Page 79 of The Soldier's Homecoming

“What was that for? he murmured against her mouth as she pulled back.

“For making me feel like me again,” she said simply. “For makingusright again.”

She could have been talking for him. It was exactly how he felt. Like everything within him had finally realigned.

“We only have thirty-six hours left.”

She flopped her head back down onto the pillow. “I know.”

Daniel summoned every drop of bravery within him and slipped the ring out from beneath the pillow where he’d hidden it.

“Daniel?” She was suddenly alert again, eyes wide as she spied what he held.

“You haven’t worn your wedding rings since you’ve been home, Penny…”

“I never should have taken them off.” Penny looked as if she was going to cry.

He sat up properly, facing her on the bed. She did the same, legs crossed. Her hair was long and tumbling forward over her shoulders, long legs tanned and lean, peeking out from beneath lacy boy-shorts.

“You had every right to take them off,” he told her, his left hand touching her knee. “And I want you to leave them here until you come home again.”

He watched as she blinked away tears, confusion clear on her face.

“Why?”

He reached for her left hand and held out the ring he held before slipping it onto her finger.

“This ring symbolizes a promise, Penny, and I want you to wear this until you come home. If you want it.”

She watched him without saying anything.

Daniel took both her hands in his. “I want to give you this ring as my promise to you, that I will forever be faithful to you,” he said, voice low and crackly. He breathed deep. “I want you to be my wife, Pen, but I want to deserve that honor.”

She nodded, one side of her mouth curving upward. “Thank you, Danny.”

“For what?”

“For being the husband I always knew you could be.”

He pulled her close, into his lap, wrapping his arms tight about her and wishing he’d never ever have to let her go.

“We can make this work, I know we can,” he whispered against her hair.

Penny slipped her hands around his neck, pillowy lips raised to his, waiting to be kissed.

“I don’t want to leave you,” she said.

Daniel fought a choke as it built in his throat. Fought against the sadness and anger that filled his body at the thought of Penny leaving him. Leaving Gabby.

Tried to ignore the worry that niggled in his mind at the thought of her flying back into a situation that could prove so dangerous it could steal his wife from him.

“I’ll be here for you when you get home. Us being okay, together, is the one thing you don’t have to worry about while you’re gone.”

Penny rubbed her face into his shoulder, buried it against his chest.

“I love you, Danny. I love you so much I can hardly breathe.”

“Me, too, sweetheart,” he said, dropping a kiss to her forehead. “Me, too.”

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