Page 58 of Feels Like Home

“Mm hmm. Come on, the boys want to show you their favorite part of this wholeplace.”

He takes my hand, and we walk to the back yard, the pond a few hundred feet away from the porch on the backside of thecabin.

The four of us stand, side by side, as we stare at the small body of water that I’m sure held so many family moments. It’s surrounded by trees and tall grasses, a long wooden — very old looking — dock that extends into the pond along with a bright blue windy slide that ends over the water, and two woodenbenches.

The sun glistening off the water sparkles andshines.

The only sounds we hear are birds chirping and frogs croaking, leaves rustling in the lightbreeze.

Peaceful.

Serene.

“It’s beautiful. I can see why this is yourfavorite.”

“It’s even better in the summer when you can swim and catch frogs. But one time Aidan caught a snapping turtle when we were fishing, and that was kind offreaky.”

We all laugh. Them at the memory of it, and me at the image. “I bet.” I smile, looking at Aidan. “It didn’t snap you, didit?”

“No.Fortunately.”

“You would havediedlaughing,” Reece says, through his own laughter. “Grandma’s little white fluff ball of a dog just couldn’t wait to dive into the water, but there was all this black gunk on the bank, and he just ran right through it after a frog. He came back, and you couldn’t see a single bit of white on him. Then he jumped right into Grandma’s lap. She screamed. And then she smelledhim.”

I giggle and wrinkle my nose. “That bad?” Iask.

“Worse,” Andy chuckles, shifting to stand behind me, his hand resting on my hip. “It’ll be too cold to swim this weekend, but we can fish, if youwant.”

“Really?”

“Of course! Christine, you have to. Dad fries fish thebest.”

I twist around to look at him. This close, he almost takes my breath away. Between his gorgeous eyes and radiant smile and smell, the mixture of cinnamon and man, ugh. He’s just somucheverything. “Youdo?”

“Well, to be fair, what we catch up here we fry right away, so it’sfresh.”

“Okay. I definitely can’t wait forthat.”

“Let’s go get our poles,” Aidansuggests.

“Nope. You know the rules. Everyone unpacks first. Then you can go do what youwant.”

The boys groan but get to work withoutcomplaining.

We all make our way to the pickup, and I cringe when I see all the bags in theback.

“Are we staying longer than through the weekend?” Reece asks, a bit innocently, but the twinkle in his eye tells me he’steasing.

I roll myeyes.

“I’m a girl?” Like that explainseverything.

“So, you pack enough for amonth?”

“Yes.”

“Girls are soweird.”

“No. Girls aren’t weird. We just prefer to change clothes everyday.”

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