I didn’t like the look on his face.

“To the northeast…? You’re certain…?... It’ll move twice as fast over grassland. And there’s a fucking pine ridge only fifty miles south of there…” He held the phone tightly enough that his knuckles blanched, and lines formed between his brows. I sat up on my elbows, not caring that the blankets slipped down. My nipples tightened in the cold morning air and I reached for my robe.

“I can be headed back within thirty minutes,” he said, and I felt the cold reach deeper in my belly. “I’ll meet you there by early afternoon and we’ll burn in more fire lines. As long as we can clear enough to keep the embers at least a hundred miles back…”

I tucked my feet into my slippers and headed downstairs, leaving him to finish his call. I’d spoken to Randy only long enough to hear his voice… and to promise to tell Connie he was tired and sore, but otherwise fine. But I could tell by the timbre of his voice that all the news wasn’t as good. I started a fire in the cookstove and put fresh grounds into the coffee pot. My stomach rolled at the smell of smoke and I had to put my hands on the counter for a moment to steady myself…

“It’s going to be fine, you know,” Jason said as he wrapped his arms around me and pressed his warm mouth to the back of my neck. I could feel the steady beat of his heart through my robe, reaching out to comfort me. “It’s only a shift in the wind, babygirl. It happens all the time. Another couple of hours and it’ll likely have shifted again.” He turned me to face him. “The sooner I go, the sooner I’ll be back,” he said with a smile. “I’ve got a couple more weeks of work ahead of me… and you’ve got a wedding to plan.” He kissed me until I could smile back at him. Somehow, he seemed to have more than enough courage for both of us. “Then I’ll be coming home to my bride, to the only place that ever felt like home… and to a whole new life with you…”

I turned in his arms and reached up to straighten his collar. His blond hair was still tousled from last night. His jaw was dark with stubble and he’d dressed fast and carelessly. Somehow his clothes seemed like a barrier, making him seem farther away… as if he were already halfway gone. I knew he could sense it, and I smiled up at him, trying to look braver than I felt. He took the calendar off the wall and sat down, pulling me onto his lap and wrapping his arms around me. He flipped the pages, month after month. I hadn’t even bothered to look at it, once the holidays had started approaching…

He traced his finger down my arm… over my hand… and took my fingertip in his. He nuzzled into the nape of my neck, and I could feel the smile on his face as he trailed my finger down the rows of days. “How about… this one?”

I took his thick finger in mine and moved it downward a little more. “Here, I think…” I said, chewing at my bottom lip. “So Mom and I can shop for a dress… and you and Randy have half a chance to recover.” I turned in his arms and wrapped them around his broad shoulders. “She’s never gonna believe this,” I said, watching his blue eyes sparkle. “I’m not totally sure I do yet…

“Are you sure you can really walk away from a job you’ve been so dedicated to for so long?”

“I’ve loved you longer,” he said, pushing back my hair so he could hold my face in his big, capable hands. “Life gives us all choices… And this time I’m making the right one, for both of us… and for the family we’re going to have one day.” He kissed me until the room seemed to spin on its side and my robe spilled off my shoulders. He dropped his face lower and cupped each breast tenderly, nuzzling me… suckling me… until a tingling heat rose up from my belly and spread through my chest.

“I could come with you,” I offered. “I’ve been thinking I should start taking photographs again and I can’t think of a better opportunity to begin with…”

“I want you to keep the home fires burning until I come back. To stay safe and warm until I put a proper wedding ring on your finger and get to take my bride to bed for the very first time,” he said in a tone that made every muscle inside me tighten wickedly.

But he gathered my robe back together and held the collar primly under my chin. “Soon I’ll never have to leave you behind again… but now I’ve got to go,” he said. “I swear it’s for the last time, babygirl…

“Just wait for me this one last time…”

I watched as he drove away.

I waved with one hand and held Rye by the collar with the other. The dog would have chased after Jason if I hadn’t held him tight.

I knew the feeling.

It was the cold that eventually drove us back inside. And the breeze that was picking up. Jason had built the fire high in the fireplace for me, and the kitchen was plenty warm enough from the cookstove. But the cabin seemed chilly, too strangely and too suddenly empty. Reilly snuffled around the floor the way he always did, making soft huffing noises, his nails clicking cheerfully on the floor. But everything that was familiar a month ago was strange and different now. Too still, too quiet… just empty.

Jason had left a work shirt draped over the back of a kitchen chair, and I picked it up and held it to my face. My body responded to his scent, and for a second it was like he was still with me. A hundred memories flooded deep, from my tingling skin into my heart, my mind. I sighed and opened my eyes… the calendar caught my eye. He’d drawn a heart shape around our wedding day in ink…

I sat down, keeping his shirt to my cheek, touching the day our future would begin. “He’s coming back to make us a real family,” I said, breaking the silence. Reilly responded by putting his big paws on my lap and snuffling his nose into Jason’s shirt. His eyes were bright, one silly ear was flipped inside out. He sneezed suddenly and I laughed out loud. It didn’t matter that I would miss Jason more than I could even imagine for the coming weeks. It didn’t matter that I would sleep alone in the bed upstairs, and have nothing but Rye and the sound of my own infernal typing for company…

My whole life had changed in a heartbeat, and that heartbeat was him. He was coming home and I had a wedding to plan. I picked up the calendar and gave our wedding day a big, noisy kiss. Reilly barked and jumped, happy for any excitement whether he understood it or not, knocking the calendar out of my hands. It fell to the floor in the shuffle, open to a different day that I’d circled in pencil, a reminder to myself. I bent down and picked it up…

That day had come and gone, forgotten and without notice. I hadn’t paid any attention to how long it had been. Reilly woofed and danced a circle with pure, unbridled pleasure.

I almost did too.