Enar's Vacation - Open Beta

Chapter 44

Amanda let go. She helped fold the blanket away from his head, and grabbed his jeans and shirt he still clutched. "I'll take that, now come here." She put an arm around his back and led him over to the chest next to the ladder. "There, now sit there and relax. I'll take care of everything."

Enar wrapped the blanket tighter around himself and hopped up to sit on the chest. He wiggled and shuffled until he sat with his back to the wall and his feet sticking out on the front.

Over by the makeshift clothesline, Amanda hung up his jeans and his shirt, causing the lantern to swing back and forth, like on a ship at sea. Shadows danced across the walls and crates of the barn. Outside, the rain kept falling.

Enar closed his eyes and rested his head against the wall, listening to the wind and the creaking of the old building. He'd have to watch himself or he'd fall asleep here.

Normally, he'd not touch a blanket like this - coarse and dirty and smelling of horse. Normally. Now - cold and wet and tired - he just didn't care. Maybe he could just sleep here and go home in the morning when the sun rose?

Something brushed against his feet and he opened his eyes. Amanda had pulled down another blanket from the wall and now she draped it over his legs where he sat. He smiled at her and she smiled back. The warmth in his chest had nothing to do with the warm dry blanket covering him.

The smile on her face seemed deeper now, more genuine. It touched her eyes in a different way. She couldn't have been anxious about having to spend the night alone in the barn, right? That wasn't her style. She'd probably even enjoy it, what with the power of the elements raging all around her. He'd not be surprised if she had a little bit of winter blood in her.

He nodded to himself and sat a little straighter. He'd been right earlier, there at the beach. She was lonely too. She'd never admit it, but she was.

She wanted him to stay. He knew it.

Amanda lifted up the basket onto the chest and then hopped up herself, to sit between it and him. She pulled at the extra blanket over his legs and wiggled herself in under it, sitting right next to him; close, like under the tarp on the cart earlier, only now without the rain and wind lashing at them.

"There we go," she said and pulled at the basket, tilting it towards her. "Let's see what grandma packed."

Enar nodded, and his belly rumbled - loud enough to hear.

"See, told you staying for some pie was a good idea." Giggling, she turned to him and patted him on the belly.

"Mmm..." Blushing, Enar pulled at his blanket, wrapping it closer around himself. "I am quite hungry - now that I think about it."

She pulled a big package out of the basket, put it on her lap and started unwrapping it. Inside were two tins - one bigger, one smaller - and a small jar with something cream-colored in it.

"This has got to be the pie." She put the big tin on Enar's lap. "This is cookies." The smaller tin went back into the basket. "Now this..." Amanda grabbed the jar, looked at it and unscrewed the lid. Holding it to her nose she sniffed. A moment later, a big satisfied smile spread across her face. She closed her eyes and sighed - moaned, almost. "Custard."

Enar looked at her and a soft, happy warmth spread throughout his body. Her hair - mostly dry now - stood on all ends, in a frizzled, tangled mess. Smudges of dirt, from the rain and from rubbing down the horse, covered her face - and that nose would look like a potato even on the best of days.

It didn't matter.

It didn't matter at all - not when her smile warmed his insides like a hot cup of tea.