Chapter 1

“You have a great woman there, Landon. Don’t let her get away,” Landon’s mother advised her son for the umpteenth time.

Landon Petersen had gone back to his hometown in Wyoming for a few days to help his mother and sister to move to Middletown with him. He was a soldier who had been diagnosed with PTSD. His army buddy Derek Hayes, and especially his girlfriend, Grace McAllister, had nursed him back to health. His symptoms had improved and his mood had stabilized. He was now seeing his psychiatrist in a special center in Seattle once a month instead of every week, and his meds had been reduced.

“Grace is an amazing woman, Mom, she has helped in ways you can’t imagine. But she is well aware of my situation and she knows that I’ll move to the next step of our relationship when I’m ready. It’s not easy loving someone with PTSD.”

“You’re doing much better, Son. You’re not the same person you were a year ago.”

“I’ve worked hard with my doctor to get where I am now. Grace, Derek and the whole town helped me a lot too.”

“Look, I don’t want to be pushy, Landon, but you should give that poor girl a lot more than some vague hope. I know women, trust me.”

“Mom, I’m an adult. Grace is an adult. And we’ll make our decisions in our own time.”

“You’re right, of course. You are happier than you’ve ever been. Your face lightens up when you talk about Grace. Look at you, you’re smiling!”

Landon couldn’t help but smile every time his girlfriend was mentioned.

“You don’t need to apologize, Mom. That’s what parents do. But you need to understand that two people can be happy just the way they are. I don’t want to ruin things.”

“Baby, I bet Grace doesn’t want to push you but she must be waiting for you to take your relationship to the next level. Do people still say that? How long have you been dating?”

Landon took a minute to do the math in his head. “About a year. We had been together almost every day. This is the longest we had been apart since we met.”

“Baby, women have our biological clocks ticking, you know? If you really love Grace, there is no reason to wait. Love makes you feel scared and wonderful at the same time. I still remember how it was with your father.”

“When I’m with Grace I’m not scared because I know she can take everything I throw at her. She has seen me at my worst and, for some reason, she still loves me.”

“Maybe you should plan something special for her as a thank you for all she did for you ... A Christmas gift.”

His mother’s words were like a switch flipped on in Landon’s brain. The rest of the day he couldn’t stop thinking about where he and Grace stood. He tried to see things from her perspective and he realized that his mother might have a point. He loved Grace, and things between them had been going great. Maybe it was time to move their relationship to the next level.