“Where are you and Charlie going?” Eric asked me when he came out of the bathroom freshly showered. He had a towel wrapped around his hips, and his hair was still dripping causing water to fall and trail down his chest.
I was momentarily distracted as I watched one of the drops make its way down his sculpted chest and each of his chiseled abs.
“Sookie?” he asked with a lopsided smirk.
“Shopping,” I replied quickly.
I didn’t want to tell him that we were going shopping so that I could find him a present. Ever since Valentine’s Day when he gave me my bracelet, I had been thinking that I wanted to get him something, but I wanted it to have meaning.
Eric had been so patient with me since the accident. He was even willing to let me go and do whatever would make me happy. Even if it wasn’t with him. I wasn’t sure how I managed to get this selfless man/vampire to fall in love with me before, but I could definitely see why I fell in love with him.
I was falling in love with him now.
“Is that all you’re going to give me? That you’re going shopping. What are you hiding from me?” he asked with concern and some other unknown emotion evident through his voice, eyes, and our bond.
“Eric,” I said as I slowly walked up to him and placed a hand on his chest. Looking up into his soulful eyes, I continued. “I’m not hiding anything bad from you. I want to go shopping for something, but I don’t know if I’ll find what I’m looking for. So I don’t want to tell you now, but I promise I’ll let you know if I find it.”
He scanned my face while his brow was furrowed. “If you tell me what you’re looking for then maybe I can help you. Possibly tell you where to shop,” he said while he twirled a lock of my hair around his finger.
“What if I want it to be a surprise? Can you let me try and surprise you?” I asked him.
“You want to surprise me?” he asked astonished.
I lifted up on my toes and softly kissed him. As I turned around and walked out of the room, I called back to him, “You’ll have to wait and see. I’ll have Charlie bring me to Fangtasia when we’re done.”
As I got to the end of the stairs, the doorbell rang. I quickly scooped up my purse and keys as I made my way to the door.
“Hi, Charlie! Are you ready to go?” I asked him as I stepped out into the hallway.
“Sure, Sookie. Are you in a hurry for some reason?” he asked me as he followed me to the elevator, glancing back at the door.
“Yes, Eric is suspicious because I won’t tell him why we’re going shopping,” I said as I pushed the button for the elevator.
“Is there a reason why you don’t want to tell him?” he asked as we got out to the elevator and stepped out into the parking garage.
I looked around the garage as I opened the passenger side door and got in. Charlie got in and started the car, looking at me with his eyebrow crooked up.
“I don’t want him to know because I want to get Eric something, but I don’t know what yet. I didn’t want to tell him I was getting him a present and then come back empty-handed,” I sighed and looked out the window. “I’m pretty sure he has everything he could possibly want. I mean he’s been alive for over a thousand years and has more money than even Pam can spend. Do you have any ideas?” I asked him hopefully.
“Hmmm, I don’t know. There’s a real nice outdoor shopping area that has a quite a few specialty shops. We could go and look there. Afterward, we can eat at one of the cafes before you go to Fangtasia. Sound good?” he asked, taking a quick look over at me.
“Sounds like a plan. I hope I find something for him. I want to show him how much I care for him and all that he’s been through since my accident.”
We were quiet as Charlie drove us to the shopping center. We had been into a few shops, but so far, I hadn’t seen anything that I wanted to get Eric. I was starting to give up hope that I’d find something on this excursion when Charlie suggested that we eat dinner and try the shops that were a little further down once we were done.
Charlie had been introducing me to a lot of new foods, and so far he hadn’t steered me wrong. So, when he asked me to trust him and that he’d order for me, I gave him the go ahead. I found us a table outside, and as I waited for Charlie to join me with our food, I looked out at the night sky and thought about Eric.
I was imagining what it would be like to go over a thousand years and only see the moon and stars. It wasn’t until we had moved into our loft (a little over a year ago, according to Eric) with the special UV windows that Eric had seen the sunrise. Although the night sky was beautiful, I would hate it if I had to give up seeing the beautiful colors of the day.
“Hey! Where were you?” asked Charlie as he sat down with two big plates, lined with newspaper that were full of crawfish, potatoes, sausage, and corn on the cob. They smelled heavenly, and I couldn’t wait to try it.
“I was just thinking about Eric and only being able to see the night for over a thousand years,” I replied as I watched how he ate the crawfish before I dug into my own plate.
“You know I was a little nervous when I interviewed for this job. I’d never worked for a vampire before, and I’d heard some scary stories about them. I thought that since I’d also be working for you, it wouldn’t be too bad.”
“Do you like your job?” I asked him as I sucked on my crawfish head.
“Like my job? I love it! First of all, the hours are great. I’ve never been a nine to five kind of guy,” he started, but I interrupted him.
“Nine to five?”
“That’s the hours most people work. All the people out there with boring jobs,” he said with a chuckle. “I get to take you out to eat which is one of my favorite things,” he said as he pointed to his round stomach, “and try new food, you’re not overly demanding, I get paid extremely well, and I get benefits. It’s the perfect job for me and you’re probably the sweetest person I know so it’s easy to work for you. Your husband, on the other hand, is not as fun to be around. I’m afraid that if I mess up I’m going to see the scary side to him or worse.”
Pausing my eating, I looked up at him. “Eric would never do anything to you. You should know that if you’re working for us. I don’t want you scared something’s going to happen to you. You have nothing to worry about where he’s concerned.”
Charlie looked at me seriously for a moment before he spoke, “If something happened to you while you were with me or because of me, he would show me no mercy. I have a feeling I’d be lucky to live, but that’s the way it should be. You’re his wife and it’s obvious that he loves you,” he smiled and shook his head. “If all those idiots from the Fellowship of the Sun could see how he treats you then maybe they’d stop with all their vampire hate propaganda.”
“Why do you say that?” I asked him. I knew very little about the Fellowship of the Sun and what I did know wasn’t good.
“They claim that vampires have no feelings, and they cannot love. They’re only here to drink our blood and murder us. The only good vampire is a dead vampire.”
I hated that there were people out there who thought this way about vampires, but Eric had told me that there were plenty of bad vampires out there in the world just as there were bad humans.
“I don’t think I want them anywhere near him. If they hurt him in any way…” I couldn’t continue. As my eyes welled up with tears, Charlie took hold of my hand from across the table.
“Hey, no crying. Nothing’s going to happen to him. He’s a big boy and can take care of himself. Even if he were human, people wouldn’t mess with him as big as he is. I was just saying that I’ve heard a lot of bad things about vampires, but your husband has shown me when I’ve seen him with you, that they’re not all bad.”
I nodded my head, still unable to talk. He’s a good man/vampire. Just then my phone went off letting me know that I had received a text message.
E: Are you okay? Why are you sad?
I knew that Eric wished that he could call me, but he was in an important meeting and could tell that I wasn’t in any danger.
S: I’m fine. Talking to Charlie. I don’t want the Fellowship people to hurt you or for anything bad to happen to you.
His response was immediate.
E: Nothing’s going to happen to me. I’m careful.
E: Are you sure you’re okay? I can end my meeting and come and get you.
I did know that Eric was careful, even more so, after the shooting in front of Fangtasia. It made me smile to know that he didn’t care how important the meeting was, he would drop any and everything to make sure I was alright.
S: I promise. I’ll see you soon.
“Was that your scary hubby?” he asked while laughing.
“As a matter of fact, it was,” I replied with a giggle. I wasn’t going to tell him that ‘my scary husband’ could feel everything I was feeling and was worried about me. I think that would have only made Charlie more nervous about him.
“Are you ready to continue on your quest to find that scary husband of yours a present?” he asked me.
I nodded my head as I stood up, “How long are you going to call him that?” I laughed. “Do you know how good vampire hearing is? I’d stop calling him that before he hears you and you find out how scary he really can be.”
“I’ll stop. I was only trying to lighten the mood. We can’t shop if you’re all sad and about ready to cry,” he said. I could tell he was joking by the tone of his voice, the big smile on his face, and the raised eyebrow.
“You’re right. Thank you,” I said giving him a smile.
“Of course, I’m right,” he said and nudged me with his elbow. Unfortunately, at that time I was walking on the edge of the sidewalk, Charlie’s nudge had me tripping over my own two feet and almost falling flat on my face. Luckily, he was quick enough to grab ahold of my arm and keep me somewhat steady.
I looked up at Charlie, and he had the funniest look on his face. It was one that showed he was shocked, scared, and found the situation slightly funny. I’m not sure what the look on my face was, but when he caught a look at it, it must have been comical. We both started laughing at each other and the situation. I almost fell over again from laughing, but Charlie kept his grip on me.
We were finally calming down some when we heard someone clearing their throat. Charlie immediately let go of me probably thinking it was Eric, but when I looked up, I saw Bill Compton. Maybe he was here to ruin my night. I stood up straight and looked at him waiting to see what he wanted.
“Good evening, Soo-” he started to say my first name but stopped with the look I gave him. Eric had repeatedly told him to address me as Mrs. Northman until I gave him my permission to call me by my first name. Little did he know he was never getting that right. “I mean good evening, Mrs. Northman,” he said with his jaw clenched.
If he didn’t like it then maybe he should leave me alone and not address me.
“Good evening, Mr. Compton,” I replied, stepping around him.
“You may call me, Bill,” he said giving me an expectant look. After a few moments of staring at each other, he continued, “Who’s your companion?”
Looking over at Charlie and then back to Bill, I was slightly confused by Bill calling Charlie my companion. What did he think our relationship was?
“This is Charlie. We need to go and finish our shopping. I’ll see you around,” I said and started to walk away. I noticed Bill looked down to our empty hands and gave me a disbelieving look, but I didn’t care or think anything of it at the time.
Walking around looking for something, anything to strike me as the perfect present for Eric was seeming more and more unlikely. We had walked through stores and looked in store windows for almost an hour before I spotted something in a window that drew my attention.
I saw jewelry shining in the window, but what caught my eye was a necklace with an anchor on it. Pulling Charlie into yet another store, he let out a groan.
“Come on, Charlie. It hasn’t been that bad. This is the last store I promise,” I said pulling him further into the store. He gave me a disbelieving look before he started looking at the jewelry in the case that was in front of us. “You’re lucky you haven’t been shopping with Pam, she can go all night and almost everything that she buys is pink.”
“Pink?” he asked looking at me as if I’d gone crazy. “Why would she buy pink? All she wears is black.”
“At Fangtasia, but when she’s not there, she wears pink. Even her car is pink. Haven’t you seen it in the parking lot?”
He gave me a sideways glance and went back to looking at the jewelry in the case. “I normally drop you off in the front, and it’s dark so no I can’t say that I have, but now I’ll be on the look for it. A pink car really?” he asked looking at me once again.
“Really,” I replied as I went to the next jewelry case. After looking through most of the cases, I finally found what I was looking for.
Two anchors were on a platinum chain with each of them also in a platinum setting. I stood there staring at it for a few moments before a salesman came over to ask me if I wanted to see anything in the case. Pointing to the necklace that had caught my eye, I asked Charlie to join me while it was being bought out for me to look at it.
“What do you think?” I asked him.
“Um… it’s nice I guess,” he said giving me a side glance. “Why that necklace? I thought you wanted to get something that would mean something.”
“It does mean something. It means several something’s actually,” I said. I started biting on my lower lip as I thought about a poem I had read recently. In the poem, it talked about sailing and although the first part of the poem seemed sad maybe even tragic, it made me think of the relationship that Eric and I have had since the accident.
After reading the poem that seemed to have made an impression on me, I used the computer in the office to look up sailing. I had recently asked about one of the pictures that were in the office, and Eric had told me a little about when he was human and the boats he had sailed on.
One of the things that seemed to hit home was what anchors meant. I had read that they meant hope, a well-spent life, stability, and faithfulness. All these were what Eric was to me. Is to me. This was what I had been looking for, and I didn’t even know it. It went with the poem, and it had meaning to me. Hopefully, Eric would understand what I was trying to say by giving it to him.
I informed the sales clerk that I would take it. While I was handing over my credit card, Charlie asked if they could also gift wrap it for me. As the salesman took Eric’s gift to the back for it to be wrapped, Charlie whispered to me, “With how much you’re paying for that necklace they should have offered to wrap it for you.”
“Do you think it costs too much?” I asked him. With the necklace seeming so perfect, I hadn’t thought about the price.
He shook his head, “No, but this is a nice place, and jewelry is typically given wrapped.”
“When Eric gave me this bracelet it wasn’t wrapped,” I said as I held my arm up showing my bracelet. This wasn’t the first time he had seen my gift since I had thought it was so thoughtful on Eric’s account to buy me something that had meaning.
That we had an eternity together.
“If you had your memory, you’d know that your bracelet is from Tiffany’s and the box is decoration enough. Most women would die for a piece of Tiffany’s jewelry,” he said looking at me before he started to laugh. “But you have no clue about Tiffany’s, and you love it for what it is.”
“For me, it’s the meaning of why he bought for me and that he was the one to give it to me,” I shrugged.
He smiled at me, “That’s what’s so sweet about it. You don’t care about the brand, only the meaning.”
I nodded my head, “I hope Eric likes what I got him. That he’ll understand the meaning of it.”
“There are many meanings for anchors, and I can only think of positive ones, so I know he’ll love it. Most of all because it came from you.”
“You think?” I asked hopeful.
“I know. That man will love that you went out and chose something that means something to you and got it for him.”
A big smile was on my face when we left the store. I couldn’t wait to give Eric his present. Charlie was dropping me off at Fangtasia, so I could meet Eric there and finish the schedule for next week, and he would take the car back to the garage. While he was there, he would drop off the necklace.
I had been feeling Eric’s mood change on our way to Fangtasia. It started off as slightly irritated, moved to disbelief, and now as I was walking through the front door I could feel a shift in him as it steadily grew towards fury. Pam wasn’t at the door, it was her night off, or I would have asked her what was going on. Instead, it was a vampire named Indira who had recently moved to Area Five.
I was becoming more and more concerned as I walked closer to where I knew Eric was through our bond. Not knowing what could have possibly made Eric feel like this was starting to scare me. He was normally indifferent while he was here, especially if we were apart.
My stomach dropped when I first caught sight of the cause of Eric’s ire. Standing in front of him was none other than, Bill Compton. What was he doing here and what was he doing to upset Eric so much?
I only caught the end of their conversation as I walked up to the dais.
“Surely you’re not going to let your human make you look weak. You’re the sheriff and need to put her in her place.”
I had no idea what I had done to make Eric look weak, but I would never do anything intentional, and he had never indicated that I had ever done anything to make him look bad.
Eric extended his hand out to me as I came into range and as I passed Bill, I noticed his body stiffen slightly. Eric pulled me up to his throne and onto his lap. Once I was seated, he wrapped his arms around me bringing me flush against his body.
“Did you maker teach you nothing of what it means to be bonded, Compton?” Eric growled out. Bill took a step back as Eric continued. “If your maker taught you anything about being bonded to a human than you would know that I can feel everything, I would know if she was unfaithful to me.”
I let out a gasp, looking first at Bill and then at Eric. Had Bill accused me of cheating? When he saw me with Charlie earlier, did he think I was cheating on Eric? I was horrified with the thought of someone seeing us and thinking that I was betraying Eric. Not wanting Bill to see how upset his accusations had made me, I fought to hold back my tears but just barely.
“It’s the furthest thing from my mind, min älskade. Do not worry,” Eric said after feeling me through our bond. He intertwined our fingers and placed a kiss on my temple before he looked back at Bill.
Bill looked at us in disgust before spitting out, “Surely you wouldn’t keep your bond open all the time, feeling all of her trivial human emotions.”
Eric went rigid beneath me. “I never shut down the bond with my wife, and if you continue to speak of things you know nothing about, I’ll give you to Pam and let her have a little fun with you.”
Bill’s eyes widened, and I was unsure if it was the threat of Pam or that Eric never shut down our bond. I believed it was a little of both going by his reaction when Eric mentioned never shutting it down.
“I…,” he looked down for a moment and then brought his head up, squaring his shoulders. “Apologize, Sheriff. I meant no disrespect to you or your bonded. I’m sure that I’m wrong in my assumptions about your wife.”
Eric’s eyes narrowed into slits, “You are wrong in your assumptions. If you only came here tonight to spout out false accusations about my wife, then you’re free to go.” His voice was cold and menacing as he spoke.
His tone had me worried as to what had been said before I had arrived. I didn’t want anyone to think Eric was weak where I was concerned and the room was full of vampires tonight. As I looked around the room, I realized that all eyes were upon us. Someone had even stopped the music, making it so that the only sounds I could hear were of my own breaths and heartbeat.
Bill continued to stand in front of us for a few moments looking as if he was searching for something to say. I had a feeling his visit had not gone according to plan, and he was looking for another way to come in between Eric and me.
We had our suspicions that Bill had glamored the woman who had hit on Eric, hoping that she could entice him away from me the night he was shot. Although the shooters had been caught and interrogated, Pam hadn’t gotten anything useful out of them. All we knew was that they were from the Fellowship of the Sun, had come to kill Eric, and had been glamoured by a vampire so that we couldn’t get any further details out of them.
There was nothing to prove that Bill was behind these incidents, but after coming to Fangtasia with accusations of me cheating, my money was on him. If he was here on behalf of the queen, I wasn’t sure what his goal was. Until tonight, he had only been to Fangtasia once a week for his required visits.
He tried to act like a southern gentleman, that’s what Eric called Bill’s act while he was around me, trying to get information out of me. It might have worked if I had been on my own and knew nothing about vampires, but, fortunately, I had Eric. He had taught me to be wary of anyone asking personal questions about us, especially if Bill was the one asking the questions.
I was brought out of my thoughts of Bill when he gave us a slight nod before he made his way out of the club. As Eric looked around the room, everyone went back to what they were doing before everything had come to a halt. Although Eric had calmed down some, he was still quite upset, and no one wanted to feel his wrath.
My body was being tilted forward for a brief moment before I was placed on my feet. I felt Eric’s cool hand engulf mine as he led us off the stage. His pace was quicker than normal as we walked out of the main room and into the hall, I struggled slightly trying to keep up with him but kept quiet. We passed the office door, went straight out the back door into the parking lot, I quickly scanning the parking lot noticing that Eric’s car wasn’t there, but before I could comment, I was gathered in his arms and felt the sensation that I had grown to know as Eric taking flight.
Wrapping my arms tightly around his waist, I looked up at Eric’s face. Unfortunately, he was staring straight ahead and had his standard blank face of indifference on that he frequently wore out in public.
I laid my head down and started to rub my hand up and down Eric’s back as much as I could while in flight. His only action was to cup the back of my head against his chest. Other than that, we were quiet as we made our way home.
We didn’t live very far from Fangtasia and with Eric flying; it took no time at all before we were landing on our deck. I thought Eric would put me down once we landed, but he continued to keep me in his arms as he made his way toward the door and inside.
He continued to walk until he made his way into our bedroom and sat me down on the bed. As I sat there and watched him pace the room, I was wondering what had upset him, that it was still affecting him. This wasn’t a side I was used to seeing and I wanted my Eric back and relaxed.
“Would you like to go downstairs and make a fire?” I asked him.
Eric paused his pacing, turned toward me, and blinked his eyes once before he spoke, “Are you cold?” A look of concern filled his face.
I only shook my head as I watched him start to move toward me.
“Then why would you ask me to make a fire?” he asked with his brow quirked up.
“I’ve noticed that it seems to settle you, and I don’t like that you’re so upset.” When he got closer, I extended out my hand for him. He looked down before placing his hand in mine and sat down next to me on the bed.
He gave me a small, lopsided smile before he spoke, “It’s something from my human days that does bring me a sense of calm, but it’s not needed tonight. I’m sorry if I worried you.”
“Can we lay down and talk about it?” I asked as I started taking off my shoes. His reply was to take off his own shoes before he gracefully made his way up the bed and laying down on his side.
I crawled my way up the bed and laid down with my head on his outstretched arm. My arm was around his waist, rubbing small circles on his back. For a few minutes, we only laid there looking at one another until he brought his hand up to trace one of his fingers along my face and then placed a kiss on my forehead.
While we were laying there, he had calmed down to where I could only feel his love for me. I closed my eyes for a moment as I relished the feeling and no longer felt his turbulent emotions from earlier.
When I opened my eyes, I expected to see Eric staring back at me and was shocked to find him with his own eyes closed. I reached up and traced along his forehead, cheekbones, and finally, his lips that turned upright before he quickly kissed the finger that was tracing them.
“Do you want to talk about what had you so angry earlier?” I asked him, snuggling closer to him.
Letting out a sigh, he brought me closer to him until his face was buried in my hair. “I knew that when Bill was trying to call into question your fidelity that his accusations were false.” I nodded my head against his chest.
“Then what caused such a powerful reaction from you?”
“Dear one, I never once thought what he was spouting was true. It was the fact that he was calling into question your honor in front of over a dozen vampires from my area. Trying to make me look weak,” he stated.
“Do you think they believed him?”
“I think that most of them did not believe him, but there may have been a few that entertained the idea. They know there is some new dynamic between us lately. We are not the same as we used to be. They can smell that you have not had any sexual relations with anyone else, but they can also smell that we have not been together in that way for quite some time. That is something that would be very uncommon for us.”
“Why don’t you tell them that I’ve lost my memory? That could clear things up.”
“Even if we didn’t think the queen was after you, I wouldn’t tell the vampires in my area.”
“Why?” I asked him.
“I wouldn’t want word to get out that you no longer had your memory and have the possibility that vampires would try to take you away from me. I want to keep you out of as much danger as possible. I don’t think we have anything to worry about though the vampires in my area are extremely loyal.”
Pulling back from me enough so that he could look into my eyes he asked, “How did your shopping go with Charlie tonight?”
“I’d say it was successful except for the part for when we ran into Bill.”
“You saw him?” he asked me.
“Yeah, it was right after we had finished dinner and a little bit after you had texted me. I was still upset and Charlie was trying to cheer me up.” A lone eyebrow was raised at my statement. “We were walking along and he was joking with me. He gave me a slight nudge causing me to lose my balance. I almost fell, but Charlie caught my arm. I’m not sure what my face looked like, but his had the funniest look and we both started to crack up. I was doubled over laughing and luckily Charlie had kept a hold of me or I probably would have fallen down from laughing so hard.”
I noticed a smile cross Eric’s face and the corner of his eyes crinkled up when I mentioned laughing so hard.
“That’s when Bill showed up. I didn’t talk to him much. I wanted to continue my shopping and told him so. Unfortunately, at the time, I didn’t have any purchases. I don’t think he believed that I was there to shop, and I didn’t think anything of it at the time.”
“Why would you? You were being truthful with him. Did you get whatever it was that you wanted to buy?” he asked, curiosity flowing through our bond.
“I did,” I said with a big smile on my face. “Would you like to see what I got?” I asked him, excitement lacing my question.
“Of course, I would.”
“Okay, I’ll be right back. I had Charlie drop it off in the kitchen.”
Scrambling off the bed, I made my way downstairs into the kitchen to collect Eric’s gift. I walked up the stairs and into our bedroom slowly. I was excited but also apprehensive to give it to him. What if he didn’t like it? What if he didn’t understand the meaning of it?
Eric was sitting up on the bed with his legs outstretched and his ankles crossed watching me as I entered the room. My head was down examining the packaging one more time as I walked to the bed.
“Sookie, you have no reason to be worried. Come sit by me and show me what you have,” he said giving me a smile that I’d come to realize was only for me.
I sat on the bed next to him and handed him his gift.
“You really bought me a gift?” he asked with another smile. I could feel how happy this made him. It amazed me that he hadn’t even seen it yet and was excited. I nodded and told him to open it.
“Did you wrap it?” he asked as he looked at the wrapping for a moment and then slowly started undoing the bow.
“No, they did it at the store. I didn’t know you were supposed to wrap gifts. I told Charlie that the bracelet you got me wasn’t wrapped, but he explained that it was because it was from a particular store that didn’t require wrapping. Are there many stores that you buy from and don’t wrap the gift?”
“Not that I know of. The only presents I’ve ever bought are for you and Pam. Pam normally buys her own from me.”
“Really? Is that how it’s normally done?”
He shook his head, “It is not, but you may have figured out by now that Pam is spoiled. I’ve treated her the opposite of how my maker treated me.” He could feel my curiosity, but quickly stopped me from asking any questions. “Tonight is not a good night to bring up my maker.” He gave a slight smile and brought my hand up to his lips for a light kiss. “I will tell you some other time, but I’d like the rest of the night to be happy. No bringing up things that are upsetting.”
I squeezed his hand slightly before he released it.
“Let’s see what you’ve gotten me shall we?”
With quick expertise, he finished unwrapping the small box and then lifted the lid before one of his fingers traced the anchors. He took the necklace out and let it hang by one finger, smiling at me.
“Do you like it?” I asked even though I could tell that he did through the bond.
“I do. Very much so. Why did you choose this for me?” he asked, truly curious.
“For a couple of different reasons. I had read a poem recently that for some reason struck home with me. In it, there was a mention of sailing, and you had told me about the boats you had sailed when you were human. I looked up some information about sailing and came across the meanings of anchors. It said that they mean hope, a well-spent life, stability, and faithfulness. Another poem mentioned about ships anchoring when they are home. You are all of those things to me.”
I took his hand in mine. “You are my hope, stability, who I plan to spend my life with, who I am faithful to, and I know that you are faithful to me. You’re my home.”
Emotions swelled through Eric as I told him what the anchors meant to me.
“In the sea of strangers you’ve longed to know me…” he continued to recite the poem word for word that had inspired my purchase.
“Is that the poem you read?” he asked me.
“It is. How did you know?” I asked, looking at him in wonder.
“I saw the book on the desk in the office. Why do you think it struck home with you?”
“The beginning is how I believe you’ve felt after my accident longing for me to know you, wanting to be able to hold your wife, and the ache that you felt that she was gone. You’ve let me take all the time that I’ve needed to get to know you again and because of that, I wanted to buy you something that would hopefully show how much I appreciate all you’ve done for me, how patient you’ve been, and what you mean to me.”
I watched as he put the necklace around his neck and picked up the anchors looking down at them.
“The ending is also true,” I said, and he looked up at me. “I have and always will be yours, Eric.”
I watched as his eyes rimmed with red and the biggest smile I had yet to see spread across his face before he pulled me onto his lap, crushing his lips to mine.