“You are powerful!” Nick insisted, nodding his head and smirking at her. “You are woman hear you roar, and all that.” He had the feeling that Lexie’s statement was more loaded than she was letting off, but he didn’t ask. She could always open up to him; that was one of the things he appreciated the most about their friendship. He paused, laughing a little at her second comment about his skating-and-luge careers. “The old man will be kicking around until I’m at least fifty, and my glory years will be gone by then… so I think I’ll have to be sneaky. And I don’t know about you, but I plan on getting off this island one day. Totally don’t plan on being stuck forever. Or something…” he shrugged. “I really don’t want to do luge. Maybe once. To see what it’s like.”
Scoffing at Lexie playfully, he made a slack-jawed face and sighed dramatically. “You listen here, Lexington,” which was his favorite nickname for her, hands down, “you can’t tell me that having a flying squirrel wouldn’t totally make me the coolest dude on this island. It’s a perfect pet. Sadly they aren’t domestic.” He carefully ignored the mention of his sports talk. As much as he wished that there were other ways to identify him, he was far beyond the point of no return, now.
So deep was he in his train of thought, that he missed her momentary hesitation, and smiled when she agreed to come and help him set up. “Yes ma’am, Lexus ma’am. I promise not to keep you out until the witching hour. No witches will get you while I’m watching, anyway,” he held up a Scout’s Honor symbol… which was ironic because he’d never been in boy scouts. His father had always called it a waste of time. “We’ll start small. Like making sure it’s got the motor skills to run around in its wheel.”