After a little while Raif drove me back to the house. We kissed goodbye, our lips lingering a touch too long against one another, neither of us willing to pull away first. Eventually I leaned away and opened the car door. "Pick you up tomorrow for work?"

"Only if you bring breakfast." I teased with a smile as I shut the door behind me.

"Oh of course." He grinned with a wink. He waited until I was in the house before pulling away. The other girls in the house had long gone to bed, so I quietly made my way up into my room. I hurriedly changed into my night gown. There was a pleasant warmth deep within me that hadn't been there for a long time.

I recognized the feeling a few moments later as happiness. I hadn't been this happy in what felt like forever. I touched my lips, feeling the ghost of Raif's still on them. Perhaps in this one instance, god would allow me to be happy. Perhaps I'd finally gotten a worth while hand in life.

My life seemed to have pushed a fast-forward button from there on out. Raif and I went on dates during our days off. Getting to know one another again in this new facet of our relationship. You learned a lot about someone when you were in a romantic relationship.

In the middle of April, the United States of America dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We effectively ended the war. Raif was sent word a short while later that his mother had gotten ill. When it came time to renew our contracts in the Air Force, we declined. Raif, Danny, Evelyn, and I were being sent back to Tennessee in a month's time.

It was harder than I thought it would be to say goodbye to everyone. There were lots of tears and an inordinately large amount of alcohol. I still drank Gooz under the table, much to Sandra's dismay. She thought it was so unladylike.

Raif's mom was ecstatic to see her son had finally settled down, especially with me. She made me promise to take care of her boy. To which I replied with a very tearful "Of Course." Her funeral was a beautiful and sad affair. It took months before Raif was himself again.

At the moment I was making lunch. Raif was in the barn fixing up the tractor. We had planted corn in the fields for the fall harvest. I'd never even been a gardener before, and now I was supposed to take care of a whole five acres of land. Raif laughed at me when I expressed my concern. He had said "There ain't nothing to it." I smiled softly at the thought of the man. He was my savings grace.

"Is that ham sandwiches I see?" Speaking of Raif, I turned to see him standing in the doorway. He was wearing a tank top and jeans. His hands were stained black from oil.

"Yes, but you can't have one until you wash your hands. Oil's not good for your stomach." I tore another piece of lettuce off the lettuce head and added it to the sandwich.

"Yes ma'am." My nose twitched at the word ma'am. Raif chuckled lightly, knowing I hated being called ma'am.

"How's the tractor coming along?" I asked as I pressed the to halves of the sandwich together.

"We need a new timing belt, have to pick one up on our next trip to town."

"At least the engine isn't seized up like the crop duster." I complained. The small red plane he owned needed to be completely rebuilt from the ground up.

"That's true. Has the parts come in yet?" I shook my head and placed the sandwiches on two plates. I placed them on the small kitchenette table and sat down. Raif joined me a few moments later. We wasted no time in digging into the small lunch.

"Danny and them are coming over for dinner tonight," I told Raif as I munched on my sandwich.

"It'd be good to see how big R.J.'s gotten since last time we saw them."

"We went over for dinner last Monday. He couldn't have grown that much," It was a bit of a lie though. R.J. was growing like a weed. "The guys at the shop still have a hard time believing I can fix cars." I worked at a garage in town. It had taken some convincing to let George the owner of the shop to hire me on as a mechanic, but he'd relented after he learned who I was. "Jason is a bit of a numskull, but you should have seen his face when he cussed in front of me yesterday. I'd never seen anyone turn that shade of red be-"

"Marry me."

I blinked and looked up at Raif. "What?"

He smiled, "I said marry me."

"We're eating." He snorted with laughter.

"Not right now Sky, but sometime down the road." He pursed his lips, "We can have a big wedding in a few months, or we can even just go down to the courthouse tomorrow. I know you're not much into dresses and things." He frowned down at his sandwich before looking up at me. "I want to spend the rest of my life with you, so marry me."

"Okay." His eyes lit up and he practically flipped the table coming towards me.

"Really?" He asked smiling down at me.

"Yes, let's get married." He laughed and lifted me out of my chair. I squealed as I was twisted around in a circle. Raif kissed me with the enthusiasm of a man coming up for air.

We married two months later in the same church Raif's mother and father were married. Our closest friends attended. It was a small ceremony, but beautiful. Sandra was my maid of honor. Danny was Raif's best man. I'd never been happier in my life, even the gnawing doubt that one day I could be ripped from this world couldn't ruin my mood.

As the weeks turned to months and the months turned to years, that fear slowly slipped away. I found where I belonged in life. I wouldn't be taken away from that.