The grill came on Friday. In the late hours of the afternoon. They set it up by the pear and Nikola took out the folded table and took it out, too. Sadik busied himself by weeding the garden with Emilia.

She had been trying to tame it, both the back one and the one up front, but, it meant a lot of kneeling. And her knees simply weren’t up for it. Nikola bent down to help after setting up the barbecue area.

It took them until sunset before the garden looked relatively kept. It still had a wild feel to it, but, then again, the cottage was in the forest. Sadik was sure that Audrey wouldn’t mind too much.

Eric barely slept the night. He would wake up and go check the clock and then go back to sleep. It got so bad that Emilia took him by the ear and marched him to Sadik and Nikola’s bedroom.

“You want to be parents? Well, it all starts today. You both deal with this ball of energy,” Nikola blinked sleepily as Eric ran to the bed and jumped in. He bounced some and then snuggled into Sadik.

“Champ, what is the matter?” Asked Sadik after Emilia went to sleep.

“Jake will come here. No one has ever visited me before. Grandma never had time for that,” Sadik nodded and hugged the boy. He felt Nikola’s arms wrap around Eric too.

“Just remember, this is your turf. So, chin up,” Eric giggled when Sadik tickled him.

“Can we play in the lake tomorrow?” Eric looked at Sadik pointedly.

“Only in the shallows,” chimed in Nikola groggily. He yawned and closed his eyes.

In the morning, Sadik looked at the still sleeping Eric.

“You worked your magic on him, didn’t you?” Asked Sadik, when Nikola nodded.

“He would have kept us awake all night. I might have made him more tired than he was. But, nothing a good night’s sleep couldn’t fix,” Sadik got out of the bed and Nikola followed him.

“When was Audrey going to come by?” Nikola looked at the note on the calendar.

“At eleven,” they were going to spend until five pm.

They had breakfast and the family of four went by the lake. Nikola had planted some raspberries by it, and they needed a bit of grooming. He tied them up to the fence he had built a couple of years ago. Back when he bought the house. Then, they all helped themselves to the berries.

When eleven came, they heard a car come in the driveway. Nikola had texted Audrey how to find the house. He had her phone after the second day at the zoo. A little figure was running out of the house and towards the lake. Eric rushed and intercepted Jake.

“We can only play in the shallows,” he said, two little hands on Jake’s shoulder.

“Really? But the water must be warm,” protested Jake, but Eric shook his head.

“Just the shallows or papa said that he won’t let me play by the lake for a week,” Jake considered the words of the toddler and nodded.

“Ok, I guess it is fine to play in the shallows. Do you have the lake all for yourselves?” He sounded excited now. Eric led him to the barbecue area, and they sat on the blanket that Nikola had set up by the pear.

“Sometimes, tourists will come. But they keep to the other side of the lake. Mostly, they just fish,” said Eric. Jake looked at the little area with wide eyes.

“You get visitors? How often?” Eric had been living in the cottage for only a month, but he had seen at least five families coming here. He told that to Jake and the boy grinned.

“You are lucky to have guests. Mom doesn’t let us have too many of those per year. Says she doesn’t have time,” Jake’s expression darkened at that and Eric looked at him quizzing.

“She took you to the zoo on a workday,” Jake nodded. He looked around to see his mother chatting with Emilia. He leaned in and whispered in Eric’s ear, hand hiding his mouth.

“Mom is a banker. She got off work because it was my birthday,” Eric smiled brightly.

“Happy birthday, Jake!” Then, he looked guiltily at his hands. “I haven’t prepared you anything, though.”

“It is ok. I got ten presents from Mom. Would have liked more trips to the zoo, instead,” then, Eric knew what to get Jake.

“I can talk my parents into taking you along when they go to the zoo. They are volunteers and spend the mornings there. They do cool stuff like taking care of the animals and not so cool ones like cleaning after them,” Eric made a face and Jake giggled.

“They must really like the animals. I hate cleaning,” Eric shrugged.

“It is not so bad, to clean, I mean. I help grandma clean our room. Dad is building a new house for all four of us. There, I will have my room,” stated Eric proudly.

“I already have a room,” bragged Jake. “It is blue and has a giant teddy bear blanket on the bed.”

“Man, I’d really like to go to your place one day. Do you think you can talk your mother into letting me visit?” Eric sounded unsure of himself, but he kept up with the eye contact. His grandmother had told him that eye contact was good to show people that you were sincere.

“I’ll talk to her, but I can’t promise anything. What is there to do for fun around here?” Eric assumed Jake meant the lake’s shore, and he picked up a stone and threw it in the water. It bounced three times before sinking. He was quite proud of himself.

“This, pretty much. We can also go play with the sand. My bucket and shovel are over there,” Eric pointed at a tidy batch of sand and Jake stood up.

“Wait, we need to let them know we are going, first,” Jake rolled his eyes and Eric wondered why his friend was so inconsiderate.