we could or we couldn't

Graduation was over. Kyle had been through more speeches than he ever wanted to endure.

"I just feel bad that you didn't, you know." Amber wanted him to stay in high school. "A GED just isn't the same."

"Yes, it is."  He told her. They were alone out on the farm, taking a walk.

She was making this harder for him than it already was. He didn't want to end this with her, but it was for the best. She was going off to college. And maybe by September he might be taking some classes at a technical school. He just didn't see them. Together. But here they were holding hands.

"I just don't understand." She winced.

"What's there to understand? I have Rosie to think about." He didn't want to talk about it. "Look, we need to think how this might be our last summer. Together. You did get in to Kansas State, and-"

"Maybe I don't want to go there, anymore." She looked at him.

"You have to. You wanted to go to school there." It was decided.

"I don't have too." She shrugged.

"I don't want to keep you from anything." His chest tightened when he said it. He wanted to let go of her hand, but she held on to it tightly.

"You know what we should do?" She smiled then.

Kyle was thinking she'd say something about swimming in the pond or going on the three wheeler.

"What?" He stared at her.

"Well." She smiled as she swung his hand. "We should get engaged." She started to walk down the dirt road. He was keeping in step.

"Engaged?" He winced.

"Yeah, I read this book that was this girl's journal, she wrote a long time ago, but she lived around here. And it was about how she was engaged to this guy who walked hours just to see her on the weekend. He worked in Council Bluff and she lived all the way out here with her family. That was just after the Civil War. Of course, when they finally got married they went in a caravan all the way to Denver, just so he could join the Calvary. Just don't join the Army or anything." She stopped then. "See, if they waited years to get married. So can we."

Kyle guess he understood. He smiled then. He was beginning to feel a lot better about things.