The tears slid down my face. There were so many words to say yet none came. I was at a loss. This beautiful, wonderful man and our Heaven on Earth. Part of me, a part I did not want to let ruin the magic of this moment, was devastated that I was robbed of my memories of this life with him. It was not fair. But I knew I was the luckiest girl in the world that I got to come back to him, so I would not let myself focus on the pain of what I’d lost.

“I . . .” he cleared his throat. “I have not been back since . . . since I lost you.”

“How long has it been?” I squeezed his hand. “For me it was minutes ago.”

He closed his eyes and cringed. “For me it has been the longest century of my life.”

My heart sank into the deepest pits of the ocean inside me. “Why are you here then? Why now?”

“Our daughter . . . she . . . begged me. She . . . needs somewhere safe to live for a while where she’s not looking over her shoulder. I came ahead of her because . . . because I feared the collapse of my emotional state would hurt her too much.”

“Oh, Everest.” I wrapped my arms around his waist. “How long have you been here?”

“I have spent two days trying to force myself to step through that cave, I thought I would die with grief . . .” he looked down at me with tears in his eyes. “And then there you were.”

I pushed up on my tiptoes and pressed my lips to his. When I pulled back, I smiled and tugged on his arm. “Show me our home?”

With a small smile on his face, he tugged me along with him across the grass. “You refused to let me put a pathway, you said since it was only ours, we did not need to disrupt the beauty.”

“I am so smart.” My eyes were wide as my gaze snapped left and right and back again. The long wisteria flowers swayed in the breeze while cherry blossom petals sprinkled onto the grass. Birds chirped from within the trees, when I looked for them, I saw only squirrels with bushy tails running along the branches. On the ground little fluffy bunnies hopped between bushes. I grinned. “We’re not here alone, are we?”

“No, our oasis is home to many animal friends.” His face fell. “I have not been as good to them as of late, I will need to change that.”