Emotion punches through me hard enough that my eyes blur again.
“You’d do that?” I whisper. “Move for me? Plan your career around mine?”
He gives me a look. “You have no idea how gone for you I am, do you?”
I let out a wet laugh. “I mean, I had my suspicions.”
He shakes his head, a faint smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
“Listen,” he says, more serious now. “If you get into a school on the East Coast, we’ll figure it out. Maybe I do a training assignment stateside. Maybe I take a position teaching or doing recruitment. Maybe I stay here on medical leave a little longer while you finish undergrad, and we re-evaluate when it’s time for you to move. There are options. I’m not going to disappear on you.”
Fear still curls in my stomach, but it’s quieter now. Smaller.
“What do you want?” I ask softly. “If you could pick anything. Without thinking about me or money or what you think you should do. What do you want?”
“I want you,” he says simply. “That’s not me trying to be romantic. That’s just… truth. I want you. In my house. In my bed. In my life. I want to see you in a white coat with your name embroidered on it. I want to go to your med school graduation and embarrass you by cheering too loudly. I want to hold your hand while you deliver other people’s babies and come home and talk my ear off about it.”
My heart threatens to explode. A tear slips down my cheek.
“Whatever you want,” I say again, because I can’t help it. “If you want to go back, we’ll make it work. If you want to stay onmedical leave longer, we’ll make that work too. I don’t want you to give up a piece of yourself for me.”
He leans in and presses his forehead to mine. “I’m not giving anything up. I’m changing missions.”
My breath catches.
He pulls back enough to look me in the eye. “I want to stay here with you. At least until you hear back from med schools. I want to be the one driving you to campus, bringing you lunch, and watching you freak out over acceptance letters. I want to be here when you decide where you’re going, so we can sit at our kitchen table and map out our next move together. After that… we’ll see what makes the most sense. For both of us.”
Relief and love and hope surge through me all at once. I launch myself across the console and kiss him.
He’s ready for it this time, one hand cupping the back of my head, the other still gripping my hand like he has no intention of ever letting go. The angle is awkward, half my body stretched over the gear shift, but I don’t care.
He loves me.
He wants to stay.
He’s choosing us.
When we finally come up for air, I’m half in his lap, my pulse racing.
“If I go to the East Coast,” I say, breathless, “you’ll come with me?”
He brushes his thumb over my lower lip. “I’ll follow you anywhere,” he says simply. “Pine Valley, Boston, the damn moon. You tell me where you need to be, and I’ll figure out how to get there too.”
I laugh, giddy and choked up. “The moon doesn’t have a med school,” I point out.
He grins. “Yet.”
Another wave of affection crashes over me. I kiss him again, softer this time. When I pull back, my voice is steadier.
“Take me to bed,” I whisper.
His eyes darken instantly. “Yes, Mrs. Bennett,” he rumbles.
I press my face into his neck, breathe him in, and whisper it back as he carries me over the threshold and into our home.
Into our future.
ELEVEN
