Page 27 of Split Decision

Not doing anything. Not thinking through the Commission or the board or the specific shadow of what's moving against us. Just being in the room with her while she sleeps, the way you sit with something you love when you're about to leave it, and you want to make sure you've looked at it properly before you go.

January is sixteen days away.

The quiet tonight felt like her. Like us. Like the thing we have when nothing is required of us and we're just two people who chose each other.

I want to remember what this feels like.

I'm going to need it.

CHAPTER EIGHT

LUKE

It's Christmas morning, and we're finally opening the presents we got for each other. We celebrated with my family, Mack, Shane, and Andi's friends last night. Andi decided we had to wait until this morning to open our presents as a couple. I tried everything in my considerable arsenal of persuasive techniques to get her to agree to open them last night after everyone left. Not one single thing worked, although she appreciated my persistence and tenacity.

She's so stubborn.

Since this is her first holiday season with a large, loving family gathered around her, all I can do is give herwhatever she wants. In the meantime, last night I showed her what it felt like to really, really want something but be denied repeatedly until begging became the only answer. After our late-night escapades, I've come to the conclusion that I need to do that to her more often. She was on fire for me. The more revved up she was, the more it drove me. I'm so thoroughly whipped and wrapped around her little finger, but I don't care who knows it.

There are moments—quieter than the fights, quieter than the training—when I look at her, and I just want the word for her to be different.Wifeinstead of fiancée. Not because I doubt what we are. Because I want the permanence of it in my hands, where I can hold it. That’s a long way from where I was when we first met. Even though she was fully in my heart, my commitment issues kept us in the friend zone. Now, I can’t wait to come home to the missus. We're getting there. We just have a little more road to walk before we get to the finish line.

Putting those feelings aside for the sake of a wonderful Christmas together, we settle on the couch, and Andi plays Santa. The silky red and white nightgown she's wearing makes it hard to concentrate on the presents she's handing me, though. She makes one sexy Mrs. Santa.

"I want you to open this one first," she says, smiling shyly.

Taking the perfectly wrapped present from her hand, I pullher down into my lap. "Open it with me," I whisper into her ear.

She adjusts in my lap and settles into "her spot" in the crook of my arm. I place the present on my other leg, and we each use one hand to open the small box. It's a velvet jewelry box, but I know it's not a ring. She already has her engagement ring, and we've picked out our wedding bands, even though we haven't picked them up yet.

"What have we here?" I ask, feeling Andi's excitement build. She holds the box as I open the hinged lid, and I feel my heart skip a beat. I look over at her, and she's biting the corner of her bottom lip, waiting for my reaction. "It's perfect. I love it, baby. Put it on me."

She removes the necklace from the box and lifts it over my head. It's an engraved dog tag on a silver ball chain. The inscription reads"Your treasure is where your heart is,"and a heart is cut out of the metal. The separate heart is also on a silver beaded necklace. Andi pulls the heart over her head, and it rests on her chest. The inscription on the piece she wears simply reads"Our heart."

"While we're apart, I wanted something that we'd both wear a piece of, as a constant reminder that we're already one. This is our heart, our love, and our promise to each other. I know you can't wear it in the ring or anything, but I'll always have mine on. Wear yours when you can," she says before kissing me.

I wrap my arms around her and pull her completely on top of me as I lie back on the couch. She pulls her legs up to straddle me. My hands are in her hair, holding her head as I pour my love into my kiss. "Thank you, baby. It'll be the first thing I put on every day when I finish at the gym."

She gets me more than anyone in my life.

She moves to sit upright and smiles brightly at my promise. Then she tries to hand me another present.

"No, ma'am. Your turn." I incline my head toward her present from me as I sit up.

"Okay," she concedes a little too easily. I chuckle, knowing that she's secretly been dying to open her presents. She opens the enormous box and looks at me skeptically when she has to dig through mounds of wadded-up paper to find the next box. "Hmm, what's this?"

"Open it and see." I smile.

She opens the next box and finds a box from a well-known jewelry store inside. Her eyes light up as she looks up at me. "What have you done, Luke?"

"Nothing but the best for my girl."

When she opens it, her eyes immediately mist with tears of happiness. With the bracelet in her hand, she intently examines the various charms that adorn it. They eachhave significance in our lives, and I know she understands that.

She laughs as she holds up the first one. "A microphone? For my karaoke nights?"

"Yep." I nod.

"A guitar. The night at your parents' house."