Australia

Chapter Thirty Three

Samantha's POV

I turned out to be pretty good and miniture golf. Nick wasn't bad either, but I was better. Everytime I would get a hole in one he would fake scowl at me; I'd fix it with a grin. In repsonse he would shake his head at me.

"Want to get something to eat?" he offered, after I had kicked his butt; three games in a row.

"Nope," I shook my head.

"Sam, I'm a growing guy," he pouted. "I need food. I'm starving."

"I have something else planned for lunch," I smiled at him; grabbing his arm and leading the way back to the car.

Nick's POV

It was around 1pm. Sam drove home and insisted we had to walk to lunch. I was hoping for something like McDonalds; easy, fast and a hunger buster. Sam lead me in the opposite direction to town; more towards a lake that ran parallel to the street outside my house. I was confused.

My confusion subsided when we wandered down a dirt path to the lake side and saw a picnic laid out. The tartan rug was in the centre of the clearing; along with a picnic basket, tumblers and a bottle of diet coke.

"How'd you do all this?" I asked her, giving her a one armed hug.

"Let's just say, I owe Rob one," she smiled up at me.

She took my hand in hers and pulled me towards the picnic. She sat down on he knees and I sat across from her; legs crossed. She opened the picnic basket and the smell of my mum's fried chicken wafted to me. She pulled out a bowl of my mums potato salad, a container with the chicken in it and plastic plates. She lay out the plates and gave me a plastic fork. I smiled at her. She was making so much effort for this day to be perfect.

"You really know a way to a man's heart, Sam," I smiled at her.

"Guys love good food," she smiled back. "Your mum is a fantastic cook. Why buy greasy take away when we have a genius in your kitchen?"

She had a point. We tucked in. Thankfully, Sam had thought of napkins also; there was still some grease in mums chicken. She was so paranoid about staining my shirt. I had forgotten she was wearing it.

"I should've grabbed my shirt from the car," she scrunched her face up as she blotted the collar of my shirt.

"It doesn't matter," I pulled the napkin from her hand. "Mum's a genius remember."

She smiled at me. After we had finished eating, I was stuffed. I lay down on my back and looked up through the trees into the sky. It was slightly overcast, but the humidity hung heavily through the clearing.

"Is it safe to swim in this lake?" Sam's voice asked.

"Yeah," I told her, sitting up. "When we first moved here, me and Joe used to go swimming all the time."

She looked at me when I mentioned the name of her boyfriend. We hadn't mentioned him hardly at all, all day.

"Do you want to go swimming, Nick?" she started untying her shoelaces. She stood up and unbuttoned my shirt, dropping it in a lump where she had been sitting. She unbuttoned her shorts and pulled them off adding them to her pile. She dragged the hair ties out of her hair and pulling it into a loose ponytail at the back of her head.

"Um, sure." I nodded, standing up myself.