no hesitation

Ellie didn't care who else came as long as Eric was in that mini-van, and he was.

She didn't hesitate to run into his arms and give him a hug. He was just as she remembered, except for the sideburns. Yeah, he was a bit more shaggy than she remembered, but she didn't care.

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" She asked.

"Because it wouldn't be a surprise then," Eric said with a big smile.

Of course, Kyle was there. Ellie hesitated to give him a hug, but it seemed she needed to give everyone a hug. Including Kyle's mother, which really took Ellie by surprise, but she didn't say anything. She grabbed Eric's hand. She wasn't letting go. She never wanted to be this far from him, again.

Actually, it didn't feel quite so awkward as she expected as they walked into the house together. "I have to show you, Clyde." She told Eric immediately, "You're gonna love him."

"OK," Eric looked around the room as if something might jump out to get him.

"There are no rattlesnakes in the house," Ellie gave him a nudge, noticing he was wearing jeans and boots, not his trusty Converses.

"I knew that," Eric looked at her brightly and kissed her, quickly before anyone made it into the livingroom.

"You'll have to see Clyde later. Maybe we should go for a walk," she pulled him along.

"Inside the house?"

"No." She didn't want to go to far. She wanted to investigate Ben's old barn. Maybe the hayloft. "You don't think Kyle would bother us?"

"Kind of doubt it, he's been texting Roxie every ten minutes or so. And he said he'd call as soon as he got here."

"Its still going strong, between those two?"

"Um, yeah, and maybe I've seen more than my share of those two." He sighed as they walked out the backdoor toward the yard where the chickens roamed free. They went past the old wooden fence toward the huge round water trough where the cows and the horses drank.

"Interesting." Eric hugged her then staying close to her as they walked past the red and white faced cows toward the barn. "Nothing scary is going to be in there, is it?"

"I don't think so." She went to the side door that wasn't heavy as the one on the end. They walked through the soft dirt and hay. There was just enough light in the darkness to feel there way up the ladder to the hayloft.

Light came in from the open windows from one end of the barn to the other. The floor was rather smooth. It had aged well over the years as the whole gray barn that had weathered storms and the like.

"Oh wow," Ellie went to look out the huge space into the open fields. She could see the road where Lonnie lived. She smiled.

Finally he gave her a real kiss, and she hadn't forgotten. She hadn't forgotten him at all.