Page 113 of January

In the garden, there were four tiki torches lit in a square around a large tent that looked like it had light coming from the inside, too.

“What’s all this?”

“Well, I don’t have any furniture here yet… And we had such an amazing night out here last time, but I don’t want to get arrested for being naked where children could see, so I thought we could sleep out here. The tent has a see-through vent thingy that we can see the stars through if we want, and I put some blankets and pillows in there. It should be pretty comfortable. The torches should keep the bugs away and give us a little light, too, until we put them out.”

Melinda turned to her girlfriend and shook her head.

“What?” Kyle asked. “Do you want to go to your place? We can. I–”

“When did you even find the time to do this?” Melindainterrupted. “Babe, you’re dealing with so much. You didn’t have to do this for me.”

“I wanted to. This garden is magical.” Kyle looked out at it for a moment before she returned her glance to Melinda. “And I just want to spend as much time in it with you as possible.”

“The pizza’s in the oven?”

“No, it’s done. I just had to make the garlic bread, but since you said you didn’t want that, dinner’s ready. We just need to set the table.”

“Later,” Melinda replied.

She pulled on Kyle’s hand until they were in front of the tent, with Kyle laughing as Melinda unzipped the thing and quickly climbed inside. Kyle followed, zipping it back up, and they knelt facing one another without moving. The sun had only just gone down, which meant they had time before the stars really showed up. Melinda laid back on top of the pile of blankets, resting her head on one of the pillows Kyle had thought to bring. Kyle moved to hover over her. Melinda didn’t wait. She connected their lips, needing to feel Kyle’s own on hers again.

“Wait,” Kyle said and sat back on her heels, straddling Melinda.

“What’s wrong? Did you really want to eat first?”

“No, it’s not that.” Kyle laughed a little. “I’m perfectly fine having a midnight snack with you while we sit out here, naked, under the stars.”

“Okay. Then, let’s start with the getting naked part, babe.”

Melinda pulled at Kyle’s T-shirt until it was off, running her hands over Kyle’s breasts, which were still covered by a black-and-gray sports bra.

“God, you’re sexy in a sports bra. You should wear them more often,”

“Mel?”

“Yeah?” she said and then added, “Babe, take off your pants.”

“I’m staying,” Kyle told her.

“Staying dressed? What? Why? We’re in the tent this time. I thought–” Melinda stopped when she checked Kyle’s eyes. She wanted to smile but needed to verify what she’d thought she’d just heard. “Babe, are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

Kyle nodded.

“But for how long, Ky? A month? Is that why you were asking Bridge about the anniversary thing?”

“No. That just popped into my head because she was stocking cards, and it made me picture getting you one for our anniversary.”

“Okay.” Melinda sat up a bit but didn’t remove her legs from underneath Kyle.

“And for good,” Kyle answered. “I want to move here.”

“You want to move to New Orleans?”

“Yes. Is that okay?”

“It’s not a decision I can make for you, Kyle. But if you want to move here, I am absolutely okay with that,” Melinda told her, chuckling. “I’m over the damn moon for that.” She placed her hands on Kyle’s stomach. “You want this for you, though, right? Not because of me? I don’t want you to move here because you’re worried about us. I want you to want to live here.”

“I want to live here,” Kyle replied. “I love it here. At first, though, I thought it was because I was seeing it through your eyes, so I wanted to make sure that Ididwant to live here. I do. I’ve walked around on my own a lot in the past few days, and I’ve been thinking about my life back home, and I don’t feel like it’s home, Mel. I feel like this place is.” She sighed. “I’ll miss being able to see my sister whenever I want, but she can always come here, and I can–” Kyle paused for a second. “We. We can always visit.”

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