Page 24 of The Corner of Heartbreak and Forever
As their car sailed toward the sky, Reed pointed beyond the fairgrounds. “See that road over there? It leads to the theater, where I lost my virginity to averyspecial girl. That’s also where I first told her I loved her. See the high school? The football field? That’s where I first saw her.”
Grace snuggled closer, the breeze stinging her eyes. Or maybe it was nostalgia. It had been so long since she’d felt anything other than rushed and lonely, she couldn’t decipher which. “I was there for all those things. I want to know what’s happened since then.”
He gazed deeply into her eyes, and she felt the emotions she saw there climbing beneath her skin and burrowing in.
“Don’t you get it, Gracie? You’re all that matters.”
THEY HUNG OUT with their friends, riding roller coasters and bumper cars, and raced down an enormous slide in burlap bags. They played darts, and Trace won a small stuffed dog for Brindle. When Grace gushed over it, Reed spent fifty bucks playing a shooting game until he won her an enormous stuffed bear. She hugged it tight, looking crazy cute.
“Show-off,” Trace teased.
“I love it!” Grace exclaimed as she tried to figure out how to carry it. “What should I call him?”
Reed stole another kiss and said, “Greedy Boy, of course. That way you’ll think of me every time you see him.”
She tugged him down by his shirt for another kiss. “Thank you. How will I be able tonotthink about you again after such an amazing night?”
“You won’t, if I can help it.” He hoisted the stuffed animal onto his shoulders and put his arm around her as they followed the others toward another ride. After a while they parted from their friends, andfinally, Reed had Grace all to himself again.
“I love being here with you,” she confessed. “We missed out on a lot as kids, but I think it made our relationship deeper because we spent so much time alone, really getting to know each other.”
“We’ll make up for those missed things,” he assured her. “I have to admit. I was jealous of the little things we didn’t get to do, like going on real dates and wearing those boyfriend-girlfriend beaded bracelets everyone had. I would have loved to see you wearing one of my football jerseys on game day, too.”
“We missed prom, the homecoming dance…”
“We’ll make new memories,” he promised.
“One dollar! Guess your weight or height!” a man called out from beside a tall scale.
Grace dragged Reed away from it. “Give that man a wide breadth. That’s the scariest thing at the fair.”
He chuckled as they ducked into an arcade tent and made their way to the photo booth. Surprisingly, there was no line. He set the stuffed bear in the booth and they climbed inside, closing the curtain behind them. Serenaded by whirring machines and ringing arcade games, he pulled Grace down on his lap, and a sense of completeness flooded him. It had been so long since he’d felt anything remotely close to that, it took him a second to identify it.
“Remember the pictures we took in the photo booth in Wishing Creek?” The town of Wishing Creek was about half an hour away from Oak Falls. They’d gone there when they were younger so they could spend time together without worrying about their friends seeing them.
“I still have mine,” she said happily.
“Me too.” He pulled out his wallet and withdrew a few bucks for the pictures. Then he handed Grace the wallet. “Look inside.”
She opened it with a confused expression.
“Go on. Look through these.” He pointed to the plastic credit card holders.
She flipped through them, pausing with uncertainty.
“Keep going,” he said.
A whisper of a sound escaped when she came to the pictures they’d taken in Whisper Creek. They were gazing into each other’s eyes, with smiles as bright as their newfound love.
She ran her finger over their faces. “We were so young.”
“And you were so beautiful.” He withdrew the picture and unfolded it, revealing another picture of them kissing and a third of them making silly faces.
“You’ve carried them all this time?” she asked.
“No. There was a time I didn’t, right after we split, but I always had them with me. When I decided to move back, I put them in my wallet. The universe must have known we weren’t done.”
He fed the money into the slot and slipped the picture back into his wallet, tucking it into his pocket. “Time to make new memories.”
