25. Natalie
Natalie
“I’m never running with you again. You know that, right?” I say, licking my creamy cookies ice cream bar. It’s milky and melty—exactly what I needed.
“Bummer. Really? I was really hoping you’d like to do this daily.” When I look up at him, he’s smirking. My stomach dips.
I roll my eyes. “How are we going to get back to our car? I can’t do all that running again. That distance in the heat? Nope, not happening.”
My eyes roam as we talk and lick our ice creams. We’re sitting at a very old picnic table beside the bait shop, and an elderly couple sits at the other one sharing a small cup of Dippin' Dots. I’ve been watching them pass the cup back and forth. They’re so precious.
“I could call an Uber or something,” Luke says.
The elderly man scoops the last spoonful from his cup and feeds it to his wife.
I shake my head, turning my attention to Luke. “I don’t think they have that here.”
“Maple Lake doesn’t have Uber?” He looks up from his vanilla Drumstick. Ice cream drips down my fingers, and I dab a napkin on it, handing one to Luke too. A puddle of vanilla has accumulated on the table in front of him.
“No.” I lick my melting bar, chuckling. “I don’t think so. We’re not at the beach; we’re in the woods. Where people go fishing and buy live worms next to ice cream in a shack on the side of the road. They don’t need Uber here. Everyone has their own car, or they just stay home.”
His face is pensive as he looks out at the vacant road. “Maybe we can call Cam or Jules to come get us? Or your parents?”
“Yeah, I’ll call my dad when we’re done eating,” I sigh. “He knows where this is.”
When my ice cream is gone, I pull my cell from the pocket of my pink biker shorts. The screen is smeared with sweat. I make a face of disgust. Luke notices and, without a word, takes it from my hand, wipes it with a napkin, and hands it back.
I smile at him. That wasn’t even his sweat. “Thanks.”
“No problem,” he says, already looking away like it was nothing at all. To him it wasn’t, but to me it was sweet.
I dial my dad, who picks up almost right away. After I tell him where we are and what our situation looks like, Dad says he’s on his way to get us. My parents have a little car they pull behind their RV so, thankfully, he doesn’t have to roll up with their entire home on wheels.
“How long will it be?” Luke asks when I hang up.
“Probably twenty minutes.”
“Any ideas on what we should do until then?”
I grabbed a few pamphlets from a rack in the bait shop, so I slide them across the wooden table. “We can look at these. I was thinking they’d give us some good ideas about where to take the photos for the cabin.”
There are always free flyers and mini magazines available in shops around town to guide tourists through the many opportunities Maple Lake has to offer. Luke picks one up, opening a trifold brochure.
He scans it. “Oh, this is cool. There’s skydiving close by.”
I peek over at the brochure in his hand, giving him a smile and scoffing under my breath. “Both of us would never go skydiving.”
He lifts his head. “You don’t think I would?”
“No.” I shake my head as I look through my own pamphlet, but then I wonder, would he? I glance up at him. “Would you?”
Luke shrugs, the muscles in his shoulders shifting. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Wouldn’t you be scared of jumping out of a plane? Falling thousands of feet with nothing to hold onto?”
“Yeah, of course I would be scared. But everything worth doing is a little scary.” He flips a page, engrossed in the photos of Maple Lake tourism. “Can’t let that keep you from having fun, right?”
I open my mouth to reply, to tell him that he should swallow his own pill of advice and let us have a baby. Yes, it’s scary, but it would be worth it.
It would be so worth it. We would have fun and laugh. We’d be the happiest parents because we’d be sharing our love. But I don’t say that.
Instead, I keep looking at the paper in my hands. It’s covered in pictures of places with the best sightseeing and ads for shops in town. Flipping the pamphlet over, I see an advertisement for a local horse farm. They offer trail rides, and a photo of a path through the woods catches my eye.
“What about this?” I turn the paper toward him. “Safer than skydiving, and I’ve always wanted to trail ride.”
The corner of his mouth twists up playfully. It twists my insides, too, and I want to sit in this moment and remember this feeling forever.
“Have you ever been on a horse before?” he drawls, looking like the young Luke I met at this exact place.
“No. But that doesn’t matter.”
“And you think it’s safer than skydiving? You’re absolutely sure a horse—a living being with its own mind and weighing hundreds of pounds—won’t buck you off simply because it feels like it?”
“Come on, Luke. They’re horses. They’re gentle and they’re trained for this. How bad could it be?”
He sighs. “Okay, we can try it. Let’s plan for Saturday. Hopefully I don’t break my neck before my trip on Monday.”
I instantly deflate, shoulders drooping at the reminder that he has to visit one of his properties in Atlanta.
Luke reaches across the table and puts a hand over mine. “You could come with me.”
I know I could, but I don’t think it would be right to leave Maple Lake right now. Not even for a few days.
“No.” My stubby ponytail brushes the back of my neck.
“I shouldn’t go anywhere right now. Mom and Dad are still excited that I’m here.
It hasn’t quite worn off yet. And they want to get Tyler to come for a visit this week.
And, of course, Jules is still upset about something.
She acts all weird when I try to help with anything, and she hasn’t spoken to me much.
She’s distancing herself … I think leaving town right now would make it worse. ”
A thought crosses my mind, so I rest my elbows on the table to lean closer to Luke. Nobody’s around to hear us since the older couple left a while ago, but I feel like I need to whisper.
“Do you think Jules feels like I’m trying to take over?
Am I too overbearing? Please tell me if I’m too hard to handle.
I can tone it down when I’m around her. Maybe she doesn’t like my personality.
Sometimes I can come across as bossy … or bitchy.
Am I bitchy?” My heart speeds up and I bite my lip.
Luke rubs his thumb over the back of my hand. “No, you’re none of those things. But if you’re not sure, why don’t you just ask her?”
I blink at him. “Why don’t I—why don’t I just ask her? Is that what you just said?” I pull my hand back.
His nod is cautious, eyes wide. “Yes,” he says slowly, more like a question than a statement.
“I can’t just ask her.” My hand finds my heart. “We’re not on that level of friendship. She doesn’t trust me. I can’t just ask her what she thinks of me.”
He laughs a low, rumbly chuckle. “Why not? If you want to know how she’s feeling and you need a way to fix the problem, then just ask her why she’s distancing herself. You’ve been away a long time and now you’re here, but she’s still acting like you’re gone. Ask her why.”
My tongue runs along my teeth. “Maybe she doesn’t want me here. I’ve changed everything by coming back. She didn’t expect it, and she’s not sure what to do now that I’m around.”
He tips his head. “It’s possible. But you said she was happy to see you the first day you went to her house. Maybe you staying the whole summer is a little confusing.”
“Confusing? But she and Cam asked me to stay the summer. They gave us their cabin.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Nat.” He shrugs. “You have to ask her.”
“I don’t have to ask her.”
“You do if you want to make it right.”
“I don’t even know what to ‘make right.’” I hold up air quotes with my fingers. “I’m here, aren’t I? What else can she possibly want?” I cross my arms.
He stands from the picnic table, nodding with his chin toward my dad’s car pulling into the parking lot across the street, but he pauses directly in front of me.
“You’re here, but for some reason that’s a problem.
And I can’t tell you the answers because I’m not Juliet.
” He walks toward the road, looking both ways for oncoming traffic.
I grab all the brochures and chase after him.
Luke throws a hand in the air, motioning back at me as he says over his shoulder, “Ask her, Natalie.”
It’s the right thing to do, I know it is. But I already feel vulnerable enough being here. I’m out of my element, trying to fit into my past like a puzzle piece in the wrong box. Nothing feels right here. It never really did. That’s why I left.
I’ve been thinking about how I can get back to the photography I really love, and I think I’ve come up with a great idea.
While I usually get hired for big shoots and travel around the states, I don’t want to leave Maple Lake right now if I don’t have to.
A lot of families have been interested in family portraits, which I’m happy to do, but I miss being creative when I can take the liberty to do so.
With a deep breath, I hit share now on my newest social media post and cross my fingers. The post states that I’m in the Maple Lake area for a limited time and offering my services for a small discount for the summer.
Hopefully more content creators will reach out to book me.
I need more than fake smiles from tired couples and crying toddlers.
But I also know that most people who live in Maple Lake don’t make a ton of money.
We don’t have billionaires in this part of the state, which is why I lowered my prices for a season.
Relaxing my shoulders, I set my phone on the little round table and look around the cafe. Le Fou is busy today. There’s a line reaching to the door, and I see more people gathering outside.
I’m glad I got here before the crowd since I’m not usually a morning person, but now that I have my post up, I’m ready to walk around town and snap photos for Juliet’s cabin.