Page 33 of Yours and Mine (Friends with Benefits)

“I know.”

“I don’t want you to die.”

“It’s just training, Jo.”

“But this would lead you to be in combat one day, wouldn’t it?”

“You won’t change my mind, Jo. And it would feel so much better knowing I had your support.”

Was that why he’d been working out so hard?

“That’s like asking me to pull a trigger on you. Don’t you see that if I support you in this, I’ll be responsible for what happens to you? No, Nick! I’m not going to send you to your death.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way.”

He lowered his head. If he thought making me feel guilty about his stupid decision would work, then he had another thing coming.

“You’re joking, Nick. Right? Please tell me you’re joking.”

He didn’t say anything.

“You’ve already decided, haven’t you? Without talking to me about the decision? When did this happen?”

“Three months ago. I’m set to leave a week after graduation.”

My heart was squeezing so hard that I had a difficult time breathing. At the time when I thought we’d finally start our lives together, he’d leave me. He would actually leave me.

“And you somehow forgot to tell me earlier?”

“Jo, I am telling you earlier. We have another month together.”

“A month? I was expecting a lifetime with you, and now I get a month?”

“A year will pass quicker than you think.”

“What about after?”

“Don’t worry about the after yet. Whatever happens, I promise to come back home.”

“Nick, I can’t stand being two days away from you. Remember when you caught the flu last winter? I was afraid my father would tie me down. If I couldn’t see you through that window, I would have died.”

“It will be hard, I know, but if there’s anyone that can do this, it’s us. What we have… it’s unbreakable. If I stay, I’m afraid I won’t be able to find myself at the bakery or as a firefighter… or anywhere else, as a matter of fact.”

The funny thing was that I couldn’t picture Nick anywhere else. While he had told me that he’d leave, it hadn’t registered in my mind. I didn’t want to believe that he’d actually leave our little town to go and train as a SEAL.

“Oh, my God, your mom must have flipped when you told her.”

He took a deep breath and then let go of the tension in one long exhale.

“You haven’t told her yet, have you?”

Which made my day so much better now. There was no way she’d let him go, and once Nick saw her tears and heard her begging not to leave her, he’d stay. Marge had lost her husband in a battle, and she’d do anything to prevent the same from happening to her son – I was sure of that.

“No. I was hoping to do it right after the prom.”

“Nick, you can’t. She’ll kill you if you give her only a week’s notice.”

“I don’t want her crying over it for the next month.”

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