Lane and her boyfriend Alexy, along with Matteo and his wife, were joining us on our vacation, having rented the cottages next to ours for the week. Lane, who was 33 weeks pregnant and glowing, had been visiting us at least every 2 months for the first three years after Emily was born until she met one of Gabriel’s employees one summer and fell madly in love with him. Since my mom had also met someone back home and was living with him, Lane felt less guilt about moving out to New Brunswick. Her and her boyfriend were living in a beautiful home only 10 minutes drive away from Gabriel and I.
Matteo’s kids were all grown now and rarely followed their parents around anymore. He and his wife were enjoying their first solo vacation in years, but had decided to spend it with our family. Being godparents to Felix, they tried to be as present in our lives as they could.
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I stared down at my brown and orange stained fingers in fascination while I was waiting to see the specialist. Due to the nature of my job, my hands were dry and cracked and had a tendency to absorb color from the food I handled. It was incredibly difficult to get it out. Some helpful people had advised me that if I simply took the time to moisturize my hands, I wouldn’t have this problem. As if I had time for that! My hands were too busy with food prep, and dishwashing to take the time to let the lotion soak into my dry cracked hands. My nails were kept short, I didn’t wear rings and I washed my hands about a hundred times per day, they were definitely not sexy. My right hand had a tough raised callus just under my index finger from the constant contact with the metal of my knife while both arms had various burn marks from moments of inattention while cooking. Some of my knuckles had scars from the times the cheese slipped against the grater ca
Gabriel was sitting on the front steps of his cabin a cigarette in one hand and a can of beer in the other. He offered me a beer as I approached him. "I thought you said this was a dry camp" I asked dubiously. "It is," he extended his hand to offer me the beer again and I took it. "It'll take the edge off after your doctor thing this morning," he said quietly. I stared at him in wonderment, these were the most non-work related words he had ever spoken to me. I opened the can and took a long drink, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. I felt his gaze on me as he took a drag of his cigarette. He motioned for me to have a seat next to him on the step and I obliged. "Supper was excellent," he said simply, his gaze shifting to a squirrel running between trees just five feet away from us. "Uhm, thanks" I replied, shyly. We sat in silence for a few minutes drinking our beer watching squirrels darting around. He finally took a long drag of his cigarette before p
Gabriel picked me up from Janice’s house, his truck was full of the groceries I couldn’t get from our vendors. He came out to greet Janice and I as we said our goodbyes. "I'm going to miss you so much this week!" I whined as I hugged Janice. "I'll miss you too!" I grabbed my suitcase full of fresh laundered clothes and handed it to Gabriel. He grabbed the bag in one hand and extended his other hand out to help me get in the truck. I ignored his hand and did the best I could to get in the truck gracefully. "Did you have a good weekend?" he asked, buckling his seatbelt in and I was startled at his attempt to make small talk, he was more of a “Still waters run deep” kind of guy. "It was o
"Do you have an appointment, Miss?" an elderly gentleman in a teal blazer asked. "Hi, yes I do," I smiled. He led me to a number reel and handed me a piece of paper with a number. "You can sit here dear, and when they call your number you can go see the receptionist. Have your cards ready and have a nice day" he said walking towards another helpless soul. A chime indicated the number change on the screen and I made my way to the chair across from the receptionist. "Health card?" she asked and began typing furiously. "You haven't been to this hospital before?" I shook my head. "Okay, you'll have to fill out this form so we can open a chart for you here. When you are done you can come right back here and I will register you okay?" She handed me a clipboard with a pen attached to it and I fil
Maria showed up on Sunday night, she was a sweet girl around my age who was eager to do every single thing I asked. She was very helpful but still lacked confidence in her skills. She always asked a million questions to make sure she was on the right track or doing things exactly the way I liked them. "You have to make some decisions by yourself" I told her on Thursday after she asked me to try the salads she had put together to tell her what was missing. She looked hurt at my comment and I felt awful. But I knew she had to grow a spine and make decisions on her own if she was going to make it in the real world. "Listen, Maria, I’m not trying to be mean, but next week you are going to be the one bossing me around. I want you to be making decisions. I will be here to support you, but you need to assert yourself." She nodded at me, her big brown eyes full of tears.
I woke up late the next morning when my phone was ringing loudly. "Hello?" I answered groggily. "Harper, can you be ready to go in 30 minutes, I have an emergency to attend to at the camp" Gabriel said quickly. "Uh huh, 30 minutes" I replied. "You'll be ready?" "Yup" I said, closing my eyes. 10 more minutes I thought to myself as I fell asleep. I was rudely awoken by a loud urgent banging at the door. "HARPER!" Gabriel yelled from the other side. I frantically looked for my phone and saw that I had 8 missed calls in the last 15 minutes. Shit! Luckily all of my things were contained already, I just had to grab a pair of jeans and a sh
We spent Friday night eating McDonalds and watching Die Hard. I had fallen asleep before the movie was over and was barely aware that Gabriel covered me with a blanket before going into his bedroom.I was awoken by the smell of coffee and breakfast wraps on Saturday morning. Gabriel and I ate in silence next to each other at the island counter. My fingers were itching to grab my phone and scroll through facebook to break the awkwardness of being with Gabriel."I have a huge favour to ask," Gabriel said, finally breaking the silence."What's that?" I asked, relieved to be speaking."Do you think you can make lasagna for supper?" he asked, a tinge of pink forming over his face working hard not to smile. He looked like a little boy asking for m
When I had left for New Brunswick in the spring I had to let my apartment go. I hadn’t planned on coming back so soon, but I didn’t want to be held back by an empty apartment if something came up. I had graduated from the local community college in my town and worked at a few restaurants before getting a bit of a break with Gabriel’s company. The job was hard to fill as it was in an isolated area with little to no means of external communication. It was certainly not a family friendly kind of job either, I had just been gone for a better part of the year with only weekends off. Regardless, I had no one tying me down, and I found it liberating to be so far away from the outside world. I had made some real good friends there during the season and I was seriously planning on returning. I dreamt of Gabriel for the first month I had returned home, looking back at him with rose coloured glasses and replaying our weekend together had given me a different perspec