Kevin sat on the deck with Jenny. The twins were inside asleep, and Gregory was at McDonald’s with Grandma.

Silence was as golden as the sky above them.

“So, are you ready?” Jenny asked.

He looked at his wife and smiled. “I’m not really sure.”

“Why?”

Kevin sighed. “It’s been seven months since I’ve taken a business trip.”

“You’ve been a little busy.”

“We both have.”

“It’s going to be great. You’re going to do great.”

Kevin nodded and looked at the trees that he had planted ten years ago. It was amazing that tiny little twigs they’d bought at Home Depot could be so massive and sprawling.

“I always thought that things would be different,” he told Jenny. “That the aftermath would be more traumatic after shutting down Precision.”

“When did you shut it down?”

Jenny often teased him because it was true—he hadn’t really closed the company. He’d lost the offices and he had let all of his employees go. Yet, for the past six months, he had managed to make it as a lone guy doing everything himself. Along with the sleep deprivation and the stacking hospital bills and the endless hours of searching for a door to knock on when it came to work, Kevin had managed to keep some money coming in.

Precision Design was not dead.

“I always feared the worst,” he said.

“That’s what you do.”

He leaned over and held her hand. It felt good to touch her, to have a moment when it was just the two of them.

“You know,” Kevin said, “for so long, I’ve been in this fight. This fight with the rest of the world. All about building and climbing and maintaining and all that. And it’s just—it’s utter nonsense.”

“You had—you have a good company.”

There was Jenny’s confidence again. It was a beautiful thing.

“But it’s the journey. A never-ending journey. And when I left that building thinking that Precision was done, I felt—I felt relieved. I felt like some gigantic burden was lifted.”

Jenny raised her eyebrows. “Some of those burdens are still here.”

“I’m not saying the burden of my responsibilities suddenly went away. But I just—”

He turned toward Jenny and took her hand.

“You want to know the second-best thing that happened to me last year? After being able to hold our twins and meet them for the first time?”

“What?”

“It was—this might sound crazy—but it was getting that Golden Ticket.”

Jenny didn’t know what he was talking about. Of course she didn’t.

But I asked God for one and that was exactly what He gave me, what He gave us.

“I started thinking about this business trip, and I realized that there’s only one reason it’s happening. That got me thinking about other things. Remember back in January when everything was chaotic and—”

“I don’t remember the first three months of the year,” Jenny said with a smile.

“No, I know. But remember how I felt awful that we hadn’t gone to Kaylee’s Christmas program. I’d felt bad after seeing her and getting the invitation.”