He didn’t want to break apart, but there was a certain kid staring at their every move.
Mabel turned to Styles. “Now can I have a hug?” She held out her arms, and Styles’s three-year-old body catapulted into hers. He shrieked as she lifted him up high and spun around.
“It’s a tornado. Aaaah! I can’t stop,” she said, laughing as they spun around, Styles’s legs flying in the air.
His laugh was pretty great. And Mabel was pretty great with him.
“All right, Styles,” Zane said, reaching for him after Mabel stopped spinning. “We’ve gotta go.”
“To do the work with the water? With Maybe?”
Okay, then. Looks like this nickname is going to stick for a while.
“Yes.” Zane turned to Mabel. “He said he wanted to go back home and get his swimming suit when I told him we were doing a watershed project.”
“He’s going to be super disappointed. This will be boring for him if he thinks it’s going to be like swimming in a pool.”
“Well, that’s our challenge. We’ve got to make it fun.”
“Is Lorelei working tonight?”
“Yeah, she’s been picking up extra shifts at the nursing home.”
They climbed into the truck, and Styles’s car seat was already secured in the back of the extended cab.
They drove past where they kissed.
Please let this be a real shift. Something lasting.
Just being on that same stretch of road where they kissed had his mind in hyperdrive all over again. He couldn’t stop himself from glancing at Mabel.
She was looking at him too. Okay, so she was still okay with the kissing?
They drove until they came to a T in the road. “And over there, Styles,” Zane said. “Look! See the water tower?”
The tower had been constructed so long ago that it was in a place that wasn’t functional or made any sense. It had been built before there was even much of a town center, and over the years, as it had suffered disrepair, Silver Plum had circumvented the tower. It stood there today, a heaping mass of peeling white-washed wood.
“That’s what it looks like close up?” Styles asked. “It’s not even one bit boring up there.”
Mabel laughed and turned in her seat so she could see him. “I wish we could climb it. Close your eyes and imagine you’re climbing up there. Do you think there are pirates with swords at the top?”
“I want to climb up, Zane. Let’s climb up the ladder.”
“Oops. Sorry,” Mabel said. “I shouldn’t have put the idea in his head.”
“Not your fault. He’s a climber. He would have asked that eventually.”
Zane unbuckled Styles from the car seat and swung him onto his hip. They started walking toward the tower. “See that ladder way up there? You have to bring a different special ladder to even reach that one. Weird, huh?”
Styles nodded, his eyes taking in the scene. He was a pretty great kid. Zane loved him fiercely.
“Mabel’s going to type some stuff into the computer while I’m talking to her, okay? Do you want to hold my hand or have me carry you still?”
“I want to be by myself. Can we go over there?” Styles pointed to a herd of cattle in the distance.
“In a little bit, we’ll go that way. I think that line of trees over there marks Silver Plum’s line of the watershed, Mabel. Once you get the water tower and surrounds recorded, let’s head over.”
The project was tedious, and sometimes he wasn’t even sure they were doing it right. It had to be, though. Mack and the rest of Silver Plum were counting on them to finish in time to apply for funding from the state. He didn’t really mind showing Styles some cool stuff about their town. And of course, with Mabel around, everything was fun.
