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I patted my chest and torso. “What, where?”
“Your big ‘ol grin.”
Loyalty wasn’t the word I’d use since moving home meant abandoning my Marine Corps family. So, before the guilt could creep in, I changed the subject. “Do you have a big family?”
“Nope. Just me, my brother, and our parents,” she answered breezily, taking another sip of champagne. “Lots of cousins, if that counts.”
“I think it does. We’ve got a few cousins we’d go to bat for even though we haven’t seen ‘em in years. That’s what family does.”
“Another thing we agree on,” she said, clinking our glasses together again.
We sipped, then I frowned as I studied the half-empty flute. “You know, these were passed out for New Year’s. If we’re not careful, we won’t have much left for the countdown.”
“Good thing it’s only a few minutes away.”
Seizing the opening, I asked, “Wanna pick apart my New Year’s resolution and see what it’ll tell ya about me?”
“I would love to.” Her eyes lit up, and I almost had to take a step back. Turned out the green was even brighter when a hint of mischief was involved.
“Alright, here goes,” I began, straightening to my full height. “This year, I wanna get serious about the future. I wanna make plans to settle down, figure out what that’ll look like… and maybe even who it’ll be with.”
She tilted her head, her brows pinching. “I’m not sure you can plan thewhopart in advance.”
“No, maybe not,” I conceded. “But I can plan to look for her, can’t I?”
“I suppose so.” She held my gaze for a moment before looking away with a hint of a blush. “Anyway, I guess that tells me you really might be that stand-up guy you said you were.”
“Told you. Now, your turn.” I said, nudging her with my arm as I leaned against the stone railing again. When she made a face, I chuckled. “What, no resolution?”
“Nope.”
“You’re kiddin’.”
She shook her head, sending her long brown waves swaying around her face.
“You seem like the kinda woman who’d love a good resolution just so you can check it off your list.”
“By that logic, my planner is full of resolutions. Daily ones. I don’t need New Year’s as an excuse to do somethin’.”
“That makes sense,” I said. Then I pursed my lips. “My brothers and I get our momma an apron with a funny sayin’ on it every year for Mother’s Day. You think we should do it more often than that?”
“Eh, at least flowers die. How many aprons does she really need?”
“If you asked my momma?—”
“She’d say she could never have enough, and your old man would say she already had too many,” she filled in. “Right?”
“Spot on,” I said.
And then… I laughed.
And it felt amazing, as did the realization that I hadn’t thought about work or duty or who needed me the entire time we’d been out here. I loved what I did and who I served, but at the end of the day, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt this… free.
Relaxed.
Young.
That was a new one. I hadn’t even felt young when Iwasyoung. My brothers were such a handful in their own ways that I did everything I could to be the one no one talked about unless it was for something good—and that meant keeping myself out of trouble and keeping the other three in line.
