{"id":2166,"date":"2014-07-11T00:00:29","date_gmt":"2014-07-11T04:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=2166"},"modified":"2014-07-10T20:00:51","modified_gmt":"2014-07-11T00:00:51","slug":"thirty-one-02","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=2166","title":{"rendered":"Thirty-one – 02"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thom pressed a kiss to the back of my neck, holding me close, holding me tight. \u201cIt\u2019ll be all right,\u201d he whispered, a bare hint of desperation buried beneath the certainty in his voice. I reached down and squeezed one of his hands.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOf course,\u201d I murmured, staring blankly across the barrow ground. The grass had grown high over the years. The tree that J.T. and I had planted at the dawn of the second year had spread its branches wide, shading the space. The building and the rubble from its destruction so long ago had been erased by time and weather. Wildflowers had sprouted there, mixed with the grass. My eyes drifted toward the stones lined up against the edge of the barrows, painstakingly etched with the names of the fallen, the names of the lost. Too many. Far, far too many.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t believe me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s not that.\u201d I swallowed hard, looking up over my shoulder at him. \u201cPlease. You know it\u2019s not that.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThen what is it?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t leave him here all alone, Thom. We can\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/em>I already made my choice. Jay and your brother and I talked. The decision\u2019s made. When the time comes, if the time comes, you and I go together.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not your choice to make.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI swore that I\u2019d never leave you,\u201d he said, arms tightening around me. \u201cI mean to keep that promise.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBut our son\u2014\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou know as well as I do that he\u2019ll be fine.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Hot tears welled up in my eyes. \u201cWhat if he\u2019s not, Thom? What if we\u2019re wrong?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll take care of him.\u201d He pressed another kiss to my neck, then my ear. \u201cYou know that. Don\u2019t start doubting now, Mar. We\u2019ve come this far. Somehow, you taught me to believe again. We both know in our hearts what\u2019s meant to be and what\u2019s going to happen. Don\u2019t lose faith now.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I squeezed my eyes shut, the tears splashing down my cheeks. \u201cI love you,\u201d I whispered.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI love you more. I\u2019ll love you forever.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I pressed myself into his arms and wept.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thom pressed a kiss to the back of my neck, holding me close, holding me tight. \u201cIt\u2019ll be all right,\u201d he whispered, a bare hint of desperation buried beneath the certainty in his voice. I reached down and squeezed one … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[82,114,14,52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-4","category-chapter-31-book-4","category-story","category-winter"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-yW","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2166"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2168,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2166\/revisions\/2168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}