1. Natalie
ONE
natalie
KITCHI FALLS, FINGER LAKES, NEW YORK
“I’ve got it, Jamie. You go ahead. Your dad is waiting.”
I watched as nine-year-old Jamie bounded up the hill to the makeshift dirt parking lot. As I finished tying off the boat, I waved one last time at Jamie, who jumped into the passenger seat of an old Ford pickup truck. I refused to cry. Every time the sweet little kid mentioned his “mama” who died last year, I had to hold back the floodgates.
Of course, this wasn’t unusual.
I cried at a lot of things. Always had. The other night I was watching a rom-com, one that was supposed to be more funny than sad, and needed a half box of tissues when the couple broke up. If nothing else, I was a source of amusement among my friends.
“Why do you look like you’re about to cry?”
Speaking of friends.
“Where the heck did you come from?” I asked Charlee.
“The lake, silly. I came in from the lake like a mermaid right in front of your eyes. You didn’t see me?”
Smiling, I turned back around to where Jamie’s father’s pickup had been a few minutes before. In its place, not surprisingly, was Charlee’s car.
“Funny. I didn’t even hear you pull up.”
“Probably because you were staring so intently out into the lake. Penny for your thoughts?”
“Without wine? No way.”
Charlee lifted a wine tote. “Just need some glasses.”
“Be right back.”
By the time I returned from the wooden shed where the boats were stored, Charlee was sitting on one of the Adirondack chairs opening the wine. Her fiancée had a five-hour tattoo today that didn’t require her help, so the two of us had decided an impromptu day-drinking session was in order.
I held out one of the two wine glasses, and Charlee poured.
“It still cracks me up that you keep full-on wine glasses in there.” She nodded to the shed.
“Pfft. As if I’d have us drinking out of plastic cups. Here you go,” I said, holding out the second glass.
“To impromptu day drinking,” she said, holding up her glass.
“And a beautiful spring day.” I clinked her glass before sitting down—not an easy feat, getting myself into an Adirondack chair with a full wine glass.
“That is so on-brand for you.”
“What can I say? Nature lover at heart.”
“A good quality for a conservationist.” Charlee extended her legs out and tilted her face up to the sun. “How’s your marshland project going?”
“It’s going. Mostly stalled at the moment, but that’s the story of my life.”
“Any word about that developer you were telling Zoe and me about last week?”
Zoe was the third of four spokes on our friendship wheel but couldn’t make it today courtesy of a surprised weekend getaway from her boyfriend. It was rare for the two of them to go out of town for a night, especially on a weekend, since Nate owned the local bar on Main Street. But Zoe had been so busy at work the past two months, he somehow made it happen.
“Nothing besides what I told you guys. I thought for sure the regulatory requirement report in January was the nail in the proverbial coffin. So I have no idea where all this is coming from.”
“Strange. You don’t think it will gain legs, do you?”
“I dunno. My boss seems a little more concerned than I’d like.”
“I just don’t get it. How can you purchase and develop protected land? Isn’t that, like, an oxymoron?”
The optimist in me wouldn’t dwell on the fact that, technically speaking, Charlee was right. “Sort of. But I have faith it’ll work out. No way he’ll be allowed to develop this.” I waved my hand to the wide-open space in front of us. “Do you remember how long it took for me to get permission to use it for the lessons?”
“Free lessons,” she added. “A give-back to the community. You’d think that would have been a no-brainer. But yeah, I remember. And have to hand it to you. I’d have given up. What a pain in the balls.”
Taking a sip of wine, I chuckled. “Lucas’s colorful Army language is rubbing off on you.”
“Oh god, please no. Some of the things that come out of his mouth would make a truck driver blush.”
“And I have to hand it to you. Not sure I could date a guy like Lucas. Those military types are way too disciplined for me.”
Charlee laughed. “What’s wrong with being disciplined? That’s a good quality, no?”
“Sure. For some. But put a guy like that together with someone like me? No bueno.”
Charlee nearly spit out her wine. “I just tried to imagine it. You’re right. That would never work.”
“I bet you have to make your bed, don’t you?”
“I made my bed before Lucas.”
“Did you really?”
“Yes. Don’t you?”
“Hell no. So that I could mess it again at night?”
“No, so you can come into your bedroom with the sense of calm and order a made bed gives you. Plus, they say it’s a small accomplishment that sets the tone for the day.”
I pointed to the lake, where a duck and her ducklings swam past. “Look at that. And their wake, the way the water ripples behind them. Nature. The only sense of calm I need.”
Like a good friend, Charlee watched the ducks for way longer than she probably wanted to. “To each his, or her, own. But yeah, you and Lucas probably wouldn’t make it. Speaking of...”
“Hell, no.”
“How did you know what I was going to ask?”
“Are you kidding? I’m surprised it wasn’t the first thing you asked me.”
“It was that bad?” she asked of my date the night before.
“Worse. I deleted every single dating app on my phone.”
“No you didn’t.”
“I did.”
“Ugh. Swiping was so much fun.”
“For you, because you don’t actually have to go out on dates with these assholes. For me, pure torture. I’m over it.”
“So what’s the new plan? Meet someone in Kitchi Falls as if you don’t know every single guy in town already?”
“Maybe a tourist?”
“Yeah, cause they’re great long-term boyfriend material.”
“I’ve done the long-term boyfriend thing and am over it. So yeah, that’s the plan. Weekend flings with hot tourists.”
She laughed. “There are soooo many of those too.”
“Maybe I’ll hang out with you and Lucas at the shop on weekends. There’s bound to be hot tourists getting tattoos at some point.”
“Sure. Even better plan.” Charlee shook her head at my ridiculousness as we fell into a companionable silence. Why couldn’t finding a man be as easy as finding girlfriends? It was so much less complicated. “Tires or a dick,” I said out loud.
“Excuse me?”
“I was just thinking of the saying, if they have tires or a dick, they’re bound to give you trouble.”
I might not have a boyfriend, but at least I had wine, my lake, and the ability to make my friend laugh. All good enough for me.