Chapter 12: The Time-Traveler’s Wife

Samantha lay there beside her husband, awake, after they had made love, their bodies still tangled together in the warm tangle of sheets. She listened for the sound of his slow, steady breathing as he drifted off into slumber but couldn’t relax enough to join him.

Instead, she rolled onto her side facing away from him and stared at the wall, lost deep in thought over everything that’s happened recently. The fluctuating age of Ethan, Micki, and Ryan’s unexpected visit, and Ethan’s long absence from home from time to time. All of it spelled one undeniable conclusion. The worst was yet to come, and they could enjoy the peace before the storm.

Sighing gently as she puffed out her breath, Samantha rolled back onto her other side so she could watch the rise and fall of her husband’s chest as he slept peacefully next to her. For a while longer they simply lay there together in silence until finally, she reached out tentatively to stroke gently through his hair.

“Ethan,” she whispered, not wanting to wake him but needing some sort of acknowledgment from him about what was going on here. “I think I understand more than you might realize.”