Blue Sky Days (11 page)

Up until that point, it felt like all the things I’d learned had been with Nicholas and Daisy’s encouragement, support, and coaxing. At times Nicholas had all but dragged me out of my shell, rousing me to do things I wouldn’t normally be comfortable doing, but that I felt inspired to do because of him, like dancing and cooking and just opening up in general.

I remembered Nicholas saying to me one day as we danced around the living room, “Not everything has to have a point or a reason or justification. Sometimes you need to do things for the pure pleasure of it. If you want to dance, do it, if you want to sing, do it, if you want to twirl around until you laugh yourself silly, do it.”

He had twirled me around until the room blurred and only his face, inches from mine, remained clear, and we
did
laugh ourselves silly. “So there’s no real point to it, who cares? If it makes you happy, if it makes you feel good, why not?”

I looked at my watch and realized that almost two hours had passed since I left the house. The roll of film had one picture left, and I decided it should be a self-portrait to commemorate the moment. I sat down among the wild flowers, pulling one free and sticking it in my hair, anchoring it behind my ear. It might have looked silly, but it made me happy, so why not? I smiled brightly as I aimed the lens at myself and clicked.

*****

When I arrived back home, Daisy was standing on the porch with her back to the yard, and the phone pressed to her ear. All the tension that had fled my body in the past couple of hours returned at the thought that it could be my mother on the phone again.

The anxiety was replaced with relief when Daisy turned and I saw she was laughing. The sound of it ringing out across the yard had a smile spreading over my own face, and propelled me forward when she waved.

“She’s finally back, so I’ll let you talk to her. It was good talking to you too, and I’ll see you soon, okay?” Daisy passed me the phone. “Nicholas,” she said with a grin. “I’ll be inside.”

I breathed a sigh of relief and mouthed ‘thank you’ to Daisy as I took the phone. When I heard Nicholas’s voice, I realized that even after all these weeks his voice still made my legs feel like jelly. The sound of his voice, low and deep, sent currents of electricity racing through me, leaving me with a breathless adrenaline-rush feeling.

Without going into too much detail about my mother’s nastiness, I quickly filled him in on the conversation I’d had with her. “It wasn’t all bad though,” I said. “It helped me make a really important decision…” I paused for dramatic effect, grinning as I pictured him raising his eyebrows. “I’ve decided to stay in Riverview permanently.”

Almost instantly, I wished I’d waited until I could see his reaction face-to-face.

“You’re staying?” he cried excitedly. I could envision his already-bright eyes shining even brighter, and his face overtaken by the smile that dazzled me every time he flashed it my way. “This is big! We have to celebrate tonight.”

I laughed to myself. My whole life felt like one big celebration since I met Nicholas.

It felt like a long time until six o’clock that evening when I made my way out to the porch to wait for Nicholas. I spent the afternoon with Daisy, telling her all about my photography adventure and making plans for the coming weeks. Daisy was thrilled that I enjoyed taking pictures, and promised to take the roll of film to the drug store for me as soon as possible.

Late that afternoon, Daisy helped me get ready for my date with Nicholas. She brushed my hair in that gentle, light-fingered way she had before scooping it into a sweeping up-do that left tendrils framing my face. After choosing a summery dress in a vibrant aqua colour, she applied a light layer of make-up to my face, doing something with my eyes that had me staring at myself in the mirror, unable to believe those big, shining eyes were my own.

I could hear the hum of Nicholas’s truck as it turned onto Daisy’s street—my street,
our
street— and the butterflies in my stomach took the sound as their cue to take flight.

By now I knew that even if I made my way down to the truck, Nicholas would still jump out and open my door, so I waited on the porch until he stopped the truck and got out. As he stepped down and reached back into the cab to grab something, my gaze swept over the dark jeans that fit perfectly in all the right places, a white dress shirt that was open at the collar, the sleeves rolled to his elbow—something I had come to think of as Nicholas’s signature style—and a dark vest that remained open over the shirt.

His hair, which the sun had bleached a lighter shade of blond in the past few weeks, was wind-blown from the open driver’s side window. He looked incredibly sexy in a way that only Nicholas could. My heart was starting to beat faster, fluttering at my pulse points and drumming in my ears.

As he made his way up the porch steps, his lazy grin matching his pace, I noticed the lavender-coloured calla lilies he carried. “My favourite!” I exclaimed, accepting them and examining the bouquet before pulling Nicholas to me for a kiss.

“Me or the flowers?” he asked, his lips quirked in a teasing smile.

“Both,” I said, kissing one upturned corner of his mouth. “Thank you.” The words were barely out before he was pulling me back to cover my mouth with his in a kiss I knew was meant to be gentle but had my toes curling.

I wasn’t sure if I was grateful or disappointed when Daisy stuck her head out the door and interrupted us. She tried to slip back inside, telling us to ignore her and carry on, but Nicholas recovered quickly, wrapping an arm around me and tucking me against his side as he turned to face her.

“Daisy, you should come with us,” he said. “We all have something to celebrate now that Emma’s decided to stay with us.”

I loved the way he said ‘us’ as if we were a unit and we all belonged with, and to, each other.

Daisy smiled at the offer, but shook her head. “I don’t want to intrude on your night. You two go have a good time, and the three of us will hang out soon.” She stood there for a minute looking at us, her eyes moving between our faces, taking in our closeness and the way Nicholas toyed idly with the loose locks of hair that fell from my up-do. She grinned broadly as she let out a happy little sigh. “I won’t wait up,” she said with a wink, and disappeared back inside the house.

She was back almost as soon as she left, reaching to take the bouquet of flowers from me. “I’ll put these in water and put them on your night table. Have fun, you two.” She kissed my forehead, planted a noisy kiss on Nicholas’s cheek, and this time when she went inside we heard her flip the lock on the front door.

“I love her,” I said with a laugh, shaking my head. “She’s such a character.”

“She’s something special, that’s for sure,” Nicholas agreed. “Just like you.”

Special. Me. I’d never have believed it before, but coming from his lips I felt like it was true. “And just like
you
,” I said, rising up on my toes to brush my lips over his.

Nicholas bowed his head wordlessly, a smile creeping across his face. “I was thinking we could go for a drive,” he said as he led me down the steps to his truck. “See where we end up and take things from there.”

We drove around Riverview for a while and ended up following the river all the way into the next town, where we came across a drive-in movie theatre. I had never been to a drive-in, which didn’t surprise Nicholas since I hadn’t seen a new movie in years until he came along.

The evening was warm and the sky was cloudless, showcasing the stars and the nearly-full moon that shone down like a spotlight over the sea of cars. We rolled down the windows of Nicholas’s truck so we could hear the movie over the huge speakers set up around the lot, and sat huddled together in the middle, eating popcorn and sipping pop from a double-straw cup.

Three and a half hours later, the double feature came to an end, and Nicholas suggested we go back to Riverview to visit Vince and Maggie at the diner. We popped in on them occasionally, but they had been working so much to save for their trip to New York that we hardly saw them outside the diner.

Nicholas took a different route back to town, through a neighbourhood where the trees were all decorated with white lights, like Daisy’s house. They twinkled and winked at us as we drove by, and I could hear Daisy’s voice in my mind telling me years ago that there were faeries in the trees and that’s where the lights came from. As a little girl who hung on Daisy’s every word, I had almost believed her. Now, as an adult, I realized there was a part of me that still wanted to believe her.

When we arrived at the diner just after midnight, it was completely empty of customers. Vince and Maggie were sitting on the stools at the counter, talking. When the bells over the door chimed, they turned simultaneously, making me grin at how in sync they were.

Maggie jumped off her stool when she saw us and ran over, throwing her arms around me. “I’m so excited that you’re staying!” She squeezed me tightly and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. “We’ll have to spend more time together now that Nicholas is going back to work. I’d love to spend a day with you and Daisy. Nicholas is always saying how much fun you guys have.”

I glanced at Nicholas, who was watching me with a small smile. “We’d love that,” I told Maggie. “Let me know when’s best for you since you work all the time, and I…well, don’t.”

Maggie giggled. “You’ve worked hard for years, you deserve this time off. And hey, if you’re ever desperate for some cash, Vince and I can put in a good word for you here and you could take a couple shifts.”

“I appreciate that,” I told her. “And I might have to take you up on it if my savings are gone and I still haven’t figured out what I’m going to do with my life.”

Nicholas moved toward me and slung his arm around my shoulders. “You’ll figure it all out,” he said quietly, brushing a kiss over my temple, his lips lingering in my hair. I wanted to shift so I was in his arms, pressing my face to his chest and inhaling the sweet, mysterious scent that always surrounded him.

Remembering where we were, I resisted the urge and instead looked around the deserted diner. Nicholas and I had been there countless times when only a handful of people were scattered around the stools and booths, especially later at night, but we had never been there when it was completely empty. The only sound was the fading end of an old love song on the jukebox.

“Dead tonight?” Nicholas asked Vince and Maggie.

“Rush hour was busy as always, but it got slow after that. We only stayed open because there’s a late feature at the theatre and we figure people will be in after that. There hasn’t been anyone in for about half an hour, I guess,” Vince said, glancing up at the clock behind the counter.

Nicholas grinned at me with a mischievous look sparkling in his eyes. That look always had me feeling a mixture of anticipation and something akin to wariness. When I raised my eyebrows at him in question, he walked over to the jukebox, dropped in some change, and selected a song. A moment later, soft music filled the diner and Nicholas stood in the middle of the floor with his hand held out to me.

I looked at Vince and Maggie who simply shrugged their shoulders and grinned. I made my way across the floor and into Nicholas’s arms, getting my wish from a moment before. I leaned my head against his chest, my eyes slipping closed as we swayed to the music. I was enjoying the singer’s low-pitched, intimate-sounding voice and the feel of being pressed against Nicholas when the song came to an abrupt end, and a swing dance beat came on.

My head jerked up and I saw Vince walking toward us from the direction of the jukebox, a wide grin spreading over his face. “Come on now, Nicky, let me show Emma how to really dance,” he called over the music.

He gave Nicholas a wink before nudging him aside and taking my hands. I had never done swing dancing before, and had never even seen it outside of old movies. I was about to tell him so when he squeezed my hands, and as if reading my mind, said, “Just follow my lead.”

Sucking in a nervous breath, I tried to remember that I was among friends and even if I made a fool of myself, they would still love me. I didn’t have long to worry, because within seconds I was giggling dizzily as we spun around the floor in a blur of twirls and dips. I laughed harder when out of the corner of my eye I saw Nicholas and Maggie shrug their shoulders at each other and join us on the dance floor.

In the middle of the song Vince spun me so quickly that when I stopped, it took me a minute to realize my dancing partner had changed and I was back in Nicholas’s arms. Our laughter slowed us down and we finished out the song with a few more turns and spins, watching Vince and Maggie end with a flourish of quick movements. With a blaring of trumpets the song came to an end, and there was a burst of applause from the direction of the front door.

A small group of twenty-somethings stood there grinning and clapping at our impromptu performance. My cheeks flamed as I imagined how I had looked trying to keep up with Vince, then clumsily spinning with Nicholas in my last few dizzy turns. I turned in time to see Vince take Maggie’s hand and bow deeply as if on stage. A moment later, Nicholas grabbed my hand and we did the same.

The group moved into the diner, talking over each other as they told us how good we were and how much fun they’d had watching us. My cheeks continued to burn, but for a different reason. I enjoyed the praise, and I realized it wasn’t only Daisy and Nicholas who saw me in a completely different way than I saw myself.

I used to worry about being judged or made fun of, because it felt like nothing I ever did was good enough. I had been living like that for so long I didn’t know any other way to live. But, as I discovered when I first arrived in Riverview, nobody knew the old me, so I could change my expectations and be a different person now. I had started out like one of Daisy’s blank canvases, and was slowly blossoming into someone I could be happy with.

As our group of admirers seated themselves at one of the booths, Nicholas and I said our goodbyes to Vince and Maggie. We headed back to Daisy’s, where we collapsed on the swing inside the gazebo.