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“I’ve never met someone like you before,” Peggy confided with one of her patient, not-quite smiles. “It’s very refreshing.”
She was so beautiful. Steve felt like he could spend his entire life staring into her eyes and never grow tired of it. Even here, so many years in the future, after losing so many years of could-have-beens. Peggy’s hair was white with age, now, and her face was lined with deep wrinkles, but she was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes on. Steve only wished he could have watched her every day as she came to this point.
“I think I understand,” he told her, squeezing her hand gently where it lay on the bed’s covers. “You’ve always reminded me a bit of my mother, but I don’t think even she could have managed half of what you’ve accomplished. You’re a real dime, Pegs.”
Her laugh was dry and stilted, but no less genuine.
“Oh, exactly the compliment I’ve always wanted,” she teased him, “to be compared to a boy’s mum!”
Steve’s smile trembled and his eyes stung with moisture.
“If you’d met her, you wouldn’t be complaining,” he teased right back. Then, more quietly, “She would have adored you.”
Peggy just watched him with soft eyes.
“I will soon.”
Steve’s breath chocked on a sob and he blinked rapidly to keep the tears from falling.
“I don’t want you to. I only just got you back. How could I possibly lose you again?”
She reached across the bed with her other hand to pat his reassuringly.
“You’ll get by,” she promised. “And it’s time, Steve. You have to let me go. Don’t waste your new life living in your past.”
“You make it sound so easy. It’s not.”
“I know, but you’ve never been one for easy.”
A single tear slipped out and tracked down his face.
“I love you, Pegs.”
“I love you, too.”