Chapter 45. The Answer She Chose

Gabriel opened both eyes.

“I had several plans,” he said. “They seem less interesting than this conversation.”

Diana laughed, suddenly nervous. He sat up, slowly enough to give her time to change the subject.

She didn't.

“I keep waiting to become a woman who knows how to do this.”

“Which part?”

“Want a future without trying to make it impossible to lose.”

His expression softened. “Have you met many of those women?”

“No. But they look very convincing in photographs.”

He took her hand.

Diana looked at their fingers together. His hand was broader, warmer, marked by little scars she had begun to recognize. Nothing about holding it required her to decide every year ahead of them.

“I want to marry you,” she said.

He went so still that she felt every sound in the apartment separately: the refrigerator, a car in the street, her own breath.

“Not tomorrow,” she added. “And not because somebody else needs us to