Page 67 of In the Air Tonight

“You have work. Who knows where you’d be if this went to trial?”

“I’m going to separate from the navy. I love my job, but I love my family more. I want to be here for everything with you and the kids. I don’t want to miss soccer or dinners or game nights. I want to be with you guys.”

“We want you here with us, too, but only if it’s what you really want. I know how much you love being in the navy.”

“I do, but not as much as I love you and the kids.”

“What’ll you do for work?”

“I’ve got some feelers out for jobs. How would you feel about going back to the DC area?”

“I’d miss our friends here, but most of them will be moving in the next few years anyway, and DC is home.”

“I was hoping you’d say that. This means I’d be right there by your side when or if the case went to trial. We’d be near your dad and my parents, who’d help with the kids.”

My parents divorced years ago. My mom, who succeeded in getting sober after years of stopping and starting, lives in Denver now with her second husband. Dad has a longtime girlfriend that we all love and is enjoying being retired.

“You really think I should do this?”

“I think you should do whatever works for you. If the answer is no, it’s no. But I want you to know that if you choose to go forward, I’d support you every step of the way—and I’d be around to do that in person, not remotely.”

“That makes all the difference. Everything is better when you’re here.”

Smiling, he leans in to kiss me. “That’s how it is for me, too. Funny how that worked out, huh?”

“It’s the best thing in my whole life. I wouldn’t have survived this the first time without you.”

“Yes, you would have because you’re tougher than you give yourself credit for being.”

“No, I’m not.”

“We’ll have to agree to disagree on that, but in my opinion, you’re the strongest person I’ve ever known.”

“You need to get out more.”

“Haha, you know there’s nowhere else I want to be than right here with you.” When he kisses me again, I wrap my arms around him and let all my worries fall away for now. They’ll still be there after this stolen interlude with my love.

“There was a tradition we forgot when I got home last night,” he says against my lips.

“I didn’t forget. I was hoping you’d let me make it up to you this morning.”

“You don’t need to make up anything to me.”

“What if I want to?”

“Are you sure?”

“I refuse to lethimor Houston or any of this set me back to where I was then. We worked too hard to get past it to let that ruin anything now.”

“And I hear you. I really do. But I want you to be certain.”

“I’m certain that I know exactly who I’m in bed with—the love of my life.”

Smiling, he kisses me and touches me and takes me away from all my worries and fears the way he has for as long as I’ve known him. It took a long time, more than two years and several unsuccessful attempts, before I was able to finally make love with him and not experience anything other than pure happiness and excitement.

He never wavered in his devotion to me or his determination to wait until I was ready for more. I credit him with saving me in more ways than one. After the twins were born, he had a vasectomy, which has freed us to enjoy being together without worries about more babies. We got twice what we bargained for when we decided to have a third child. Now our family is more than complete.

I want so badly to enjoy this reunion with him, but my brain is stuck in the past, which makes it impossible to do anything other than go through the motions with Kane.

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