Page 19 of The Only Reason (The Trident Trilogy 2)

“Mills. I’m so happy. You know that. Why are you asking?”

“I know how much you miss leading your team. If you want to go back for a few months to fill in, I’ll come with you.”

“I’m not going to lie to you. I miss it badly. But that life is no way to live if you want to have a successful relationship—especially if you’re just starting one like we are. You’d rarely see me. You would be alone most of the time. It would be bad for you and for me.”

She rolls over on her back and looks at the ceiling. “You’re right. I know. But this bubble we’ve been living in is going to pop at some point. I need to get a job. You need to enjoy your job. The real world is going to set in.”

I put my hand on her stomach and start rubbing the knot I know is forming. “That entire speech is out of Mariel’s mouth. Right?”

She laughs. “Yeah.”

“I’ve told you before what works for them isn’t necessarily what’s best for everyone. We can stay in this goddamn bubble forever if it works for us.”

She turns her head to me and smiles—a little sparkle in her eyes.

“And you don’t have to decide what you want to do with the rest of your life right now,” I say, stroking her cheek. “You’ve gone through so much. Be patient with yourself.”

She lets out a long sigh and nuzzles her face into my chest. “It’s been six months. I’ve basically been surfing and sleeping all that time. I have to figure out what I’m going to do at some point. I feel like there’s something coming. The idea keeps dashing through my head, but I can’t understand it yet.”

“Take a breath. Really, you don’t have to do anything. With the money you made on your grandma’s house sale, you’re financially set. And I have money. If you want to just surf, God knows you’ve earned it. With everything that’s happened, you’ve lived like four lives in only twenty-five years.”

“Before all this happened—before Dad died—I wanted to major in marine conservation and save the ocean from all the evil polluters in the world,” she says, shaking her head against my chest. “I was more idealistic back then.”

“Mills, you can still do that. You’re so young. And we live in San Diego—the perfect place for it. I’ve spent a lot of time in oceans. I’ve seen all the crap that ends up there. We need more people like you to do something about it. You’d be great. But you don’t have to worry about that or marriage or babies or any of it. Let’s just enjoy the bubble for as long as we want to.”

“Can we take naps in the bubble?”

“As many as we want. Any time we want,” I say as I turn her back around into a spoon. “In fact, let’s start on that right now.”

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