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“Oh.” I hesitate. We have taken hundreds of pictures together over the years. It’s nothing new, and yet it feels…intimate? “Okay?”

I glance down at Felicity and she’s nodding at the ground.

We take a couple steps together, my shoulder brushes her curls and we stand there…smiling, and yep, that’s all. No posing or correct placement, just two people standing side by side like those old-timey shoots where they had to be still for five-plus minutes in order to get the picture.

“Ugh, you’re worse at this than Lawson.”

Lottie takes a step in front of the camera and adjusts us. “Flick, you go here.” She pulls Felicity to the front of me. “Pop your knee out and jut your hip. Yes, ma’am, just like that.”

My arm is yanked so I have no choice but to take a step closer to Felicity, and her back brushes against my chest.

“Knox, wrap your arms around her and pull her close. No, not like that, you look like you’re about to kidnap her. Here, like this.” She grabs my arms and physically wraps them around Felicity’s body. “Cheek to cheek. You’re too tall for that, just hunch over her. YES, PERFECT, DO NOT MOVE A MUSCLE.”

“I forget how scary she can be sometimes.” Felicity smiles, her cheek tightening against mine.

“Been a while since you’ve played Uno with her, huh?”

“Oh, God, don’t remind me.” Felicity laughs and I do, too, our breaths tangling in the chilly air.

“Stop talking!” Ada snaps, and we both get back into picture mode. “Look here, kids.”

We smile at the camera, my arms wrapped around her body and her hands holding on to me, one on my forearm, and the other on my wrist. Her fingers are warm, palpable, the most real thing I can feel right now.

“You look like a robot, Knox. Kiss her cheek or something.”

I swallow so audibly that there is no way Felicity doesn’t hear. I start to ask her if she minds, but then she pokes her cheek out to me, so I take it as a green light and turn my hat around. Without giving it another thought, I lean in and press my lips right there, on that blushed, tan skin.

She’s so warm against me for a girl who’s always cold. My lips are right against her skin, her curls tickling my neck, and the mesh of my backward hat is pressed against her temple as she laughs that big, beautiful laugh.

“Did you get it?” Felicity asked.

Ada and Lottie nod, cooing and awwing until Felicity pulls away. I keep my arms that were wrapped around her tugged close to me, taking every moment I can for my own selfish memory to look back on.

***

That stupid, perfect picture is now my home screen, and I stare at it way more than I should. So much so that I was nearly an hour late this morning to help Dad with the crops on the far-right field.

I roll back under the dozer with the creeper—and feel a big nudge, like the groundhog wants me to keep going. He has the audacity to nudge his nose against my creeper?

“Was that you on Saturday? Have you been following me?”

He just blinks at me with those beady little eyes, like he’s judging me for offering him a stale saltine that one time.

Then he scoots closer.

“Seriously, do you have rabies or something?” I ask, squinting.

His mouth isn’t foaming. His eyes are clear. But then again, I’ve never met a groundhog that acts this…bold. The ones in town scatter at the first sign of human life since they’re usually in some kind of trouble. Edith from council meetings calls them scoundrels, like they’re tiny criminals plotting tax evasion and not just digging holes in her backyard.

But this one?

This one acts like he’s here for a scheduled appointment. Like he’s my therapist and I’m expected to just tell him all my thoughts because I once rambled to him maybe a little excessively.

He stares up at me like he’s asking a question.

“I can’t help myself,” I mutter, dropping my head back against the metal, “much less help you.”

The round ball of squish scoots closer.