The flight home from Atlanta was more tense than I had hoped. Wes tried to hide it, but I could tell he was just as nervous as I was. I’d flown many times before and loved it, but after that crash, I couldn’t help but feel a little worried every time I stepped foot on an airplane. It’d probably take some time to get over it.

After two wonderful days in the hotel room, where the only time we left was to go out to dinner at one of Atlanta’s finest restaurants, both Wes and I were nervous as we knew we had to tell our parents about our relationship. I mean, it wasn’t like we could just keep going for long walks or disappearing for weekend getaways for too long without arousing suspicion. And we both knew that the longer we waited to tell Gerald and Mom about it, the more painful it would be.

“When?” I asked Wes as the plane circled on final approach. I didn’t have to spell it out, he knew exactly what I meant. “You know that they’re going to want to meet us at the baggage terminal.”

“Tonight,” Wes said in reply, holding my hand. At least on the airplane we could hold hands, and nobody batted an eye. We didn’t look at all like the step-siblings we were, and we didn’t even share the same last name. “After we get back and get settled into the family room. I don’t want Winston or Chef or anyone interrupting us on this.”

“Yeah, that would be a bit awkward, although they’re going to have to be filled in eventually, I guess,” I replied, giving him a squeeze. “I mean, they’ve been with the family long enough, they kind of deserve to be told and not just figure stuff out for themselves.”

As predicted, Gerald and Mom met us as soon as we left the security area, although at least I wasn’t swallowed up in hugs and kisses like when we were rescued. After all, it was only a three day weekend in Atlanta. “How was the CNN Center?” Gerald asked after we exchanged hugs. “I heard it’s pretty cool.”

“Actually, it was less cool than you might imagine,” Wes said, giving his father the scoop on what went on behind the camera. “Seriously, your office is a lot cooler than that place.”

“Well, at least you two got a weekend in Atlanta. Did you get to tour any of the Peachtree District?” Mom asked. “I’ve heard a lot about some of the restaurants there, and I so want to visit some time.”

“Yes, Mom,” I said, sharing with her the story about our dinner out, slightly edited to leave out the fact that we went back to the hotel and had sex for two hours afterward. “And when you and Gerald get a chance, you so have to go. You’d love it all, especially what they can do with chocolate and pecans. In fact, when we get home, there’s some local stuff in my bag that Wes made me promise to bring home rather than eat.”

We all laughed, and for the rest of the ride home we got to fill our parents in on what we had seen and done. Gerald was really interested in the whole part with CNN, which I think is funny because he’s done TV spots before, while Mom grilled me on the food scene in Atlanta. She was disappointed when I told her that we didn’t hit up too many restaurants, but she played pretty cool about it. I could tell she wished we had gone to a bunch of places she had seen on Food Network. She and Gerald could afford to go wherever they wanted, but they worked so damned much they never found the time.

When we got home, we enjoyed dinner before moving into the family room. “Robin, before Gerald gets too deep into cruising for a show to watch, I had a question,” Mom asked as we settled down on the sofa. I was sitting next to Wes, who had slung his arm over the back of the sofa like he normally does. From there, I could lean into him if I wanted, which I planned to do later. “You’re still a bit skinny.”

“I know, Mom,” I replied, trying to not roll my eyes as I saw Gerald looking at me, “but I want to make sure I don’t just crash my metabolism. So, it’s going back on, but I’m going to put it on slow and right. Wes and I talked, and he’s going to get me into working out harder again, and putting on the weight the right way. We were going to start next week.”

“I see,” Mom said, her lips pursed in that ‘I understand what you’re saying, but my maternal instincts don’t like it,’ sort of way. “You promise you’re going to be putting on some weight?”

“I promise,” I replied. “If I don’t, you can tell Chef he can start making me double desserts every time I stop by.”

“Mom, actually Wes and I kind of wanted to talk to you guys about some things we were discussing in Atlanta.”

“What is it, honey?” Gerald asked, setting aside the remote he had in his hand. “You’ve been through a lot, I can’t imagine what you two must have gone through out there.”

“Well, Dad,” Wes began, before stopping, looking up at the ceiling, and then at me, trying to find the words. He grinned sheepishly, not sure what to say. “Uh, Robin, a little help?”

I blushed and looked from Wes to Mom and then Gerald, who leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. “Honey, whatever you have to say, go ahead,” Mom encouraged me, smiling her most accepting smile, not knowing the bombshell we were about to drop.

I nodded and swallowed, reaching up to take Wes’s hand. He gave me a squeeze, which I returned. “Well guys,” we both began, before breaking out into a chuckle. I leaned into Wes, who wrapped his arm around me and gave me a squeeze.

“Okay, I guess I’ll go,” Wes said, and looked at his father. “Something happened to us out there. Dad, Robin and I, well, up in Canada we realized that we love each other.”

“Of course, you two have been stepsiblings for nearly a decade of your lives,” Gerald said, not realizing what Wes actually meant, while realization seemed to have already dawned in Mom’s eyes.

“No, Dad, what I mean is, Robin and I are in love with each other.”

Gerald sat quietly for a moment before breaking out in a smile. He looked over at Mom, who also smiled at him. “Told you,” Mom said with a triumphant smirk. “I could tell as soon as they got off that helicopter in Vancouver.”

“Okay, okay, you win. You get control of the Netflix for a week,” Gerald replied, handing over the remote. “Took them damn near long enough to figure it out.”

“Wait, what do you mean?” I said, looking from my mother to my stepfather and back. “In my mind, I thought this conversation was going to be going a lot differently than this.”

Mom laughed and tucked the remote under her left leg in case Gerald tried to sneak it away from her. “Honey, we’ve known you two have had a thing for each other for a long time now. You two have flirted in front of us for years, and while I know sometimes it can be innocent, I can tell the difference. Sure, the two of us talked about it . . . ”

“Talked? I think we worried ourselves pretty much into acid indigestion a few times about it at first,” Gerald joked, his grin widening, “but as the two of you matured, we came to the realization that it didn’t really matter. Wesley, you stood up on your own and made your own way in the world. That sort of strength, that sort of drive and determination is going to be important, especially when the two of you become open in your relationship. Robin, you’ve been strong in your own right, but at the same time you’ve both done a lot of running away from the simple fact that the two of you belong together, and you made some mistakes.”

“What do you mean?” Wes asked, pulling me tighter and wrapping his arms around me. It felt great, especially since our parents reciprocated, although Mom looked like she was perched a bit precariously on Gerald’s lap in his recliner. “Not about the strong part, I anticipate that, but about the mistakes part.”

“Son, you think I didn’t know why you kept taking those overseas work assignments, especially when Robin was around the house? And don’t get me started on those men Robin was bringing around. Then there were the funny things, like Robin watching all those military movies when you were in service, and Wes picking computer engineering? I’m glad you make a living at it, but you’re a man of action. I hate to stereotype people, but you don’t look the part. But since Robin went into robotics, you chose something you two could be close on. Come on, this is too easy.”

I felt like the detective in The Usual Suspects, when he figures out that Kevin Spacey was Keyser Soze and the mastermind behind it all, and all the pieces started to click into place. Had Wes and I really been dancing around each other for so long, never willing to admit to each other what was plainly obvious to our parents?

---

Dad’s words hit Robin hard, but then again, they hit me hard as well. I kind of sat there, stunned for a bit, trying to figure out what to say. Finally, a question popped into my head. “Do Winston and Chef know?”

“We’ve never asked them, but I suspect they do,” Rebekah replied. “They’re both smart people, Wes. And I know that Winston has a particular fondness for Robin that has made him rather protective of her.”

“True,” I said, thinking of the butler. “Think he’ll approve?”

“Winston is as fond of you as he is of your sis . . . of Robin,” Dad said. “Sorry, while I’m fine with you two seeing each other and all that entails, I think I’ll avoid those particular titles. You two are beyond them now.”

“Yeah . . . about that,” I began, before Rebekah cut me off.

“Wesley, Gerald and I don’t need to know all the intimate details of your relationship. Suffice it to say that I remember what it is like being a woman in love in my twenties, and that I’m sure there are things you two have done that you would rather remain private. But I will say this: pick one of your bedrooms, I don’t care which one, and use it. You both are too tall to be trying to sleep on the sofa every night. Horrible for your back.”

“Thanks . . . can I still call you Mom?”

“Of course, Wes. Now that you two have finally gotten that part out, do you mind if we relax for a bit? Since I won the bet your father and I had, I get to control the TV, and there are some cupcakes that I want to watch get baked.”

Dad groaned while Robin and I laughed, and soon the four of us were back to like we were any other time we spent a night in the family room, the only difference being Robin and I didn’t feel as self-conscious about cuddling on the sofa. When the final show was complete, Rebekah shut off the television and turned to us. “So I have to ask, what are you two going to do now?”

I thought about it for a moment, then hugged Robin tight. I started to say something about hunting for a new job when Robin interrupted me.

“Well, we planned on going overseas,” Robin said with a semi-sleepy smile. “After all, we have to go backpacking in the Andes, and go camping in Borneo, maybe hiking the volcanoes of Hawaii . . . ”

Dad groaned and threw his head back in mock agony. Rebekah gave Robin a stern look before returning a smile.

The next morning, I got the call I was expecting on my cellphone. CNN had aired the interview, and my employers were giving me the axe. “Wes, you did great work for us for the past three years,” my older handler, a guy that I called Oscar, said. “That last job, in Russia? You did us a big favor. But we can’t have you on television, Wes. You realize that, right?”

“I know,” I said, sitting in my room. Robin had left when I told her who it was, and the quiet space felt heavy to me. It was weird. I mean, I’d left jobs before. I left the military of my own free will, and I knew what I was doing when I agreed to do the CNN interview. I was more or less giving a very public resignation. Still, I’d never been fired from a job before. It felt strange, even more so since this wasn’t just any job. It had been my life, but it was time for a new chapter in my life. “I guess I was still a bit rattled from the whole thing in the mountains.”

“Wes, you had a very different contract than a lot of our operatives, so there won’t be any major consequences,” Oscar replied, “but the fact is, you cut your own throat as an operative for us. I’ll talk to my bosses, but the most we might be able to get for you is as a normal hacker, behind a normal computer, playing Starcraft when you’re not on duty if you want to stay with us.”

“No, you know that’s not my style,” I told Oscar, “but thanks. You guys don’t mind if I list the public front for my resume, do you?”

“Not at all,” Oscar said, a chuckle in his voice. “In fact, if you apply to certain government agencies, we might just give a bit more than the standard recommendation. But if you’re looking for a job at Microsoft, you’re just going to get the standard corporate letter, you know.”

“I know. Thanks, Oscar. It’s been good working with you.”

“You too, Wes. Take care of yourself.”

The line went dead, and I stared at my cellphone, knowing that even if I tried to redial the number, it wouldn’t connect to anything—just one of the ways that Oscar protected himself. It was funny: I worked with the man for years, even when I was still a college student, and I think I only met him once, at my initial recruitment. You just never knew with spooks.

Leaving my phone on my bed, I walked out into the back yard where Robin was sitting and looking over the grounds beyond the pool. It was far too cold to enjoy the water, but she still looked great in the cool light with her long, black hair pulled into a ponytail, a white, cable knit sweater, and jeans that hugged her hips and curves beautifully.

“So you’re out of a job?” Robin asked, handing me a glass of chocolate milk. It was a long standing tradition. Rebekah always gave us chocolate milks as a treat whenever we came home with disappointing news, and it had continued on. On the silly cheese scale it was pretty high, but at least it wasn’t Ovaltine. “Me too.”

“They fired you?” I asked, sitting down in the chair next to her. Dad and Rebekah were both at work that morning, and we had the run of the house to ourselves. “I would have thought they wouldn’t have taken the chance at the bad PR after the interview and everything.”

Before I could go into full rant mode, Robin shook her head. “They probably wouldn’t have in the end, but I called them while you were on the phone. I resigned. I didn’t want to deal with their corporate crap any longer.”

“Really? Well, not to echo Rebekah from last night, but what now?”

Robin flashed me that smile that I loved so much, the one that said she had a crazy, harebrained scheme that would be an adventure, and one that I would probably end up loving by the end. I remember Stephen King describing a character in one of his books with a similar smile, and he said it was a ‘fuck you if you don’t like it’ smile. Of course, since I love everything Robin does, how could I not help but get pulled along?

“How about we use some of those accounts you told me about, and go into business together? I’m going to need a good coder, and a test pilot.”

“Pilot for what?” I said, taking a deep drink of my chocolate milk. “Damn, you always do make it feel like I’m drinking liquid chocolate. Does Chef know how much cocoa powder you put in these things?”

“I’m sure he does,” Robin said dismissively before continuing. “As for a pilot, well, I’ve decided I’m not going to mess around any longer. I’m going to build that exoskeleton I’ve been talking about since forever, and I need your help to do it.”

I only needed a moment, enough time to finish my chocolate milk before I made my decision. “Sounds good. Let’s go back to your place and get the paperwork started for forming our new company. So, does that mean I have to call you ‘boss’ from now on?”

“What’s wrong with your place?” Robin asked, finishing her own milk and setting the glass down. “No offense, but I live in a one-bedroom hole in the wall. I didn’t even bring prior boyfriends over there, let alone the man I want to spend the rest of my life with.”

Her words resonated with me, and I did what I always do, make a decision on the fly, but this time I knew I wouldn’t regret it later. Getting up, I knelt in front of Robin and took her hand. “You mean it? You really want to spend the rest of your life with me?”

“Of course,” she said, a blush coming to her face. “Wes, are you?”

“Damn right,” I replied, clearing my throat and looking into her eyes. “Robin Collins, will you marry me?”

Robin barely let the words get out of my mouth before she leapt into my arms, knocking me on my ass and wrapping me up in a hug. Her muffled replies of ‘yes’ came in between the kisses, like I needed the confirmation. When she finally let me get up off the ground and dust off my jeans, she was crying, blushing, and smiling all at the same time. “So . . . about my apartment,” she said before we both broke down into giggles and fits of laughter. “I wasn’t lying when I said it was a one-bedroom hole.”

“Better than my place,” I said honestly. “Robin, with my work, my apartment was nothing but a post office box in town. When I wasn’t overseas or on vacation, I was here. So it looks like we have some other things to do before we start up our company.”

“Yep.” Robin took my hand and we headed toward the back door. “You’re going to take me shopping for engagement rings, and then we’re going to need to look for an apartment.”

Winston met us at the back door, his face as passive as ever, but I could see he had overheard, and there were tears in his eyes. “Congratulations, Wesley,” he said, holding the door open for us.

“What about for me?” Robin asked, a smile on her face. “Don’t I get a ‘congratulations’ as well?”

“No, Miss Robin,” Winston said before, for the first time in my life, I saw the man break out in a grin. “For you, I’d rather say . . . good luck.”