"Seriously? That'd be great."

"But what about your stuff. You want me to go back and pack up for you?"

She was shaking her head before he finished the sentence. "Maybe I could have Carlita box up the canvases and send them to me. The rest of the stuff, I'll just let the people there keep. I have all my valuables. I don't need the rest."

"And your job?"

"I'll miss the kids, but I need to do what's right for Ana, for her future. A couple of the older students are nearly fluent in English. Maybe Carlita will hire one of them for my job."

Nate would never have guessed less than two weeks before that his life could turn this abruptly, this perfectly. "Maybe you could stay here, in New Hampshire. Find a place to live. Maybe..."

Her smile widened. "Maybe what?"

"I have an idea."

"What's that?"

"Well, we've spent more than a week together now. We've stayed under the same roofs, traveled together, run together, cried together." Slept together. "In the eight years since we met, we've brought down a crime ring, put guys in prison, and rescued a beautiful little girl. Just this week, we caught a murderer and a kidnapper. The truth is, Marisa, you and I have done a lot together."

Her smile became a lighthearted chuckle, then an all-out laugh. A beautiful sound he could listen to for the rest of his life.

A few days before, he'd thought that tears were the world's only unlimited resource. How very wrong he'd been. Because laughter fueled a lot more action than tears. And love... Love was the greatest resource of all.

"How do we top all of that?" Marisa asked.

"I'm not sure I want to try, honestly. You know what I want?"

Her cheeks turned pink, and he thought maybe she knew exactly what he wanted. "What's that?"

"I want to go on a date with you. Maybe get some Greek food. The best Greek restaurants outside of Greece are in New Hampshire, you know."

"Is that so?" Her laugh said she didn't believe it, but he knew better.

"Lots of Greeks around here. After dinner, I'd like to see a movie with you. Not an action film, though. Maybe one of those long foreign films. We can share popcorn and hold hands and kiss during the boring parts."

"Those foreign films are almost all boring parts."

He winked at her. "I know."

She laughed again. Oh, that her laughter could be the soundtrack of his life. Then he could die a happy man.

"And after the movie?"

"After that normal, boring date, we could have another one and another one and another one. A bunch of normal days, all strung together." He wrapped his arm around her, drew her close. He looked into those dark chocolate eyes, searched for hesitation, but found none. He lowered his lips to hers, tasted tears and joy and forever.