Travis stared at the floor as he spoke, “Abby, when I say I love you … I didn’t know until this moment that I would want something more than for you to be my wife.” His breath faltered, and he cleared the trembling from his voice. “I want you to be happy. You didn’t have to do this.”

“I am happy. Today, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. Tomorrow, I’ll be even happier. But, your happiness is just as important to me, Travis, and …” I hesitated. No matter how many ways I tried to explain, Travis wouldn’t understand. Eloping to Vegas to save him from prison meant more to me than deciding on a whim. Maybe it wasn’t as romantic as the random, impulsive proposal Travis wanted it to be, but I had put action behind my feelings. To me, it was proof that my love for him transcended all else that was important to me, but Travis wouldn’t see it that way. I could see it in his eyes.

“Just say it, Pidge. I need to hear you say it. I need to know the truth,” he said, defeated.

I cupped his jaw in my hands and skimmed his ear with my lips. “I belong to you,” I whispered. My eyebrows pulled in. “And you’re mine.”

He turned, touching my cheek with his fingertips, and watched my eyes for the tiniest hint that I wasn’t being completely honest.

I offered a small smile, keeping my worries hidden deep inside. The words passing my lips were the truth, but I felt the need to protect them as if they were lies. Travis didn’t need to know that I wanted to save him. He only needed to know why.

He nodded, exhaling as his muscles relaxed. “Have you ever wanted so much, something so out of reach, that once it happened you were almost too afraid to believe it?”

“Yes,” I whispered, kissing his lips. “But I’m your wife. Nothing will ever change that.”

“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head. “A twenty-year prison sentence could change that.”

“How can you think you have no control over what happens to us? You made me fall so hard that I proposed to you at nineteen.”

He laughed once.

“Have you stopped to think that I might be the one afraid of losing you?” I asked.

“Where am I gonna go?” He asked, pulling me onto his lap. “You’re my anchor. There’s not a thing out there I would want if it takes me away from you.” The corners of Travis’s mouth curled up, but only for a second. “I’m being investigated by the FBI, Pidge. What if I get arrested? What if I’m gone for a long time?”