History. Love.

"Nope, sorry girls, but you're having one-by-one baths tonight. You two splash too much when you're together and right now I'm way too tired to clean up your messes. Kat, you go first. Penelope, you can build a castle with blocks while you're waiting."

I braced myself for a fight, but nothing happened. Katherine grabbed her towel and scampered toward the tub. Penelope dumped her blocks onto the rug. I smiled at them and pushed the door to my bedroom open.

Down the hall, I could hear water running, the wooden clink of Penelope's blocks, and Katherine humming to herself, then singing, but the sounds were muffled. The house was quiet.

The shadows lengthened.

Chris was in bed, stretched out on top of the quilts, reading. I climbed in beside him. "I don't know why I'm so tired tonight," I said, resting my head on his shoulder.

"Yeah, I know. We stayed up too late yesterday. I'm tired, too," he said, still reading. He put his arm around me, pulled me in, and then ---

***

We woke up with a CRASH fifteen minutes later, and apparently we'd been facing each other while we were sleeping because my mind registered him before I realized I was waking up, or even that I'd been sleeping. His eyes were a streak of blue, sudden and bright in the haze of my confusion, but I couldn't place him. I couldn't place myself. Our history was swirling.

He was the boy who...

...baked me pumpkin pies when I had bronchitis...

...drove for 14 hours when I wanted to see the ocean...

...battled me for Air Hockey Champion of the World...

...almost beat me at Tag Racing...

...took me to baseball games and tennis matches and miniature golfing, and...

...kissed me in front of the fire when we went skiing.

And he was the man who...

...wrapped his arms around me on sunlit beaches...

...stayed up late researching the latch when I couldn't stop crying...

...guided our babies to my breast...

...brought me tea from England...

...stroked my hair after a nightmare, and...

...kept me up late, laughing.

And he was startled. He kissed me quickly, instinctively, and his lips were like a touchstone; the world snapped back into focus: Penelope was in her room. Katherine was still in the bathtub, singing.

"What was that," he asked.

"Penelope," I said. "I think she knocked down the castle she was building."

"Oh," he sighed.

I rubbed my eyes. "I was asleep," I told him.

"Yeah, me too," he said, yawning.

"We should probably go get them."

"I know," he said, "but let's stay here, just a little longer."

His body was warm. He pulled me closer.

"Okay," I said, and settled my head back onto his shoulder.