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“I love you so much, Winston. This morning, when you came racing up like that, I was so scared you were losing it. I’m scared to death of losing you. I know what it feels like now and I just... But...living without you is even worse.”
“You were okay, Em. Sad. Lonely. But you were okay. You had the strength of my love, I see that now. As I had yours. Our love gave me the strength to survive, and it did the same for you, too, you know. You took our love to the fertility clinic and made a life that would make you happy. That’s what finally came to me. Our love is real, Em. It’s so real its strength continues even if our physical bodies don’t. That’s what the Garrisons know. And why they’re still okay, even with Danny gone. Because the love doesn’t leave. It never will. Ever.”
He held her while she cried. He cried some, too. They talked a lot. He told her how petrified he’d been when she’d first mentioned an active shooter that morning. About all the nights in the desert when he had lain not sleeping, able to stay awake because those were the hours he could spend with her uninterrupted. How he’d suddenly remember little moments that had long been forgotten.
And then they made love. Long, slow, tender love that ended with a single thrust home. It was all he had, one thrust, and he exploded inside her. Something else he’d never done with Afsoon—come inside her. Someday he’d share that with Emily, too, but not then.
He didn’t want the other woman anywhere near Emily again that night.
He wasn’t just imagining Emily’s arms. He was in them.
“I was thinking,” he said, sometime past three in the morning. They’d yet to sleep. He didn’t even feel tired.
“What?” she asked, grinning, as she propped herself up on his chest and looked at him expectantly. His Emily. Always open to whatever he had to say.
“That maybe we should name our baby Danny.”
Tears filled her eyes again. “Our baby,” she said.
“Our baby,” he agreed, his hand reaching down to cup her stomach. “My son.”
“Daniel Harold Hannigan,” she said, sniffling and smiling. “I love it.”
He did, too. And fully believed that Danny would approve, wherever he might be.
Looking around the room, seeing mostly the night’s shadows, Winston gave a nod to the powers he couldn’t see. Fate was out there, someplace. Working hard to bring happiness to others.
With another silent nod, an inner smile, he saluted her.
Mission accomplished.
* * *
