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I feel my eyes widen. My brow lifts as I joke about maybe needing to have checked her ID.
She softly punches my chest, pouting and reminding me she’s not a kid anymore.
Certainly not.
“But you are still… Half my age?” I challenge her, not wanting an argument but needing to remind her.
It won’t ever be easy as far as other people are concerned.
People who starts with the one man I know we both have in our minds, after our happiness.
“We’ll just have to keep it between us,” she reasons, finally turning onto her back and thrusting her hands down by her sides.
Making me wish I’d never brought it up.
We were perfect a second ago, why go ruin it now?
Because I know her dad is gonna be the first person apart from ourselves to sense what’s happened, that’s why.
And we both know it.
“Just hold me,” she says, reading my mind as if it’s her own. “Hold me until I fall asleep and then let’s wake up and start the rest of our lives. Together,” she purrs, mewing a little sound I can’t help but hug and hold until she does just that.
She falls asleep in my arms and I doze against her, my face nuzzled into her neck with my arms holding her close to my body.
I can’t say how much time passes, the low monotone from the TV suddenly seems louder though.
Lifting my dreamy head off the soft couch, I strain to hear the storm.
I can’t hear anything except the rise and fall of my girl’s sleeping breath.
The TV and my own mind suddenly snapping into action.
I groan inwardly, knowing what I’d rather be doing but it is my job after all.
Ranger Ben.
It sounds like there’s been a shift in the weather and I need to go check it out, but pulling myself away from Stacey feels so wrong right now.
Disengaging from her grip while she sleeps, my god, how this girl can sleep I grin to myself.
“I’d rather stay here with you,” I whisper. She shifts in her sleep, as I kiss her brow.
“Ranger Ben, I love you,” she murmurs, smiling before she goes back to sleep, knowing I have a bigger responsibility than my wants just now.
My desires.
But never as big as my love for the young woman I can now call my own.
“I do have work, honey,” I remark. “But I’ll be as quick as I can,” I tell her softly, kissing her until I see her smile again, curling up into the blankets like a cat who could sleep for a whole day knowing she’s got what she needed too.
I make my way upstairs as quiet as I can, totally aware of how quiet everything is.
Too quiet, and that can only mean one thing.
I head straight for my desk, and tapping open the constant stream of weather and other national data before I even open a single shutter, I feel mixed emotions.
The storm has passed, blown back out to sea in a few hours after causing havoc in not just my park, but a huge section of the Eastern seaboard.
Blown itself away while my love blew me away with her perfect contract to be mine from now on.
Overlord weather patterns need not apply. My girl is mine, and I’m hers.
It’s between us, nothing and nobody else.
It’s still early though, not even seven, and the radio alarm chimes at the same moment my email and satellite phone set off.
I wonder for a second if it’s a trick of the storm, but no.
Communications are back online and everybody wants a piece of me, all at once.
The only one who matters to me though is so far out of reach already in our makeshift bed, I wonder: Is this the life I really want?
I could quit tomorrow and still have enough to support me, Stacey, and any sized family she wants.
But there’s still the question of duty.
I’ve never been a man to abandon his post, even though the answer to every prayer, fantasy, and dream is only a few yards away from me.
I deal with the radio first.
It could be anything or it could be nothing, but the timed alarm to log on my signal is motivation enough to have me deal with that first.
Even before a real cup of coffee.
Pouch stuff really isn’t just the same, I decide as I press the button, hailing what news comes in.
Not much of its good either.
Maybe it’s time for breakfast instead?
Chapter Thirteen
Stacey
Waking to an empty blanket instead of Ben makes me sit up.
I blink and look around, yawning. Figuring he must be in the bathroom or someplace equally important until I notice it.
The silence.
For once, there’s not a terrible sound from somewhere outside, and glancing at the muted TV screen, I can see the news reports Ben still has us tuned to, showing the widespread damage across the whole state, not just where we are.
