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I’m practically in an all out sprint as I cut through the alley and come up from behind on her.

  But there’s no sneaking up on her today.

  She’s turned and expecting me.

  My run slows to a jog and quickly to a walk.

  I look and see a man at her side and he’s…holding a baby?

  He seems protective of her too as he steps forward to be closer to me as if to protect her.

  What the hell?

  I freeze. My dreams are dashed.

  She found someone else?

  How could she?

  And this guy thinks he can stand up to me?

  And she thinks she needs protection from me?

  Yeah, maybe I’m a little bit crazy, but only crazy for her.

  “Jason,” she says.

  “Winter,” I say, just as Hawkeye told me.

  “You know my…,” we both begin. “Hawkeye,” we both say at the same time.

  “Where have you been?” she says.

  “Where have you been?” I say. “You’ve…had a child?”

  She freezes.

  I look at the man who is clearly in love with this baby. His baby and not mine.

  Damn the feeling cuts through me like a knife.

  I don’t know much about kids but this one is small. She must have conceived with him just after our unforgettable night.

  How could she?

  And how could my seed not have fertilized her?

  I was completely sure I’d made a baby with her. Completely!

  Call me crazy. Say I have intuition. Say whatever you want about me but I say that I knew that night we were going to have a child.

  I still can’t believe we didn’t. Even though I can see it with my own eyes that her and this guy have a family now I still can’t believe it.

  Not. One. Bit.

  An entire year looking for her and this is my reward.

  I shouldn’t have come down here today. She was right after all. She knew. It was better to just leave perfect as a memory in each other’s minds forever.

  How could we improve on perfect? I knew we could but she knew we couldn’t.

  But I never knew how much it would hurt to see firsthand what happened when I tried.

  I should have just dropped it. Just let it be. And now here I am like a damn fool.

  No chance at rekindling what we had, not that I need any kindling. My fire still burns white hot and bright…all day and all night.

  But her fire for me seems to have been stomped out long ago. If it was ever truly a fire in the first place.

  “I’m sorry,” I say. “I shouldn’t have come here looking for you. I apologize to you and your husband.”

  The man laughs so hard he spits a little.

  I should punch that asshole right in the mouth, but out of respect for her I don’t.

  He got my girl and now he’s going to rub it in my face?

  He’s lucky he’s with her and he’s even luckier he’s holding a baby.

  His baby and not mine.

  Life is absolutely unfair. A complete bitch.

  I’m losing control by the second. I can’t control the negative words and emotions running through my head.

  I need to get out of here. Back to my cave to lock myself away until one day a hundred years from now some hikers come across my remains.

  That’s how life was meant for me. To be alone. It’s the way I know and I should have stuck with it.

  I never should have challenged my beliefs and tried to make something happen with her.

  Was she special?

  Damn right.

  Too special for me apparently.

  I’m just an outcast with a tin foil hat in the mountains. What was I thinking?

  I turn to go before I lose my cool.

  “Wait!” she says. “Don’t go.”

  I stop, but I don’t turn around. What’s the point?

  “Please. Look at me.”

  It’s the moment of truth. I should turn and walk away and never see her face again, but I just can’t.

  I still want her more than anything in the world.

  I turn.

  “It’s not what it looks like,” she says.

  “It looks clear as day to me.”

  “I’m Tony,” the man says extending his hand. I’m not about to take it after the way he disrespected me. “Winter’s friend.”

  Is that how these hipsters do it these days? They don’t even have the balls to say wife? They’re just best friends and nobody’s a man or a woman and everybody’s the same and no sexual differentiation just “friends.”

  What a pussy. Be a damn man and tell me she’s your woman! Claim her like a real man would. Like I would you can be damn sure.

  “We’re not together,” she says.

  I turn and look at her. “Could have fooled me,” I say.

  “He’s just a friend. A guy from work. He doesn’t even like women!”

  “Winter! You’re going to get me killed all these red-blooded, flag saluting, patriots out here.”

  A few men look at this Tony fella, but no-one seems to mind.

  “He’s holding your baby,” I say.

  She says nothing just staring at me with a long face.

  “That is your baby,” I say.

  Still nothing.

  “It’s your baby, right?”

  I’m getting angry now. Is she trying to cover up the obvious? Even worse is she trying to lie to me?

  I can’t tolerate liars one bit. Hate them!

  “It’s,” she begins, her lower lip quivering.

  “It’s our baby.”

  CHAPTER 20

  Jason

  “You’re sick!” I say. “What kind of game are you playing? Our baby? What’s wrong with you?”

  She takes a step forward to Tony and takes the baby from him before stepping closer to me.

  “Look!” she says. “Look at her eyes. Your eyes. She’s got your eyes.”

  I don’t have time for this but I can’t not look either. I know this is some ploy and it’s not going to work, but there’s something about this child that’s so beautiful and some sort of innate human curiosity inside me says I have to look.

  I look that baby right in the eyes and freeze.

  Those are my eyes.

  No?

  There’s no way.

  The baby looks right at me and smiles. I swear she smiles.

  “It’s a girl,” I say.

  “It’s your girl. Our girl. Brielle.”

  “Brielle?”

  “It means hunting grounds. And it’s also the name of a historic seaport in western Netherlands. I figured it made a lot of sense. Plus you’re tall with light features and light eyes so I figured you’re of European descent. And you’re a traveler. You traveled two days to get here. It reminded me of the Dutch sailors who used to navigate the treacherous waters around the Cape of Good Hope. I always kept hope that our paths would cross again, like two ships in the night. And now…now we have just like I hoped for for an entire year.”

  I feel nothing and everything at the same time.

  “But you left? You ran out?”

  “I made a mistake. I knew it right away, but I tried to find you. I came looking for you but I thought you’d met someone new. Hawkeye said you’d been coming down a lot in the two months after we were together. He mentioned some lady.”

  “You. It was you. It was always you.”

  I take two steps forward and Winter hands me Brielle. My Brielle.

  She fits right in arms perfectly. It’s like she’s the final puzzle piece that snaps right into place in my life so perfectly and completely.

  I look at Winter. “What about us?”

  “I want us. I’m sorry. I made the biggest mistake of my life and I know it now, but I’ll never make it again.”

  “How can I believe you?” I want to believe her so much.

  “Don’t just believe me. Believe in us. I need you. She needs you. We both need you.”


  I look back down at my daughter, and there’s no mistaking this is my daughter. I swell with pride.

  “I told you we’d make a baby.”

  “You did,” Winter says.

  “And here she is.”

  I look back at Winter who seems unsure of herself.

  “I’m sorry, but if you take us back I promise to love you forever, if you can just learn to love us.”

  “Learn? I already know how because I never stopped loving you.”

  I close the final steps between Winter and I and I embrace her hard with one hand while I carefully hold my baby with the other.

  My beautiful baby that I made with the most beautiful woman in the whole wide world.

  The woman I looked far and wide for for an entire year until finally she showed up right under my very own nose.

  With the biggest gift and blessing a man can ever receive.

  His very own baby and his woman’s love.

  “Does anybody have a tissue?” Tony says.

  I look up and see grizzled military veterans who look like they’ve been peeling onions all day. Eyes are watery and some are outright crying.

  It takes everything I have not to join them, but if I did cry it would be the best kind of tears.

  Tears of joy. Complete and utter joy.

  Thanks to her.

  And my baby. My beautiful baby girl who I absolutely love and adore already.

  EPILOGUE

  Jason

  “Your hips, Yason. Move your hips,” my salsa instructor yells from her table.

  Winter starts laughing before burying her head in my chest. “Yeah Yason. Your hips,” she teases.

  We’ve been down in Colombia a week now and it’s been completely awesome. It’s a total one eighty from my time living in the cold mountains by myself.

  We came down here to get married and enjoy some much needed sunshine and R&R and that’s exactly what we’re doing.

  On the first day we came up with the fun idea that we would salsa during the reception. Each afternoon when the sun gets too much for our non-acclimated pasty skin we step inside and take a two hour lesson from two absolutely incredible dancers.

  My instructor, Gabriela, is barely five feet tall but moves so quickly and fluidly you’d think someone twice her size wouldn’t be able to cover as much ground, and certainly not as quickly.

  As incredible a dancer she’s still got room for improvement in her pronunciation of the English letter J. Winter still hasn’t gotten over her calling me Yason and I’m sure I’m going to have a new nickname when we get back Stateside.

  That is if she doesn’t go with “Cement Hips” instead.

  When Gabriela isn’t butchering my name she’s complaining that my muscles are butchering her beautiful form of dance, or artistic expression as she says.

  But Winter and I aren’t here to try and become professionals in one week . We’re just here to celebrate that we finally found each other…again.

  And what better way than an extremely intimate wedding ceremony on a secluded beach just outside of Barranquilla. Winter said if Shakira came from this city that maybe if we visited here some of her moves would wear off on us.

  Uh yeah…not so much.

  I’ve never had so much fun in my entire life and with all the busy days we’ve been having I’m sleeping perfectly through the entire night. No dreams at all, which includes any night sweats or flashbacks. It’s only a week but if we keep this up I’m hoping for a complete recovery from my mental scars. With Winter and Brielle’s help I know it’s just a matter of time.

  The beat picks up and Winter adds some distance between us and really starts to move. She’s so beautiful no matter the occasion but when she shakes her hips like that, well…there’s nothing sexier on the planet.

  I turn and wave at Brielle who is just a few feet away at the table on Gabriela’s lap. Gabriela has five children and can still dance the way she does. She’s even been “kind” enough to give us parenting advice.

  “Can we take her back with us?” Winter asked after about the second day.

  “I wish we could,” I replied. Gabriela’s truly a Jack, or should I say Jill, of all trades.

  But Winter is the true Swiss Army Knife in my life. It may sound like a strange and unromantic compliment but coming from a combat veteran there’s nothing more cherished than something, or in the case someone, that can do it all.

  That’s Winter.

  I had no idea she was such an amazing cook, and with the recipes she’s been learning down here this week we’ll have even more interesting foods to try when we get back home.

  But home is a very loose term right now.

  For starters technically we’re broke. After the parade I cashed my check as I always do, but this year I decided that the person who may get the best use out of the money was me. I told myself I’d take a year off from the donation to take my woman and our baby on the holiday we deserve and then over the next few years I’d add in a little extra each year and get it all paid back.

  But really I figured I’d be able to get it all sorted in a single year.

  Winter was explaining to me how adventure tourism is all the rage these days and I got in touch with Hawkeye and we already have a plan with one of our old buddies from the service to start an adventure tour, using my old stomping grounds as the drop off point. Our buddy will drop in the unsuspecting “teams” in the wilderness and the first one to make it to the cabin is declared the winner.

  It probably seems odd to the average person unless they’re a fan of Bear Grylls or Survivor or something like that, but to us it sounds like a dream come true. Why? Because the groups will have the option of hiring one of us to help lead them. But both competing groups have to agree or if not then neither one of us plays the game. It wouldn’t be fair with a guy like us helping one team and not the other.

  And the icing on the cake is as soon as we put the idea in place we pitched it to a few Fortune 500 companies. They absolutely ate it up!

  At first they thought it would be the most incredible team building exercise imaginable, but then suddenly they asked to put it on hold. We got nervous at first, but then we’d get a call right back from another number coming out of the same office and each time it was the same.

  The alpha CEO of the company wanted to challenge other CEO’s first in the ultimate display of masculinity. Each wanted bragging rights of winning or having the best time so they could tell their staff, before they sent their staffs through the course.

  Bragging rights. I just laugh at those pissing contests between men now.

  Guys like that have no idea where the real bragging rights in life are.

  I do. A man with the perfect wife and the perfect family. Now that something worth boasting about.

  And I was so, so proud of Winter.

  When I found out everything she went through on her own it made me so embarrassed at myself, but so proud of her at the same time.

  She did everything completely on her own.

  And not only that she wasn’t going to let any man raise my child, even though she never knew for sure if she’d ever see me again.

  But that’s the thing right there. I think deep down we both knew we’d find each other. It was inevitable. Of course I wanted to find her as quickly as possible, but looking back I can’t believe how obvious it should have been to both of us that we’d meet again exactly one year later just as we had the year before.

  But a year seems like an eternity when we’re apart, and we’re never ever going to do that again. Not a year. Not a month. Not a day. Hopefully not even an hour, although that might just be wishful thinking.

  I want her by my side forever. And by my side I literally mean by my side. Right next to me where I can hold her, hug her, kiss her, and look into her baby blues.

  And the best part is I know when she’s by my side Brielle is right there too.

  Three is a special number for a reason, but it’s still not
as lucky as seven. And seven is definitely how many kids I’m going for. “Seven will be heaven,” I tell her every time we make love. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if our second is born nine months to the day from when we found each other again…that or the first day we arrived in Colombia.

  I wave at Brielle and she smiles. Gabriela takes her little hand and helps her wave back at us.

  “Awww,” Winter says. “My baby.”

  “Our baby,” I say.

  “You’re right, my mountain man baby maker with the super sperm,” she says.

  I hear the sound of a spoon tapping glass and my eyebrows perk up.

  I turn and look and Brielle has somehow got ahold of one of those little spoons that you stir coffee with and she’s banging it against Gabriela’s champagne glass.

  “You must kiss! You must kiss!” Gabriela demands.

  I turn back and look down at Winter. “I will never ever argue with that,” I say.

  “Me either…Yason.”

  “Hey!” I say and we both laugh.

  And somewhere as that laughter starts to subside, but still doesn’t quite finish and the sun begins to set over the Caribbean our lips lock in a half kiss half laughter that completes the first chapter our our life story together.

  Tomorrow we start chapter number two when we wake up for the first time as husband and wife. Mr. and Mrs. Jason and Winter Black.

  She’s taken my last name but that’s not the only thing she’s taken.

  From the first moment I saw her she stole my heart.

  EXTENDED EPILOGUE

  Winter

  Five years later

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  EXTENDED EPILOGUE

  Winter

  One year later

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