"Meet me outside," he says, sticking his disheveled dark-haired head through the half-open door.
There's a spark in his eye I can't quite place. Is he trying to prank me?
"Now?" I ask, suppressing a yawn. "I'm about to go to bed."
"No, you're not," he says and gives me an once-over. "And don't change clothes. I want you like this, just the tee and barefoot."
He disappears and I hear the front door open and close.
Then silence.
Well, silence except for the damn crickets. The sound they make drives me nuts at night. Too hot inside the house to keep the windows close, and too loud to fall asleep with windows openβwho ever said that the sound of crickets is romantic?
Not me.
I pull my t-shirt away from my boobs. A drop of sweat runs down my spine and I secure my hair into a ponytail.
Too fucking hot to sleep anyhow.
I follow him out the door and over the wooden porch. Outside, the warm breeze touches my bare thighs, makes my skin pebble with delight.
I stretch my arms above my head, loving the feel of the soft summer night. The moon is a sliver of silver and the stars are legion. Is that the Big Dipper? Who knows?
My eyes adjust to the dark as I gaze into the far end of our garden. I think I see his dark outline, next to the tree. If just one cricket jumps at me, this adventure is over.
Carefully, I make my way through ankle high grass. It tickles my calves. He needs to mow it tomorrow, shirtless, glistening with sweat. I lick my lips, taste salt from my own sweaty face.
Not sweaty. He always tells me I'm glowing.
I find him, at the furthest corner of our garden, beneath the plundered cherry tree. He sits on a large blanket, and next to him, our big, red ice-box and two lanterns with candles that smelled lemony.
"Hi," I say, "what's going on, picnic at night?"
"Of sorts," he says, and I'm sure he has that spark in his eye that I can't quite place.
"What's on the picnic menu," I ask.
"You," he says. "Every hot inch of you."
I laugh, and then swallow because he doesn't join in. That spark in his eye... I know what's up, finally. Been some time since he looked at me this way.
He rises to his feet and pulls his shirt over his head.