Page 82 of Summer Romance

“Good. I don’t even care if he calls me Scooter forever. I kind of like it when your kids do, actually.”

This makes me smile, Ethan finally letting Scooter be happy here. “Can we try the half-pipe again tomorrow?” I ask.

“I’d love to.” He pulls me close, and the wind rattles theold fence. “I didn’t expect it, but this is kind of a big night—your new job and the death of that ugly fence.” He reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out a little box. “I got you something, a while back. This feels like a good time.”

I hesitate, because a little box from the man you love could mean forever. But I can tell from the look on his face that it’s not a ring, and that somehow it still means forever. I open it, and inside is a tiny silver charm, a heart. I run my finger over its smooth surface, rounded in the middle with a sharp point at the bottom. “I can’t believe it,” I say.

I have tears in my eyes and he’s smiling at me. “What can’t you believe?”

The answers chase each other around my head. That I didn’t already have a heart on my bracelet. That in the hieroglyphics of my life story, my marriage was marked by a dress, not love. That I never thought there would be another charm for this bracelet. “That there are going to be more things, and it’s starting with this.”

I rest my head on his shoulder and silently thank myself for putting my heart on the line. It’s madness loving someone like this; I must be a natural born risk taker. In fact, it’s possible that I am just foolhardy enough to be happy. Spring is always coming, and I know for sure that I will always have a dog.