And now, even though we were pretty high up and the evening was quickly turning to night, I guessed Jules was still finding things to look at because she had been lost in the scene below us for a good while now. Then again, I guessed she was good at that too — good at always getting lost in little things. Her head seemed as if it were always churning out little thoughts.

I smiled at the thought and then lowered my eyes and noticed the edge of the quilt sticking up. I leaned over and pulled it back. There was a twig underneath, so I tossed it to the side.

“You need some help with that?”

I looked up and found her eyes on me. I smiled and shook my head.

“Now you ask, after all the work’s done, as usual, my dear,” I answered her.

A playful side-smile hung on my lips.

She gave me her best pouting face and threw her hands on her hips.

I, on the other hand, made a quick decision to take full advantage of the moment and get a good look at her. Her hair was down and fell in waves against the sides of her face. And she was wearing a tight tank top and jean shorts, and at the bottom of her long, tan legs, were her favorite, little boat shoes. She called them something else, but I was pretty sure, in the end, they were just plain old boat shoes. Though, somehow, she still managed to look as cute as hell in them.

“Get over here, pretty girl,” I demanded then.

I watched her saunter over to me, her playful smile growing. And when she got close enough, I reached up, scooped her into my arms and fell back against the quilt and the soft earth.

“How much longer do we have?” she asked, nuzzling her head into my chest.

“Oh, probably about a couple more minutes,” I said, squeezing her closer still.

“Sing to me then,” she said.

She pulled her head back and found my stare just as a smile was forcing its way to my lips.

“What do you want me to sing?” I asked.

“A song about us,” she said, tracing with her delicate fingertips the places around my eyes and nose and then lips.

“Okay then,” I eventually said, slowly nodding my head.

Satisfied, I guessed, she rested her head back onto my chest, and I watched pieces of her hair fall over her sun-kissed shoulder as she made herself comfortable. Then, my mind went to stringing together some words for her song. And when I had them, I brought my lips closer to her ears and whispered her a melody:

When I finished singing, she was laughing.

“How romantic,” she exclaimed.

There was sarcasm in her voice.

“I wrote it myself — just for you,” I proudly said.

“Thanks. I’ll just do some creative interpreting, I guess,” she said, meeting my eyes before returning to her place on my chest.

“But seriously, though, minus those passionate words, you can really get a girl’s attention,” she said. “You should sing, you know, for people, as a career. You’ve got a gift. You can’t hide it forever.”

I raised my head off the ground again.

“Why can’t I?” I asked.

She met my gaze. Her long eyelashes batted impatiently.

I saw an opportunity to kiss her pretty forehead, so I did. She smiled but seemed to stay focused on her mission.

“Because someday, somewhere, somebody’s gonna find out. Then what are you going to do?” she asked.

“Easy,” I said. “Tell them I’ve got everything I need right here.”

I squeezed my arms tighter around her little body.

“Wouldn’t it be a dream come true though?” she asked. “Plus, you would be doing the world a severe injustice if you didn’t.”

I quietly chuckled to myself.

“Mine is a far simpler dream, my sweet Jules,” I whispered into her ear.

“See what I mean with that voice; I almost believed you,” she said, softly laughing.

“Jules, trust me,” I said. “My life’s a dream already. I don’t need to go chasin’ somethin’ somewhere else.”

She paused before she spoke again.

“You haven’t even thought about it just once?” she asked.

I smiled and shrugged my shoulders.

“Not once,” I said.

“But you like singing, right?” she asked.

I traced the little lines in the green part of her eyes for a few seconds. Then, I kissed her lips to slow down her thoughts.

She was smiling when I pulled away from her.

“All right, my little Hollywood agent,” I said. “I’ve got you, and that’s all the fan I ever wanted.”

She tried to put on another one of those pouting faces she keeps in that little expressions box of hers, but she wasn’t quite successful at it. Her smile never really went away.

I intertwined my fingers in hers. Then, suddenly, I felt something wrapped around her finger, and I brought her hand closer to my face to get a better look at it.

She must have noticed me examining her hand because I felt her eyes on me again.

“Funny story about that little, grass ring,” she said.

I started to smile.

“Oh, really?” I asked. “Let’s hear it.”

“Okay,” she said.

I noticed her eyes travel back to the ring on her finger.

“See, one night, this boy and his buddies decided to take this girl and her best friend — practically as hostages — to this old windmill at the edge of town.”

“Hostages?” I asked.

Her smile grew as she nodded her head and continued.

“Evidentially, the boy had a plan to dress up like Spider-Man and to climb said windmill to fool all the townspeople into thinking that Spider-Man was alive and well in their own town.”

“Hey, I bet some people still believe it,” I said.

She stopped and playfully rolled her eyes.

“Anyway, that same night, in the shuffle of almost getting caught, I sprained my ankle and wound up hiding from Officer Brian on the other side of a mound of dirt and grass next to, who other than, Spider-Man himself.”

I angled my head back and laughed.

“Baby, I still don’t know how you managed to sprain your ankle,” I said.

I heard her giggle.

“I don’t know either,” she said, shaking her head. “But anyway, this boy or Spider-Man made me this grass ring,” she said, eyeing the ring again. “And right there in the grass and the dirt, he asked me to marry him someday.”

I was quiet and busy trying to fight back a wide smile after she had finished her story.

“That sounds made up,” I eventually said.

She lifted her head and met my gaze.

“But I have the ring to prove it,” she said, positioning her hand so that the ring was clearly in my view.

“So, you do,” I said, bringing her hand to my lips.

I kissed the ring and the finger it was on.

Then, suddenly, a loud thud forced both of our eyes to the river where a stream of reds, whites and blues were already sprinkling the night sky and lighting up the bluffs opposite us in the distance.

Julia giggled and pressed her hips against mine. I pulled her closer and watched the next firework race to the sky and then explode into tiny, little pieces of light. Jules squealed, and I felt her arm squeeze tighter around my side as she nestled her head deeper into the muscles in my chest. My eyes fell onto her face, and I smiled and noticed a piece of her long hair resting on her cheek. I picked up the strand and then gently laid it back down onto her bare shoulder. It was hard to just simply watch the fireworks because I couldn’t stop thinking about what I wanted to tell her — what I had wanted to tell her for a long time now. Suddenly, there was another loud shriek, followed by a big thud and a colorful burst of light in the sky again. Jules looked up at me with wide eyes and a happy smile, and I just couldn’t hold it in anymore.