In the dark interior of the plane, passengers sleeping all around us, I said, “I think we both know that they’re going to be thrilled.” I felt the panic welling up in my throat again. When we told them, it was all going to become incredibly real; our bubble was going to burst. That’s what did it: the thought of the way my mother was going to look at me. She wouldn’t say anything, but I would know that she knew what I wanted and that I hadn’t told the one woman I professed to care about more than anyone else in the entire world. But it was so late tonight. We would sneak into our respective houses and (hopefully) sleep. We would wake up to big breakfasts, mine cooked by Mom, Amelia’s cooked by Aunt Tilley if she was having a good day, which I hoped she was because that woman made the best cinnamon rolls in the entire world, and I wanted one or three or four.

When we arrived in Cape Carolina an hour later, I was prepared to kiss Amelia good night in the driveway. She smiled in a way that made me suspicious. “I’m not tired,” she said.

I was exhausted. “Oh no?” I asked teasingly, deciding that whatever she wanted from me was more exciting than sleep. She dropped her bag in the driveway and took my hand, pulling me in the direction of the dock.

“I will not do it,” I whispered.

“Will not do what, sweetheart?” she asked entirely too innocently.

As we reached the end of her dock, the moon so bright on the water it looked like daylight, she pulled her shirt off over her head.

“Amelia Saxton,” I whispered again. “Don’t you even think about it.”

“Think about what?” She batted her eyelashes at me.

Her skirt fell to her ankles and she stood on the edge of the dock, bathed in light. “Amelia!” I hissed again as she walked toward the end of the dock and raised her hands up over her head.

She knew how terrified I was of the water at night. There could be sharks or snakes. But she didn’t care. She dove right in. Damn her. And bless her. Because that, more than anything, is what made us work. I stood back. I calculated. I planned. I watched. I took notes. And Amelia? Amelia jumped. Maybe I had spent a long time betting on the wrong horses, taking the wrong risks. But, God, looking at her as she came to the surface, laughing, the moon shining on her wet hair and face, I didn’t want to think anymore. I just wanted all of her, whatever that entailed.

As I took my shoes off and unbuckled my pants, I made myself a promise. Whatever it took, whatever I had to sacrifice, even if it was my chance at fatherhood, I would do it. Because being with the woman who made everything in my life seem right was worth sacrificing anything.