what I know is that I love you. And that we’re going to make this work. I’m going to make sure of it.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life. I want this so bad I’m willing to do anything to make it happen. I don’t care what other people say. What other people think.”
“But we could get in trouble.”
“You’re right. That’s why for right now it’s best to keep this to ourselves. I’ll come up with a plan. A plan that’s going to keep us together.”
“Not you will come up with a plan. We will come up with a plan.”
I looked deep into her eyes. She was smiling and her eyes held all the anticipation of a beautiful future. One with plenty of questions, but one answer. We loved each other and that was going to be enough to get us through any temporary tough times.
“Teamwork. Like we’ve always had. Since those first camping trips. When you jumped up and down in the river and scared the fish my way. Then I caught them, but it was us. We caught them together.”
“I remember. We tried to do it alone for over three hours. When we worked together it took less than five minutes.”
“Exactly.”
“We were pretty sneaky. With those fish.”
“We’ll have to rely on that sneakiness a little longer. Not in a bad way, but we have to be careful about this right now.”
“You’re right. Plus it adds to the excitement. Like we might get caught.”
“But of course we’re not going to.”
“It’s going to be hard to contain all this passion.”
“You can say that again.”
“And don’t forget about our chocolate syrup bet.”
“I didn’t mismark the targets the second day.”
“Looks like a missed opportunity on your part. But don’t worry. I know just where that bottle of chocolate syrup is going to go and let’s say we’ll both be winners this time.”
She gave me a wink. I smirked. I couldn’t wait to cover her in that chocolate and lick every last inch of her body.
We got dressed and snuck out the back door. We walked back towards the barracks. It was totally dark now. We stopped in the grass field and lay down on our backs.
“Remember when we used to look in the forest and count the stars?”
“You always won at that game.”
“That’s because you’d fall asleep first.”
“Falling asleep is the last thing I feel like doing right now. Unless of course you’re in my arms.” Zoe rolled over half on top of me. Taking turns looking me in the eyes and looking up to the stars.
“See anything interesting up there tonight,” she asked with a smile.
“Of course.”
“And what might that be?”
“I see a universe that’s beautiful. Where the sun rises and sets. Where nature rules over all and where miracles can happen.”
“Like us?”
“Just like us.”
“Anything else you see?”
“Everything else I see is right in front of me. Right in your eyes. I see love. I see a future, and one day a family. A little family of our very own.”
“Promise, Bolt?”
“I promise, Wide Right.”