Summer Love

Chapter 3

From the minute Sadie woke from her nap, all through the afternoon, she was becoming impossible to calm down. Miranda groaned as she heard Sadie squeal in excitement from the living room, where Blake was sitting with her at the dolls house. As excited as she was now, Miranda knew she would be significantly less impressed when she realised just how long she would have to sit in the car. Her and Blake had deliberately timed the trip so that they would drive overnight, in the hopes that Sadie would sleep through most of it, but she also knew her daughter was 3 and her level of patience wasn't very high.

Miranda was busy organising a kit to distract her daughter form the impending boredom of a 15 hour drive. She had been to Walmart a few days earlier and bought a net organiser that attached to the back seat. In the little pockets, she had put books, a few of her favourite dolls, a new colouring book and crayons, a sticker book and a few other bits and bobs. Once it was all packed up, she left it on top of the pile of suitcases at the front door and headed in to the kitchen.

Miranda knew a well fed child was a happy child, so she pulled out all the snack foods she had bought for the trip and lined them up on the counter. First she sliced up apples, bananas, pears and strawberries, before distributing them to individual zip-lock bags and placing them in the cooler. Next, she did the same with pretzels and she even threw in a few cookies and a couple of lollipops. She tried to keep Sadie away from too much sugar, but she figured this was a special occasion and if it meant a smooth road trip, she would allow it.

When the cooler was packed with snacks, juice boxes and a couple bottles of water, Miranda closed it and checked it off her list of things that needed to be done. It was late afternoon, just after 5 and they wanted to leave by 8, so Miranda headed in to the living room and Blake left Sadie to keep playing while he helped Miranda carry all the suitcases and duffle bags out to Blake's truck, the bigger of the two vehicles.

While Miranda threaded the activity pack on to the back of one of the seats, Blake opened the tailgate and pulled out the cover, before he looked at the enormous pile of stuff in front of him.

"What is all this?" He asked as he looked it over with an unimpressed look on his face and Miranda shrugged as she lifted the cooler in to the back seat.

"Clothes, toys, bedding, towels, everything we need. Put the beach stuff and towels in first." She instructed and Blake did as she said, putting the things they wouldn't need up the back and leaving all 3 of their suitcases at the front, where they could easily access them if need be.

Miranda checked that he had packed it all in right and gave him the okay to close the truck up, leaving it ready for them to leave. When he had closed the tailgate, Miranda was just about to turn to go back inside, when Blake stopped her and she turned to look at him in confusion. They had both been awkward all afternoon after their argument while Sadie was napping. Blake's hand gently guided her over to him and she looked up in to his big blue eyes as his hands found hers and he squeezed them slightly.

"I know we have some things to work out, but I promise you I am going to fix all of this." He said seriously and Miranda managed a smile, knowing he was being sincere. Blake wanted to kiss her and pull her close, but he wasn't sure she was ready for that, so he simply leaned forward and kissed her forehead, letting his lips linger on her ever so slightly wrinkled skin. Miranda's lips formed a small smile as she gently patted his chest, before he gave her a wink and led her back inside.

As soon as they were back inside, Miranda looked at the clock and realised they needed to get dinner out of the way, so that they could get on the road on time. She headed in to the kitchen to quickly heat up the leftover spaghetti, while Blake set Sadie up at the table and poured them all a glass of water. When Miranda set the 3 bowls down, they all added a little cheese and ate quickly. Sadie was having trouble keeping still and as she made a mess of her dinner, she rambled about how unbelievably excited she was to get to the beach. Blake and Miranda humoured her, but they both knew she would be less than impressed when she realised just how long the car trip was going to be.