At First Sight by Nicholas Sparks Page B

southerners to figure out a way to make eating vegetables unhealthy.
He supposed he was being unkind, but without places to eat or movies to see, what were young couples supposed to do? Even if you wanted to go for a pleasant walk through town, you could walk only a few minutes in any direction before having to turn around. Lexie, of course, found nothing unusual about any of this and seemed perfectly content to sit on the porch after work, sipping sweet tea or lemonade and waving at the occasional neighbor who was strolling around the block. Or, if nature was cooperating and it happened to be storming, another sizzling night of entertainment might entail sitting on the porch and watching for lightning. Lest he be disappointed by the whole idea of porch sitting, Lexie further assured him that “in the summer, you’ll see so many fireflies, you’ll be reminded of Christmas.”
“I can hardly wait,” Jeremy replied, sighing.
On the plus side, in the last few weeks Jeremy finally achieved a milestone: the purchase of his very first car. Call it a male thing, but as soon as he realized that he’d be moving to Boone Creek, that was one of the experiences he was most looking forward to. He hadn’t saved and invested all these years for nothing. He’d been lucky enough to buy Yahoo! and AOL-after writing an article about the future of the Internet-and had ridden those stocks to the top before cashing out part of his portfolio when he moved to Boone Creek, and he visualized every moment of his purchase-from perusing various automobile magazines and walking the lot to sitting behind the wheel and inhaling the famed “new-car smell.” There were countless times that he’d actually regretted living in New York, simply because owning a car in the city was largely superfluous. He couldn’t wait to crawl into a sporty two-door coupé or convertible and take it for a test drive along the quiet county roads. On the morning he and Lexie were supposed to head to the lot, he couldn’t stop grinning at the fantasy of slipping behind the wheel of his dream car.
What he hadn’t quite expected was Lexie’s response when he ogled the sporty two-door convertible and ran his finger along its sleek curves. “What do you think?” he asked.
He knew that she, too, couldn’t resist.
She stared at the car, confused. “Where would we put the baby seat?”
“We can use your car for that,” he said. “This is a car for the two of us. For quick trips to the beach or to the mountains, for weekends in Washington, D.C.”
“I don’t think my car’s going to last that much longer, so don’t you think we’d be better off getting something for the whole family?”
“Like what?”
“How about a minivan?”
He blinked. “No way. Not a chance. I didn’t wait thirty-seven years for a minivan.”
“How about a nice sedan?”
“A sedan? My dad drives a sedan. I’m too young to buy a sedan.”
“An SUV? They’re sporty and sharp. And you can take them into the mountains.”
He tried to imagine how he would look behind the wheel before shaking his head. “Those are the vehicles of choice for suburban mothers. I’ve seen more SUVs in the Wal-Mart parking lot than I’ve ever seen in the mountains. And besides, they cause more pollution than regular cars, and I care about the environment.” He touched his chest for emphasis, doing his best to appear earnest.
Lexie considered his response. “Where does that leave us, then?”
“With my first choice,” he said. “Imagine how wonderful life could be . . . zipping along the highway, wind in our hair . . .”
She laughed. “You sound like a commercial. And believe me, I think it would be great, too. I’d love a flashy little number like this. But you’ve got to admit it’s not very practical.”
He watched her, his mouth drying slightly as he felt his dream begin to die. She was right, of course, and he shifted from one foot to the other before finally exhaling.
“Which one do you