"I'm going over to Adelle's. Are you coming?" I call out to my boyfriend, Mark. It's a bit odd that Adelle, who used to be a close friend of mine until a few years ago when she moved clear across the nation and practically dropped off the face of the earth as I hadn't heard from her since the day after she left when she called me from Winnemucca, Nevada to tell me she was gone, had swept back in a few weeks ago and picked up things as if nothing ever happened. Even stranger is that her former pseudo boyfriend, Mark, is not only now my boyfriend, but we live together. I say pseudo because while they one time had a "thing" that she thought was much more than that and clung to as she picked up her entire life and moved out here with the hopes they could have an everlasting relationship, he didn't want to have anything more to do with her. She wasn't, he explained with much difficulty shortly before we started dating, the same person she presented herself as when they first began talking to one another -- over the Internet, of course. And that became painfully clear when she visited sometime after they first started chatting online. He had hoped that by making himself scarce, she'd get the hint and let it rest. "Adelle?" I laughed. "Apparently you didn't know her very well!"

I should know. I was the one who had to help her get back up on her feet after months of hearing her go on and on with all these plans she had to winning him over. When Mark and I got together, I truly thought I would never again hear from Adelle seeing I hadn't for some time. And then, out of nowhere, I get a call from her and she announces she's moved back and is living 30 miles away from where I live. When I visit the first time and break the news as gently as I can that I'm not only seeing, but living with Mark, she shows absolutely no emotion whatsoever. Not shock, disbelief, skepticism -- nothing.

"Are you okay with that?" I prodded her.

"What?" She asked dumbly. I had to shake my head to get my mouth re-engaged with my brain.

"With the fact that Mark and I are living together?" I repeated.

"Oh, that? Of course I'm okay with that. Why wouldn't I be?" She replied.

"Gee, I don't know. Maybe because you were so head-over-heels at one time with him?"

"Well, that was a long time ago. A lot has changed since then," she said with a wave of her hand. And apparently she wasn't kidding. A lot had happened since then. For one, she had been diagnosed with depression and had since been regulated with antidepressants that seemed to work well for her and she had met someone, too. I'll admit I wasn't sure if she was telling me the truth about the mystery man -- or woman for all I knew -- that she claimed to have met especially since there wasn't any evidence of anyone she was seeing. But by the end of the week the mystery man emerged hauling along a houseful of furnishings and their cat. It was clear to me that they were, indeed a couple and while she didn't sport a ring of any kind, wedding or engagement, it was also clear to me that they were in it for the long haul.

"I have to go visit Graham. He's having some problems with his pumpkins that he asked if I could take a look at and I said I would. I'll come over after that unless you're done visiting with her and then you can come get me. How's that?" Mark called back from down the hallway.

"Works for me," I said as I pulled open the front door of our small two-bedroom cabin and set out down the hill past Graham's acreage with big fat pumpkins sprawled as far as you can see up to the woods that bordered our properties and down into the gully where Adelle's sweeping four bedroom, three and a half bath ranch house seated back in the briar a good half mile from the road behind a sprawling green lush grass and an overflowing patch of various flowers in different stages of bloom that she rented with her new boyfriend, Brian, a surgeon at the only hospital in a hundred mile radius of town. Graham's border collie ran out to greet me and escorted me to the end of his property, skeedaddling off once I stepped across the line where the pumpkins stopped and a row of lilies-of-the-valley grew. Not far up the gravel drive I found Adelle bent over a patch of flowers digging up the weeds that had grown from the recent rains and snapping off the dying blooms so the remaining ones could continue to turn their glorious shades of colors as their petals spread to full size.

"Hey!" She said with a big smile as she pulled off her gloves and left them lie on top of the basket she had set on the earth beside where she'd been working, then rose up out of her squat and tipped the brim of her hat back a bit so I could see all of her face. "How are you?"

She walked up and gave me a warm hug which I still felt awkward with even though I was assured everyone's past-lives and experiences were where they belonged, in the past. Obligingly I returned the hug and was relieved when she pulled away and turned toward the back of the garden where she raised a variety of vegetables from carrots and potatoes to corn and string-beans.

"Did you bring a bag or basket with you?" She asked as she turned back towards me and looked down at my empty hands. I reached back around to my hip pocket and pulled out three plastic grocery bags I had folded up and shoved in there before I left the cabin. "Good! I just hope those are enough because I have quite a bit to give you."

"If not, I can always come back later and get the rest," I replied as I followed her to the back of the garden.

"Right you are," she nodded, tossing the words back to me from over her shoulder. "Have you tried your hand at raising anything yet?"

"Are you kidding me? The Queen of the Black-thumb?" I laughed. "I'll leave that to you and our neighbor, Graham. I'm quite content raising the small flock of chickens and couple of goats we have, thank you."

"That reminds me," she said as she drew up next to a cage in which a thick plant grew and sported at least a dozen large ripe tomatoes. She crouched down and began twisting the fruit off the vine. "Brian suggested we ask you if we could borrow a goat or two and have them mow down our grass."

"That's a good idea. I'm sure that wouldn't be a problem. Except, you know, they'll mow down your garden too. Maybe we can put up a temporary fence to keep them out of it." I suggested.

"That's an idea. I'll mention it to Brian and see what he thinks. Personally I think he's just trying to get out of having to do the mowing himself," she quipped as she moved over a bit and began pulling up several carrots while I carefully placed the large, juicy tomatoes into one of the bags I brought along.

"No matter. He works a lot of hours and the goats would certainly do well if they had different grass to chew on seeing that our yard is practically bare. We were thinking of actually renting them out over the spring to locals after reading about a couple back east that do that and make a pretty good living while they're helping protect the environment."

"Protecting the environment?" She echoed as she reached for one of the bags and dumped a handful of carrots inside.

"Well, you don't have the noise of a lawn mower or the gas and oil not to mention the metal from it once it's no longer in use." I said as I stepped over to the poles where the beans were and snapped several off their vines.

"Never thought of it that way. That's a really good idea. I'm sure you'd get a ton of business around here seeing how everyone's really into protecting the environment with their Greenpeace rallies and shit like that," she said with all seriousness. It struck a funny-bone because of all people I knew, Adelle was the one I would have voted most likely to pick up a "Defend Our Planet" sign and walk the line with anyone she could scrounge up. As it turned out, I suppose much like it had been for Mark after getting to know Adelle, she didn't recycle, could care less what the emissions from her truck were and how that affected the world around her and had no desire to abstain from some of the "immediacy" type items that while making life easier and more manageable, had a pretty big adverse affect on our planet. I suppose her hobby of growing a luscious garden was what allowed me to make that mistake.

"I still have more to give you," Adelle announced as she handed back a full bag of various vegetables she had been gathering while I was picking beans and sugar peas.

"Well, let's set them at the end of the row and later I'll come back with more bags or a basket," I suggested.

"Works for me," she nodded as she turned back to where she left her basket, emptied it and returned to use it to collect more vegetables. I watched as she filled the basket quickly.

"Wow, we're not going to be able to eat all of this before it goes bad, Addy. Are you sure you don't want to sell it or give it to someone else?" I commented.

"I won't sell it. Just not enough energy or spirit in me to do that I suppose. And seeing that we just moved here, I don't have anyone else to give it to besides Graham over there and he's already taken a bit already today. Why don't you can it? That way you can have it throughout the summer, fall and into the winter." She suggested.

"You mean right about the same time I muster up the courage to jump out of a plane, right?" I scoffed with a bit of a chuckle. She shaded her eyes as she gazed up at me, smiling.

"Not much into this domestic stuff, are you?" She quipped. I shook my head. Of course I'm not. Never have been and God-willing, never will be either. "Well, I'm sure together we can figure this out and if not, we just take the crap out back and bury it. I suspect that's how much of this garden began years ago from the looks of it."

I laughed and as my own laughter left the air, I heard Mark's laugh scamper across the field. My heart warmed and my toes tingled as it danced around my head. I looked carefully down at Adelle who had moved on to pulling up several potatoes and took relief in seeing that she didn't seem to notice the sound. My arms suddenly ached to wrap themselves around his slender waist and to sink my head into his wide, barrel-like chest as his after-shave filled my nostrils. I no longer wanted to be there with Adelle, not because I was afraid that Mark's presence might change things with her, me, or him but because I desperately wanted to entangle myself with Mark.

We'd been together nearly a year after seeing one another six-months prior to that. Even though we had been living together, sharing the same bed and occasionally the tub or shower, I never told him I loved him. I wasn't sure that I truly did, you know, heart and soul, feel it down to your toes kind of love. I cared for him deeply, but if someone were to come to me and tell me that he suddenly was no longer a part of my life for whatever reason there was, I was fairly certain that after I would grieve for his loss, I would be okay and able to move on. But right there at that very minute, feeling what I felt, longing so deeply for him that I could practically taste his kisses much like a smoker craves nicotine as they get off a plane they've been in for several hours, so much so they can, I've been told, practically taste it -- I knew that I loved him. Heart and soul. Deeply, desperately and that if something did happen, I'm not so sure I would be able to go on. I've heard those love stories where he -- even she-- dies and soon after, the other dies from a broken heart. And I thought those were all a bit too fanciful. A Marie d' Aquitaine rouse. But ask me now? I believe it. Every inch of my being -- I believe it.

"I'm going to take these back to the cabin," I said to Adelle who was busy rummaging through the potato plants. "I'll be back later."

"Okay. If I'm not here, just help yourself to the pile I'll leave. Let's plan to get together later this week or early next and figure out how to preserve these, okay?" She called out as I started down the path having to will my feet to go slowly just to be polite.

"Sure. We'll do that. Thanks again, Adelle!" I called back as I drew nearer the road.

"You're welcome! Hello to Mark for me!" She called. I think I nodded, I don't recall because I was already on the road and as soon as I was out of her sight, jogged towards Graham's pumpkin patch not caring if the tomatoes I carried smooshed into nothing more than a tomato sauce. For all I cared, they could have fallen out onto the pavement about me. Passing the lilies as Graham's dog came zipping up the lane to greet me once again, I spotted the tiny silhouette of Graham standing next to one nearly twice his size, my Mark. My cheeks flushed and my head grew dizzy as I made my way down the drive with the collie dancing around my feet. Graham was the first to notice me and then, Mark. Graham waved while Mark watched me moving along the path, a faint smile on his face as he continued to speak with our neighbor. My heart pounded, literally hurting my rib cage as my feet worked tirelessly trying to make a dent in the spanse between my love and me. Like a child whose learned the importance of not interrupting her mother when talking with someone but having something very important to share, I finally moved up next to Mark and pushed my hand into his large, thick, rough one. He gently curled his fingers up over mine and moved his arm a bit to let me press into him.

"I think you're right," Graham was saying with a nod as he surveyed the vines spreading around our feet. "Thinning may be what they need."

"That and possibly testing the soil and seeing if you need to add a nutrient they're not getting for one reason or another," Mark said in his deep voice which resonated in his chest, vibrating pleasingly against my ear.

"Good enough. I'll let you know what comes of that. You two have anything planned for the day?" Graham changed the subject. My heart squirmed, my feet ached to move again. I let Mark, the one who was well known between the two of us to keep conversations to a minimum, answer that.

"Chores, some errands and then just some time alone to catch up on things since we've been so busy lately," Mark replied as he gave my hand a gentle squeeze. I squeezed back, smiling purposefully at Graham although he didn't seem to notice.

"Ah yes, young love. How I remember those days back long ago before Molly ... Well, I guess I should let you be going along your way then. Looks to me like I have my work cut out for me. Thanks again for the advice!" The old farmer said as he gave both of us a polite nod and pushed his hands into the bib of his overalls.

"Take care," Mark said as he waved over his shoulder as he led me back down the path.

"You too," Graham called.

"Everything okay?" Mark asked as he looked down at me. I nodded, suddenly unable to speak. He slowed up a step causing me to slow and turn to look at him. "You sure? You don't seem like your usual self. Something you need to tell me?"

"Well," I said shyly. "I am okay but you're right, I'm not my usual self and there is something I need to tell you."

"What?" He furrowed a brow as he lifted the other. I wasn't sure if he was worried it might be bad or if he figured out what he thought I had to say to him.

"Not here," I said as I poked my head around him, looking back to where we left Graham who had been bent over the vines, poking at the earth below the squash.

"Is it bad or good?" He asked, his feet planted in the ground. I pulled on his hand, trying to get him to move and to do so quickly.

"Good," I said, my eyes sparkling up at him. "Really, really good." Let him guess. It didn't matter, did it? He smiled a little, one side of his mouth drawing up as his feet began to move again while I continued to pull, walking backwards down the drive.

"Are we in a rush?" He asked playfully.

"Please?" I asked, my eyes begging him to hustle it up considerably. He laughed as he double-timed it towards the road and the small path that led from our neighbor's yard to ours. Soon he was pulling me behind him and not long afterwards, stopped and made me hop up as he gave me a piggyback ride the rest of the way. I didn't mind one bit as I held on around his neck, my nose pressed into his shirt that smelled a little salty from his sweat and had the heady aroma of his after-shave and deodorant. When he reached the porch, he turned and walked backwards letting me step down onto the bench we often used to sit upon as we shucked corn. As soon as I was standing on the bench and released my hold, he turned around and put his hands on my hips, his eyes looking into mine. My throat tightened as the emotions I felt earlier only tripled, then quadrupled, each second that ticked by brought even more of a deep feeling.

"What is it?" He asked softly. I swallowed as best I could and looked at him, sucked into those beautiful blue eyes as I felt his warmth pulse throughout my body just from the touch of his hands.

"I love you," I said. His smile deepened, his eyes twinkled as his hands moved around my waist until they rested on the small of my back, pulling me closer to him.

"I'm sorry, could you say that again?" He said.

"I love you," I said, firmly. And then those emotions swept me away as my eyes teared up and I managed to eek out: "I love you more then life itself."

"I love you, too," he said as his lips pressed against mine.