“Once we cemented the bond, we only have ten years,” she countered softly. “If we don’t want to have babies one after the other, we’ll have to start soon.”
“We don’t have to think about it yet.”
“But if we wait until all of this is over,” she argued. “We might miss our chance.”
“We’ll figure it out before it becomes an issue.”
“You don’t know that.”
Instead of arguing with her anymore, I held my tongue. I didn’t want to waste one of the only times we’d been alone going back and forth about it.
I wanted to hold my mate in my arms and stare at the stars. I’d been waiting my whole life for that moment.
“I should probably go back to school,” she said after a little while.
“Why’s that?”
“Well, I know that Uncle Dalton won’t let me work for him in the field anymore,” she replied tiredly. “And since I don’t want to work for another security company, I should probably learn a new skill.”
“What do you think you’d like to do?” I asked, wondering what I would do now that I could no longer work for Vampire Command. It didn’t really matter. I was wealthy enough that neither of us ever had to work again if we didn’t want to.
Rosemary sighed. She wasn’t going to be content without a purpose, and I understood the feeling.
“Probably something with computers,” she said finally. “I’d like to continue working for Strike if possible. Filing andanswering phones isn’t really my jam, and I don’t want to work with money. But I could do IT shit.”
“Is that a formal position?” I asked.
“IT shitter,” she replied, nodding. “Very lucrative.”
“We’ll figure it out, baby,” I assured her. “We have time.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because it’s true.”
Ifeltthe moment that the reality of just how much time stretched out before her finally sank in. Her body seemed to sink into mine, going boneless against me.
“Shit,” she whispered.
Chapter 9
Rosemary
Iliked a plan. I liked executing that plan well. I liked making new plans once I’d completed the old ones. I liked structure. Predictability. I liked knowing where I’d be, when I’d be there, how I’d get there, and what steps I needed to take.
So waiting around my pop’s place for something to happen was basically torture.
When Daniel had reminded me that I hadtimeto figure out what I wanted to do with my life, it had taken a moment for his words to sink in fully. It wasn’t just a platitude or a way to keep me from worrying. He’d meant it. The amount that stretched out before me was almost hard to comprehend.
I’d lived my entire life with an end in sight. Sure, I’d assumed that I wouldn’t die until I was old, barring any missions that went bad, but I’d always known, as everyone does, that there was an end date planned for me. Logically, I’d always understood that Uncle Dalton and Aunt Halle were different, but I’d never let myself imagine what that felt like.
It wasn’t for me, so I’d pushed it out of my head.
Now, it seemed to be the only thing I could think about.
Daniel left again. And again. And again.
I would’ve thought that it would get easier because he came back every time, but it didn’t. The panic and sorrow and pain seemed to be getting worse, not better, when he drove away.
