18
I knew itwas coming. He was doing so well. The wounds on his arm and stomach had healed and faded to a dark pink, and his limp was nearly gone, the infection in his leg having healed, his strength and mobility returning.
“A week?” I said, sinking to the blanket he’d just laid out.
It was my day off and we were enjoying another picnic under our favorite tree.
“At least I’ll be close,” he said.
But we both knew his proximity to where I was stationed or where I flew in to pick up the wounded didn’t matter. It was the fact that he was reentering the war that was the very terrifying problem.
“William,” I whispered, reaching for him.
He pulled me close.
In the end, we didn’t stay long under our tree. I was too distracted to listen to the new poems he read, the grass I pulled from the earth wilting beneath my fingertips as I forgot to braid it, my mind on the fact that by this time next week he’d be running toward the enemy as bullets flew toward him.
“Kate,” he said, taking the blades carefully from my fingers. “Let’s go.”
“Where?”
He smiled softly and held out a hand, pulling me to my feet.
We spent the remainder of the day in the room we always rented, his body curled around mine, my body curled around his, as we talked, made love, and dozed in the sunlight streaming through the crack in the curtains.
At dinnertime we wandered downstairs and made our way to one of our favorite pubs, smiling and nodding to the familiar faces as we took a seat at a corner table and ordered from the meager menu.
We returned to our room afterward, William sitting on the edge of the bed and wrapping his arms around my waist, resting his forehead on my stomach as I ran my fingers through his hair.
“I don’t want to leave you,” he said as tears ran down my face and fell, landing on the back of my hand.
“I don’t want you to go,” I whispered.
When we made love again, we did so quietly, slowly, our eyes drinking each other in as we moved together. I felt as though my every nerve ending was alight, his hands on my skin making me feel more alive and more aware than I’d ever been before. His breaths echoed in my ears, the beating of his heart reverberated against me...through me.
Afterward we lay together, our bodies intertwined, our gazes fixed on one another. I was unable to say a word. All I could do was watch him, drink him in, as I tried to absorb every second I had with him until he fell asleep, and then I did.
“Kate.”
I woke to William whispering my name, his lips trailing a path over my shoulder to my neck.
It was still dark out and I groaned and shook my head. I didn’t want the night to be over. I wasn’t ready.
“Come with me,” he said.
“It’s time to go already?” I asked.
“Not yet. But I need you to wake up a little early today. Please?”
I blinked in the dark, confused, tired, and then smiled at his face above mine. I could not and would not ever resist him.
“Okay,” I said.
We left a half hour earlier than we normally did, the sun still a couple hours away from appearing, making the ride on our bicycles a little more difficult, the air a touch too cool.
I didn’t ask questions. I knew if William had asked me to get up earlier than we normally did, he had a good reason, and I would follow him anywhere.
As we coasted down a slight hill, he looked over his shoulder and smiled at me in the dark. I grinned back, my chest swelling with love for this man I hadn’t expected to meet. Hadn’t wanted to meet. And yet succumbed to his charms regardless, because that was how love worked. No matter how determined one was to not find it. How difficult and frightening it was to feel it. Love didn’t care. Circumstances be damned. It wanted to be known, felt, and returned.
