much time planning their weddings. He couldn’t imagine Claire or Tammy doing that, but Amanda was different. She was more of a girl than either of them. His sisters didn’t dream about babies either. They were both more focused on their work, like their mother. He had talked to his grandmother about it, and she had advised him to be sure that he and Amanda had common interests and the same goals, which he thought they did.
Their common goal was their future, hiking, skiing, and doing all the sports they loved together, building his videogame business one day when he was ready, and having kids whenever it happened. That was enough view of the future for him. The rest was details. Amanda was good at those, so he was leaving them to her. For now, they just had to get through the wedding. It was boring for him, but he knew how much it meant to her. If he had to listen to her talk about it for the next six months, he didn’t care. He could put up with it for now. He loved her, and it was worth it in the end. He still couldn’t believe that in six months they’d be married. He smiled at her, as she lay sleeping next to him. He liked knowing that they would be together forever. She was a beautiful girl and they loved each other. What more could he want?
Chapter 3
As he often did on short notice, Bart called Kate mid-week and told her he had time to spend the weekend with her, if she had time for him, and wasn’t locked down working on a case she was preparing for court or deposition. They hadn’t seen each other in six weeks. He’d been traveling a lot, and had been in the Middle East on an information gathering mission for a Senate subcommittee. He was on two important committees. Kate loved hearing about what he was doing. It kept things interesting whenever they met, and he was always intrigued by her work too.
The six years they had been dating had flown by, and had gone smoothly, once he understood the ground rules. At first he’d thought she was the kind of woman he would want to marry, if he ever ventured on the choppy seas of marriage again. He’d been divorced for ten years by then, and was still engaged in constant battles with his ex-wife, and frequently with two of his daughters on her behalf. Their marriage had always been stormy, and had finally ended with an embarrassingly public affair on his part with a twenty-three-year-old congressional assistant. In the end, the divorce was a relief for him, even if expensive.
He had liked the fact that Kate had grown children when they met. They were from twenty to twenty-six then, so she’d be free. It took him months to realize that she was married to her work and her children, and had managed well on her own for so long that she had little interest in marriage and no great emotional need for a relationship that was too close and might interfere with her freedom, work, or kids. Once he understood that it made her even more appealing to him. She didn’t want anything from him, just to spend time together when it was convenient for both of them, take occasional trips together, enjoy intelligent conversation, and a peaceful weekend now and then when they could both relax. Despite her cool, sometimes standoffish independent style, she met his own emotional needs surprisingly well, more than he had expected. She was a kind, warm, caring person, she just didn’t want to be someone’s wife again and she didn’t need a man to survive. She was doing fine on her own. Better than fine. Extremely well in fact.
Their relationship was based on an even trade of intellectual exchange and fun. Two smart people who enjoyed each other’s company, with neither of them strangling the other. He hadn’t dated anyone else in the past two or three years. Kate was enough for him, and no one else quite measured up to her in his eyes. She never asked him about it, and he was sure she had no other involvements either. She was discreet, had integrity, and believed in playing fair, unlike his ex-wife, who still wanted money from him.
Six years after they’d started, Kate was still more involved with her children than he was with his. He never had been.