's deep blue ones.
Both her face and his split into shy smiles. Their kiss had been a most memorable seal of their feelings, which were finally fully aired and reciprocated between them.
No, she—they—didn't want to miss out on sweet things like this, Elizabeth affirmed.
"I agree. Rosemary was right," Nathan concurred, shimmers of mischief oscillating in his eyes, though strong undertows of seriousness circulated underneath them.
"G-g-glad you agree," Elizabeth managed to string out a response, albeit with a few extra stuttering-laced syllables, feeling as if the world was a whirl around her.
After a few minutes, once her dizziness had decreased to friendlier levels, Elizabeth added, "The woman does tend to speak the truth." Though her tone was stoic, her now-substantial, splendent smile was anything but.
Nathan laughed at Elizabeth's comment about Rosemary. His laughter gave way to a more contemplative quietness, which Elizabeth welcomed, as she continued to process the events of the afternoon.
Once she and Nathan had passed a handful of moments in the now quiet that had come upon them, Elizabeth's conscience spoke up in her mind: Time to go inside, dismiss Laura, and care for your son.
At the same time, Nathan announced, "I won't keep you from Little Jack any longer." He squeezed her hand before letting it go and moving his hand to his side.
"How do you feel about...supper tomorrow?" he proposed. "We could make it simple and do a front porch picnic of sorts."
Light flooded her eyes. "I love that idea."
"Allie and I can put together some ham and cheese sandwiches."
"Jack and I can bring some fruit."
She saw a bashful question pop up in Nathan's eyes and nearly died laughing. This time, she was reading his mind.
"Don't you worry, you banana bread fanatic," she surrendered, barely managing to speak between giggles. "I'll be sure to bake a fresh batch of banana bread muffins and bring those too."
"Thank you. That's all I could ever ask for," he answered, only half-jokingly. He looked quite gleeful, like visions of banana bread muffins were dancing around zealously in his head.
"You and Jack can meet me and Allie on our front porch at 5:30...?" he posited.
"Sounds great," Elizabeth agreed.
"Great," he affirmed. "Have a good night, Elizabeth."
"You too, Nathan," she replied, the shy affection in her tone and the rosy cheeks that still graced her face warming his heart.
As Nathan headed the handful of yards down to his rowhouse, the sweet, off-kilter smile he flung over his shoulder toward her set those hummingbirds in motion in her stomach again and seemed to shower her own heart with sunshine.
Though Elizabeth knew she had to go inside, she sat in solitude on her front porch steps for a few more moments, trying to fully absorb how she and Nathan were now officially courting. Finally. Her head had stood in her heart's way for years...so bull-headed had she been!
She was just about to rise up off the steps and make her way into her house, when none other than her best friend, the one and only Rosemary Coulter, came foxtrotting out of her rowhouse next door, extra exuberance in her steps.
"I dare say that Elizabeth Grant has a beautiful ring to it," she asserted in a sing-song voice. "Speaking of rings...you and Nathan will have them soon, I predict."
"Rosemary!" Elizabeth gasped. "Were you...spying on me and Nathan?" A blush bombarded her cheeks yet again.
"Not intentionally. I was cleaning my windows inside the house, and then from my living room window, I spotted you two sitting on your front porch steps."
"Uh-huh." Elizabeth was not convinced that Rosemary had no intention of spying on them, and sarcasm stamped her tone. "How much...did you see?"
"Enough to know that your name change will be here before we know it." Rosemary paused a moment for dramatic effect.
She then resumed speaking: "That really was the sweetest first kiss I ever did see."
"Rosemary..." Elizabeth groaned, hiding her flamingo-pink face in her hands. She then peeked out from her hands, her eyes growing wide at the implication of Rosemary's statement.
"How many first kisses have you witnessed between poor, unsuspecting people?"
"Now that you mention it, this would be my first. I'm not a total snoop."
Gradually, Elizabeth slid her hands down from her face. She then stared at her best friend with a pointed look that told her she disagreed.
"There's just something...so special between you and Nathan. I was drawn into your magic. I'm sorry." Rosemary shrugged her shoulders in contrition. Her eyes were two giant blue compasses pointing to the powerlessness of her heart when it came to paying heed to Elizabeth and Nathan's interactions.
"Besides," she continued, "You know I was just over here wishing for the best for my best friend."
How could Elizabeth stay bothered—or even all that embarrassed—with an apology like that?
"Apology accepted, and please know that you always wanting the best for me means the world to me. Besides, hearing that you think Nathan and I are magic together...well, that makes my heart very happy."
Rosemary grinned. "Finally you two are acknowledging those deep feelings you've had for each other for years now..." She gave a slight eye roll as if to insinuate, What took you so long?
She then added, "Since I helped give you an extra push to get together with Nathan, future Mrs. Grant, can I be your Maid of Honor?" Her smile became pert.
"Hold your horses, Rosemary! First things first, Nathan and I have a front porch picnic date, along with Allie and Jack, tomorrow evening...on his front porch though. Should I supply you with binoculars to make your viewing experience of our date more seamless?" she joked.
"Ha!" Rosemary chuckled. "You'll be relieved to know that Lee, Goldie, and I have a date of our own tomorrow evening at the cafe, and then other errands to run in town, so I can't even be tempted to spy on you."
"That is a huge relief," Elizabeth teased.
"But I do need to say thank you, Rosemary," she admitted. "So, thank you. You and your wise words about what Nathan and I would miss if we didn't pursue a relationship did help give me a nudge to get together with him. And I'm sure you'll be overjoyed to hear that your words of wisdom even played a role in prompting our first kiss that you couldn't help overseeing."
"Really?" Rosemary rejoiced, clapping her hands in delight, feeling victorious in her matchmaking duties.
"Really," Elizabeth confirmed.
"Well, that makes me as happy as a clam to hear," she responded, continuing to clap her hands together, mimicking the opening and closing of a clam's shell with their movement.
She's as happy as a clam indeed, Elizabeth thought.
"I'll let you go tend to Jack, Elizabeth. Let me know if you need any help picking out your outfit for your first date with Nathan tomorrow. I have just as much a knack for fashion as I do for matchmaking, you know."
"Oh, I know. You used to work at the dress shop, after all. Speaking of working, I'm going to have to pay Laura extra for working overtime today. Bless that young lady," Elizabeth declared as she finally opened the door of her rowhouse and disappeared inside.
In addition to thanking Rosemary, Elizabeth thanked Laura profusely for staying longer than normal to watch Little Jack and apologized to her for her late arrival, before encircling her son in a huge hug.
Later that evening, set on writing in her journal before bed—for she had much to express within its pages about a certain good man and her interactions with him that day—Elizabeth realized that she had been so distracted by her missing journal page that afternoon, that she had left her bookbag with her school books and journal under her desk in her classroom.
Amidst her busy day tomorrow of baking banana bread muffins and gathering fruit for her front porch family date with Nathan, picking out her outfit for said date, and getting herself ready, she vowed to take a walk to the schoolhouse and retrieve her journal. She doubted that she could go the whole weekend without recapping the momentous interactions that had taken place between her and Nathan that day, and those still to come tomorrow.
She was thankful tomorrow was Saturday, and she would be met by a silent, empty schoolhouse—as deeply as she loved teaching, she knew her focus would be on a certain Mountie with blue firefly eyes that were both tender and teasing, and their front porch date. If she had to teach tomorrow, she figured she would be rather distracted and not all that effective in her methods.
Before climbing into bed, Hope Valley's schoolteacher fell to her knees and thanked God for sending the monumental wind yesterday that had forced her journal to shed one of its pages—precisely, the page with her confession of love for Nathan Grant on it. That event—along with Rosemary's wise words of advice—had spurred her to finally speak the truth to Nathan about her feelings.
If she had her journal nearby, she would have even shown it gratitude by giving it a little pat, but alas, that would have to wait until tomorrow.
Yes, she'd be forever grateful to God for the page she left behind; to Rosemary for her words of wisdom; and to the man who never forsook her, even though she'd renounced him in the past. Fear for his safety would undoubtedly continue to regularly seize her heart. Yet, as she drifted off to dreamland, she could feel the talons of hope taking hold of the future—undercutting the clutch of fear—and her heart soaring amidst the skyline of possibilities that awaited her. That awaited them.