My Kind of Christmas

tonight, and when she arrived, he was already cooking their dinner. She told him the news about the growing fund, and he was so proud of her, so happy for her, that he picked her up and spun her around.
    As he served her dinner, she said, “A girl could really get used to this.”
    “So could a guy, but unfortunately there’s that boat…”
    “You ready to go back to the Navy, to the plane?” she asked him.
    “Not sure yet. I’ve always wanted that life,” he said.
    “Even when it’s dangerous?”
    “Especially when it’s dangerous,” he answered. “The thing about a jet like that…you want the challenge it demands, and the rush is just unparalleled. The job it does can’t be compared to anything else in my mind. But when there’s a tragedy, like what happened with Jake, it shakes things up. I’ve had my doubts lately, wondered if I should move on to something with less rush and more stability.” He looked into her eyes and said, “You know what I learned while sitting out some leave here?”
    “I can’t wait to hear.”
    “It’s not something I’m real proud of, but it’s a fact—I’ve always wanted Jake’s life,” he said.
    Marie, she thought.
    “You said you had a girlfriend. A serious girlfriend,” she reminded him.
    “Sure, I was serious about her, but it wasn’t mutual. And I wasn’t like Jake—I wasn’t insanely in love with her. Why’d I think that was okay?” he asked her. He just shook his head. “From the time I realized what Jake and Marie had going on, that was what I wanted. But I only admitted that to myself recently. Since he died, really. Most of my friends are married, most of them have ordinary relationships. They run hot and cold. A lot of them get bored or take their women for granted. But from the minute Jake and Marie got together, they were madly in love. Totally committed. I don’t think that happens to too many people.”
    “It happens almost all the time in my family. There have been a couple of exceptions. My aunt Brie was divorced—her ex-husband was …is a real screwup. He left his second wife, too. But Brie’s so solid with Mike, it’s wonderful. Uncle Jack didn’t get married till he was forty, never even had a close call. But as soon as he found Mel, there was no one else in the world for him.”
    “My brothers weren’t exactly fast burners in that department. Well, Luke—he was married before. Briefly. And Aiden even more briefly. That would inspire caution in any man, I guess.”
    She put down her fork and tilted her head. “Every man and woman wants what your friend Jake had. Every single one. That’s the dream, right? The kind of powerful love that lasts a lifetime? And no matter what you say about all the married guys you know who are bored or discontent or just too plain dumb to appreciate their good luck, I bet there are a lot of couples who appreciate their good fortune and treat their marriages very carefully.” When he didn’t say anything, she added, “I bet there are.”
    “My father was a blusterer,” Patrick said.
    “And mine is the studious and silent type, all too happy to let my mother dominate the conversation. But they hold hands. They love to travel together. They surprise me all the time. Once I saw him give her a pat on the ass in the kitchen and I thought, wow, they’ve still got it.”
    “I have to say, I never saw that at my house. My mother thought about being a nun. And my father was—”
    “A blusterer,” she said with a laugh.
    Patrick held her hand across the table. “What do you want, Angie?”
    “I never saw Jake and Marie together,” she said with a shrug. “And I’m the last person to ask how to guarantee the future. I mean, didn’t I get an up close and personal lesson in how unpredictable life can be? So, after falling in love, what I really want is a man who believes marriage can work. A man willing to try for that. A man who won’t give up. Because I already know that if I make a commitment it would take a terrible string of crises to get me to give up.”
    “How will you know when you’re in love?”
    “I’ll know,” she said. “I’ll absolutely know.”
    He smiled at her. “I want you to do something for me. I want you to take the weekend off. Come with me to Colin’s tomorrow night—Luke, Shelby and their little boy will be there. Jillian’s sister and her family are coming over. They’ve been baking and freezing rolls and breads for Jack to put in the town’s