It was the summer of my junior year. Summer is supposed to mean love, new chances, and new opportunities. Well that’s exactly what this summer meant. Except for my new opportunity was a little something called Jacob.

I was staying at my grandma’s this summer. Which meant waking up to roosters and the smell of hay every morning? But the lovely face that appeared that Monday was breathtaking.

For days I would stare out my window watching him mow the lawn, feed the horses, or just go swimming in our back pond. He was your typical farm boy with cowboy hat, jeans, and of course the best tan. But knowing I would never get the guts to talk to him I would just stare out my window picturing our fantasy life.

I woke up that next morning and went through my usual routine, break feast, shower, and than studying him. Then fate took its toll when I heard a knock at the front door. At first I couldn’t bring myself to answer it.

I brought myself back together and there he was. My cowboy dream.
He smiled, “Hi, so I’m Jake. Your grandma kinda sent me to say hi.”
I laughed and way probably blushing more than ever, “I’m Melissa.”
He smiled yet again, “So your grandma kinda said you’ve been looking out the window for a little bit and she started to get worried you were fantasying too much.” He started to laugh, “So how about you come and get a bite to eat instead.”
My blushing turned to a red tomato color, “Umm…I have no clue what you’re talking about.”
He smiled that crooked smile again, “Mhm…Just agree to come out to dinner with me.”
I gave in willingly, “Sure.”
“I’ll pick you up at 8.”

I watched him walk away. His accent was literally the most charming thing you have ever heard. And his baby blue eyes were breathtaking. And the way his hair was spiked naturally just made everything fall in place. He was my dream.

After that night we didn’t go a day without seeing each other. Almost every minute we were together. Most of the time I would go out and help him with the chores, and then he would take us out to eat or something. It became our usual routine.

After two months, it was August 18. The day I was suppose to leave and go back to school. The day I was dreading because school was about two hundred miles away from here. Two hundred miles away from him.

I packed my red suitcase full of the memories that we shared that summer. Like the green sweater I wore on our first date, or the blue bathing suit that I wore swimming in the back of the pond that embarrassingly fell off when I jumped in. Or all the movie tickets that I ended up collecting because almost every night was movie night. I started realizing that it was going to be impossible to forget him.

My Jeep that I got for my sixteenth birthday was all packed and ready to go. But the one thing standing in my way was the handsome boy that I came to love leaning up against the side of my driver’s door.
“You can’t go. You just can’t it’s too fast.”

He wrapped his arms tightly around my waste and I breathed in the sweet smell of cologne, and the farm.
I whispered, “Baby I’m going to miss you.”

I waited for a response but nothing came back. He pulled away.
“Follow me, I need to tell you this story I have never once told you before.”

He pulled me over to the pond where I had watched him swim so many times.
“You know the first time I saw you wasn’t you watching me from you watching me from your window. I was out with the horses and it was the first day you got here. I heard a car pulling in the drive way and I knew you were coming because your grandmother couldn’t stop talking about it. When you got out you were even better than what I expected. You looked so cute in your cut-off shorts, and cow-boy boots that I knew there was something different about you, something special. And from that day on I couldn’t get you outta my head. So when your grandma told me about you day-dreaming all day, I had to meet you, because the same thing was happening to me. I fell in love with you the day I say you Melissa.”

I was puzzled or speechless. I felt like I wanted to say something back but what could I say to that. Then again he wrapped his arms tightly around my waste like he had done so many times before that summer. But this time he held me like he knew he was gonna lose me. So I held on even tighter. But this time I said what I knew he wanted to hear, and something that I felt all along.
I pulled him even closer, “I love you Jake.”
“I love you too babe.”

So as I pulled away in my jeep I watched him watch me drive away. And apart from the memories the one thing that has stuck in my head is summer relationships might not last but summer feelings always do.