There was a moment of complete silence and then all three of them burst out laughing.
***
Tanner left after lunch, but Garrett wasn’t ready to call it a day. It was incredibly warm outside, and he wanted to jump into the lake for a swim. He worried how Reese might feel about that after her ordeal, but she just smiled and dove in ahead of him.
“Come on,” she said, pushing her hair back from her face. “The water actually feels incredible in this heat.”
He laughed and cannonballed in. Nothing was going to stop him from soaking up as much time with her as he possibly could. They swam around, splashing each other playfully, and racing to see who was faster. Of course, he was, but he let her beat him a few times because he never wanted her to feel like she wasn’t the strong, brave, bad ass woman he knew her to be.
“Are you sure about this?” Reese asked, a little while as he slipped a hand just under the surface of the water and cupped the back of her head while she floated on her back.
Garrett smiled, loving how peaceful she looked as she laid her head back into his hand, her eyelids nearly closed, her arms gently paddling the water. “I’ve never been more sure of anything,” he said. “I’m not going to let Russell Graham dictate how we live our lives. I’m going to close my case at the school, then get back to my day job.”
Reese smiled. “You mean you don’t want to switch careers and become a high school English teacher?”
Garrett shook his head with a laugh. “As rewarding as this last month has been, I miss the action of being a Texas Ranger.”
“I don’t,” she said. “I don’t miss worrying about you being in danger. I mean, I know you could still be in danger while you’re under cover at the school, but it’s not like you’re out there, arresting people who could be shooting at you.”
Garrett lowered his head and kissed her forehead. “They can try,” he said with a smirk. “But now that I’ve got you in my life,I have even more reasons to make sure they don’t succeed. And that includes Russell.”
Reese pushed at the water with her hands and came up to a wading position, her knees slightly bent under her as she paddled gently with her hands to stay afloat. “The only good thing to come out of all this is that I finally get to look into your eyes and not worry about what I’m going to see. Not that seeing it over and over again makes it any easier.”
Garrett pulled her toward him, wrapping his arms around her. She wrapped her legs around his waist and he proceeded to kick to keep them both afloat. He stared at her for a moment, the silence between them filled by the sounds of lapping water, rustling leaves, and a bird chirping in the distance. He had no idea when this thing with Russell would come to a head, or how it would end for him, but if all he had left in this world were a few weeks or months, there was no other place he would rather be than right here with Reese in his arms. He loved being able to look into her eyes, see the way they lit up when she laughed, or how they twinkled right before she was going to do something amazing to him in bed. But right now, her eyes were so full of questions that Garrett felt it in the pit of his stomach. He only wished he had the answers. “Talk to me,” he said. “I know I can’t fix everything, but I’m a pretty good listener.”
Reese sighed and glanced up at a bird flying overhead. “I was just thinking that tomorrow the school cafeteria is serving grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup.”
“Okay…”
She shrugged. “It’s just after last night and this morning, it’s nice to have a normal thought with you right now. Share a normal day with you, like fishing off the dock, swimming in the lake. I want more normal days and nights with you.” There was an ethereal sadness to her words and he hated knowing that herfear of what Russell might do put it there. But it only made him more determined to catch the guy and bring him to justice.
“We’ll have more. Lots more.”
“Promise?” She asked, her chin resting on his shoulder.
Garrett thought about his answer for a moment. He didn’t want to make a promise he wasn’t sure he could keep, so instead he looked up at the sky. There were purple streaks with an early waning crescent moon to the East and the same two stars that were always the first to come out every night, already shining like pinpricks in the sky. He hadn’t realized they’d stayed in the water so late, but he just smiled and said, “Look up.” Reese did, and he continued. “I don’t make promises I can’t keep, but see those two stars up there?”
“Are you about to say something that’s going to make me tear up?”
He smiled and kissed her forehead. “We might only be able to see our stars with a telescope, but those two stars are the first to come out every night. Even when they’re hidden by the light, they’re still there, together amidst the light of day and together like that they’ll shine through the night.”
“Garrett,” she whispered, her voice hitching.
But he continued. “I don’t know what’s going to happen to me, but I do know that we will always be like those two stars. Together, no matter what the world throws at us. And even if the darkness comes sooner than we want, we’ll keep shining together, just as strong.”
“How can you be so calm about all this?” She asked, a tinge of anger in her tone.
“Every day I go out and do my job, I’m risking my life. Russell Graham is no more a risk than any other perp I’ve taken down. And with our friends on high alert, I have to believe I’ll make it through this. But if for some reason I don’t, I need youto know that it’s not your fault, and my friends will make sure you’re okay.”
“Russell isn’t just another perp, Garrett. He’s a trained cop who’s gotten away with everything he’s done so far, including killing Molly Edgar.”
Garrett swam them to the dock and lifted her out of the water, then pulled himself up and sat next to her with his legs dangling over the side and his toes touching the surface of the water. “The way I see it is we can spend our time worrying about Russell, or we can live our lives and create the kind of memories we’d be proud to share with our kids and grandkids, if we’re lucky enough to have them. Now, which sounds better to you?”
He wasn’t trying to dismiss her worries, but the sadness in Reese’s eyes was enough to make Garrett want to go out and put an end to Russell right now. Seeing as how he couldn’t do that; his only other option was to try to make her feel better.
She surprised him with a genuine smile, then met his gaze in a way that had his body standing at attention. She stood and reached her hand out to him. “Let’s see what kind of memories we can make. Though I doubt they’ll be child friendly.”
Garrett barked out a laugh, stood, and scooped her up in his arms, carrying her in a fireman’s hold. Water dripped off of them as he crossed his yard and made a beelinefor the shower with her still in his arms.
They tore off their swimsuits and washed each other thoroughly, then made their way to the bed where they spent the rest of the evening making the kind of memories their future kids would never hear about, but would definitely be memorable.