Izzy was outside Golden Milestone, hanging clothes on the clothesline to dry during a hot, July day. Felix was out visiting Felicity, who had given birth to her daughter--Colleen Eliza Pike--a month earlier. She and Gus appointed Seth and Mavis Pritchard to be the godparents. Felicity had seen it only fitting to do so, for her late friend's sake. Felix wanted to visit his new niece early in the day anyway; he had special plans for later with Izzy.
That afternoon, Felix returned to Golden Milestone and found Izzy still hanging clothes on the clothesline. "Come on, Iz. I have to show you something."
"Can it wait, Felix?" she asked. "I'm kind of busy."
"No."
Felix took the clothes out of Izzy's hands, set them back in the basket, swept her up into his arms, and carried her over to their buggy. "Where are we going, Felix?" she asked as he sat her down.
"You'll find out soon enough," he replied. He pulled a clean, long handkerchief out of his pocket and tied it around Izzy's eyes. "Now, don't take this off until I tell you. Do you trust me?" he added as he got in the buggy on the other side.
"Yeah, I suppose I do. This better be good, Felix King."
Felix clicked the reins and drove away. He kept going until he reached Pine Lake. He jumped out and carried Izzy, still blindfolded, to a canoe tied off at the dock. He set her in it, untied the canoe, jumped back in, then grabbed two oars and pushed away. "Hang on to the sides of the boat, Iz," he said.
"Can't you give me a hint as to where we're going?"
"The only one that I can give is that this place should be very familiar to you."
"Oh, that helps a lot," she said, sarcastically.
A few minutes later, Felix stopped the canoe near the shore and got out to tie it to the dock. He then helped Izzy out of the canoe and onto the landing. "You can take it off now," he told her.
"Finally!" Izzy untied the blindfold and slowly lifted it away from her eyes. She saw a big field of tall, green grass, and lots of pine trees. She knew right away where Felix brought her. "Pine Bend?! Why did you bring me back here?"
Felix led her to a patch of grass, where they sat down, Izzy still with a quizzical look on her face. "Remember when we came here about four years ago, and I wanted to...you know?" he asked her.
"Yeah. I didn't want to; I wasn't ready to go that far yet."
"Exactly. Well, since then, I wanted to come back and finish what we started the right way. Now that we're married, I thought now would be as good a time as any. You're well past ready now, and so am I. What do you think?"
Izzy thought about it for a minute. She was ready, and she had waited so long to become Felix's wife. She then started laughing hysterically, much to Felix's surprise. "I remember when we were here the last time. You wanted to treat it like a science experiment, like we were laboratory rats or something!"
"Yeah. That was a pretty stupid thing to say, wasn't it?"
"It was."
"Well, it's not an experiment. This time, I say we should just go for it. Nobody's here, and it can't be considered scandalous because we're married! What do we have to lose?"
Izzy draped her arms over her husband's shoulders, replying with, "Nothing. Not anymore." She gave him a small kiss on the cheek and added, "I love you, Felix King."
Felix brought her closer to him and added, "And I love you, Izzy King."
They exchanged one deep, passionate kiss after another. The timing was right, the scenery was right, and they didn't have to worry about losing their dignity over what was going on at that moment. All that mattered was they were together, sharing an intimate moment with no distractions. They also had a sense of accomplishment about them; they returned to Pine Bend and finished what they started four years ago. Life was good for Felix and Izzy King.
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