Carrot Cake 19, Coffee 26: Premonitions

Aug 21, 2010 23:57

Title: Premonitions
Main Story: In The Heart
Flavors, Toppings, Extras: Carrot cake 19 (release), coffee 26 (hook), butterscotch, rainbow sprinkles, cherry.
Word Count: 524
Rating: PG
Summary: Melanie, before she accepts.


Nathan took her out fishing to ask her.

Melanie knew perfectly well that it was coming. For one thing, Nathan was sweating, and he didn't do that unless he was nervous, and he was never nervous in her company unless he was planning something and didn't want her to know about it. Or unless he'd done something, she supposed, but he wasn't acting guilty enough for that.

It was one of two things, she figured, spearing bait on a hook. Either he was going to propose to her, or he was going to dump her. And no man in his right mind would take a woman somewhere with numerous sharp objects and an easy way to hide the body to dump her.

She flicked her wrist, sent the baited hook spinning out over the water, and wondered if she'd accept him. She did love him; she'd have to be crazy not to, and Melanie was not crazy. He was a good man, a loving one. She was lucky to have him, and she'd really like to keep him.

It was just... marriage. She really wasn’t sure she was ready for that. Sure, her own mother had married at eighteen and Melanie was two years older than that, but she felt so much more unprepared than her calm, capable mother could ever have felt. Marriage, at twenty, to a man who was promised to the Navy for four years as soon as he graduated college. Marriage, when she hadn't even been to college herself, and had graduated high school by the skin of her teeth. It was an overwhelming thought; the reality of it would be much, much worse.

There was a faint tug on her line, and she reeled it back in, only to find her bait gone and no fish. Damn. She hated it when that happened.

And there was the kid thing, too. Nathan had told her when they started dating that he really wanted kids, and on the surface of it, there was nothing wrong with that. Nathan would make a great father; she'd seen him with her younger siblings, and the kids he tutored. He'd be great at it, and more importantly, he'd love it.

It was just that she didn't want them.

Or she didn't think she wanted them. Now, anyway. Surely she'd want them when she got older; everybody did. She just had to get used to the idea. And Nathan wouldn't push her, it wasn't in his makeup. She could just tell him she wanted to wait.

Yeah. That was all. She just had to get used to the idea.

Another tug on the line; she reeled in the fish, and squinted at it as it wriggled on her line. Too small, she thought, and worked the hook out of its lip. She'd throw it back.

Someone should be free, she thought, then blinked, and wondered where that thought had come from.

Oh well. She shook her head and dismissed it as Nathan came up from belowdecks with nervous expression firmly in place. Nothing to worry about.

Nothing at all.

She turned to face him and smiled.

[topping] sprinkles, [challenge] carrot cake, [topping] butterscotch, [inactive-author] bookblather, [challenge] coffee, [topping] cherry

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