The adoration in her voice twisted something inside of him. Something that wished for all that goodness for her. For himself. Her next words, however, shocked him.
“I didn’t ask for the weirdness of this life, Ryder. And I know there’s a part of me—and of you—that I will be forever denying. Even with all that…I couldn’t go. I couldn’t leave you.”
“But you would have been free of all this,” he said, holding his hands out to everything around them. To all the things that could never bring her the joy that heaven could.
She cradled his face in her hands. “Our journey together isn’t over. There’s more we have to do.”
Impossible to imagine she would sacrifice heaven for him, and yet…she was here. He laid his hands at her waist and drew her into his arms.
“I want to be with you. For as long as that might be,” she said. A shiver worked through her body.
“You okay?”
Her eyes swam with tears waiting to be shed. “How long will that be, now, Ryder? I’m not like you, but I’m not normal anymore, either.”
“I don’t know, but as long as we’re together—”
“We will cherish every morning that we wake in each other’s arms.” She flashed him that brilliant smile even as the tears spilled down her face. “Together we will handle whatever comes our way.”
When Ryder bent his head, she went on tiptoe and met his lips with hers. She pressed herself close, his arms providing her more than she could have imagined. Love. Acceptance. Peace. She knew that when death called again, she would be strong enough to battle it with Ryder and his love beside her.
“Would tomorrow be too soon to move in?” she asked.
Grinning, he whispered against her lips, “Why put off until tomorrow—”
“What you can do today?” She tugged on his lower lip with her teeth. “It can wait an hour, can’t it?”
His mischievous boyish grin said all was right with the world. “Only an hour, love?”
“Okay, maybe later. Much, much later.”
After all, they had a lifetime of mornings to share.
Death Calls Page 18
