The Summer Home

13. Out For Lunch

     Saturday took its sweet time showing up, as Nathan had been looking forward to it since he and Cheryl agreed to meet for lunch. He also looked forward to getting out of the house without going with Ray to do some laborious job for the town. The young man was eager to check out some local stores without having to clean up their graffiti, which meant this was also going to be a lot of fun. Nathan also liked that time spent with Cheryl this time would be unsupervised by the local Sheriff, and that neither of them would be wearing jumpsuits of any kind.

     Sonya was actually up very early that morning, and she agreed to give Nathan a ride into town early that morning. She had to pick up a few things from the grocery store, and at least Nathan was asking for a ride rather than stealing the van to take that ride himself. That improvement alone was enough for her to agree to his simple request. As they were riding into town, Sonya was the first to speak.

     "Do you need a ride back?" she asked, wondering what he was up to.

     "No, thank you." Nathan replied, "I have plans in town."

     "What kind of plans?" Sonya asked. "If you don't mind me asking."

     "No, it's alright," Nathan replied, "I'm meeting with a friend who is going to show me to a few places and go out for lunch."

     "Very nice." Sonya said with a smile. "Nice to see you made a friend already in your time here."

     "I have, she's really nice." Nathan said, unaware of the slip he made.

     "She?" Sonya said as her grin went even wider than before.

     "Don't tell Dad about this," Nathan begged her, "I really don't want to make a big deal about this. This is just lunch and looking through a few shops, nothing more."

     "I think it's very sweet," Sonya replied, trying to bottle her excitement. "And if it will make you feel more comfortable, I'll keep this between us."

     "Alright, thank you." Nathan said, deeply sighing.

     "My silence, however, comes with a price." Sonya informed him.

     Nathan sat up in his seat. "Okay, what is it?"

     "When things are less complicated between you and this new friend," Sonya started, "I would like you to invite her to the house for supper. It will just give me a good excuse to make something fancy for supper, as I love having a reason to go all out in the kitchen whenever I can."

     "Alright." Nathan agreed, "Anything else?"

     "Go easy on your father," Sonya said, with tone that was a bit more serious, "The last few months haven't been easy for him and if you haven't noticed a lot of us are already giving him a lot of space to work on his new book. He's under a great deal of pressure and I appreciate it if you just try as hard as you can to go easy on him. That way he can concentrate on what needs to be done."

     Nathan didn't like being told what to do, but there was something different about her request. Sonya was making it on behalf of someone who wouldn't normally put him in this position. If things were usually as tough as Sonya claimed they would be, his father usually would be the first to step up and ask for some space. So, why was he too shy to do it now? The fact that Sonya was this concerned made the young man a little concerned about it as well. What did Sonya know about the situation that she wasn't know telling him about? He had no clue what she was hiding, but Nathan concluded her heart was in the right place.

     "Alright, I'll do my best." Nathan answered.

     He honestly didn't know if that was possible, but he was willing at least put in the effort if it. The fact that Sonya wasn't reminding him about the stolen car and hanging that over his head to get what she wanted told him a lot about her character. This made Nathan want to help her out, the least he could do after the crap he pulled the previous week.