Page 29 of Thresholds

The officer was unimpressed. "Then you should have no trouble taking youraffairsinside."

"We are married," Tiel cried, holding up her left hand and pointing at her rings with her right hand. "Married. This isn't some kind of adulterous booty call. My license is in here somewhere, and if you just turn around for a second so I can pull myself together and save you an eyeful, you can see for yourself that I'm married. Tohim."

I snorted out alaugh.

"No need, Mrs. Walsh," the officer said, his cheeks flushing pink. "Just don't make a habit of it. This is a family neighborhood. People here areprivate."

"We're heading right out," Isaid.

The officer nodded as he handed my license back. "You do that," hesaid.

"Happy holidays," Tiel called as he walkedaway.

I rolled the window up and stayed silent until the headlights on his cruiser pointed up the street and out of sight. Eventually, I said, "I cannot believe that justhappened."

Tiel collapsed on my chest, laughing. I couldn't hold back, and laughed along withher.

"Okay, so maybe we don't do this again," Tielsaid.

I shook my head. "I wouldn't go that far," I replied. "We just need to stick to properties with functioninggarages."

Chapter Six

Nick

Iglanceddown at the shiny floors and wondered how many times in the past year I'd stood in this exact spot. Fifteen, maybetwenty.

Airports carried a bittersweet flavor, one that stuck with me as long as Erin was away. I couldn't shake it until she was back in my arms and even then I struggled to choke it down. It was a byproduct of too-short weekends stretched over too-long years apart. But when I did, when I got past the taste, I remembered that wasn't our lifeanymore.

It was hard, Erin's travel schedule, but I wouldn't trade this life for anything. We had a place of our own, a home that was new and old all at once. She was in town more often than she wasn't, and in those moments, we were busy learning how to live together. Neither of us were particularly precious about our household habits but we'd had a few tough conversations about the right way to organize kitchen cabinets and the post-shower protocol for damptowels.

We'd put some energy into developing our dinner party muscle, and credited ourselves with bringing Alex and Riley together in the process. With Erin out of the country for the past few weeks, we had yet to invite Stremmel over. That, and he was a bull fighting the chute, too busy grousing about the weather and bemoaning the shortage of parking in Boston for me to get a word inedgewise.

Travelers spilled through the sliding doors, and I knew Erin would be soon to follow. I shifted, craning my neck to scan the crowd. People were busy tucking their passports away, pulling their phones out, looking around for car servicesigns.

And then I spotted her hair. It stuck out like a blazing beacon in a dark, nondescript sea. She looked up. Our eyes met across the terminal, and she raised her hand in a quickwave.

Some part of me always expected her to barrel through the terminal and leap into my arms. Or maybe we'd run toward each other. When we met, I'd pick her up and spin in dizzying circles. I didn't know why I thought that. Neither of us tended toward flamboyant gestures, and we weren't living through a romantic comedy film. But the thought crossed my mind every time I saw her emerge fromCustoms.

Her glasses were propped on her head, and even from this distance I could tell she was dog tired. Slumped shoulders, dark circles under her eyes, sunburned nose. The reality was that she worked too damn hard. She knew no limits when it came to studying the earth, and she put those studies ahead of everything. Herself included. And her studies weren't a matter of hard thinking in an ivory tower. She climbed volcanoes, hiked deserts, traversed miles to gatherdata.

Yeah, my little lovely needed a warm bed, a soft pillow, and a longrest.

As that thought crossed my mind, my cock sent up a desperate plea. I could hear "Wait! What about my needs?" thrumming in my blood. These past weeks were the longest I could remember. The days weren't bad as I kept myself busy at the hospital, but those nights were agony. The house felt too big, too empty. I couldn't settlemyself.

It was different from the time we spent apart before…well, before. I knew what it was to wake up beside her every morning now. I knew that, for all her wandering, she was a homebody atheart.

"There's always tomorrow," I said to my cock. "And all the tomorrows afterthat."

When Erin was within feet, I stepped toward her and lifted the backpack from hershoulders.

"Thanks for that," she said, smiling up atme.

Her rolling luggage clattered to a halt beside her, and I knew this quiet, slightly awkward reunion was better than any melodramatic run-leap-swing combination. Quiet and slightly awkward was ourway.

I dropped the pack to the floor and folded her into my arms. "Anytime,Skip."

She nestled her head under my chin and, at once, we sighed. The entire world could rise and fall around us and we wouldn'tnotice.

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