PART 7

A half-hour after supper ended; there was a knock on Joseph Harding’s front door. Joseph got up from the living room chair to answer the door. "Don’t tell me that it’s Aaron again," he said to himself.

He opened the door. Out on the front steps was Nat. Nat was standing there, all dressed up nice, and holding a bouquet of flowers in his hands.

"Nat? What are you doing out there?" he asked Nat.

"I’m doing what you told me to do, Mr. Harding," Nat smiled at him.

"I see," Joseph smiled at Nat. "Come in and sit down in the parlor." Nat walked inside. "I’ll go get Nan."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Joseph knocked on Nan’s bedroom door. "Come in," he heard Nan say. Joseph opened her door. "Hi, Father," she said.

"You have a visitor sitting in the parlor, Nan."

"Visitor? It’s not Aaron, is it?" she asked.

"Nan, you’re going to have to find out for yourself," he told her before shutting the door. Nan looked disgusted and slammed her Anatomy book shut.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"If he thinks he’s going to call on me now, he has another thing coming," Nan mumbled to herself as she walked toward the parlor. She stepped into the parlor, expecting to see Aaron sitting in there. What she saw stopped her in her tracks.

"Hi, Nan," Nat looked up at her. He stood up, and handed her the bouquet, "these are for you," he grinned at her nervously.

She took the flowers from him. "Nat? What are you doing here?"

"Were you expecting someone else?" he asked.

"Yes, I was expecting Aaron. I was ready to give him a good punch in the nose."

"And you probably would have," Nat winked at her.

"Nat?" she looked at him, her eyes questioning him.

Nat put his arm around her and led her over to the couch. "Please, sit down, Nan."

Nan sat down, and Nat sat down beside her. "I hope you don’t mind me calling on you, Nan?" he asked her.

"Mind, Nat? Of course not." Nan turned away shyly and then continued, "I was hoping you would," She looked back at Nat, a gorgeous smile had come to her face.

"Really?"

"Yes," she laid her bouquet down on the table beside her and took Nat’s hands in hers. "I need to thank you, Nat."

"For what?" he raised his eyebrows in confusion.

"For being you." She continued on, "All these years, Nat. Look at everything we’ve done together."

"Yeah, do you remember when Plumfield was quarantined?"

Nan nodded, "Yep, you thought for sure that your were going to get the measles." He laughed at that. "You never did, though. Neither of us did."

"No, we didn’t. Do you remember when Mrs. Jo was about ready to sell Plumfield?"

"How could I forget? We all stood up there in front of that church, ready to go to jail," she smiled at the thought.

"I would have went to jail if I had to. Anything to keep Plumfield open. That was the best school in the world."

"It sure was, Nat. I’m glad that Mrs. Jo let me join you boys." They were quiet for a moment, then Nan continued the memories, "How about when we found that saddlebag full of money."

Nat laughed at that memory; "No way I could forget that. I felt so guilty about what we were doing."

"We should have just told Mrs. Jo about it in the first place. It would have saved us a lot of trouble."

"It would have saved me from having to push your face down into the mud," Nat smiled as he remembered that part of it.

Nan couldn’t help but laugh about it too. "See Nat, we’ve done so much together. Everything we’ve mentioned and much more."

"The science project," Nat said.

"What?"

"The science project. You do remember that science project, don’t you, Nan?"

"The one we did on alligators?"

"The very one."

"Yeah, we tried to match up Dan and Bess. Plan A, B, and C. None of them worked. They wound up getting together on their own without our help later, though."

"Uh, huh. We we’re trying to get them to kiss."

"They didn’t, though, Nat."

"No," he paused for a second, "We did, though," he smiled.

Nan looked up at him. "Yeah, we did. That was our first kiss. We had to test the theory to see if kissing made you fall in love."

"Did it work?" Nat asked her.

"I think it did." Nan told him. "Might have taken a little longer than we thought, but I think it did."

"So do I," Nat said. He put his hand under her chin to lift her face toward his. He leaned closer to her as he asked her, "What do you say we test the theory again?"

"I say, go for it, Nat," she smiled up at him as their lips met in a soft, gentle kiss.

He pulled away, "Did it work?"

"Yep, sure did," she spoke softly to him before they continued their embrace.

THE END