'Coming!' they heard the muffled shout. June and Ron glanced at each other and the door was thrown open a moment later, with a man emerging to peer curiously at them through his rounded glasses.
'Oh.' He recognised Ron with a start and stepped forward to shake his hand, smiling. 'I wasn't expecting to see you. Hello.' He shook June's hand as well.
'Yeah, well. I didn't get to thank you properly for saving my sister's life,' grinned Ron. 'And she didn't get to at all. So here we are. With cake.' He held up the bag in his other hand. 'Hope you're not on a diet.'
'Oh, you didn't have to!' he exclaimed as Ron pushed the bag into his hand.
'No, you didn't have to, with the bike,' said June. He laughed, a bit coloured by embarrassment. 'But you did. After you saved my life. So, we had to get you cake at least.'
'Well then, let me get you some tea so we can have it together,' he said and stepped aside, gesturing them into the house.
It was a cozy little thing, a bit out on its own. The road to the house was the one June had been riding on when her accident happened, which was how he had ended up driving past. The curtains were drawn and the inside was dim. He showed them over to a sitting room and settled both of them down.
'I'll just put the kettle on really quickly,' he said and was gone.
June settled back into the sofa with a sigh. Parts of her body still ached slightly. 'Not too bad looking,' she agreed and Ron chuckled.
'I saw him first.'
'But he saw me first though,' she pointed out.
Nate returned with a laden with the cake and tea and settled down with them. 'We haven't formally met,' he said, extending his hand to June. 'I'm Nate.' He was slim with a bit of a beard growing and tired eyes behind those glasses of his that she only now saw.
'June,' she said.
'June,' he repeated, nodding. 'So. How do you guys know where I live?'
Ron gave an awkward laugh. 'Well, so uh, I realised you didn't give me your number when you left. But I checked with the hospital and you'd given your own address when you filled out the form.'
'We had to come find you,' explained June. 'We have to give back the bike.'
'What? No, I got it for you, please.'
'I really can't accept it after everything else you've done for me.'
Nate coloured up again. 'Yeah, you can actually. Because uh... I ran over your bike. It was on the road. That's how I found you. So, the new one's yours. You can give it back and I'll just bring it back to your house.'
'You don't know where we live,' Ron pointed out.
'Yet.'
June couldn't help but laugh. 'Alright then I'm keeping the bike.'
'Good! So. You guys are new around here?'
'Yep,' said Ron. 'Moved in a few weeks ago. And hopefully we're here to stay.'
'We'll be running a bar,' Jane told him. 'It's by the sea and it's got great views. And you don't pay there ever.'
Nate laughed. 'Perfect.'
'It isn't open yet though,' said Ron, helping himself to a slice of cake. 'We're fixing it up right now but you can stop by any time when you're free from work.'
'I'm pretty free from work recently actually. I've got some writing to do but I haven't been able to get any of it done. So... yeah I could stop by.'
'You... write?'
'Yeah I'm an author.'
'You wrote a book?'
Nate nodded.
'Like a proper published book?' Ron asked wide-eyed, gulping down the last bite of the cake.
Nate laughed. 'Yep. You can take a look if you like. They're on that side table there.'
June and Ron stood up and headed towards the window, where there stood a small wooden table with an untouched stack of books next to a typewriter.
'Oh shit,' June muttered, flipping through one of them. She turned to see that Nate had come to stand beside them, leaning against one of the sofas. 'You wrote all of these?'
'So, are you famous?' Ron asked. 'Are we wasting precious selfie time?'
'Uh...I don't know about famous. But it pays the bills.'
'What kind are they?'
Nate shrugged. 'I'm not sure to be honest. My agent would know better.'
'He has an agent,' Ron said, shaking his head in mock disbelief. 'You're the real deal. Nate. I'm taking one of these with me. Is that okay?'
He laughed. 'Go ahead.'
'The typewriter is really cool,' said June, moving her fingers over the keys. 'It looks vintage. Is this where you wrote the books?'
She turned around and saw then, the exhaustion in the smile with which Nate was staring past her, somewhere beyond the wall, beyond the garden in the back, beyond the woods. And then he saw her watching and was back in the room with them once more.
'Nah. I tried once or twice but I make too many mistakes. It was an impulse buy but it helps me look like I know what I'm doing so I kept it.'
June watched him for a moment more. There had been something there. She wanted to see it again.
