She is so happy she cannot help but laugh out loud. Her happiness is a sense of contentment with her life and the world around her. Nothing could ever improve on this moment – the sky couldn't possibly be bluer, the sun brighter, the breeze sweeter. Of course it is love, and of course it is Rain she is in love with. She is amazed by this new emotion, amazed by its power over her body. She is running now because she cannot contain all the happiness sitting still. It was his kiss while they were swimming in the lake that had roused these feelings, had turned her from a girl to a woman in love. They had lingered by the lake until the late summer sun began to soften and fade. They had said little to each other; after knowing each other all their lives, a kiss had made them strangers. On the Sunday morning after the kiss, she had awoken with his name on her lips, her body dizzy with desire. She pulled on a pair of jeans and ran to the barn. She saw hay bales dropping from a chute onto the barn floor and knew that he would be in the loft. He heard her feet on the stairs and went to meet her, pulling her into his arms and kissing her mouth with a desire that matched her own.
