Page 332 of Every Almost

She probably had.

Her hand rose to Reyna’s cheek, Reyna leaning into the touch.

Charlie’s expression softened.

“Hi,” she whispered.

The word moved through Reyna with all the lives it had already lived between them before she felt her own smile begin.

“Hi.”

Charlie kissed her, slowly, until it changed into something they knew they had found, and still couldn’t believe it belonged to them.

They had spent so long stealing moments from the universe.

Tonight, they'd let the universe do the waiting.

EPILOGUE: DAY ONE

EARTH YEAR 1990 / COALITION CYCLE 500 / JUNE 25TH

? EMBERKIND CV-0417, SECTOR KORRAL, REGION 7 ?

SIX DAYS LATER

Tavi was cleaningup the music system’s logs after the week it had endured. The Captain’s birthday had pulled music into the library as if on overdrive, the emergency request during the Korallis mission had forced him to override half the program’s safeguards, and somebody in the Wetlands Habitat had played “Eye of the Tiger” fourteen times in one shift.

In other words, typical routine maintenance for Tavi's program.

He was halfway through the Observation Room’s playback history from the week when one entry stopped him.

00:57:18.442 — Playback complete: “I Wanna Dance with Somebody.”

00:57:19.731 — Playback initiated: “Into the Mystic.”

Source library: Charlie Wickett.

Initiating user: none.

Tavi stared at the final line.

Then he reloaded the history to see if the information would populate.

Nothing changed.

“Hey, Maren,” he called. “Come tell me I’m being dramatic.”

Maren looked up from the propulsion console. “Do you need evidence? I have plenty of evidence to provide if you need proof you're walking drama."

“Ha ha, very funny," Tavi said. "Just come here.”

She crossed the bay and leaned over him. Her shimmer brightened as she read the log, the violet-gray light moving quickly across her eyes.

“Huh, that's strange," she said. "But isn't that just autoshuffle doing its job?”

“That’s what I thought. But check this out.”

Tavi opened the selection tree beneath the entry.