Nicole's POV
Last night, we stayed in the hot tub for about an hour. Then we got out, changed, and got ready for bed. Before he went to sleep, he asked me what I wanted to do for today. I didn't know. He told me to look up some things to do on my laptop this morning. I agreed, and we snuggled up close under the covers and went to sleep.
I woke up first and got out of the bed, letting him sleep a little while longer. I moved his hair away from his face and kissed his forehead before grabbing my laptop and phone to go downstairs. I decided to sit on the back porch and search my laptop for things to do. Then, I got distracted by the scenery and all the things in and around the house. I took pictures. Parker woke up and came to where I was in the bathroom, brushing my teeth.
"Morning, baby." I said, with my mouth full of toothpaste.
"Good morning, darlin'." He wrapped one arm around my waist and kissed my temple. "Have you decided what you wanna do today?"
"Um, I just got up. Not yet. Get in the shower, and I'll have it figured out, okay?" I replied after I rinsed my mouth out.
"I'm hungry, baby."
"Well, there's no food here. We'll stop and get something to eat."
"But you don't even know where to go."
"Let me figure it out, okay?"
"Fine. You bringing me some clothes and a towel?" He said, taking off his shirt.
"Sure." I said.
I walked down the hall to our room to grab his clothes and get him a towel. I opened the bathroom door and handed him his things. I then shut the door behind me and went back into our room. I changed my clothes and brushed my hair before I made the bed. After doing a couple more things, I finally made it down to the living room where my laptop was to search for things to do. It took about thirty minutes, but I finally found the perfect route to take and where to go first. By that time, Parker was sitting beside me waiting for directions on how to get to a restaurant.
"Okay, so we're going to Flat Top Manor, and stopping by Burger King on the way there." I said.
"How long is it going to take to get there?"
"Twenty minutes to Burger King, and ten minutes from there to the manor."
"Not bad. You sure you wanna go to a house, though?"
"Yes. We have a whole week to do whatever we want. And our first stop is Flat Top Manor." I started grabbing my things.
"No, our first stop is Burger King, babe."
"Yeah, I know." I smiled. "Now, come on, before you die of starvation." I laughed as I started walking to the door.
"I might die." He joked. "Hey, you got the key?"
"No, you had it."
"It's upstairs. I'll be right there. Get in the truck." He said as he started up the stairs.
I walked outside, got into the truck, and called Flat Top Manor for a tour of the house. Parker came outside a few minutes later right when I was hanging up the phone.
"I just called and there's a tour of the house at 11:30."
"Okay. Now how you get to Burger King?"
I smiled and pulled up the directions on my phone. I turned on the GPS on my phone, and it started telling us where to go.
***
We had a late breakfast at Burger King, and we drove to the manor. We got there a little after 11:00. We parked the truck and started walking up to the house.
"Parker, hold my hand." I said as I looked and saw the people around.
He grabbed my hand and pulled me closer to his side. "Don't worry, baby. I got you."
We smiled at each other and walked to the manor. It wasn't quite 11:30 yet, so we just walked around outside and talked.
"So you wanna hike the trail?" Parker asked me.
"Yeah. If I'm doing the time right, we should be through here by at least 4:00, if not before."
"We'll have to see what else there is to do around here." He smiled.
"Yeah."
"When did you wanna go to that theme park thing?"
"Um, maybe tomorrow?"
"Okay, cool."
"What you wanna do tonight?"
"Don't you have anything you wanna do?" I smiled.
"Oh, you don't wanna know what I wanna do, baby." He smirked as he wrapped his arms around me and kissed my neck.
"Oh, I got it now." I chuckled. "Quit, Parker. We're in public."
"I don't care."
"Mmhm. I know you don't. Come on, let's go inside the house." I said as I pulled away from him, dragging him along by his hand. I stopped to take a picture of the house before walking in.
"The tour should be starting any minute." I said.
"Good bunch of people here." He said kind of quietly.
"Yeah."
We walked the tour of the house along with the other people and the guide. It was pretty cool. I've always loved old things, so this is my kind of thing. Parker thought some of the stuff was cool. I took pictures, even though I don't really know if I was supposed to. I kept the flash off anyway. The tour was about an hour long.
Next, we hiked around the trail. It was a long trail. There was an old barn that we looked around in. An old fire tower was one of the big things that everyone climbed up. The lake was really pretty. We got tired of walking one time, and we sat down in the grass and talked for a little while. I checked out more things to do on my phone while we were sitting there.
We walked around a little while longer, and then we walked back up to the truck. Parker and I both got a ton of pictures. It was around 4:30 when we left Flat Top Manor.
"Where we going now, babe?" He said as he pulled out of the driveway.
"Well, it'll be dark in about an hour."
"So? What you wanna do? Hiking, museum? Little late to go rafting or something."
"Let's go to Cascade Falls. It's not that far from here."
"Cascade Falls?"
"It's a waterfall that you hike to."
"Okay. Look up how to get there, babe."
In about thirty minutes, we were parked outside of the gate in front of the trail. There was a sign that said the gate closed at 6:00.
"You think we'll be back by then?" I asked him.
"It doesn't matter. We can get out of the gate."
"True. Okay, let's go."
I grabbed my phone and my Yeti full of water as I climbed out of the truck. Parker slid his phone into his pocket and fixed his hat on his head. We started walking down the dirt trail.
"Shoulda got a flashlight for when it gets dark." Parker said after a few minutes.
"We got lights on our phones, honey."
"Oh, yeah."
We walked for a while until we got to a fork in the road. We decided to take the path that looked more traveled. We walked and talked for about an hour until we finally found the waterfall. We took pictures together. Then we decided that it was best if we headed on back before it was pitch dark. We found our way back, and we could see the gate up ahead. But as we got closer, we saw headlights that definitely weren't ours. Parker pulled out his phone to turn the flashlight on as I grabbed his other arm. Parker shined the light and revealed a truck and a man standing beside it.
"Get behind me." He whispered. I got behind him, walking with my head down in his coat and my hands gripped to his sleeves. He called to the man, "Hey! What's up, man?"
The man then shone a bright light at us. He didn't say anything. Parker reached into his pocket. I didn't see it, but I knew that he was making sure that his knife was in there. We got up to the gate and the man walked up to us. I stayed behind Parker.
"You kids aren't supposed to be out here." The scruffy man said.
"We were just leaving, sir." Parker answered him.
"Well, I'm the game warden. What are y'all doing out here?"
"Just doing a little hiking. We're leaving now." Parker was getting annoyed at him.
"Well, from now on, don't be out here after dark."
"Yes, sir." Parker shrugged by him as he opened the gate.
We got into the truck and drove off as the game warden watched us.
"I don't like that guy." Parker said as we drove off.
"Me either."
"He acted weird. He wouldn't say anything until we got to the gate. He's lucky that I didn't pull something on him."
"He scared the crap out of me."
"I know. That's why I told you to get behind me. You think that really was a game warden?"
"I don't know. I couldn't really see anything."
"Yeah, me either. I'm making sure all the doors and stuff are locked tonight."
"Do you have your gun?"
"Yeah."
"Good. I feel a lot safer now."
We drove back home, stopping at a little cafe to eat on the way home. We were home around 8:00. Parker and I sat on the back porch in the swing, after we had changed into our night clothes.
"So did you have fun today, baby?" He asked me.
"Yes." I smiled. "I had so much fun. I really loved walking around in the dark. It was so cool."
"Yeah, I just didn't like that guy. He acted like a asshole."
"No, he didn't. He wasn't as nice as he could have been, but he wasn't that bad. He could've been a lot worse."
"I guess. The manor was pretty cool."
"You really think so?"
"Yeah. It wasn't as boring as I thought it was gonna be."
"Good. I had fun too."
"Good. What you wanna do tomorrow?"
"Um, how about we go to the Wizard of Oz theme park?"
"Okay. It's your birthday."
"I know! I'm so happy!"
He smiled and put his arm around me. "Happy birthday, baby."
He kissed me.
***
It was around 10:00, and we were still outside on the back porch. I was getting tired from all the walking we had done today. He kept on yawning, which made me yawn.
"You tired, baby?" I asked him.
He picked his head up from where he had it laid back. He was dozing off. "Little bit. You?"
"Yeah. You wanna go to bed?"
"Sure." He said as he started to get up.
We walked inside and he walked around the house making sure that everything was locked. I went on ahead into the bedroom and laid down. He came and laid down with me after a few minutes. He got under the covers with me and snuggled up close to me. I turned over to face him and smiled.
"You know what?" He said.
"What?"
"I feel like an old man going to bed at 10:00." He smirked.
I chuckled. "Well, then that makes me an old woman."
"Yeah, we're just that ole' married couple."
"Yeah." I said as I drifted off to sleep.
***
Thank you guys for almost 1K reads and almost 100 votes, and I hope more of you read, vote and comment your suggestions or critiques. If you're reading this, I love you! - angelnico1e