Page 68 of Mating of Convenience
“It’s fine. You’ve always had your head in the stars, just remember to come down to earth once in a while, all right?”
“I assure you I’ve got my feet firmly on the ground.”
“Is that why you nearly ran into me?”
No, that was because I’d been thinking about my husband and how to help him over the loss of our child. But something my dad had said sparked an idea in me.
You’ve always had your head in the stars.
Wasn’t that just perfect?
* * *
“Where exactly are we going?”Raphael asked for the third time since we’d gotten into the car, apparently not discouraged by the fact that I’d ignored his questions so far. “And what’s in that bag on the backseat?”
I grinned at him. “Now you’re asking the right questions! It’s a portable telescope.”
“A telescope?” Raph had been looking at the bag but now his attention snapped back to me. “Isn’t it a little cold to be out stargazing tonight?”
The nightshadbecome cold, but we were going to be fine. This was going to be worth it. “Trust me on this.”
“Okay, but if I get any frost bite, I’ll blame you.”
I had to laugh at his prickly tone. Raph had always been a summer child, pouting as soon as the leaves started turning color as if they did it just to spite him. “You won’t be getting frost bitten,” I told him. “You’ll enjoy this.”
“Enjoy what exactly?” he tried again.
“You’ll see.”
I was driving us up on a hill just outside of town. By this point, Raph should have realized where we were going. I’d taken him here before, back when I was a star-gazing teen and I wanted to share my obsession with the new friend I’d made.
“Oh wait,” Raph said, looking out the window at the glowing lights of the town below us. “Isn’t this where you broke your arm?”
“Yeah, it is.” Not my favorite memory. But ithadbrought Raph and me closer together. He was the first to draw on my cast and make me feel better about it. He’d put a ninja turtle on it, another of my obsessions at the time.
“Are we coming here to reminisce?” Raph asked.
“Not really,” I said, keeping my eyes on the road. We were almost there now.
When I finally parked the car on top of the hill, my husband climbed out of it faster than I could. For claiming to hate the cold, he sure braved the outdoors quickly. I smiled to myself as I grabbed my bag and followed Raph outside. My mate had always been curious.
“So what are we doing here?” he asked, peering up into the sky as I joined him.
“We’re going to have a little talk and then we’re going to look at the stars.”
“You want to have a talk out here?” Raph looked at me as if I’d gone insane. “We could have had a talk in our living room. Where it’s warm.”
“We could have, but where’s the romance in that?”
Raph opened his mouth, then closed it again, obviously drawing a blank. “You think it’s romantic if we jointly freeze to death?” he asked eventually.
“Don’t be so dramatic. We’re not going to freeze. Here, I’ll keep you warm.” I laid a hand around his shoulders and drew him to my side until I felt the warm weight of his body next to mine. I knew he was going to need the contact in a moment. “We need to talk about the baby.”
“What?” Raph’s eyes snapped to me, surprise and disbelief coloring his gaze in equal measures. I couldn’t blame him for that. After that night in the hospital, we’d hardly talked about what happened. We’d simply tried to process the events on our own. That needed to change.
“I think we need to acknowledge what happened and how it made us feel so we can move on. You were pregnant and now you’re not and I know you can’t just shrug it off. Neither can I.”
“Okay, maybe you have a point. Did we really need to come out here for that, though?”
