Just a Little Reminder by Tracie Puckett Page B

box. It wasn’t so much the box that I’d been hoping to get my hands on, but the irreplaceable piece of my father’s history kept inside the velvet-lined interior. It was the key to the city bestowed to my father eighteen years earlier by the mayor of West Bridge. It was an honor and a recognition given by the city in thanks for Dad’s bravery on the force. Next to the Medal of Honor he received later that year, the West Bridge key meant more to him than other material possession.
    Luke had given me his mother’s key, and I planned to give him my father’s.
    But it was all about the timing….
    “I have a million things to tell you!”
    “Great. I’m glad,” he said, and his smile stretched a little wider than it ever had. “Listen,” he said clutching his keys in his palm. “I’m just on my way out; can we catch up in a little bit?”
    “Oh, yeah,” I said, watching as he blinked a few too many times. I looked down to his palms again and noticed they were unusually sweaty. His chest rose with each deep breath he took, and he seemed in far too much of a hurry to shrug me off. “I just… I had a lot I wanted to tell you—”
    “And I really want to hear all about it, Jules, I do,” he said, reaching forward and placing his hand on my shoulder. “But I’m running late for an important dinner, and—”
    “Go,” I said, managing a smile.
    Luke gave me an apologetic nod and turned toward the staircase. I stood watching from the second-floor landing as he stopped mid-way down the steps and turned back.
    “I’ll call later,” he said, looking back up at me. “ I promise .”
    I managed a smile and nodded.
    Luke gave me a discreet wink and turned back, finishing the stairs at a quick pace.
    I followed slowly down the stairs, and by the time I’d reached the first floor, Luke headed for the next street.
    I watched as he scurried away against the cool wind, I and noticed a small piece of paper sticking up from his back pocket. With each stride he took, the paper revealed itself a little more. By the time he turned the corner at the end of the street, it hung by just a corner. Whipping against the wind with each step he took, the wind caught it and pulled it loose.
    It flew from his jeans and onto the street, and I couldn’t help but smile as I initially thought that’s a third-degree misdemeanor, Lucas Reibeck .
    He hadn’t seemed to notice that he’d lost the crumpled piece of paper, so I took a few brisk lunges forward to pick it up as it tumbled quickly down the street.
    By the time I clutched it in my hand and looked back up to find Luke, he was nowhere to be found.
    I let my eyes fall back to the note he’d lost, and I quickly recognized the floral printed paper—it was a page from my dream journal. I unfolded the creased edges and let my eyes sweep across my barely legible scribbles. I stood on the street—the wind ripping through my hair—as I re-read the words I’d written a few months earlier.
    It was the alternate ending to a terrible dream, the one I’d asked him to read. I’d forgotten all about it… until that moment… and I couldn’t believe he’d kept it all that time.
    Did that mean he’d finally read it?
    “My God,” I whispered under my breath as I re-read my words, and my heart suddenly swelled against my chest. I looked up to the corner where Luke had just disappeared, and I suddenly found my legs sprinting in his direction.
    I’m running late for an important dinner.
    He’d left on foot which meant he hadn’t planned to go too far. Obviously that meant he’d be eating in the historic district, and that didn’t leave many options. I let my eyes wander the tables of the outdoor café and didn’t see any familiar faces. Surely Luke wouldn’t drop in the diner across the street for an important dinner, but I ran over there and pressed my nose against the glass to check nonetheless. When I didn’t find him inside, the only other place I could think to look was the