Page 78 of Sam's Secret
“You’re a soft touch,” I said.
“You were about to give her some.”
“Fair point.”
We finished dinner slowly, eventually ending up on the back deck with coffee, watching the sun set over the mountains in the distance. Chloe was tucked against my side, her head on my shoulder, my arm around her waist. Both dogs had followed us outside and were sprawled at our feet.
We sat in comfortable silence as the sky turned from gold to pink to purple. Twenty-five years ago, I’d been standing in this same spot, terrified I’d lost Chloe forever because I’d been too afraid to trust her with the truth. Now here we were, gray in our hair and laugh lines around our eyes, still choosing each other every single day.
“Sam?” Chloe’s voice was soft in the twilight. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For loving me. Yesterday, today, tomorrow. Forever and always.”
I cupped her face in my hands, the same way I had twenty-five years ago when I’d proposed, the same way I had on our wedding day, the same way I would for the rest of our lives. “Chloe Mitchell, marrying you and building this family with you is the best decision I’ve ever made. Every day for twenty-five years, and every day for the next twenty-five. I love you.”
“I love you, Sam Mitchell,” she whispered back.
“Forever and always,” I completed, and kissed my wife as the sun set on our twenty-fifth anniversary.
