Summer Lights

Chapter 3

"You know what all this feels like? Fate."

- The Best of Me, coming to theaters October 17

CHAPTER 3

July 18,2006

Dear Diary,

Today was a bad day. River and I had our first real fight. The day started out so good too. He came by and picked me up around four. The plan was to drive down to Myrtle Beach and hit the Pavilion. We ate dinner at one of the little swanky seafood places in North Myrtle Beach. It was candle lit and all types of romantic. We shared a piece of double chocolate fudge cake for dessert. On the drive back to the Pavilion he held my hand the entire time. Everything was perfect. There was nothing in the world that could bring me down. Boy, I was in for one hell of a rude awakening…

“So,” he started, taking my hand in his, “What do you want to ride first?”

He rubbed his thumb over the back of my hand, causing these little tingles to dance all along my skin. “What about the Ferris wheel?”

“Ferris Wheel?” He tapped his chin and pretended to think about it for a second. He was killing me with how sexy he looked just standing there.

“Aw, come on River. You know you want to ride it,” I teased him.

His answering grin was absolutely infections. “Okay fine. You twisted my arm enough. Ferris wheel it is then.” He then draped his arm over my shoulder and started to lead me in the direction of the ride. We took our places in line and he wrapped his other arm around me, making me feel warm and safe in his hold. His chin lowered to the top of my head.

“You’re crazy,” I said, snuggling into his shirt. “You know that right?”

“Hey, what can I say? What my pretty girl wants, my pretty girl gets.”

“Damn straight,” I told him and then he laughed. I felt it reverberate in his chest, tickling my cheek.

It was a few minutes later before we were getting on the ride. Being the gentleman that he was, River allowed me to get in the car fist. After the lap bar was put in place, he wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me right up against him. I went willingly and rested my head on his shoulder.

The ride started to move slowly and I stared out over the Pavilion. It was beautiful from way up here. The higher up we went, the quieter it become. We stopped at the very top and I watched the lights twinkling in the distance from the other rides. For all the chaos that was going on below us, It was incredibly peaceful up here. I could sit in this car all night long as long as I had River at my side.

“Look,” River said, pointing up at the stars in the sky. “Do you see them? There are literally thousands of them up there, shining brightly for millions of people all over the world to see.”

“What?” I sat up a little and turned to him. “Are you talking about the stars?”

“Yeah, the stars or actually,” he said looking down at me, “I prefer to think of them as our special summer lights.”

“Really?” I asked him, definitely intrigued. “Why summer lights instead of stars?”

“Because in six months from now, when I’m missing you like crazy, I know all I have to do is look up at night and I’ll see our summer lights. Then I can reflect on special memories, memories like tonight.” He bent his head down a placed a soft kiss on my forehead. “I’ll be able to remember all the time we spent together making each other happy. I like to think that you can look at those same stars and think of them as our special summer lights too. Stars that hold the memories of us and this summer.”