I couldn’t resist that smile, but before I melted I had a mission. A spot of rain landed on my nose, and I wiped it way. Picking her up was not just romantic, it’d keep me warm, so I could worry about Claire. “Oooh.” She cooed. I reached across, just to check, Claire was there. I reached around her to hug her, and leant down to kiss her. I’m not sure if that was passion or cold, the wind had picked up. Not what I was expecting. I could survive, I’d been through worse in training, but Claire was really only a civilian, she was my civilian, mine to protect. We hadn’t been looking up; we hadn’t noticed. I thought I might be able to get away with that for our anniversary. I must have had a really goofy grin by the time we both came. I never wanted to lose Claire again. Just enough of a swell to cause the breakers. Hand in hand we walked along the shore around the headland, and we were out
