He grinned proudly. “The Coast Guard guys hated me. I could out-tread any one of them by twice the time and come out of the water as fresh as when I’d gone in.”

“When did you train with the Coast Guard?”

“When I was fourteen,” he answered matter-of-factly.

I shook my head, thinking about him blowing away every trainee at every training facility he’d ever been at, making the recruits crazy with frustration at being outdone by a recent junior high graduate.

“They didn’t object to a fourteen year old joining the ranks?”

“Gabe had more than enough connections to round out our training. Not to mention there are a few hal…Hybrids in the military and in the government. They’re aware of our need to train, and that makes it easier.”

I nodded as I contemplated Gabe’s connections, wondering if the soldiers Jared trained beside suspected anything.

Jared rolled his eyes again, this time in real frustration. “Why do you ask me things if it bothers you to hear the answer?”

“It doesn’t bother me. It’s just…surreal,” I said, watching the sun glistening off the lotion on my skin. “Don’t you think about your life and who you are and just shake your head at how incredible it is?”

“The only thing that’s surreal to me is that you’re sitting here speaking to me, that I can reach over and touch you,” he said, touching my face, “and that you love me. Sometimes I still can’t believe it’s real,” he said, pulling me off the chair and carrying me to an empty hammock.

Once we were situated inside, swinging lazily back and forth in the shade, I kissed the skin just behind his earlobe. “I’m not the one who has friends mentioned in the Bible. I’m not the one who heals amazingly fast, that can do anything and do it better than everyone else in the world…I’m not the one that’s practically perfection.”

“You’re my perfection. I’m all of those things for you,” he said, shaking his head at what he considered a serious misapprehension. “I exist for you, Nina. This mortal being so precious to the Creator of the Universe that it allowed for my existence. Tell me that’s not incredible.”

Words failed me. The only thought I could form was to kiss him, which I did, over and over. When the kisses became more intense, he gently restrained me and I smiled to hide my frustration.