Page 156 of Engulfing Emma

Billy grabs the microphone and takes center stage. “I’d like to make a toast to my parents. After twenty-five years of marriage, I can honestly say you are the best example of what love should be. I only hope Danielle and I are half as happy as the two of you. You’ve been through a lot, and it’s only made you stronger. I know Evie and Leo will join me in thanking you for being the most amazing parents any kids could ever ask for. So, everyone raise a glass to Brett and Emma Cash.”

“To Brett and Emma,” the guests say, followed by “Speech! Speech!”

Billy hands me the microphone.

“I’ll make this short and sweet. What can I say? Except that I ask myself every damn day what I ever did to deserve this woman. Here we are, on our silver anniversary, and I love her as much as the day we married.”

I kiss Emma’s temple. “Twenty-five years, sweetheart. Can you believe it?”

Tears pool in her eyes. “Yes, I can—because you always made me believe in us. And you better give me at least twenty-five more.”

The guests cheer and music plays.

I pull Emma aside. “Would you change any of it?”

She runs a finger across the long jagged scar spanning my arm that put me in the hospital for a week shortly after Billy was born. “No way, you?”

I look at her breasts, thinking of the three enduring years she battled cancer. “Nope. Like our son said, everything we’ve been through together had made us stronger.”

She leans in to kiss me. Even after twenty-five years, I still get hard every time her lips touch mine. She laughs when she feels the beginning of my erection.

“Are you ready to open your anniversary gift?” I ask.

“Here?”

“Why not?”

I pull an envelope out of my pocket and hand it to her. She eyes it curiously and then takes it from me. I watch as she opens the letter and reads, then looks at me in shock. “This is a letter of resignation. You’re retiring?”

“Yup.”

Her expressions zip through an emotional gamut, and I’m surprised when happiness is not one of them.

“Brett, you love working, and you’re only fifty-five.”

“Sweetheart, I thought you’d be pleased.”

She takes my face in her hands. “Babe, we’re not getting any younger. These twenty-five years have gone by in the blink of an eye. Retirement will come soon enough. I married Brett Cash, the man who would rather be out there fighting fires than doing anything else in the world. Every time you leave for work, you have a smile on your face. And every time you come home, the accomplishment and pride I see in you is palpable. You save people. You inspire them.” I nod to our children. “And damn it if you weren’t so inspiring that all three of our kids followed in your footsteps. So, no, I’m not happy about you retiring. You wouldn’t be you if you weren’t out there every day on the front lines, commanding your battalion.” She rips the letter to shreds. “Someday we’ll have to get used to a life without you doing that. But today is not that day.”

“God, woman. Do you know how much I love you?”

She smiles. “Of course I do. I’ve known for over twenty-five years.”

“Because when you know, you know,” I say with a wink.

“That’s right, Chief.”

My eyebrows shoot up and I pull her close. “You know what it does to me when you call me that,” I whisper.

I wonder how long we have to stay. Because I need my wife. I need to show her just how much I love her. In some ways, I’ve loved her all the way back to the storage closet where we first met.

I take a moment to appreciate what I have. I look at our three amazing kids and think about everything that had to happen to get us to where we are today. I gaze at my wife—my best friend, the love of my life—and think about what Emma’s father said:Everything happens for a reason.

I spot Jay and know he is who he is today because of the loss of his father.

I am amazed at all the good that has come about from the sacrifices of others.

If my mom hadn’t run inside that building to help, I never would have become a firefighter. If Kenny Lutwig hadn’t shot Carter and held Emma at gunpoint, we’d have never met. If William Lockhart hadn’t died that day, Evie wouldn’t exist. Neither would Billy.

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