Chapter 174

Dan frowns and tries again. Two fingers this time, and he tells them, “Okay, so we can take three of you?”

My heart swells with their laughter—I never imagined he’d be this playful around kids. While he negotiates the seating arrangements, I cross in front of the car, already lost in thought. My mom should see him like this, thenshe’ll fall for him. Further proof that Evie would’ve loved him, I knowit. And who’s to say maybe there won’tbe grandkids down the road? Years from now, of course, after I’m through with school and he’s out of the military, when we’ve been together for so long that every breath I take without him by my side just doesn’t seem right, when we’re married, maybe then we can discuss something like adoption. True, I could do without the screaming and carrying on, but the easy way he teases my young cousins brings out a whole new side to him, another facet beyond the soldier, a hint at the man inside whom I so dearly love—