After All These Years by Gwen Masters

Author:Gwen Masters
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Total-E-Bound Publishing

* * * *

Love never does.

I sat up in bed early the next morning. William was lying on the comfortable bed in the guest room, but I was willing to bet he hadn’t got a wink of sleep. He’d insisted on not going anywhere until we had everything sorted, then he’d left me with my thoughts for a while. It was as if he knew I needed time to let everything sink in, time to let my logical mind fight the war instead of battling it out with him.

Of course he knew what I needed. William was Bobby, wasn’t he?

It didn’t seem possible that my Bobby was here in my apartment, but the truth of it was hard for my mind to deny. I had never seen a death certificate. I had never received information about a pension. Just because I had never looked into it very hard didn’t mean much. If Bobby could find me, then surely the military could have found me much earlier.

Bobby looked different now, yes. But there were similarities, and, now that I knew the truth, I could see them. The small glimpses of him I had seen before—the set of his shoulders, the shape of his jaw, the way his laugh rumbled from his chest—had all been chalked up to coincidence until last night. And why not? It was easy to find vestiges of Bobby in a fellow Marine, in someone who had been there, in a friend who’d known him so very well. I’d tricked myself into believing that those glimpses of the man I used to know were just wishful thinking. It was better than the alternative, which would tear my heart apart with thoughts of the years we had lost.

I refused to think about that right now. What I had to focus on was the man in my apartment, the reality of who he was, and what that might mean now, twenty years later.

I sat in bed until the sunlight started to play through the windows. When I looked up from the designs on the quilt, William was standing in the doorway, looking at me.

“I don’t know what to call you.”

He smiled. “Call me whichever name is easier.”

“Why did you choose William?”

He leaned against the doorframe. His shirt was buttoned up and his hair was messed from tossing and turning on the bed in the guest room. His eyes looked tired.

“It was my grandfather’s name. Remember?”

I nodded. My face felt tight, as though the tears had washed all moisture out of my skin. “I can see it now. I can see you.”

“I wondered if you would be able to, once you knew the truth. I was shocked that you didn’t figure it out as soon as you saw me, but I guess I look a lot different than I thought I did.”

“I’m surprised I didn’t figure it out when you kissed me.”

A light blush stole over William’s face. Still, his eyes didn’t flinch. I remembered that directness from many years ago.

“I was debating whether to tell you at all.

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