They walked through the tall grass that reached halfway up their shins. Keegan stared down at it as they forged a path. “You know, this really ought to be mowed.”
“Yeah.” Ava understood that; she just didn’t want to do anything about it. That didn’t make her lazy, right? It’s not as if she didn’t have other things to do. More important things than mowing grass, certainly.
“I’ll bring my dad’s riding mower next Saturday. If that’s all right with you.”
Just because Ava didn’t want to do it didn’t mean poor Keegan had to. She pulled a hand out of her pocket and placed her fingers on his bare arm. “That’s kind of you to offer, but you don’t have to do that. I’m just being lazy.” There. She admitted it.
He grinned. “Well, we’re all prone to be that way now and then. And anyone would get overwhelmed by this crazy field.”
“Exactly. I can’t let you mow it all by yourself.” Before she could stuff her hand back into her pocket, Keegan captured her fingers and entwined them with his own.
“Then we’ll take turns.”
She scoffed, but a smile rose up to replace the fake scowl. “I don’t know how to use a riding mower.”
He squeezed her fingers. “Then I’ll teach you.”
Well, she wouldn’t object to that.
They walked a short ways together, closer to the woods that edged the property around the rental home. The more time they spent holding hands, the more Ava could feel this strong sensation pulling her closer to Keegan. Like the moon tugging on the ocean or the sun coaxing stems from the ground. She bit her lip as she wondered what Keegan would do if she gave in and rested her head on his shoulder.
And then he released her hand, and she felt the loss like unsaved work when her computer chose to restart unexpectedly.
Until his arm came around her shoulders, and he tucked her into his side and urged her to lean into him. She’d never felt relief so strongly as she did when she wrapped her arm around his waist and gave in to the pull to settle into his embrace.
Eventually they came to the tree line, just as the sun began to dip behind it. Keegan released her so they could face each other.
And he told her. About why he had hesitated when she asked about the dogs. About his fears that he couldn’t help her in lasting ways. About the nightmares that haunted him—even now.
She cried. She tried to stop, not wanting to add to his burden, but he was breaking her heart by showing the brokenness of his own.
“Hey, it’s okay.” He drew her back into his arms. “I didn’t mean to make you cry. I just…thought you should know that about me. Since I know your fears.”
She swiped her sleeve across her eyes and cheeks. “My fears don’t come anywhere close to what you’ve gone through, Keegan. Surely you know that.”
He brought up his own hand to help brush away the tears dripping from her chin. “Fear is fear. Anything that holds us back from life and the love we can give—all of it’s powerful. No matter what causes it. Any kind of paralyzing fear should be acknowledged and then fought against. Don’t you think?”
She nodded. “I’m so sorry for what you went through. I wish I could help you, the way you’ve helped me.”
“Just being able to talk about this with you—just spending time with you—you’ve already helped me.”
Ava had to bite her lip and blink quickly to keep from crying again.
Keegan looked up at the ever-darkening sky. “We better head back.”
While summer was rapidly approaching, the night air still held a chill. Ava rubbed her arms.
It was then that a buzzing sound filtered into her mind. She spun around, toward the woods. “Do you hear that?”
Keegan latched onto her arm. “Ava…”
“It’s a hive, isn’t it?” Her heart started pounding. It sounded close. She squinted into the tree line—and not but ten feet away, she could see bees buzzing around a hollow trunk.
Keegan took a step back, bringing her with him. “It’ll be fine. This is their natural habitat, remember? This is where they belong. As long as we don’t bother them, they won’t bother us.”
She tore her gaze away from the tree and tried to read Keegan’s expression. Tried to breathe.
Keegan’s grip on her arm was steady. Comforting. She let him pull her along. One step. Then another.
Something zipped by her face, and she squealed, swatting the air with her free hand. Making contact with something. Something that pinched her finger. “Oh!” She flung her hand out and brought it quickly back to her chest.
Wide-eyed, Keegan dropped her arm and reached for her other hand—the one she now cradled in front of her. “Was it…? Did it…?”
Despite the throbbing in her finger—no longer a phantom feeling but a reality—Ava laughed. The tears from earlier leaked out of the corners of her eyes because, goodness, the sting did hurt. But nowhere near as bad as she had spent the last month imagining it to be.
“Ava, are you okay?” Even in the darkness, Ava could see Keegan was watching her warily, like she was about to go into a fit of hysterics. So she forced herself to wipe away the tears and offer up a brave smile.
“I’m fine. It hurts, but it’s just a sting.”
Keegan studied her a moment longer, then smiled back and grasped her uninjured hand. “Then let’s get you back so we can take care of you.”
The moon peeked over the town in the distance as they rushed back through the wild grass and into the house. Keegan settled her onto the couch and then walked over to the fridge. Ava watched in silence as he pulled out an ice pack and rummaged through her drawers until he found a dish towel to wrap it in.
He returned and knelt by her legs. “Can I see it?”
Only then did she realize she was clutching her hand to her chest, cupping her other hand around the injured finger. The throbbing intensified as she lowered her hand into his palm.
He didn’t look up as he went to work, using his thumbnail to slide the stinger out of her skin. She shut her eyes tight, feeling slightly nauseous. But a few deep breaths, and then it was out, and he held the ice pack over her finger.
“There.” He sounded triumphant, and when she dared to open her eyes, she found him watching her, almost admiringly. He winked, triggering a blush in her cheeks.
“Do you have any Advil?” he asked.
She nodded. “In the medicine cabinet in the bathroom.”
“I’ll get you some.” With that, he laid her hand carefully in her lap, transferring the ice pack into her grasp, and went off to get her some painkillers.
He returned with two pills and a glass of water, and she swallowed both eagerly. “Thank you.”
To her surprise, he sank down next to her on the couch. “You doing all right?”
“Actually, yeah. I am.” Her chuckle came out shaky—with relief and ebbing adrenaline.
Keegan put his arm around her. “You did it. You survived.”
She gazed across the carpet, remembering the black fuzz of dead bees that had taken a wrong turn into her home. She sighed, laying her head against Keegan’s chest. “You make it sound like I won a war.”
Silence—warm and comfortable—cloaked her as Keegan rubbed her arm. Up and down. Up and down. Exhaustion took over, and her eyes closed. Up and down. Up and down.
Just as she drifted off to sleep, she heard Keegan whisper, “I think you did, Tired Girl.”
∞∞∞
Keegan left Ava for only a few minutes, when the ice pack started melting in his lap. He returned it to the freezer and grabbed a Band-Aid, gently wrapping it around Ava’s finger before lifting her and settling her into his arms again.
Never once did she stir.
He drifted off to sleep with a smile on his face, his cheek against her soft hair, happy to know she was finally, finally, getting the rest she desperately needed.
With a start, he woke to Ava’s darkened living room. Shifting as little as possible, he tilted his wrist and peered
at his watch.
Midnight.
Slowly, he released Ava’s shoulder and lowered her to the couch as he stood. He grabbed the blanket on the back of the couch and settled it over her. On a whim, he placed a tender kiss on her lips, lingering for just a moment in the sweet space they shared.
Her eyes fluttered open. “Angel Boy?” Her voice was breathless.
“Go back to sleep, Tired Girl. I’ve got to get back to my apartment, but I’ll see you later.” He gave her a peck on the forehead and straightened.
She smiled at him as her lids drooped low and she rolled onto her side. “See ya at the coffee shop,” she murmured.
“You know it.”
She was once again fast asleep as he walked out the door, heart full.
Epilogue
Keegan asked me out a few days ago, after I awoke from the deepest sleep of my life. I showed up at the coffee shop around three in the afternoon, wearing a rose-patterned dress one of my aunts had sewn for me as last year’s Christmas present. It reminded me of Keegan now, and our walk in the rose garden.
I didn’t even bother stopping at the front counter. I just found my way to my usual spot. Sure enough, Keegan came. It was the cutest thing, the way he presented me with a dark chocolate mochaccino and a piece of baklava—drizzled with honey, of all things! And only a minute after he walked away from the table, my phone buzzed with a text message.
[Angel Boy]: Wanna go somewhere with me?
I glanced up and spotted him leaning against the front counter, out of the way of customers but boldly absorbed with his phone.
[Tired Girl]: Um, aren’t you working?
[Angel Boy]: Is that a no?
[Tired Girl]: Of course not. Don’t mind me. Responsibility is highly overrated.
I waited for his smirk and wasn’t disappointed, even though his eyes never left the little screen in his hands.
[Angel Boy]: I’ve always thought so. My shift’s over in fifteen minutes. Meet me by the truck?
[Tired Girl]: Only if Sun and Moon are there.
[Angel Boy]: Ouch. Don’t you like me for me and not just for my dogs?
I looked up again and found his gaze on me. There was a smile among the bit of scruff on his face—maybe from not having time to shave in the morning—but I could see something else there, too. I recognized it right away.
Fear.
Not full-grown, but a seed that could grow into a choking weed someday. Not that he couldn’t eradicate it with help. But all I had to do right then was scoop that seed up and blow it far away.
So I did.
[Tired Girl]: I like you for your dogs, but I love you for you.
It was risky. To be the first one to say it. To take a step of faith into a future that already looked very different from my former days of unending me-time and solitude. But I don’t remember ever feeling so brave or sure as I did when I hit the “send” button.
Before I could see the response in his expression, a customer walked over to him and asked him a question. Keegan got back to work and I sat at my little table for two, taking sips of my slowly cooling drink and waiting.
When 3:30 finally came, I carried my dishes to the basin by the counter and walked out into the sunshine. Keegan’s truck was parked a few feet away, and I spotted the dogs’ crates in the back. Just as I arrived at the passenger’s door, my phone vibrated in my pocket.
[Angel Boy]: I love you too.
I turned, and there he stood before me, apron gone and a basket dangling from his fingers. I smiled up at him, shoulders relaxing. “What’s in the basket?”
“An early dinner. Or more like breakfast for you, really.” He passed the basket over to me and walked around the front of the truck to the driver’s side. As I opened my door and slid in, I caught his wink.
I felt a blush rising in response. “When did you have time to pick up food?”
He started the truck and pulled out of the parking space. “During my lunch break. Thought it would be good to make sure you eat well now that you’ve had a good night’s sleep.” He paused, drumming his thumb on the steering wheel. “Or would that be ‘a good day’s sleep’?”
I swatted his arm, but the gesture was rendered ineffective by my laugh.
We ended up picnicking in the wild grass outside my house, eating our fill of sandwiches, chips, and grapes. Then we played fetch with Sun and Moon—stealing kisses from each other while the dogs engaged in a game of tug of war and the bees went merrily about their way in the distance.
We’re going on another date tonight—a double date with his aunt and beekeeper uncle.
These past few nights I’ve slept better than I have in a long time. I’ve even had some happy dreams involving mochaccino lakes and a rose garden of my very own.
But isn’t it lovely how many wonderful things can happen while you’re awake?
Author’s Note
I came home from getting my hair cut and grocery shopping one day to find my apartment had been invaded. I stepped through the door and registered an odd buzzing sound before my horrified gaze was drawn to a wall of honey bees cascading up and down one of my living room windows.
Perhaps “wall” is a bit of an exaggeration, but there were enough of them crawling up the window, falling back down, and crawling up again to freak me out. (Of course, just one bee would have caused a similar, albeit slightly less terrified, reaction.)
I stood in the doorway with my heart drumming in my chest. I stepped as close as I dared to try to determine whether or not they were on the outside or on the inside.
Yep, they were inside.
I tried contacting my landlady first, then frantically called a friend to see if I could stay the night with her, because I sure as goodness wasn’t going to stay with the bees!
My landlady was able to come over pretty quickly, and she took out part of the window and the screen so that she could shoo the weary bees out where they belonged.
But that wasn’t the last I saw of the bees. A couple more found their way in through the stove vent at different times, and it bothered me to no end when I could hear the buzzing, knowing I wasn’t really safe from further invasion.
Things have settled down now—hoping they stay that way!
I wish I could say that I always did the right thing in finding a way to set the bees free. But I’ve grown to respect them more and more, and when I first started writing this story, it helped to channel my not-so-happy experience into something bigger than my lonely fears. I feel like it allowed me to put things into perspective—while also prompting me to start collecting bee paraphernalia. *wink*
While the bee incident in the book was inspired by a true story, and the romance and various plot elements were inspired by the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, this is indeed a work of fiction. I hope it imparted some real hope and encouragement to you, though. Thank you so much for reading!
Acknowledgements
Once again, many thanks to Anne Elisabeth Stengl, whose fairy-tale contests continue to inspire me to try my hand at re-imagining beloved stories; Rachelle Rea, who has edited my work and is still willing to edit more (you rock!); and Lena Goldfinch, who encourages, advises, and designs covers like no other. Grateful for you all!
Heartfelt thanks also go to my two beta readers, Kara of Flowers of Quiet Happiness and Rissi of Dreaming Under the Same Moon, for being insightful readers, awesome friends, and sweet encouragers; Breeana Puttroff and all my fellow word-sprinters on Twitter who give me the motivation I need to push through the word count; and my family, for supporting me in every dream I pursue and every new season of life.
And to the lovely landlady who saved me from the bees…thank you ever so much for coming to my rescue that day!
About the Author
Amber Stokes works as a marketing content writer for a Christian publisher. On the side, she self-publishes inspirational fiction depicting the seasons of life and love. Her passion for books compelled her to earn a bachelor’s degree in Engli
sh and run her own freelance editing and publicity business for over a year. Happily, this chapter of her career takes place in the Pacific Northwest—a part of the world she’s always considered home.
You can learn more about Amber’s books, sign up for her author newsletter, join the Amber’s Gems street team, and more at www.SeasonsofaStory.blogspot.com.
If you enjoyed this book, please consider leaving a review online. Thank you!
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