Page 369 of Safe With You

Ten years.

The number followed me longer than it should’ve.

Maybe because lately, the future had started feeling like something I was allowed to think about again.

There was a time when thinking that far ahead came easily. I never had to make myself do it. There was always a next summer or Christmas, Mila starting school, another birthday or anniversary. The house we’d eventually outgrow even though Elena swore we wouldn’t.

There was always something after whatever was happening right then.

Until there wasn’t.

After Elena died, I stopped thinking that way. Not on purpose. Life just got smaller—not worse, just contained to Mila, work, home, and whatever needed to happen that day.

Then I’d wake up and do the next one.

I got good at living that way, and for a long time, it was enough.

I unlocked my truck and tossed my bag onto the passenger seat.

Once I was behind the wheel, I sat there for a moment without starting it.

I didn’t know where I’d be ten years from then. Never really did.

But the thought of there being something out there again didn’t feel as far away as it used to.

I started the truck.

For now, that was enough.

There was another session waiting to be edited when I sat down at my desk.

The anniversary pictures would have to wait.

I woke the computer and took a drink while everything loaded. My camera bag was beside the desk, two memory cards sat near the keyboard, and the stack of invoices I’d been ignoring was somehow still there despite me knowing exactly how long it had been.

For the next hour, I worked. I sorted through the session, deleted what I didn’t need, made adjustments, and flagged the ones worth going back to.

When I finally imported the anniversary pictures, I already knew which one I was looking for.

It came up somewhere in the middle.

Her hand in his, neither one of them looking at me.

I marked it.

A few shots later, she was fixing his collar.

Marked that one too.

Then the forehead kiss.

I leaned back.

Those would probably be the ones they liked best. They usually were.

I finished the first pass and started organizing the files. The folder list ran down the side of my screen.

Names. Dates. Events.