And Gabe stood up.
“We’ve had a contentious relationship over the years,” he said, and both Ethan and Gene laughed.
That was a mild word for it.
“I was your boss at the beginning of your relationship, and you both denied it to me, but I knew. What you both never realized was when you two were together, there was a chemistry there. It oozed from you both, and I’ll admit…Gene wasn’t my first pick for Ethan.”
He glanced over at Elizabeth.
“I wanted a firebrand, a badass investigator, and someone who could handle the demons that my,NOW, best friend carried. Only, I picked a woman for that role. What I never expected was for her to be the bridge back for Gene and Ethan. I admit that I tried to break you both up for your‘benefit’, and that made you fight harder. So, you’re welcome.”
Ethan laughed.
“Really? You’re taking credit for it? You were an absolute nightmare.”
He winked at his friend.
There were few people who could say that to the President of the United States, but he was one of them.
“I was there for the beginning, and I’m here for this part of the journey too, and I can say one thing. I was wrong. You were both meant to be. I see the joy and happiness you both have, and how you’ve made it work. I don’t understand the dynamic of this family, but I can tell it’s successful. So, Ethan and Gene, I’m not surprised that today, twenty-three years to the date that you both became partners, that you’re still standing.”
Gene blinked.
And he did the mental math.
Oh, holy shit.
Today was the day they became field partners, and he’d moved from vice to work homicides.
Ethan squeezed his hand, so the man knew nothing was random in life. The universe played it all out as per the master plan.
Elizabeth spoke next.
“I wandered into your life at a time when there was darkness for both of us,” she admitted, getting them to turn around and face her. “You were broken in ways I’d seen before, because I was broken in those same ways, Ethan.”
They listened.
“You lost a big part of yourselves when you went your separate ways. Gene needed a break from his career, and Ethan was just starting to take off in his. In that moment, the universe put an obstacle in your path, Ethan,” she said. “Me.”
He blinked and tears slipped down his cheeks. He knew that without a shadow of a doubt, he wouldn’t be the man he was today without her either.
She fixed him for good.
What Gene began, Elizabeth completed.
“We met, and four days later, we got married. You proposed, and it was fast for a reason. You were going under because the part of you that made you a whole man was lost. We believed that I fixed you, but really, we just began assembling pieces to fix each other.”
Gene wiped his eyes.
Elizabeth continued.
“There would be no this without us,” she said, “but there would be no us without Gene. He fixed you enough to give you a fighting chance, because Fate needed time. It needed time to assemble the family we would be. When people ask how we can love so many people, and did we really believe you could have more than one soulmate, we tell them yes because we learned we could.”
Gene loved his family.
He loved it so much.
As this woman held his and Ethan’s daughter, she cuddled Willa like she was born from her own body. She loved endlessly, so those around her could feel whole.
