“Jules, remind me to lock up next time,” I said under my breath.

The object finally reached me, and I extended my arm and took a hold of its neck. And with my other hand, I grabbed its body.

I smiled then and shook my head.

“Play us something,” Rachel demanded again.

I let a steady breath pass through my lips as my eyes fell back onto Julia. She was smiling up at me with that beautiful, sexy smile of hers.

“The girls want a song,” she said.

I let my eyes linger in hers, forgetting for a second the audience that had just joined us, before I glanced back down at the strings on the guitar and felt my grin widen.

“Okay,” I softly conceded, shaking my head.

I tickled the strings for a moment and then found a melody. It was the same one that poured through Julia’s jeep’s stereo every time she turned it on. I might have learned it a little while back. I figured there would come a time when Jules wanted to hear it and she didn’t have her CD. Plus, it reminded me of her, and it felt good to sing it. And now, it was the first song that came to my mind.

Eventually, I started in on the words as well, and after a few moments, I heard the girls on the other side of the fire chime in. They didn’t seem to know all of the words, but they tried anyway. I caught Julia’s stare and smiled. She returned an almost-bashful grin.

I tickled the guitar’s strings until the melody ended. Then, there was a strange, awkward silence before Rachel said something first.

“Wow, Will,” Rachel exclaimed. “I’m not going to lie. I was really expecting a voice from the boy who starts a band in his garage only to still be in his garage forty years later with a beer belly and a mullet. I wasn’t expecting a rock star.”

My eyes instinctively darted toward Julia but then hit the ground just as quickly as they had found her.

“Well, I can see that maybe you two have something new to talk about, so…we’re just going to get some more hot chocolate,” Rachel said before motioning for the other girls to follow her away from the fire.

It was only moments before Julia and I were alone with the fire’s flames again. Then, I listened for seconds to the fire’s soft popping before Jules spoke.

“Will, that was really good.”

My face turned up toward hers.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yeah, really,” she said, starting to laugh. “Will, all these years…How didn’t I know that you could play the guitar — or sing? And that good?”

I returned my eyes to the flames, as a slight grin found my face.

“Not many people do know, I guess,” I confessed. “I’m pretty good at keeping secrets around here.”

I winked at her then and propped the guitar against the log beside me.

“So, I see,” she said, smiling wider.

“Do you write songs too?” she asked.

My gaze stopped in her eyes. I wasn’t quite expecting her question.

“I try, when I get a chance,” I said. “Writing’s the best part really. It’s the words that change people’s lives in the end, right?”

She paused, as if she wasn’t expecting my answer.

“Hmm, I guess that makes sense,” she said, eventually. “I’ve never really thought about it.”

I laughed once.

“I’ll have to write a song for you sometime,” I said.

I wanted my words to have come out gentle and honest, but I was pretty sure they just came out cheesy.

I watched her smile and then try to hide it.

“Do you write a song for every girl you have a crush on?” she sarcastically asked, returning her attention to the fire.

“Well, I will once I write one for you,” I said.

She let go of her smile and then looked back at me, locking her stare in my eyes before she spoke again.

“I’m pretty sure it’s brown-eyed girl, by the way,” she said.

Her voice was playful again.

“What?” I asked.

“In the song, you said green-eyed girl,” she said, looking away again.

I hesitated but kept my eyes on her.

“Let me see,” I said, as I gently touched her chin and turned her face back toward mine.

“Nope, pretty sure it’s green-eyed girl,” I said.

I watched as a slight smile lingered on her lips.

“Will Stephens, what am I going to do with you?” she softly asked.

I grinned wider and took a deep breath. I could think of plenty.

“Jules, I’m sorry about the rocks, your ball and every other stupid thing I’ve ever done,” I said, lowering my hand from her chin.

Her eyes fell toward the ground, and she laughed.

“It’s okay,” she said. “You get the ball down for me someday, and we’ll call it even.”

I slowly nodded my head.

“Okay,” I said. “But I’m not gonna stop askin’, you know?”

Her eyes quickly found mine again.

“I considered that,” she said. “And what if I never say yes?”

I sucked in a deep breath.

“Well, then I suppose I would have spent my life doin’ something worthwhile,” I said. “My parents can’t be disappointed in that.”

“Will,” she protested.

I watched her toss her head back and laugh again, then lift her eyes toward mine, catching my stare. My heart was racing. My breaths were short. I wanted to kiss her. I was going to. I memorized the short path to her lips, and I closed my eyes and tried to remember the path I had just memorized.

“Will,” a voice suddenly called out from the darkness behind us.

The voice was already annoying and unwanted. And before I could even acknowledge it, a skinny figure was squeezing himself into the small space on the log between Julia and me.

Damn it, Jeff.

“Will, those were Ben’s lights, not mine,” he quickly informed me.

He didn’t even bother looking at me as he spoke.

“Here, Julia, here’s some hot chocolate,” the lanky boy announced, facing Julia and presenting her with a steaming, Styrofoam cup.

My eyes shot back toward the orange flames as I scooted over and ran my hands against my thighs, trying to recover from my thwarted move.

“Thanks, Jeff,” I heard Jules say.

Her voice resurrected my attention, and I turned my face back toward hers. Jeff had already resorted to poking a stick into the fire’s ashes and had, by now, all but faded into my background again. I watched Jules’s eyes follow the flames for a couple of silent moments. Then, suddenly, her eyes found mine, and I caught her soft lips slowly turning up at their sides. Her smile was different this time. In fact, this might be her best — forgiving and curious and sexy — though I loved them all. I kept my gaze locked on hers, and I smiled too. If I didn’t get my yes tonight, I’d happily settle for this.

We turned the corner, and I saw her. And instantly, I wondered if I jumped off the wagon, would anyone notice me gone? She smiled and waved. I waved back. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Her hair was down and in those blond curls she always wore. Her green eyes matched the jacket she was wearing — the jacket everyone was wearing. I seriously gauged the distance from the wagon bed to the street and then tried to guess at what rate of speed the tractor trailer was going. But by the time I looked back up to find her, she had disappeared into the sea of green. I sighed, but a smile quickly returned. It couldn’t take that long to loop around town.

The tractor and wagon pulled catawampus into the school’s parking lot, and fourteen guys and a couple of coaches jumped off. My feet hit the ground, and my eyes hit the crowd. Where was she?

“One state championship and one championship parade down,” I heard a voice call out from behind me.

I turned and felt the corners of my mouth start to rise.

“Julia, I wasn’t sure you’d come,” I said.

She laughed and glanced at the big crowd behind us.

“I didn’t want to be the only one who missed it,” she said, still smiling.