It would’ve likely been weird with any other boyfriend she’d ever had. But with Rome? It came so naturally. Was just part of who they were as a them.
She trailed her fingertips up along his spine, living in the now. For that moment, they were cocooned together at her apartment.
“See, you’re quiet.” He pressed up over her so that they were eye-to-eye. “This is where you explain to me that you won’t be a force in the courtroom for some reason that I won’t totally understand but will find cute when you argue the point.”
“Why would I contradict you when what you say is the truth?” She winked even though she didn’t feel one ounce of humor that morning. She glanced at the clock. They had approximately forty-five minutes before they had to leave to get him to his flight from Denver’s international airport.
He hadn’t said where he was flying to, and she hadn’t asked.
Something in his expression stilled. Changed. Hardened. “It’s time. I’ve gotta get gone.”
“Big date with Louise,” Sadie said with a mock sigh of exasperation.
“What can I say? She keeps me company.” There was not a hint of humor in his words and not a centimeter of space between them as they spoke.
“You realize she’s an it and it is an inanimate object, soitcan’t keep you company,” Sadie said.
That got her a smile. “Now you’re just picking a fight to pick a fight.”
“I guess if you’re gonna cheat on me, it might as well be with your camera.”
His body tensed and his smile fell, but he didn’t say anything.
Oops.
“I mean, not like you’re cheating on me, because that would imply that we’retogethertogether, and I know we’re not together. Not like that.”
“Not like that.” He echoed her words, but his expression stayed distant.
A quick peck of a kiss and he dismounted from the bed, pulling on the jeans he’d tossed against her chair after he’d come by the evening before. He’d said goodbye to his family, and then he came to say goodbye to her. Their goodbye took all night.
She propped herself up on her elbow, pulling the sheet up to cover her naked torso.
He held her gaze, his expression softening. “I don’t do long distance. I don’t get home enough to make any relationship work. We have what we have and that’s all I can offer.”
Not all hecouldoffer but all hewouldoffer.
“All good. I get it.” She plucked at a fray on the cheap bedspread covering her used twin bed that she’d picked up at a yard sale.
“Maybe we can catch up when I do come home.” He shoved his clothes into the backpack he’d brought along. “If you’re around and I’m around—”
“When do you think that’ll be?” She wouldn’t let herself hope that he’d be coming home again soon. But maybe, just maybe, he’d be home before the end of the semester. They could catch up then and see where things took them. Maybe then he’d be ready for her.
“No idea. I’ve got a mission coming up that’ll keep me deployed for fifteen. I’ll come back for a spell afterward.”
“Fifteen.” She couldn’t help but grasp the bedspread harder. “Months?”
He nodded, his entire focus on folding his things and packing the bag. “Yeah.”
Fifteen months.
I’ll wait…The thought slid through her mind without any resistance.
Willing herself to get out of bed, she stood to dress and figure out something other than yogurt and cold cereal for breakfast. Because it’d be at least fifteen months before she saw the man she’d inadvertently handed her heart.
She’d ask for it back, but to do that, she’d have to admit it was his.
Stubborn was a trait born into her that wouldn’t allow that kind of admission.
