“My ass is getting sore, Thorin. Are we almost there?” Imara shifted from side to side on the bench and put her hands on her low back as she arched and stretched away the searing pain.

“And I have loved you oh so long, delighting in your company, hmm, hmm.” After dinner, Thorin and Imara sat on the front porch and relaxed to the sounds of Thorin’s clumsy guitar playing and the serenade of the frogs at the pond on the Logan’s farm across the road. Thorin strummed along and sang the words that he could still remember as Imara sat on the edge of the porch and swayed to the sounds of summertime. “I like that tune, it’s real pretty. Can you play it one m

As the orange and pink sun slid down behind the corn field on the Logan’s farm, Imara thought about the way she felt when Ben touched her. Her fingertips still tingled with the thrill of his skin on hers and she pressed them to her lips as she smiled. It was like he opened the windows of all the stale lonely places in her heart and she ached for another taste of it.

“Imara, my dear, would you mind terribly answering the door for me? I’m afraid Shaw might pull another card if I leave,” said Teddy as he and Shaw played cards at the kitchen table.

Ben walked Imara home the old-fashioned way that night. As they strolled lazily hand in hand with a bouquet of colored orbs surrounding them, Imara looked up in the sky and stared into the constellations that lit up the heavens above them. “Do you know much about the stars, Ben?”