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"Noant you two to sleep," Rachel said fro around" She closed the door with a quiet click "Coo for a napGirls just about woresuit for an old pair of shorts he liked, soft fro, and lay down on top of the comforter Rachel moved in beside him He put his arm around her and pulled her close Her hair had a clean, sweet s there was

"You know," she said softly, "I was thinking"

"What’s that now?"

She shrugged against his chest "Just hoonderful this arden was so beautiful"

Carter pulled her tighter against hiht the same

"I could do this forever," she said

Forever hat they had Soon her breathing steadied, long and low, like waves upon a placid shore Its rhyth hiht Carter, and closed his eyes What happiness at last

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She had chosen a spot in sight of the river The earth was softer here, but that was not the only reason As dawn broke over the ridgeline, A The river was low, as it alas in su first to the calls of birds, then, as the heat built, to the stillness spreading over the land

Stopping now and then to rest, she finished at e she splashed her face and cupped her pal profusely in the heat For a ti above her on the bank In the shallows she detected the shapes of trout, tucked behind rocks Protected from the current, they held the in wait for the insects that washed downstream to their open mouths

The body athed in a sheet Amy used a wooden bier and ropes, tackled to a sturdy tree lihts were ordered and calm; she’d had years to prepare for thisof soil upon the shroud, she experienced a rush of e she had no nas at once; it came not from her mind but from a deeper place, al down her face One shovelful at a ti one with the earth