There is something beautiful about Jade Harley which cannot be hidden. Even with dirt smudged across her forehead and twigs tangled in her hair, she seems to glow more brightly than the summer's sun which beats down upon her as she kneels in the long grass.
"Jane..." she calls, teasingly. "You're staring!"
Jane laughs it off, and resumes her careful walk across the lawn. "I thought you might like a glass of lemonade."
Jade leaps to her feet like a Jack-in-the-box and downs half the glass in one long gulp.
"Thanks!" She beams at Jane. "Weeding is thirsty work!"
"Any thoughts about what you want to plant yet?"
"Plenty!" Jade laughs. "But most of them will have to wait until spring. Actually... I was wondering if you had any ideas?"
Jane looks around at the neglected flowerbeds. She has no doubt that soon, under Jade's magic touch, they will be filled with a riot of colour.
"I was wondering about... maybe an apple tree?" she suggests, shyly. "I thought it might be nice to bake some home-grown apple pie."
"We could have a tire swing!" Jade enthuses. "That's brilliant!"
Jane's happiness is interrupted by a distant beeping from inside the house.
"Goddarn it!" she says. "I left the cookies in the oven!"
She turns, about to run back across the long lawn in the vain hope of retrieving the cookies while they are still edible, but the sound of Jade's laughter makes her pause.
"You mean these cookies?"
She turns back, and the tray is hovering slightly over Jade's hands, the cookies still steaming from the oven.
"You didn't have to –"
Jade giggles. "Well, I couldn't let them get burned, could I?"
"... I love you."
Jane couldn't help but say it. She promised herself she would never let shyness get in the way of those words again.
Jade stares at her silently, mouth open. There is no sound in the garden but the rustling of leaves in the summer breeze.
Then Jade cracks up. "I know, silly! And I love you too, if you're not tired of hearing me say it by now."
Jane returns her smile. Perhaps, one day, she will grow tired of it.
But, after fifty years together, she doubts it.