AN: Just FYI this chapter has one small referance to s-e-x, but no bad language.

I wake to the alarm blaring. I groan and flip over and turn it off. I lay in bed for a bit and let my eyes adjust to the rays of sunlight streaming in from the window.

The picture I made for Gale sits in its frame on the wall opposite our bed, in our bedroom. I have the shell necklace he made for me nailed into the wall right next to it.

I love waking to the sight every morning.

I stretch my arms over my head and sit up, rolling my neck forward, rubbing the kinks out.

Gale's already gone when I get up, but that's not unusual. Sometimes I'll get up as he's on his way out the door, but most of the time he's already gone when I get up.

I use the bathroom and then make myself a small breakfast. I pop some bread in the toaster and pour some creamy District 10 milk in a glass while I wait.

I quickly munch on my toast and drink my milk before I get dressed for the day.

I'm out the door and back into the heat before it's even 7:30 in the morning.

I walk down our dirt road, into town and to the cannery in about twenty minutes, but I can feel the sweat start to bead up already.

Once inside I wipe a paper towel across my forehead and head up stairs to my office.

The day moves by slowly and by 10am I am demanding a desk fan be put into my office. I "can't work under these conditions" I say.

I win and one of the guys from down stairs brings me a small fan and I blast it.

I'm out the door before the clock strikes noon and get home in near record time. I jump right back into a cold shower to cool off and then make myself a quick lunch.

I sit on the couch for a minute and I must have fallen asleep because Gale is shaking me awake before I know what happened.

"What time is it?" I ask in a horse voice.

"It's a little after 4:30"

"How did that happen? I just sat on the couch, two minutes ago it seems like."

"Guess you fell asleep. Are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah I feel fine. Just tiered. It's all this heat I'm telling you."

"Okayyyy. Well do you want to go out for dinner? Or what do you want to do?"

"Doesn't matter to me."

"Okay. Then go get dressed, we'll go down to the intercoastal and have dinner."

He offers me his hand and he pulls me up off the couch.

He kisses my forehead and pulls me into a hug.

I smile up at him and head into the room and he follows.

We change out of work clothes and are out the door before five o'clock strikes.

We walk to the small restaurant hand in hand and Gale talks about his day, and asks about mine.

Once we get closer to the restaurant I try to trip him up and he chases me all the way to the door.

I try to restrain from giggling while Gale asks for a table for two.

We sit outside on the deck and banter back and forth a bit before our food comes.

I drink two huge glasses of ice water and tell Gale about last night's visit to Annie's.

"You seen the picture on the fridge, right?" I ask him.

"Yeap, I sure did."

"Isn't it the best picture you have ever seen? Finney even pointed out the yellow dot and said it was the sun. He is so adorable. His birthday is coming up. Annie said she was going to have cake. I think I'm going to go down there again this weekend. You can come too if you want."

"Woah, woah, woah. …can you stop talking so fast?"

"I'm not talking fast, you're listening slow." I flick my tongue out at him.

He just shakes his head at me and chuckles before sticking another shrimp in his mouth.

His eyes dart around a little bit and he keeps wiping the palms of his hands on his jeans.

Must be pretty buttery shrimp. I think.

I start feeling a little queasy again on the walk home. I ate wayyyy too much and my stomach is protesting.

Once we make it home I splash some cold water on my face and sit on the couch. Gale stretches across the whole thing and lays his head in my lap.

I run my fingers through his soft black hair and he closes his eyes at my touch. I slowly trace the bridge of his nose with my index finger. Then I run it down and trace his jaw bone, skim it across his temples, across his forehead, over his lips, down his neck and then trace his collar bone. I feel him shiver slightly at the caress and I move my index finger back up to his face.

I love watching him when he's relaxed. He looks even more like an angel when his features are soft.

Sometimes I don't know how I ended up with him. I mean…what happened? One minute I'm stuck in District 4 with Annie, next thing I know Gale barges into my life and we somehow fall madly in love with each other. I mean how does that just happen?

I'm thankful though. He's a hard worker if nothing else, and extremely dedicated. To everything. His job. His family. Me.

Plus the sex is explosive, so that is always a plus.

When I hear his breathing start to even out I stop my tracing of his features and gently shake him awake.

"Gale" I whisper. "You can't sleep out here. Come on, let's go to bed."

He blinks his gray eyes up to mine and a smile plasters across his face.

"Okay, okay." He sits up and stretches his arms over his head before pushing himself off the couch.

I get up after him and we make our way into our bedroom.

We change and brush our teeth and crawl into bed.

He pulls me into his arms, pressing his chest against my back and he quickly passes back out.

I have to scoot away from him as soon as I'm sure he's asleep. As nice as it is being in his arms, the heat radiating off his body is just too much.

I kick the sheet off of me and toss and turn a little trying to get comfortable.

Sleep evades me for a while but darkness eventually finds me.