Page 65 of Lovewell Lane

Water droplets fell onto my face. I looked up at the sky as the rain picked up from a sprinkle and turned into a light shower. I couldn’t help but burst out into laughter. Derek laughed next to me, putting his arms up to pull off his flannel and offer it to me. Leaving him in only a white t-shirt.

“Hold this over your head,” he said louder than before to be heard over the sound of rain hitting the field around us.

“Okay,” I said with a smile. We were soaked in seconds. Neither of us made any other moves, instead choosing to stare at each other while we smiled without a care in the world.

Just when I thought he was leaning in to kiss me, he cranked the ignition and turned on the four-wheeler. “We should get back. Put your helmet on.”

I nodded before pulling the helmet back over my head. I looked at my lap with my empty jar. And just like that, the moment was gone.

He parked the four-wheeler in the garage. Getting off of it, the only thing I could look at was the sight of him in a wet t-shirt. It was even more erotic than if he’d stood there without any shirt on at all. When I was able to finally pull my eyes away, I caught him staring at me, too. I looked down to find my floral dress now plastered to every inch of my body it could possibly cling to.

“We should take a Polaroid,” I called. The tin roof of his garage was even louder than the field.

“What?”

“Just come with me,” I said. I jogged with him while I grabbed his hand and pulled him over to my guest house. We made it inside, and I pushed the door closed behind us.

I fumbled around for my purse before finding it and pulling out my camera. “We need to take a Polaroid,” I repeated.

“What for?”

“It’s just something I do,” I explained.

I pulled Derek to stand next to me in front of my full-length mirror. I pointed the camera and made sure to get our completely drenched clothes in the frame before taking the shot. We were both still a little breathless, so I pointed for him to sit at my breakfast table.

“What are you going to do with it?” he asked suspiciously.

I couldn’t stop the laugh from bubbling out of my mouth. “Nothing dirty. Here.”

I fished my most prized possession out of my purse and handed it to him. Then, I grabbed a dry towel and tossed it in his lap. “Dry off first, there’s priceless artifacts in there.”

Derek dried off his hands and picked up the booklet of Polaroids I’d collected. He opened it slowly and flipped throughthe pages like he was witnessing first hand accounts of historical moments.

“They’re just moments I don’t want to forget,” I explained. “I write the date they happened and the place on the front.”

I reached over to grab it from him and pulled out a picture from the plastic sleeve it was housed in. “On the back I write down what I wanted to remember about it.”

“That’s nice,” Derek murmured.

“The opening day of the diner is there.” He continued flipping from the page he was on, not rushed by my comment. “That one is Scarlet, she’s my best friend. This is her twenty-second birthday.”

He was silent as he looked at each picture carefully. When he’d taken the time to inspect each and every one, he looked back up at me. “Do I get one?”

“What do you mean?”

“From today. I want one too.”

I stared at him, not knowing what to make of that. “Okay. Do you want to pose again?”

“No, just give me the camera.”

I handed it to him. He flipped it around and pointed it at me. “Smile.”

I laughed at his monotone demand, and he snapped the picture just in time to catch it. “Perfect,” he murmured. “What if you can’t fit everything that you want to write on the picture?”

“I usually keep it brief. My journal is where I write all of the juicy stuff. I would go crazy without that thing, but don’t get any crazy ideas. You definitely can’t look at that one.”

He smiled at me and scoffed. “I had a feeling. Thank you for showing this to me.”

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