Going Solo: Grace Gen 4.10

The weather was turning cooler, the leaves were starting to change. I used to love Fall for those very reasons, but not really anymore. I forced myself to ignore the negative thoughts and work on harvesting my crops before they went dormant. I missed Hope, I'd forgotten how much I liked having my sister around.

To make up for the loneliness I spent more time at Mom and Dad's. Erin was grateful to have me around. Dad was being even more like Dad now that she was a teenager. She would call me to complain when he wouldn't let her go out saying it was unfair that he didn't treat Carter that way. Carter was made to go with her as a chaperone yet he was allowed one on one dates without one. She reminded me so much of Hope when she talked like that. I told her sadly he'd done the same thing to her, only I was the chaperone. I wished I could have given her better options but Carter was 17 and a senior in high school, she was only 14 and the guy she liked was 16, no way was Dad gonna let that happen. I knew it was bad when she said Mom couldn't even change his mind on the dating thing.

I'd not seen Jonas since the lunch with Hope. We still talked, he'd even asked when I was coming into town, but I never gave a definite answer. I'd finished my work and was getting ready to bathe Vor when my phone rang.

"Hello Jonas."

"Hey Grace. I didn't catch you at a bad time did I?"

"No, not really."

"Great. Um...are you free right now?"

"Free for what?"

"Can you meet me at the campgrounds in about 30 minutes?"

"You want to go camping? In the middle of the day?"

His laugh rang out in my ears. He had a nice laugh.

"Not exactly, but can you?"

"Yeah, sure."

I hung up with plans to meet him, but that meant putting off Vor's bath. It took a while to get him in the tub and then dried off. I was a little nervous as I drove towards the campgrounds. I don't know why I agreed to meet him there. Hope had told me I needed to trust more and that she genuinely thought Jonas was a good guy. And she got on to me about living such a solitary life. My home in the middle of no-where, as she called it, and no friends outside of a dog was not a fulfilling life in her opinion.

When I arrived Jonas greeted me wearing a large smile. "Thanks for coming."

"Um... no problem, but why here?"

His smile got bigger. "Well, you seemed really interested in knowing what it was like to fly, so..."

He pointed to the hot air balloon that was in the corner of the park. During some of our talks, his ability to fly always seemed to come up. Well, I'd bring it up. I was fascinated by the idea. Looking over at the balloon, I started shaking my head, no way was he getting me alone, in that thing. No. Hope said to trust but that was pushing it.

"I can't."

He frowned at me. "It's perfectly safe, I promise and we won't go high if you are uncomfortable."

He smiled at me again, and against my better judgement I agreed. I'm glad I did. The view was amazing. True to his word, we didn't go too high, but I could see nearly the whole town and the colors. They were beautiful. He handed me a pair of binoculars so I could see better. I was able to spot my house and my parents' house. We were up for about an hour before landing.

"Thank you for that."

"You're welcome. I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. Are you hungry?"

"Yes actually."

He told me to stay put then came back a few minutes later with a blanket and picnic basket.  He laid everything out and we sat to eat. His wings shimmered in the sun and I found myself staring at them. They were beautiful. I looked up to see him smiling. I felt embarrassed that I was caught staring at them.

"Sorry, didn't mean to stare."

"No problem. Would you like to touch them?"

He turned his back to me without waiting for an answer. I giggled when my hand went through, it tickled.

"I thought they'd be solid like a butterfly's wings."

"Not quite. Thank you for coming today. You made my birthday a very happy occasion."

"Today is your birthday? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I just did, and it's not a big deal I haven't really celebrated in a few years."

"I didn't get you anything."

He stared at me and smiled. "Yes you did."

His hand brushed against mine accidentally, but instead of him pulling away, he wrapped his fingers around prolonging the connection. He was touching me. The thought made me nervous, but surprisingly not as fearful. I looked down at our connected hands then up at him. The sun was starting to set.

"I have to go! It's getting dark!"

I jumped up and ran towards my truck leaving Jonas behind as he called out my name.

**A/N**

Grace is now level 7 and has 5 perfect plants.

Erin is now a teenager. She's a pretty girl, she looks better without the vamp skin. LOL I think she's a good mix of both parents with a bit of Grandma Kerri thrown in there as well.

Bonus shots of them in the hot air balloon. I've not used it before so wanted to try it out. I know it was supposed to increase the relationship meter. I just wanted to try out the interactions, but found the woo-hoo and propose ones grayed out. It said my sims weren't eligible which was odd. Does anyone know if they have to already be romantic interests for those options to be open? Their friendship meter maxed out by them sharing a drink however. They went from friends, to best friends.