Tucker’s step slowed and he turned them in a circle, holding the breath that filled his lungs. “Are they now?” Slowly, he started to chuckle, his big shoulders shaking with mirth. “I guess they want a rematch.”
“You are toast this time, humans,” Roksana’s voice said in the distance, though it advanced on them rapidly, bringing a blast of wind along with three other familiar beings. “Horseshoes is beneath me, but it is very addicting. I have been practicing, though. Not even the children are safe this night.”
A cool hand clasped Mary’s where it rested on Tucker’s shoulder. “It’s good to see you again, Mary,” said Ginny, followed by Jonas’s low timbre. “Hello, Mary. You look…quite well.”
Mary laughed, joy traveling through her without impediment, pressing her cheek to Tucker’s bristled one. “I know you can hear the baby’s heartbeat in my belly, Jonas. No need to pretend otherwise.”
Elias’s laughter cracked in the evening air. “I thought you were stopping at three, Tucker.”
“What can I say? I’m irresistible.” He turned his head and planted a reverent kiss on Mary’s cheek, whispering “I love you” in her ear. Looking at her like he’d done the very first time, with awe and astonishment. “The wife can’t keep her hands off me.”
“Can she play horseshoes in her condition?” Roksana wanted to know.
Mary hopped down from Tucker’s back and walked the familiar path toward the lake, feeling her husband’s adoring eyes on her the whole way. “Just try and stop me.”
They sat around the bonfire and talked late into the evening, humans and vampires together, toes digging into the sand. Eventually Carl brought the kids up to the house and put them to sleep, along with one very drowsy puppy. Beneath the moon, old friends told stories and spoke of the past as smoke curled into the air. But most importantly they talked about the future—and it was vivid, joyful for all of them, no matter how differently they would live it.
Humanity might not be eternal, but the love Tucker and Mary shared would live on—always. They wrote it into the fabric of the universe with every laugh, sigh and moan. Every brush of their children’s hair and burned pot roast and sunburn and home run.
Every day was lived to the fullest with gratitude and full hearts.
And they didn’t take a single one for granted.
THE END