Nicole glanced over at Lillian’s brothers. “I think I’ll show Danny around the woods. There are plenty of other places to see.” She wouldn’t subject Danny to those idiots any further if it could be helped.
“Nikki.” Junior took a step toward her.
“Don’t ‘Nikki’ me,” Nicole huffed, halting him with a glare. While she didn’t know the exact details of her cousins’ confrontation with Danny that morning, she knew something had happened that caused her father to go after Danny, and she was certain it involved these two idiots.
“Nicole, seriously, we’re sorry. We’ll mind our own business from now on, and we won’t say anything to Danny less than a kind word. So, come on. We always go the cave on the second day,” Junior said, but she wasn’t really feeling up to family traditions right now.
“So? I really don’t want to be around people who think so little of me and try to chase off someone very dear to me,” Nicole replied bluntly. She felt a little tingle in her stomach from saying that because it wasn’t like her. Usually, she was gung-ho for whatever her cousins wanted to do, but they had reached their limit.
“Okay, look, we’re going to go to the cave and then you could show up if you’re ready?” Junior proposed with a somewhat pleading look in his eyes, looking like a big puppy.
“Yeah, we’ll be there all day, you know. So, you can just come when you want,” Spider chimed in with an awkward, but hopeful smile on his face.
They were practically begging, but Nicole wasn’t moved. She felt a squeeze to her hand and glanced at Danny. Danny gave her a small smile, which she took as encouraging her response. She smiled back.
“I want to be with Danny for a while,” Nicole said. She wanted to give her girlfriend a chance to enjoy the day without having to deal with extra, unnecessary drama, which was how the trip should have been in the first place. “Come on, Danny. We should check our packs and make sure we have enough stuff for a day of walking around in the woods.”
“Sure,” Danny answered, following Nicole back into their tent for their backpacks.
Nicole checked the bags and gathered some things they would need. Occasionally, she glanced at Danny and smiled for no reason other than being happy that Danny was there. Danny smiled back, and Nicole felt a small flutter in her chest. They were ready to leave before her cousins were. She marched away from camp without saying anything to anyone, except for her father. Danny followed, doing the same.
“You two have a good time,” Raymond called.
“Danny, do you want to borrow my walking stick?” Beth offered before they were too far away.
“Should be fine as long as we don’t go up a steep hill,” Danny replied. She had her knee brace on. “Thanks, though.” She gave Beth a small wave.
Nicole smiled at the offer, but she didn’t bring it up until they were out of sight of the camp. “I guess Beth does like you, huh?”
“Seems that way. Did she think we were having sex last night, too?”
“She did.”
A tiny frown marred Danny’s bronze face briefly. “Did you set the record straight?”
“I like to think I did. I’m pretty sure she believed the truth, but who knows. I can’t believe they thought we were having sex, especially that loudly.”
Danny blushed slightly. “Sorry about that.”
Nicole shook her head. “There’s no need to be sorry. You weren’t eavesdropping and jumping to conclusions. Are you sure my dad believed you when you told him the truth? I want to be able to look him in the eye.”
A soft chuckle escaped Danny. “Chem, I think your dad knows you’ve had sex before.”
“Yeah, but he’s never thought he heard it. Does he think I had sex last night?”
“Nope. I told you; I explained and he believed me. Your dad’s okay, Nick, which is why he told us bye and acted totally normal. He’s completely cool, and he’s probably the one who spoke to your cousins to get them to cool down. Your father doesn’t think any less of you, Nick.” Danny wrapped her arm around Nicole’s waist and the contact was more assuring than the words.
Nicole breathed a sigh of relief. “I know it might seem ridiculous to you, but…”
Danny arched an eyebrow and shook her head. “Ridiculous that you want your father and your family to respect you? Nothing ridiculous about that. I know what it’s like to want, but you know what it’s like to have. You haven’t lost that.”
“Thank you for understanding, baby.”
“Don’t see how someone wouldn’t be able to understand that one, Chem.”
Nicole smiled and decided to take a chance. She wanted to dig into Danny’s mind for a moment while she had the chance, since Danny was so relaxed. “I hate to break the mood, but do you ever wonder what it feels like?”
A brown hand went through Danny’s dark locks. “I imagine most people that have it don’t even think about it. I don’t really think about it anymore. I had something similar to it, I assume, when I was with the Briarmoors, and I know what it’s like to lose something like it. I mean, Henry was kinda like a dad to me and he seemed to respect me, as much as you can respect a little kid. But, now, I don’t think about it or what it feels like. I have your respect and apparently your dad’s, which is weird, and some of your family. That’s enough.”
Nicole smiled. “Okay.” She wished things were different, but as long as Danny was content, then she was fine with it.
Taking a deep breath, Danny looked ahead of them. “So, what are we going to see first?”
“I’m going to show you what we used to call the Witch Tree. It’s a really spooky looking tree. It’s big and crooked, and the branches look bare even when there are leaves on them. When we were little, we were all certain a witch had planted it and that’s why it looks like something out of a horror movie. We used to climb it, always saying that the witch would curse the last one to the top.”
A small smile lit up Danny’s face, as they strolled through new areas of the woods. “Cute.”
“You’ve climbed trees before, right?” She had to check, because her beloved missed out on a lot of little things as a child, thanks to having drawn the short straw on caring parents.
“Yeah. Sometimes, Lynn would take me to the park when I was little, and I’d climb trees there. I wasn’t totally deprived,” Danny chuckled.
That’s good to know. “Just checking to make sure. Tell me stuff about your childhood, please,” Nicole said. “Normal, good things.”
Danny scratched her forehead for a second and then ran her hand through her hair. “Hmm…well, Lynn sometimes made me hot chocolate on cold or rainy days. I always thought that was cool and that’s one of the reasons I love sharing hot chocolate with you. It makes me think about those times and it feels nice. For a long time, I always tried to avoid thinking about them, because I didn’t think living in the past was good, but lately, with you, I’ve been able to think about the good times and just feel good about it, not hurt or thrown away or anything like that.”
Nicole gave her lover’s hand a squeeze. “That’s good, baby. That’s really good.”
“I wish I had traditions with them like you have with your family, something I could share with you, even though they’re not around. I mean, this camping thing is wonderful. Wish I had something like this and I could share it with you.”
“It’s all right. As time goes on, we’ll start our own traditions, and they’ll be just as special. Maybe even more so than this, and we’ll be able to enjoy them together. We’re both in this together and we’re in it forever, so we’ll get there.”
Danny nodded in agreement, but she still frowned a bit. “Still feel bad about not being able to share family stuff with you like you have with me. I mean, I have Crow and all, but she’s not really family.”
Nicole gave Danny a playful swat and they both chuckled lightly. “I like Crow, and I’m sure she thinks of you as more than a friend.”
“Probably. Though I have a lot of catching up to do
with her, emotionally. I mean, it’s only been a year since I’ve accepted her as a real friend, but in her mind we’ve been really good friends for years, and she’s always been there for me, while I have only started really thinking about her. I know I’ll get there with her eventually, but I feel…upset…it’s taken me this long to recognize her and her worth. She doesn’t seem to hold it against me, but I hold it against myself.”
Nicole gave her hand a soft squeeze. “You will get there, baby. You’re open to so many things now, and you’re doing your best. Your insight in regards to yourself is always impressive, Danny.”
Danny shrugged. “I live in my head a lot when you’re not around, and I get a chance to examine myself. That’s where my music lives, after all.”
Nicole smiled, but she didn’t respond, as they came to the spot that she wanted to show Danny. The Witch Tree was thick and twisted with dark, deformed branches they couldn’t really see thanks to the leaves. The leaves somehow curled and seemed as awkward and wicked as the rest of the plant. There were deep grooves and raised ridges cutting vertically along the trunk of the Tree with cracks crisscrossing those lines. As a slight breeze blew, it seriously sounded as if the Tree let out a low growl, warning them away. Danny didn’t heed the noise and walked around the massive, winding trunk, having to hop over some of the bent roots that poked up from the ground.
“We always said if you broke a stick off, the Tree would bleed.” Nicole wiggled her fingers to mimic oozing blood. She stood almost a whole foot away from the Tree, finding it creepy even now as an adult.
“Why would you do that? Wouldn’t it piss off the witch?” Danny asked with an amused half smile.
Nicole let loose a light, airy chuckle. “Oh, yeah, and we were sure she’d come get us in our sleep, steal us away back to the Tree, and then eat us alive. Spider almost wet himself one day when he accidentally snapped a branch to break his fall. He had nightmares for months. We all ran right after he did that, so we didn’t get a chance to see if the Tree really bled.”
Danny laughed. “So, you never broke a branch?”
“Oh, yeah. When I was about nine or ten. Again, trying to break a fall. I grabbed a branch and it broke off. But, we didn’t stick around to see if it bled. We ran like hell back to camp, and I jumped at every little noise from the forest for the rest of the trip. I slept in my parents’ bed for a long time. My mother kept screaming at my dad, thinking he’d done something to me on the trip to scare the life out of me.” Nicole giggled.
“Your mom blamed your dad every time something happened, didn’t she?”
“Most of the time, yeah. If I got hurt playing sports, it was his fault. Whenever I did something whacky with Junior and Spider, it was his fault. She always swore he was going to traumatize me, or I’d end up in a coma. I got him in trouble a lot, but we still did so much together. I mean, my mom got mad, but she never tried to stop us from doing anything. She’d give us a lecture before we went out, but she never tried to stop us. I think part of it was that my dad was my best friend for a while, and my mother understood that. Yes, we worried the hell out of her, but she knew we were enjoying each other’s company.”
“Do you wish you had siblings?” Danny leaned against the Witch Tree.
Nicole winced and reached out for Danny, but pulled back. I’m just being silly. “Yes and no. I mean, I wonder what it would be like sometimes, but there were times when I was happy I was the only one around for my parents to focus on. So, there you go. After I got on some teams and made friends, I never really thought about having a sibling.”
Danny was quiet for a moment, seeming to study Nicole. “Do you think you sometimes feel guilty for being their only child?”
Nicole blinked, stunned by the strange question. “Why would I feel guilty?”
“Don’t know. I wonder, sometimes, if that’s why you followed in their footsteps and things like that. I know you were pressured, which definitely adds to it, but sometimes I think there’s more.”
Nicole shook her head. “I never thought about it, but thanks to you, I will.” Playfully, she stuck her tongue out at her lover. Maybe that is why I followed in their footsteps.
The move earned a chuckle from Danny. “Sorry.”
“Why don’t you try climbing the Tree?” Nicole nodded toward the sinister flora. She’s already touched it, so it won’t matter.
Grey eyes rolled, and Danny scoffed loudly. “And risk being cursed by a witch? No thank you!”
Nicole laughed. “Coward. Want to head to the next spot?”
“Will there be more witches?” Danny asked with a teasing grin.
“No, no more witches.”
“Surprising, since we’re in the woods and all. I thought you’d show me a gingerbread house next or a tower covered in thorn bushes or something like that.” Danny scoffed.
Nicole unleashed a mock glare. “You keep that up, and I’ll be sure to find something like that and maybe even leave you there.”
Danny smiled and returned to Nicole’s side. They strolled off, hand in hand, twigs crushing under their feet. Nicole led Danny to another obvious climbing site. There were rocks that went about fifteen feet in the air at their highest, but some were lower than a foot. It looked like a mini-mountain in the middle of the forest. Nicole led Danny onto the lower rocks and pointed to the opposite side.
“Is that a watering hole?” Danny inquired. There was water right behind rocks that was about the size of the average hotel pool. The water was crystal clear, and if they wandered close enough, Danny would’ve been able to see the rocks sitting at the bottom of it.
“Something like that. We always called it a pond. The water’s deep enough for a short jump, but none of us were ever crazy enough to jump from the top, which I assume is a good thing. We most assuredly would’ve broken our ankles, at the least, if we did,” Nicole answered.
“Still safer than swimming in the river, huh?”
“Oh, definitely. The river might look calm, but it can sweep you away quickly. One day we can go canoeing again, though. Maybe not on this river, but there are many others. That was fun,” Nicole said. They had gone on a canoe ride on their first vacation together. Sure, it had been on a calm lake, but she was certain Danny would enjoy a trip down a river.
“Sounds fun.”
They sat there quietly for a while, looking down into the pond. It looked like Danny was seeing more than the water, but Nicole didn’t want to ask, because she didn’t want to disturb her lover. Danny put her arm around Nicole and leaned into her. The action brought a smile to Nicole’s face. They shared a light snack and drank some bottled water. Eventually, they ended up sitting at the edge, allowing their feet to get wet.
“You know, Henry taught me how to swim.” Danny sloshed water around with one foot.
Nicole glanced at her. “Henry Briarmoor?”
“Yup. I had forgotten until now. Always wondered why I knew how. I can’t remember for the life of me where or when he taught me, but I feel it in my bones. Maybe I did have more of a childhood than I ever gave myself credit for.”
“I hope so.” But, Nicole didn’t think a full childhood could be slipped into eight years, especially when Danny hadn’t been with those people every single day. Still, she was thankful Danny at least had time with the Briarmoors.
“This is peaceful.” There were sounds of their feet in the cold water, leaves rustling, and the birds busying themselves around them.
Nicole nodded. “Well, now it is. It’s not like this when a group of small children are around.” A wicked smile curled onto Nicole’s face. “We could come back here later, just the two of us. We could have a nice picnic and maybe go swimming.”
“That seems nice.”
“Swimming without suits.”
Grey eyes went wide. “Was wondering why you had that smile on your face. It sounds like something I wouldn’t mind trying.”
“Good. We’ll try it eventually. Of course, we’ll have to do it in the s
ummer or we’ll get frostbite on places that don’t need frostbite.” She snickered at her own remark.
“Have you done this before, or have I corrupted you?” Danny inquired, poking her in the side. “Have I corrupted you like your whole family seems to think I have? Brainwashed you?”
Nicole chuckled. “Not hardly.” She moved in closer, tucking herself under Danny’s arm.
“But, have you ever done that?”
“No, I haven’t. I’d never do anything like that with anyone beyond you. Danny, you know my sex life was very vanilla before you showed up.”
Danny laughed. “By a lot of standards, it’s still very vanilla.”
“Even your standards?” Nicole suspected it was, but Danny would never admit it.
“Nope. It’s perfect for me.”
Nicole smiled to let Danny know that was the right answer. She suspected her sex life would always be vanilla by most standards, but it worked for her. She planned to be a little more adventurous, because she trusted Danny and she wanted to keep Danny interested. Danny leaned over and kissed her cheek.
“You’re perfect for me.”
Nicole sighed, feeling happiness swell in her breast. “You are too sweet. Come on, I’ve got one more place to show you and then, if you want, I’ll show you this cave my cousins have been going on about,” Nicole offered. Truly, she didn’t want to subject Danny to the group again, but the cave was a nice place. She might be able to show Danny and avoid her cousins at the same time, or at the very least ignore them.
“Sounds good.”
“I want you to be sure. We don’t have to go there. It can wait for another trip.”
“I told you, I’m not letting them run us off. If this place is special to you, I want to see. I can ignore them if I need to. They don’t control me.”
Nicole beamed and sat up straighter. “You’re my hero, you know?”
Danny laughed. “You need to pick better heroes, Angel. After all, you’re mine.”
Feeling her forehead wrinkle, Nicole pursed her lips for a moment. “And why is that?”
“Because no matter what, you see good in people. Even though you run into a lot of bad people, you still see good. The glass isn’t half-empty with you and you’ve been teaching me how to see that since we’ve met.”
First Degree Burns Page 20