Page 115 of Buck & Mari
“Heath?”
Just the way she said his name gave him new strength. “Yeah?”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.” His answer was immediate. The easiest answer in the world. “What do you want to know?”
She leaned her cheek on his shoulder, and he could imagine the look in her eyes as she looked up at him.
“Are you really going to leave the Marines?”
He didn’t answer her right then.
Before the storm, before the flood, he would have answered her with ‘yes’ in a heartbeat. He’d decided on a quiet life. What he’d do for a living? He had no idea, but he’d wanted out.
Now?
“I want you to think about it again,” her voice was softer, but he could hear her words as if she was speaking directly into his ear. “I think you’re born for it. Watching you today, working with your team. I see who you are.”
He swallowed, but the knot in his throat didn’t move.
“You could do anything you want, Heath. Anything. You’d be the same man in my eyes as a Marine or a civilian. I just want you to do what makes you happy. What… what makes you feel alive.”
He pulled her closer, listening to the rain pelting the water around them, peppering across his skin and hers.
“You,” he told her, hoping that she could hear the truth in his voice, “you make me feel alive, Mari. Loving you, makes me feel alive.”
He felt her hug him tighter and he heard a buzz in his head. Felt a shudder rolling through him.
“When we’re safe and dry,” he touched his cheek against her temple, “we’ll talk. Whatever decision I make for the rest of my life, it’s just not mine anymore.”
He felt her hold her breath, they were that close to each other.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” he smiled, feeling like he could finally see a light in front of them. “It’s ours, Mari. You and me.”
She held him tighter and it was so tight, he saw a flare of light around the edges of his vision.
A light that brightened as the buzz in his head got louder and louder.
A light that…
“Buck! Buck!”
The light pooled around them in the water and the rain driving down at them from the sky was visible like silver needles falling through the air.
He looked up, blinking, and heard more voices calling out to him.
The buzz?
A motor.
A boat.
The first face he saw was Riptide leaning against the edge of the boat, his arm outstretched.
Beside him, Buck could see Hoss, Kid, Arctic, and… Pallas.
