“I’ll be thirty-five minutes away,” I tell Mom. “I can come home any time for any reason.”
“I know, honey. I raised two girls who turned out pretty amazing. I promise I’ll be smart enough to call if I think he needs his mama.” She kisses me goodbye and then gives Shadow a huge hug, patting him on his broad back.
We leave after a few more rounds of kisses to our son’s cheeks, and then I head for the new carport where my car is parked.
“Sweetheart, this way.” Shadow cocks his head toward the garage.
I follow him inside, where he’s got the GTO loaded up with our bags.
“No way,” I tell him. “We’re driving this?”
He pulls me close and leans me over the hood for a long, passionate kiss. “I thought if you had any second thoughts about leaving our son, we could shut the garage door, get dirty, and then go right back inside.”
I laugh, kissing him back. “If you want to scar me for life, then yes, please have sex with me on the hood of your classic car with my parents on the other side of this wall.”
But when he cups my ass and pulls me close, I half reconsider our plan.
“Do we still have condoms in the glove box?” I tease as we get in the car.
“Yeah, but I’m gonna toss ’em.” He fires up the ignition. “I wanna fill you with as many babies as you can handle.”
I hold up a finger. “Let’s get through a few more months with the one we have before we work on any more, okay?”
“I love you, Violet Butcher,” he says.
“I love you too, Johnny Butcher. So, so much.”
We met in a storm, when the world was dark and terrifying and I couldn’t find my way through.
Now, the future is spread out in front of us like an open road. No matter what lies ahead, I know I won’t ever be scared again.
I won’t be alone or lost.
Even if there is no sunshine, there will never be a darkness too great that I can’t find my way through.
Not as long as I have my Shadow.
* * *
