Carrie went into his arms easily, curling up small against him with one arm around his waist so she could rub his back. All those months staring at his photo had put him in a place in her mind that she hadn't completely understood. Having him there, real, was making it clearer. She hadn't lied to him and she had no intention of it, but the way that opened her up to him was getting scary.

He wasn't hers. He had a wife and family at home and the Marine Corps breathing down her neck about him. And she sucked at being anyone's anything. Right there, in that moment, she could almost feel all that disappear.