“Oh, don’t go there,” I say when he brings up the possibility of there being more times that neither of us remember, but it’s mostly teasing. When he starts to speak, I pull back enough to watch his face, staring into his crystalline blue eyes made even brighter by the threat of tears. He’s so beautiful that it’s hard to believe that he’s even real, but he is. And he’s mine.

“I want those things, too,” I assure him, nodding along and reaching up to touch his cheek, fingers carding through the soft hair at his temple. “You’re right, Oliver. We can try to live safely or we can live in defiance of our fears.”

My thumb touches the soft corner of his mouth, trailing along his bottom lip, and I give him a shaky smile and meet his eye. “I know how hard it is to marry you and lose you, but I still want to do it again. I want whatever you’ll give me, Oliver, as long as you want it, too.”