Contributor: E.S. Wynn

“Do you love me?” Jennifer asked, and the wind caught her words, carried them away. Lee looked up slowly, broke the twig suspended between his idle fingers. The icy fear in her eyes melted at the edges under the warm brown of his gaze, warmed to the edge of heartbreak, spread and fell as she blinked. The smile came easy, soft, the bare curve of a line. Jennifer’s lip trembled, but the words wouldn’t come, couldn’t break the thin sheaf of silence that had hardened like frost between them.

With a quiet crunch of leaves, Lee stood, stretched. Her eyes followed him, lost. Had he heard her? She couldn’t ask. Couldn’t bear what it meant if he had.

Lee turned, offered another smile, then looked away. “It’s a nice day.” Was all he said.