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“On what?” Dad asked, cocking his head.
“On whether you’re going accept what we have to say. We’ve pretty much made up our minds that we’re going to be a couple.”
Much to Lex’s surprise, when Mom’s eyes met Dad’s, they both burst into laughter.
“What’s so funny?” Amy asked, looking puzzled.
“We’ve been watching the two of you from the sidelines for a while now, and despite your closeness, Lex has never once overstepped or treated you with anything but respect. You’ve both matured into responsible young adults, and as much as we worry about the long-term relationship you’ll be struggling with since Lex will be off on tour again soon, as well as any trouble that might reoccur because of Lex’s past, whatever happens, we haven’t got the right to interfere. You’re both of age,” Mom replied, giving them a toothy smile. “Besides, when we married, your Dad was thirty-five and I was nineteen. There’s not a whole lot we can say about the two of you getting together without sounding like hypocrites.”
Dad kept laughing, but finally smiled widely at Mom, giving her the most tender look that Lex had ever seen. “I totally agree.”
“Okay, so that’s that,” Amy said, swiping the last piece of bacon from Lex’s plate and crunching it down with satisfaction.
“Hey,” Lex said, giving her a wink.
Obviously listening with intense fascination, Caleb and the twins were laughing by the time everyone went back to drinking coffee and concentrating on breakfast.
Chapter Thirty-One
After breakfast, Lex said he had a couple errands to run and insisted that Amy stick around the house and study for the next few hours. Once he returned home, they’d be on their way to lunch before he dropped her off at the college.
Deciding that it wouldn’t hurt to go over her notes at least one more time before her finals, Amy didn’t try to tag along as much as she would have liked to. Besides, she had a feeling that he wanted to do a little Christmas shopping since the next few weeks would be busy.
Once Lex left the house, Mom sat down beside her at the table.
“This is going to be hard on you, you know. Lex will be gone for months at a time and will probably return overseas. His life has probably been in danger numerous times already.”
Amy nodded. “We’ve been keeping in touch as much as we could during the last few years, so I know about a few of the things that have happened.”
Mom smiled. “I had a feeling that you and Lex were communicating a lot more than we knew, but then again, I don’t blame you for wanting to keep things under wraps until you were ready to decide whether the two of you could continue to handle a long-distance relationship.”
Amy grimaced. “Let’s not tell Grandma.”
Mom started laughing. “I was going to suggest the exact same thing.”
* * *
Since they’d come to an understanding, Lex had immediately realized that when he left Amy behind, it would be important for her to have something to represent what they meant to each other. There’d been rumors about deployment with ISIS terrorists surfacing again in Iraq, which probably meant that Lex would be stationed in Germany again for a while. At least he’d be able to keep in touch a little more consistently if that was the case.
The first place he’d thought of this morning was the gift shop at the Dragonfly Pointe Inn. The owner designed one-of-a-kind items by special order. He just didn’t know if Dawn would be able to come up with something that he could gift to Amy in time for Christmas.
He walked into the shop, which he was relieved to discover wasn’t too busy yet.
The woman behind the counter turned, appearing to immediately recognize him.
“Lex? Is that really you? Your mom didn’t tell me you were back in town. I’ll bet that everyone’s thrilled to have you home again. Will you be here long?”
“For a couple of weeks this time around,” he replied. “How have you been?”
“Good,” she answered. “I’ll have to let my son Nash know that you’re here in town. His band’s been performing regularly at the Riverbend Lodge.”
“I’ll have to bring Amy over there for dinner one night.”
She blinked. “Amy? Do you mean…?”
“Yes. We’re going to give dating a shot. In fact, that’s why I’m here. I’m going to be deployed again soon so I want to leave her with something special. We’ve always been close but during the last few years we’ve both kind of realized that what we’ve been feeling has grown stronger.”
“You know, it doesn’t really surprise me. You’re only like four years apart, aren’t you? Nash said that you were always so protective of her growing up.”
