waking up to love

He slowly awoke and with the first shift of his body reached his arm around her pulling her close, their worn sleeping bags between them.  He kissed the back of her head, pausing for a moment and closing his eyes while her hair covered his face and blocked most of the beams of breaking daylight that had started warming his toes in the bottom of his sleeping bag.

Now propped on his elbow, he gently brushed her hair with his fingertips and started tracing the outline of her face, her eyebrows, her lips with the tip of his index finger.  She stirred in her sleep, a slight smile forming on her lips.

The car behind me honked.  I looked up at the traffic light. It had turned green -my turn to go. As I took my foot off the brake and slowly pressed on the gas pedal, I glanced back at the couple waking up on the sidewalk in the partial shelter of a setback storefront entry.

She had opened her eyes, turned on to her back and was smiling softly up at him as he spoke to her.