Page 122 of Escape

Of course, it wasn’t always the good stuff we did together. There were sick days, occasional bad days at work, and even the situation with her ex and court appearances.

There were the self-defense classes, which were good, but also trying at times. I gave her those classes in private sessions, understanding she’d likely have some issues or flashbacks to contend with throughout and wanting her to have the time and privacy to work through them. Given what she’d endured nearly all her life, I thought she did exceptionally well. And though they’d started out difficult for her, they’d gotten progressively better. She felt confident about her abilities now.

It had remained important to Josie to learn how to defend herself, despite recognizing that things were heading in the right direction with her legal situation.

While it was well established that the justice system didn’t always get it right, especially in cases of domestic abuse, Josie had been fortunate in her case.

Following what he’d done to her—and Lori—Josie’s ex had a slew of charges thrown at him. They ranged from the recklessness on the road with his truck and the violation of the protection from abuse order all the way up to the attempted homicide.

He was found guilty on nearly every charge, and he was currently in prison, serving his time. He’d be there for a while—no less than the next thirty years—so Josie felt that justice had been served.

She was happy.

God, she was so happy.

I hadn’t anticipated life would ever be as great as it was now.

And when I heard the garage door open, indicating she’d just gotten home from work, I was confident the next week was going to be more of the same.

I opened the door and watched as she pulled into the garage. Her eyes met mine when she came to a stop, and she beamed at me.

Unable to hold myself back, I went to her door and opened it. She got out and kissed me. “Hi, husband.”

“Hello, wife. How was your day at work?”

“Good, but it felt longer than usual. I think it’s because I knew it was my last one for a while. How was your day at home?”

I laughed. “You make it sound like I’m home all the time. I merely took the day off to prepare for this trip.”

“Did you get it all done?”

Nodding, I urged her away from the car and toward the house as I confirmed, “Everything. All you need to do is grab your shower, and we can go.”

When we made it inside, I suspected Josie would keep moving toward the stairs, so she could grab a shower and we could leave.

She didn’t.

She came to a stop and stared at me in disbelief.

“What?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Aren’t you going to ask me what I want?”

My brows drew together, silently questioning her. “What do you mean?”

“Every year, you ask me what I want. Aren’t you curious what I want?”

Suddenly, it all made sense. “You know that I am. But I tend to ask you that on our actual anniversary, which is tomorrow. I’m more than happy to hear it now, if you have it figured out.”

Josie and I had started a tradition since we’d gotten married. On our first wedding anniversary, I told her I wanted to have something to work toward to give her by no later than our next anniversary. We’d spent a year together at that point, and I was surprised that within two days of me asking her what she wanted, she had an answer. She wanted us to have a wedding celebration with our friends. It had become clear to her over our first year of marriage that we had good people in our lives, and she wanted to do something to celebrate with them. So, we planned a party for the following summer.

Last year, on our second anniversary, when I asked Josie what she wanted, she told me she wanted us to take a trip together for our third anniversary.

That’s where we were preparing to go now.

But it seemed she was eager to share her wish for this next year of marriage with me.

“I can wait until tomorrow if you want me to,” she said.