He sighed with satisfaction and relaxed his hand around mine. He’d gotten as much of a rush from the plane as I had. Then he nodded toward the horizon. “Sunrise.”

An intensely pink sun, striped by purple clouds, peeked over the trees. It was so small and weak that I hadn’t noticed a change in the light yet, but I knew it was coming.

“Uh-oh,” I said. “I shun the light. I probably look like I’ve been fooling around in my boyfriend’s pickup.”

“No, you—” He turned to smile at me. His eyes lingered first on my crumpled prom dress, then my hair. “Well, maybe.” He let go of my hand under the blanket, wrapped his arm around my shoulder, and pulled me closer. “I hope we stay together for a long, long time. I’ll never get used to looking at you.” He kissed me gently.

At first I had trouble kissing him back because I was smiling so hard. Then his other hand moved under the blanket, sliding across my dress. My body was right back where it had been half an hour before, giving itself to his and taking anything he wanted to give in return.

After a long kiss, he drew away, sighing again, sounding and smiling exactly like he had after the airliner buzzed us. Then he looked up at the sky. The blue had deepened from the grayish hue of first light. “I wonder if Jake did this at the end of his prom night.”

“Did his girlfriend like flying?”

He laughed shortly. “No.”

“Yeah. I think this is perfect, but after prom night, most girls would rather watch the sun rise at the beach.”

“That’s so strange.” His fingers traced a pattern on my bare shoulder. “I’m very lucky, and I will never forget that, I promise.” In the middle of this declaration of love, his voice trailed off. He was distracted by the hum of a small airplane. “Cessna Corvalis.”

“Where!” I exclaimed at the exact moment I saw the tiny airplane taking off toward us. It was the same make as mine, but the model was high-end: the Beemer of four-seater, single-engine planes. It roared over us, the noise nothing compared with the airliner’s scream, but powerful for the plane’s size. The underbelly was painted in racing stripes, which made me giggle. The plane looked happy.

We turned around in our seats to watch it disappear. “I wonder where she’s going so early in the morning,” Grayson murmured.

“She wants to get a head start,” I said. “It’s going to be a pretty day to fly.”