Page 74 of Forever Fallen

“I feel tension between us, and I will freely admit that I need to work on communication on my end,” she smiled tearfully. “I trust you implicitly and realized that I don’t care about Friday or anything else – so long as you are beside me.”

“And when I have to leave?”

“Then a part of me goes with you,” she replied easily. “I don’t think that I am just Sophie anymore… there is a part of you here in my heart – and you’ll be taking a part of me to Afghanistan.”

“You will never have to worry about where I stand with you,” he said softly, touching her cheek. “But tell me if there is something in your past that hurt you, so I know never to do it. If secrets or surprises aren’t your thing – then I will make sure to work on communication on my end, too.”

“I know you were doing it because…”

“Because I love you, Sophie.”

“I love you, too.”

“While I’m thinking about it,” Ryan began gingerly. “We got invited to go to dinner with everyone Friday night. I was going to tell you earlier, but we had other things to work out.”

“My paranoia?” she admitted ruefully.

“I’m guessing you are a little possessive?” he teased softly.

“I’m very possessive apparently,” she confessed. “When you said Karen’s name – I saw red.”

“Karen’s certainly not my type. I’m not looking either - especially when I somehow magically conned the most gorgeous woman in the world into marrying me, before letting me slip into her bedroom to cement the deal,” he smiled tenderly. “It was the towel pose, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah…” she grinned, realizing he was playing with her.

“I love my possessive wife and know better now…” Ryan leaned upwards, propping his head on his hand. “Are we okay?”

“I hope so,” she said openly, leaning upwards to mimic his position as she propped her head on her hand. “I sincerely need us to be.”

“Me too.”

“And if we are ever ‘not okay’… I want us to talk it out,” Ryan urged softly, reaching out to trace her lower lip. “No crying, no screaming or yelling, and no arguing. We need to talk about things because we love each other.”

“Agreed,” she said emphatically and hesitated.

“What?”

“I know we started at a month, then a year, then five years, now we are up to ten or twenty years…” Sophie said softly, looking at Ryan. “Can we just settle onforeverat some point – because I cannot imagine life without you.”

“Foreversounds pretty amazing,” Ryan smiled. “I will happily agree to forever with you… or so.”

“You don’t mind after my harpy-like antics?”

“Nope,” he uttered plainly, pulling her towards him and hugging her. “Our pillow talk needs work, but hey? If this is where the magic happens then I suppose we can talk about anything here, too.”

Sophie smiled and nuzzled him, on the shoulder where her head seemed to fit just right against him despite his dog tags lying there.

“Thisiswhere the magic happens,” she whispered, smiling at his term. “Right here, from the first moment where you and I met.”

“Can I ask you a silly question?”

“I think we are past that…” she chuckled, “but ask away.”

“When we first met, looking back now, do you think that there was some magic there… and would you change any of it?”

“Wow,” Sophie hedged, surprised at his question. “I was actually thinking about this the other day.”

“You were?”

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