Camping

"Nah, just a few minutes," he said as he munched away.

Micah put some coffee on, scratched his butt, then said, "I need to make a phone call. I'll be right back, okay?"

He opened his laptop, did a quick search and found a 24-hour flower delivery service. He checked out the floral arrangements, found exactly what he wanted then dialed the 1-800 number. "Yes, hi. I was wondering what it would cost to have an arrangement delivered as soon as possible."

The girl told him that depended on the location relative to their nearest shop. He gave the name of the hospital and she asked for a moment. "We have a shop within five miles of that location. We can get it there by noon for $50 or by 6pm for..."

"Noon. Please," he said cutting her off. "And on the card, I'd like it to say..." She read it back to him, took his credit card number and told him the flowers would be delivered no later than twelve o'clock. He thanked her, hung up, then went to pour himself a first cup of coffee.

At ten minutes to noon, the delivery guy stopped at the front desk of St. Joseph's Hospital and explained who the delivery was for. "Second floor to your right," the woman told him.

He took the stairs to save time, found the second-floor desk then asked for Nurse Harvey.

"Summer? You have an admirer!" a large, older nurse called out behind her. She stood up and admired the white hydrangeas. "These are gorgeous!" she said as she bent over to get a whiff of their fragrance.

Summer was writing in a patient's chart when the nurse called her name. She turned around and saw them and said, "What in the world?" The delivery guy saw her name tag and asked her sign then ran back down the stairs.

"Yes, what in the world indeed!" the older nurse said. As Summer pulled off the card, the other nurses tried to peek over her should and read it.

"Do you mind?" she said pulling it down before they could see anything. She moved away from them then opened the card. It read, "Dear Summer, I can't possibly tell you how much you and Addison brightened my day and I just wanted to try and brighten yours in some small way to thank you. I can't remember ever having such a nice time in many years so again—thank you. Sincerely, Micah and Connor. PS. If you'd like to get together again sometime, please let me know. You can reach me at 360-555-4289. We'd love to see you both again, soon."

"Oh, look at her smile!" the older nurse said.

"I think she's crying," another one said as Summer wiped her eyes.

"Who is he?" the older nurse asked. "You know you're gonna tell us."

"Just a friend," she said.

"Uh-uh. Sure. Girl? No one cries when they get flowers from 'just a friend.' This guy is special and you're holding out on us. Now you know we share everything here right, girl?"

"Yeah, come on, Summer. We'd tell you, right girls—and Carl?" she said to the other nurses. "Come on. Spill it. Who is he?"

Summer put the card away and said, "Okay. So I took Addy camping at this Bass Pro Shop thing? Well, I couldn't put my tent up and it started raining and there was this guy who..." For the next several minutes she shared all the details with the other girls and Carl.

"So are you gonna call him? Tell us you're gonna call him. You can't be worried about him being a few years older, right? Not someone this nice. You said he was handsome, didn't you?" The questions came one after the other and before Summer could answer, there were a half dozen cell phones in her face.

"Okay. Okay. I'll call him." No one moved so she said, "Okay, I'll call him...now." She moved to the other side of the room and said, "I have my own phone, thank you very much."

It rang twice before he picked up. "Micah? Hi. It's Summer. I just got the flowers. They're so beautiful! Thank you. That was really sweet but shouldn't I be the one sending you flowers?"

The gossips were all listening to try and hear every word but only caught her side of the conversation. "I'd love to have dinner with you guys," she began. As she looked at the other nurses they were all giving her the 'two thumbs up' sign.

"But I don't want you to spend a bunch of money. How about letting me make dinner for you and Connor?" There were some 'oohs' and 'ahhs' from the peanut gallery as she said, "Well, okay. I could do that. Sure. You can buy the stuff and I'll come over and make it for us. Wednesday? Yeah, that's perfect. Okay. See you then and thank you—again, Micah. Okay, you too. Bye."

"That was a very sweet-sounding 'bye', girl," the older woman said. "So?" she said waving her back to toward them. "Details, girl. Details."

Summer explained she'd be going to his house to make dinner for him and his seven-year old son the day after tomorrow. "If it turns out you are too young for this man, you've got my number, right? You just hand it to him and tell him Miss Lucy would love to cook for him anytime—his place or mine." Everyone chuckled before she said, "Okay, ladies—and that means you too, Carl—get back to it. Go on! Git!"

As Micah hung up the phone he realized his hand were sweaty. Connor'd heard him talking and said, "Who was that, Dad?"

"Oh, that was Addison's mom. They're coming over for dinner on Wednesday. Is that okay?"

"Yes!" Connor called out doing the fist pump thing again. "What are we having?" he asked excitedly. "Are we cooking it or buying it?"

"Well, Ms. Harvey will be cooking it but you and I will be buying the food so we'll need to hit the grocery store sometime on Wednesday."

"Yes!" he said again. "I can't wait!"

Micah smiled and said to himself, "Me either, buddy."

Even at his age, time still had this funny way of flying by when you were having fun while it seemed to drag on forever when you were looking forward to something. But either way time passed, and by Wednesday evening, the two 'men' had all the vittles for the 'little woman' to cook them up some grub. It was all neatly put away and ready to be prepared.

The weather had turned warm for this time of year and it got pretty close to 80 that afternoon. Micah spent half an hour in his home gym after grocery shopping then took his second shower of the day before getting ready. It may have been warm outside but thanks to the modern marvel of air conditioning it was cool and comfortable inside and that allowed Micah the luxury of wearing a dressy, button-down, long-sleeved shirt and he knew exactly which one he wanted. It was a very rich, dark-red color that was probably some kind of crimson, but he knew software not fabrics. He just knew it looked great with a pair of dark-blue pants because Claire had told him it did. The shirt was new, the lesson on color matching was not.

"Why are you all dressed up, Dad?" Connor asked when his father came into the kitchen.

"All dressed up? It's just a nice shirt and pair of pants," he said knowing that for him these days, that was 'all dressed up.'

"Oh, okay. Well, you look nice. Ms. Harvey is really pretty, don't you think?" he asked without guile.

"Um...sure. Yeah, I guess she's kind of pretty," he said downplaying the issue.

"She looks like a model or a movie star to me," he added with childlike innocence.

That's exactly what Micah thought from the moment he'd seen her in the park. He had a feeling that was true when they were camping, but he still couldn't get over how great she looked that afternoon. He was wondering what she'd be wearing or how her hair would look as he heard the phone ring.

His heart sank when he saw it was Summer calling. She'd obviously had a change of heart and wanted to cancel. He swallowed hard and said, "Hello?"

"Micah? Hey, it's Summer. Look, I'm afraid we're not going to be able to make it. I'm so sorry but..."

"It's okay, Summer. I understand. I'm not exactly even close to your age and this whole thing—whatever it is—probably seems crazy to you. What I'm trying to say is—I get it."

"What? What are you even talking about, Micah? I don't care how old you are and I don't want to cancel. I just have to because we can't get there. My engine blew up or something like that on the way home. It started making this really loud knocking sound and got really bad before I heard a terrible noise and it just died. I got stuck in traffic and had to have it towed. I don't even have a car now so I not only can't get to your house I'm gonna have to have my dad take me to work and bring me home."

Micah had never been so relieved to get bad news in his entire life. "No, you're not, Summer. Give us 15 minutes and we'll be there."

"What? Why? I'm still in my scrubs, Micah. I just got home after my dad came to get us."

"Just trust me, okay? I don't care how you look, and we're coming over right now and we're going to fix this."

"My car's engine is blown, Micah. My dad said it threw a bunch of rods or something and it's not worth repairing so not even you can 'fix' it."

Micah chuckled softly and said, "Have faith, Summer. And trust me."

"I do trust you, Micah. I'm not so good with the faith thing, but if I have to put it in anyone it would be you and of course, my parents. Okay, then. I guess we'll see you in a few."

"Connor? Change of plans, buddy! We're going to Addison's."

He came running and did his fist-pump thing accompanied by its companion, "Yes!"

Connor grabbed his Game Boy and went out to the garage and got in the Land Rover.

His dad had picked up the keys he hadn't touched more than twice a month just to start Claire's car and maybe drive it around the block, then headed out.

"We're not taking the Land Rover," he said loudly.

"We're not? We're taking Mom's car? Cool!"

Connor loved the sleek, black 2013 BMW 335i his father never drove. "Why are we driving mom's car?" he asked as he got in.

"Someone needs it more than we do," he said as he fired it up.

Connor didn't understand the remark and didn't care. All he knew was he was going to get to play with Addison. He plugged his earbuds into his head and started playing Tetris as his dad pulled out.

Summer met them at the door of their modest older home and said, "Hey, you two! Come on in. There's someone here who's very excited to see you, Connor!"

"Addison! Hi," he said.

"Come on Connor! I'll show you my room!" she said as soon as she saw him.

"It's good to see you, Summer," he said.

"You too, Micah." They hugged each other as she noticed he'd put on something nice for dinner and told him, "You look really great. Sorry about all this." She meant her scrubs as well as the issue with the car.

"You look great in scrubs too, you know."

"Thanks but I don't feel great. I was really looking forward to this, too, and now I not only can't make dinner for us, well, you already heard my woe-is-me story."

"May I ask you something?" he said with the kind of concern that set to wondering.

"O-kaaay," she said unsure of what he had in mind. "Ask away."

"I'm only asking because well, I don't want you to think a man is trying to solve your problems or anything."

"Oh, jeez. I'll never live that down, will I?" she said shaking her head. "I promise I won't think that. I'm in pretty desperate shape so please, ask me anything."

"Can we maybe sit down first?" he suggested.

"Oh, of course. Would you like something to drink? I'd offer you something to eat but we don't exactly have anything which means we'll be ordering pizza again."

"No, thanks. I'm good. But feel free if you'd like."

"I could really use a drink, but we don't have any beer or wine, either so..." She sat across from him and said, "Okay, I'm all ears."

"We're going to need you to take us home," he said with a straight face.

Summer's eyes opened wide as her head pulled back slightly. "Excuse me?"

"Connor and I will need a ride home," he said again rephrasing it slightly.

"Um...I know I'm not a software genius, but I am smart enough to know you have a car outside and I know you know mine is in the shop. Well, maybe the junkyard, but you know the deal with my Sentra."

He stood up and walked over to where she was sitting and asked if he could sit next to her. "Okay," she said. "Micah? What's going on here?"

He sat next to her and turned toward her as he spoke. "Just before Claire fell ill we bought her a brand new car. I think it might have 3,000 miles on it, if that." He held the keys out then placed them in her hand.

"Micah? What are you doing?" she asked.

He closed her fingers around them and said, "I have a car I never drive. You need one. Problem solved. It's yours for as long as you need it."

"No. No, I can't. I can't take these. This is crazy! This is too much, Micah. It's the sweetest thing, but I can't."

"So you'd rather see it sit in my garage collecting dust than use it to get to work or to take Addison to your parents' home? Seriously? Are you that proud? Proud to the point of being stubborn? Or is it you just won't take help from me?" His voice was soft and kind and Summer was touched.

"Micah, this is...this is just..." He saw her eyes well up with tears again.

"Please, Summer. Please take it. It would make me feel better knowing you're not stranded. I filled it with gas on the way over and I really never drive it. Ever. So will you let me do this for you?"

She wiped her tears with a tissue in her front pocket and said, "You are the nicest, kindest, most decent man I've ever met."

He put his hand on the top of her back and said, "So is that a 'yes'?"

She looked at him, blinked away some more tears then began to cry. "Yes. It is a 'yes'."

She put her arms around him and said, "No one has ever been this kind to me, Micah. I know I really do sound like a broken record but—thank you—so very much." She pulled back and looked at him then kissed him on the cheek. "I have to say...and please, please don't take this the wrong way..." Her eyes were so genuine he knew she was being sincere. "I'm very...envious of what your dear, sweet wife had." She looked down then added, "I almost feel jealous in some silly, unexplainable kind of way."

"Claire had my heart. That's for sure." He gently lifted up her chin and looked into her eyes. "But it's open again now and there's room in it for another special someone."

"There is?" she said sweetly.

Micah smiled and nodded. "Yes, there is."

She hadn't taken her eyes off of his as they spoke. "Well, then I'm already jealous of that lucky, special someone, whoever she might be whenever you find her."

"She might not agree with me, but I'm pretty sure I've already found her," he said as he put his hand on her cheek.

"You have?" she said very quietly.

"I think so," he whispered back.

"Do you like her? Is it...anyone I know."

"Very much and yes, you do. She's beautiful and she also has a very beautiful daughter."

"Is she constantly thanking you for coming to her rescue?" she asked, her voice trembling with emotion.

"Ah, so you do know her?" he said with a warm smile.

"She likes you too, Micah. A lot."

"And I like her—a lot."

"She really wants you to kiss her," Summer said.

He put his other hand on her face and slowly lowered his head until their lips met. As they did, her arms moved up and around his neck as his hand gently framed her face. It was a long, soft, warm first kiss. When it ended, Summer said, "Wow...she just told me she thinks you're a really good kisser."

"Summer? May I take you out for dinner tonight?" he asked.

"I'll need some time to get ready. Is that okay?" she said just above a whisper.

"Knowing you'll look even more amazing is worth any wait," he said brushing her back.

"Then...I'll be back as soon as I can, okay?" she said.

"I'll be right here waiting," he said.

"K," she said before kissing him softly one more time. "BRB," she said with a smile.

It took her 45 minutes to get ready which Micah knew was record time for a woman with long hair, but it had been SO worth the wait. "Is this okay?" she asked.

Summer was wearing a peach-colored, short-sleeved knit top with a short navy-blue skirt and matching 3-inch heels with a gold necklace and dangling gold earrings.

"Oh my," Micah said. "You were 'okay' in your scrubs. This is...this is...amazing."

"Let me grab Addison and Connor and we can go."

After a short back and forth about wanting pizza, Addison agreed they could go out for dinner but only if she could get chicken nuggets. Micah looped into McDonalds drive-through lane and got two orders of nuggets with ketchup for the kids who both wanted them.

The adults chatted quietly while the kids munched away in the back seats. "Be very careful, Addy. This is real leather, okay?"

Addison had no idea what that meant but said, "I will" as she poked half a nugget into her mouth. By the time they got to the restaurant, most of the nuggets were gone so there wasn't any need to try and convince the hostess to let them in with their brown bags and the golden arches.

"This place is major-league expensive, Micah," she said holding his arm as they walked to their seats. They thanked the young woman who seated them and before Summer could answer for herself Micah ordered a bottle of very expensive champagne. "Hmmm. Land Rover, BMW, fancy restaurant, expensive champagne. Are you trying to impress me?" she teased.

"Is it working?" he asked playfully as the kids opened a pack of crackers the hostess gave them.

"Not those things. But the lantern? The dry tent? The granola bar? The hot coffee? That amazing smile? Yeah, it's working," she said sweetly. "I'm almost afraid to find out where you live."

Micah smiled at her and said, "Were it not for Connor, it'd just be an big, empty box made of brick and wood. Losing Claire taught me a lesson I always knew but never believed."

"What lesson is that?" Summer asked.

"One of life's most basic—money can't buy happiness. It can buy us things and things can make life easier, but they can't make us happy."

"What makes you happy, Micah? Other than Connor, of course."

He reached out for her hand which she readily gave. "You. You make me happy, Summer."

She looked away for a moment before looking back at him. "Thank you for saying that." She squeezed his hand and said, "You make me happy, too." She looked at him for a few moments then said, "I hesitate to talk about my problems knowing what you went through, Micah, but when I found out Ed was having an affair, I was so...crushed...I really wondered if I'd ever be happy again. And now I am." She smiled and said, "I feel like this is where I should once again say 'thank you.'"

"Until I met you, I didn't even think about being happy. I'd gotten to the point where being numb rather than in so much pain, was a blessing. Just not hurting felt so good. I hadn't taken the time to ask myself if I could ever be happy again. I just wanted to stop hurting so badly. And then I saw this beautiful woman struggling to put up a tent and my life changed."

"Right! Because before that you didn't have a..." (She covered her mouth with her other hand before saying) "a bitchy chick to snap at you and you and accuse you of being a misogynist pig."

Micah laughed and said, "I really made a great first impression, didn't I?"

Summer smiled and put her other hand on his. "Actually, you did. I remember thinking that guy has really great hair and then there was that smile of yours."

"Oh, so this all just physical then?" he joked.

"Not...yet," she said sweetly. "But it could be...if you'd like it to be."

"I would. I'd like that a lot," he said as their champagne arrived.

She brought two champagne flutes with diet ginger ale for the kids and told Micah they were on the house.

Micah got the kids attention and explained what a toast was. "Any ideas?" he asked.

"I wanna toast Bingo!" Addison said.

"I want to toast Addison," Connor said politely.

"Summer?" he asked.