Dancing in the Oaks

She is Back

I was able to wake up somewhat better. My mind was semi refreshed and ready to function for the day. I heard Nick singing outside, but this time on the porch outside of my guest house, and didn't even bother thinking about not going out there. "Good morning." I peered around the corner outside of the door.

"Hey Norah." He smiled. "Feeling alright this morning?"

"Yeah I guess. I could be a lot better, but I'm just gonna not talk 'bout it." I really did not wanna talk about it. I am still shaken up about it.

Nothing has really happened within the past week. Time seemed to move slower than ever before. The trial has been pushed back, but they allowed visitation. I decided to walk into the other room of his house and get Nick so I could talk to him. I was only there to make sure he was okay. "Nick!" I couldn't find him. "Nicholas!" The house was silent. "Hello?!" Once I walked over into each room I came to the conclusion that he wasn't around. The only other thing was the basement. Now since this is Nick's house I had never been in the basement. Each step I took slower and slower. The door was partially open. "Nick?" I found a stack of blankets in the middle of the room. It was quite an odd shape: like a body. How could I get the courage to remove the blankets especially when Nick wanted my mind clear? It took me a minute to build the courage. I took each blanket off until I came to the last one. "Nick?" As I picked off the last blanket I realized it was nothing. Nick walked out of the corner.

He looked me in the eye. "We have to Leave. Go. It's her."

"Her who?" I jumped a little due to the fact that he scared me.

"We're leaving. Norah we can't stay. It's too dangerous."

"Wait..."

"I know you have a lot of questions Norah, but we just have to leave."

"No... I don't actually have any questions. I... just have comments. Christmas is tomorrow and you're the greatest gift ever. I'm so thankful for you. You are watching out for me..."

"You too, but we have to move. We're gonna go to the cops and interrogate some more. I found more evidence." He seemed frantic in a way that I had never seen him.

"Alright let's go..." we began walking outside when I noticed he put his cowboy hat on. "You got a new hat."

"Yeah it's a darker black. My other one was fading really bad."

"Hmm let me guess: it's a Stetson?"

"Yeah. Nice one." He laughed.

"We're not moving are we?"

"No, we are presenting evidence. I found another journal of payments. My father was always ahead on payments. Your father tried to shut down our milk business. Trust me this won't end pretty."

"Alrighty. That sounds interesting... Nick, were you by chance that cute guy that sold milk at the farmers market?" I rolled my eyes at the petty question that I knew the answer to.

"Yeah I did sell milk at the market. We do it every year. You probably saw me there."

"Yes I did. I never said anything and I regretted it for the longest time."

"I bet you don't now." He smiled.

"Nope." My cheeks turned pink.

Walking into the police station just a few moments later was not anything different. It's kinda our new normal. There was a period of a few weeks that I was at that station almost every other day. I guess that is like my second home. There was one last officer on duty before the closing for Christmas Eve. "Can we have some visit time with the Jean family please?" Nick asked.