“Yes, Dutch, I’ll marry you, and when I tell our kids the story of how you proposed, I’ll say it was under the light of the moon, on a porch swing that looked out over a beautiful vineyard, and they’ll think you’re the most romantic guy that ever lived.”
Epilogue
“I really need to run, Dutch,” Malin said, trying to coax him out of bed. Instead, he pulled her back in.
“Not yet.”
“But it’s—”
“If you’re about to tell me what time it is, I’ll remind you, we’re on the island, which means we don’t live by a clock.”
“It’ll be too hot if we wait.”
“Then we’ll run later, after it cools down.”
Malin folded her arms.
“Are you pouting?”
“I am so pouting.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll get up.”
When Malin smiled and scooted out of his arms, a warmth settled in Dutch’s chest.
The last three months had been heaven. Malin had turned in her report and did exactly as McTiernan and Copeland wanted her to—she stopped thinking about it.
The only hiccup had been with Ghafor, who had insisted he be given exile in Buenaventura, Colombia. Dutch had managed to keep Malin out of it, at her request, but when Striker got wind of where Ghafor wanted to go, he fought it as hard as he could. In the end, McTiernan, along with the state department, overruled him. That hadn’t been an easy pill for the man who had once had McTiernan’s job to swallow.
Otherwise, there had been fourteen indictments, beginning with Ed Montgomery and going straight up the chain of command. The prediction was, there would be several more. The president’s impeachment hearings would begin in the next couple of weeks, and as far as anyone could tell, the vice president had been completely unaware of the president’s actions.
Dutch was glad. He seemed like a good guy, although knowing who the good and bad guys were, wasn’t always an easy thing to do.
He and Malin had gone to the courthouse in Charleston the day after Doc told them to get the heck out of California, and got married. Neither had cared about any kind of fanfare, including having anyone stand up with them.
Malin had been worried he’d be disappointed about not having Mantis and Alegria there, but Dutch had told her the truth was, he didn’t want them at the wedding.
“This is us,” he’d said at the time. “You and me. We’re all that matters.”
Merrigan had called once, asking if Malin would be interested in joining K19, but she told her she wasn’t ready to make any decision about her professional future.
For now, their only commitments were to each other and growing their family. Dutch wouldn’t complain one bit about the amount of time they spent working on getting pregnant, only about going along on Malin’s daily run.
She couldn’t have stopped him though. Most times they ended up on the shore, naked, and in one another’s arms before they ran back to the house.
Malin walked back into the bedroom. “Hey, Dutch?”
“Yes?”
She sat on the edge of the bed that he hadn’t gotten out of yet.
“I want you to know that there wasn’t anything between me and the guy at DHS.”
“It doesn’t matter to me if there was or not. You’re with me now. But why are you telling me this today?”
“I don’t know,” she said, stretching out next to him. “It’s been on my mind. It’s the only thing that’s still left unsaid between us.”
He kissed her temple and ran his fingers through her hair. “Ready to run?”