Georgia

Chapter 7

Caroline

It's such a beautiful night, the full moon shining down on the quiet woods surrounding us, a light breeze putting a little chill in the air. I think how great it would be to live here someday and I laugh quietly to myself cause obviously the weather and the trees are not the only reason I'd want to come back here.

We pull up on two huge oak trees side by side and sitting right in the middle of their intertwined branches is a ladder leading up to what looks like a small half-built tree house. I look over at Luke giving him a 'you're kidding, right?' kinda face and he laughs.

"It's safe, I swear."

"Safe? It looks like it's missing a wall and the roof!" My anxiety creeping in just a little.

"C'mon, you'll see why." He takes my hand in his, grabs a blanket and flashlight from behind the seat of his truck and leads me to the ladder. I look at him shaking my head and climb up.

There's a little bookshelf up against one wall with a few dusty books on it, a small table and two chairs against the other, the last wall has a window with a pile of old blankets stacked beneath it. I look up and immediatly see why the missing roof is not a problem. The big bushy leaves of the trees part just enough that you get a good view of the night sky, the stars are brighter than I've ever seen them. Where the fourth wall should be it looks out onto a large man-made pond surrounded by cement benches, tall columns and archways covered almost completely with vines and small statues of ancient Greek soldiers and women. There's wildflowers growing out of the cracks in the cement, the pond water green and cloudy. Old unlit laterns hanging here and there along the sidewalk path. It all looks like it's been forgotten about, abandoned but that's what makes it so enchanting.

"What is that place?" I ask still looking out at it.

"It was a part of this old couple's land." Luke starts to say, "They got married in a garden just like that in Greece and the wife always talked about how it was her favorite place in the world. She got diagnosed with alzheimer's and when her memory started to go her husband built this for her so she could always have Greece. They passed away awhile ago, their kids own it now but they live somewhere out west so it just sits here untouched."

I'm standing in a kinda scary tree house in the middle of the Georgia woods, looking out at this amazing view, wearing cowboy boots, slightly buzzed! How is any of this even happening right now when this morning I woke up crying from my dream not wanting to even open my eyes? This isn't me but maybe it should be. I've had more fun tonight than I've had in years.

Ever since my mom died I've been so afraid to live cause, well...cause she didn't. It felt wrong to be happy, to have fun, to laugh but tonight, tonight has been perfect and it's all because of this gorgeous man standing next to me.

I turn to Luke and smile. "It's beautiful. Thank you for showing me this."

He's leaning against the small table, he takes my hand twirls me around and pulls me to him my back to his chest, he puts his head on my shoulder and we stare out at the perfect night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Luke

We're up in the treehouse now, I'm telling Caroline all about the Thompson's and the garden and pond he built for his wife. Looking at her I have to smile, she's got this look of complete amazement in her eyes.

Tonight has been incredible. I knew the second our hands touched earlier today that I needed to know her but I never expected this. None of the things we did tonight are new to me, tailgating with the boys, performing in front of my friends, even coming up here it's all stuff I've done thousands of times but somehow doing all of it with Caroline makes it feel like it's the first time.

I remember my dad mentioning that tonight was their last night here I shake the thought from my head. I don't want to think about that. I'm not gonna think about it, I'm going to get every second I can with this shy city girl and hope somehow this won't be the last time I see her.

"Today is usually the worst day for me and you've made it perfect." She says. I turn her around to face me and look at her with a questioning frown. "Today is my birthday. Well yesterday I guess, really. What time is it any..."

I cut her off, "Your birthday? Why didn't you say something earlier?"

"There hasn't been much to celebrate about the past two years. I just kinda try to forget about it. My dad sure does."

"Wait here." I'm down the ladder before she can even ask what I'm doing.

I'm back with my guitar in my hand, I stand back against the table, play a few cords and start singing. "Happy Birthday t..."

"You're not!" She shouts, her face bright red.

"If you could please hold all comments until after the performance, thank you." I say with a big cheesy smile.

She laughs, "I apologize, please continue."

Clearing my throat I start again,

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Caroline,
you perfect beautiful funny shy city girl.
Happy birthday to you."

She claps her hands, smiling and giggling.

I start to play a different set of cords, humming a melody I'm just making up as I go along.

"....dancing on the tailgate in the full moon....best buzz I'm ever gonna find....drunk on you and high on summertime...."

"Mmmm, drunk on you" I say, "There might really be a song in there somewhere."

"Well, this girl wants royalties and a writing credit!" Caroline says pointing to herself.