Page 68 of High Water

We walk back to our rooms after the reception is over and Hazel has taken Fallon back to the ranch for the night. I reserved two rooms, side by side, claiming we’d need them for prep before the wedding, and it’d be nice to have the extra space and a way to make sure I didn’t see the bride before the wedding on our wedding day. No one had batted an eyelash, thankfully.

“So I had to buy a new dress, but you get to reuse an old ring you always wear? It’s not one you wore with an old girlfriend, is it?” She eyes me as we reach our hotel room doors, echoing my own words back to me.

“Mmm. Well, it is,” I answer her as she unlocks her door.

“What?” She whips around on me, her eyes bright with irritation. “Then you’re getting a new one tomorrow!”

“I’ve had it for going on almost two decades. Not getting rid of it now.”

She frowns as she realizes that’s during the time frame we only ever saw each other.

“I never got you a ring.” She ushers me into the room to continue our conversation. There’s a pass-through door between our rooms that I left unlocked so I can return to my own easily.

“No, but you gave me a lock of hair when I went off to boot camp. I had it set into the ring so I could have it with me wherever I went. I was worried I’d lose it.” I pull the ring off and turn it on its side so she can see the inset. She takes it from me and turns it over in her palm.

“You kept it all this time?”

I nod and then take her hand in mine, turning it palm side down and running the pad of my finger over her ring.

“And this one is my mom’s,” I explain.

“Bishop! I can’t wear your mom’s ring!”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s not right. I know how much your mom meant to you. It’s too precious. You should keep it somewhere safe and make sure nothing happens to it.” She moves to take it off, and I still her hands.

“Honey, you’re the most precious thing in the world as far as I’m concerned. So if it’s on you, it’s the safest place it could be because I intend to make sure you stay that way with every breath I’ve got in me.”

“Bishop… You can’t just say things like that.” Her eyes are glassy with tears, and her lip subtly quivers.

“I can’t say things like that to my wife?” I smile, squeezing her hand. “Besides,” I continue. “I want Fallon to have it someday, and I know it’ll mean more to her this way.”

TWENTY-SEVEN

Aspen

“It’ll mean more when you tell her about your mom. She was one of the sweetest people I’ve ever known.” A flash of her smiling at us the last night I saw her comes to mind. She died not long after our visit to her in hospice, her fight with cancer finally taking her away in the night.

“She was.” He nods, contemplative in the silence that follows before he shakes his head. “I’ve got a wedding gift for you.”

“A wedding gift? Bishop, you already got me so much. I can’t imagine what else I need.”

“Just wait and see.” He urges me to be patient before he crosses the threshold between our rooms, returning with a wrapped box. He sets it on the small dining table at the side of the room and nods for me to open it.

I peel back the carefully tied ribbon and the neatly taped white and gold wrapping paper to find an expensive bottle of whiskey and a set of tumblers inside.

“You recognize the brand?” he asks.

“I don’t think so. Should I? Is it your favorite?” I rack my brain for memories I’ve locked away.

“You could say that.” He smirks. “It’s the one we borrowed from your dad’s liquor cabinet that one night in the bunkhouse.”

“Oh god. I remember the whiskey, but I didn’t realize we had such expensive taste or remember us having the audacity to steal something like that from my dad.” I stare down at the bottle, my heart fluttering at the thought of the two of us sneaking off with this so many years ago. My father’s lecture would have been legendary if he’d found us.

“Seemed like the kind of night that was worth the risk, seeing as I was leaving the next day.”

“Right.” I rub the heel of my palm over my sternum. My heart still hurts thinking about it. I cried myself to sleep for weeks afterward, convinced I’d never see him again and worried he could die if he was deployed. “I was so miserable without you.”