“Julia,” I called out. “Jeff.”

I listened for a second but didn’t hear anything. Then, I shuffled through the living room and then the kitchen, until I saw the back porch light on and then heard their voices.

“Hey,” I said, stepping out onto the deck.

Julia jumped.

“Will,” she exclaimed, forcing her hand to her heart, “you scared me.”

My eyes went to her first. She was lounging back in a chair. Her feet were propped up on the porch’s railing. Jeff, on the other hand, was on the opposite side of the porch, sitting in a chair with his feet propped up on a cooler.

I took a second. My mind was definitely playing tricks on me. It was either that or it was the thought of all those college guys looking at Jules the way I knew they were looking at her that was making me paranoid. Jeff was my best friend. He might well be an idiot sometimes, but he’d never purposefully hit on Jules — not anymore anyway.

“I called for you guys at the door,” I said, pulling out a chair from the table and scooting it next to Julia’s.

“Sorry about dinner, Jules,” I said, kissing her on the lips.

“Me and your girlfriend were just talking about you,” Jeff interjected.

I turned my attention to Jeff and then forced it back to Julia.

“Oh, yeah?” I asked.

Jeff tossed me a can from the cooler under his feet. I caught it, and little pieces of ice flew every which way.

Julia squealed.

“Jeff, a piece of ice flew into my eye,” she exclaimed, now shielding her face and rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand.

“Sorry, J,” Jeff said, his eyes planted on Julia.

“You all right?” I asked her.

“She’s all right, but we both think you need a job that’s not so demanding,” Jeff announced. “You know, one that won’t cut into our weekends.”

“Jeff,” Julia scolded.

She was smiling but still rubbing her eye, as she turned toward me.

“Sweetie, I didn’t say that,” she said, at the same time sending Jeff a playful, sarcastic glare. “I used the word dangerous, I think, instead.”

“Dangerous?” I asked.

A playful smile was edging its way across my face.

“You wanna hear how dangerous my job was tonight?” I asked her.

She was trying not to smile but wasn’t being very successful at it.

“How dangerous?” she asked, playfully rolling her eyes.

“Well, tonight, I almost hit a squirrel with the truck — a big, fat one,” I said. “It probably wouldn’t have caused too much physical harm — to the squirrel maybe, but not to us anyway. I mean, it could have busted out a piece of the grille maybe. But the real harm would have been emotional. I’m pretty sure it would have been a real kick in the morale.”

I smiled wider as I went on.

“And then, when I got inside the house, I went to step over a stack of old-man McConnell’s hunting magazines from the 1970s, and I almost tripped because, much to my surprise, they weren’t there,” I said. “Oh, and Mike threw a battery at me when we got back to the station. He hadn’t meant to, of course. He had asked me to throw it away, but I wasn’t paying attention, and it hit my head. Can you see the mark? I think it left a mark on my forehead?”

I pointed at a spot on my head.

She shoved my arm, then tossed her head back and laughed.

“Will, what am I going to do with you?” she asked, through her laughter.

I looked at her with what I liked to call my sex-appeal eyes.

“I can think of several things,” I said to her.

She laughed again and shoved me harder. I dramatically fell back into my chair as I heard Jeff start to cough up a hairball in the background.

“Get a room,” he groaned.

He made another disgusted face and then cleared his throat.

“Anyway, Julia, like I said before, this guy’s job is about as dangerous as mine,” he said.

I cocked my head to the side and sent Jeff a puzzled look.

“Yeah, I burned myself last week,” Jeff said, nodding his head. “It was like a third-degree burn. Those hamburger grills are hot.”

I laughed.

“So, back to MY point,” Jeff continued. “Your job is a real buzzkill for our weekends, not that I mind hangin’ out with your beautiful girlfriend all night — every night.”

He smiled and winked in Julia’s direction. Julia rolled her eyes and smiled back at him.

“I get it,” I said. “Julia, baby, can you forgive me for leaving you with this sorry example of a man? You know I never want to leave you.”

She looked into my eyes. It was dark all around us, but there was a ray from the little porch light that hit her eyes just right and made them sparkle.

“I know,” she said, softly smiling. “I know.”

She took my hand with both of her hands, kissed it and brought it to her lap.

“And Jeff,” I said, “how ‘bout we go fishin’ next week?”

He rolled his eyes.

“All right,” he said, starting to crack a smile. “But you can’t buy me off forever.”

My eyes returned to Julia then, and she sent me a sweet, comforting smile, which instantly melted my heart. She looked so pretty, so perfect. I couldn’t imagine not having her in my life.

I smiled back and then brought my lips to her ear.

“I love you, babe,” I whispered.

I opened the door, and she rushed in and threw her arms around me. I caught her and squeezed her close. Then, she pulled away and pressed her lips against mine.

“Let’s go out,” she said, pulling on the end of my tee shirt.

“Out?” I asked, laughing.

“Yeah,” she said. “We can go to Max’s or I heard that there’s this new place in Chester.”

“Or,” I said, taking a long, dramatic pause. “Or we could order pizza and watch a movie. What’s that one you wanted to see?”

I watched as, first, her smile and then her face turned down toward the floor.

“But we watched a movie the last time I was here,” she said, sounding discouraged.

“I know, babe, but I had a call this morning, and I didn’t get to bed until four,” I said. “Why don’t we do that next time?”

Her face turned up toward mine again.

“You said that last time,” she said. “And I thought you were coming to see me next time.”

“Oh,” I said, taking a moment to think back. “Oh, I’m so sorry, babe. I’m on-call the next two weekends. They kind of don’t bother me during the week so much because of the paramedic classes. You know, they said I need that certification if I ever want a full-time firefighter gig.”

I watched as she slowly nodded her head.

“But that means they really count on me for the weekends sometimes, and they needed me those weekends,” I said.

Her stare fell to the hard floor again, and I used the back of my hand to gently lift her chin up so that I could see her pretty eyes.

“Babe, I love you a million times a million,” I said. “It won’t always be like this. We won’t always be far apart.”

Her lips stayed planted where they were in the straight position on her face, but I could tell that she was making an effort to smile.

“Come here,” I said, drawing her body close to mine again.

I squeezed her tightly and took in the smell of her hair. It always smelled like some kind of garden or fruit or something. Whatever it was, it always made me smile.

“And to the moon and back?” she asked.

I smiled wider.

“And to the moon and back,” I confirmed, gently kissing the top of her head.

We held each other for a moment then without saying a word. It was her whisper that finally broke the silence.

“Gone With the Wind,” she softly said into my ear.

I slowly pulled away from her and met her eyes.

“The movie I wanted to see was Gone With the Wind,” she said.

Her voice was still soft.

I tried to hold back a suspicious grin. I knew that wasn’t the one. The one she had mentioned before was at least a couple of hours shorter.