At First Sight by Nicholas Sparks

him. “Where else would you stay?”
“I thought I’d just stay here.”
“With me?” she asked.
“Of course with you,” he said, as if the answer were obvious.
“But we’re not married yet.”
“So?”
“I know it’s old-fashioned, but down here couples don’t live together before they’re married. Folks around town would frown on that. They would assume we’re sleeping together.”
He stared at her, not bothering to hide his confusion. “But we are sleeping together. You’re pregnant, remember?”
She smiled. “I’ll be the first to admit that it doesn’t make much sense, and if I had my way, you’d stay. And I know that people will eventually find out that I’m pregnant, but the crazy thing is that folks down here understand that people make mistakes. They’re perfectly willing to forgive mistakes, but it still doesn’t mean we should live together. They’ll talk behind our backs, they’ll gossip, and it’ll take folks a long time to forget that we ‘lived in sin.’ And for years, that’s just how they’ll describe us.” She shook her head before reaching for his hand. “I know it’s a lot to ask, but would you do this for me?”
Leaning back, he remembered what it was like at Greenleaf: a decrepit series of shacks set in the middle of a swamp known for water moccasins; Jed, the scary, nonspeaking proprietor; the mounted animals that decorated every room. Greenleaf. Good God.
“Yeah,” he said, “okay. But . . . Greenleaf?”
“Where else is there? I mean, if you want, there’s a shed behind Doris’s place, and I think it’s got a bathroom, but it’s not as nice as Greenleaf.”
He swallowed, thinking about it. “Jed scares me,” he admitted.
“I know he does,” she said. “He told me that when I made the reservations, but he promised me that he’ll be better now that you’re townsfolk. And the good news is that because you’ll be staying for a while, he won’t charge you the regular rate. You’re getting a discount.”
“Lucky me,” Jeremy forced out.
She traced his forearm with her finger. “I’ll make it up to you. For instance, if you’re discreet, you can visit me at my place anytime. And I’ll even cook you dinner.”
“Discreet?”
She nodded. “That means you should probably not leave your car parked out front, or if you do, you should probably leave before the sun’s up so no one sees.”
“Why does it suddenly feel like I’m sixteen years old and sneaking behind my parents’ back?”
“Because that’s exactly what we’re going to be doing. Except these people are not as understanding as parents. They’re much worse.”
“Then why are we living here?”
“Because you love me,” she said.

At First Sight
Four
Over the course of the next month, Jeremy began adapting to his life in Boone Creek. In New York City, the first signs of spring began in April, but they started weeks earlier in Boone Creek, right around the beginning of March. Buds began forming on trees, cold mornings gradually gave way to cool ones, and on days when it wasn’t raining, the mild afternoon temperatures required nothing more than a long-sleeved shirt. Lawns, brown over the winter as the centipede grass lay dormant, began the slow, almost imperceptible turn toward emerald green, reaching their full color just as the dogwoods and azaleas blossomed. The air was scented with perfume and pine and salted mist, and blue skies broken only by the occasional breath of cloud stretched across the horizon. By the time the ides of March came and went, the town itself seemed brighter and more vivid; it was as if his memory of how the place looked in winter had been nothing but a gloomy dream.
His furnishings, which had finally arrived, were being stored in the shed behind Doris’s, and there were moments while staying at Greenleaf when he wondered whether he would have been better off staying with his furniture. Not that he hadn’t adapted to life with Jed as his only neighbor; Jed had