To Love Again

Old Married Couple

Chapter Twenty (Matt’s POV)

I wasn’t expecting Raul to propose to me, I wasn’t even expecting I was ever going to see him again. I had been so hurt by everything that had happened but now that we had talked about everything, it was all good now.

I still couldn’t believe in a month we were going to start our new life together in Texas. I was happy he was making this big change for me, just to be with me. Now I was here watching him sleep. I had waited for him to get off his shift and as hard as he had tried to stay awake, he couldn’t.

I told him to go ahead and sleep, I would still be here when he woke up. I had spent the last couple of hours watching him sleep. It was weird to actually be here in his apartment, most of the time I never went past the living room.

I was staring at the picture he had on his dresser, it was next to the flag in a display case. There were many times I had to fold the American flag for many of my fallen brothers. Each one weighted me down, to know I had survived and had to see the pain and lost in their families eyes.

I could only imagine how Raul felt when he got the news about Dylan. It had to hit him hard if he hadn’t dated until I came around. He had to have loved him so much if he had just stayed alone all these years.

I caressed his cheek before I kissed his forehead, he stirred and opened his eyes. “Hey sleepyhead, sorry if I woke you up.”

“Hey and you didn’t,” Raul whispered as he stretched his arm and yawned. “Was I out long?” he smiled at me as he sat up. It was late in the afternoon, way passed time for lunch.

“Just a few hours, did you sleep well?”

“Yeah, best sleep I had in a while.”

“That’s good, do you have to work tonight?”

“No I’m off, are you hungry?” I nodded my head, “Come on let me make you breakfast. I know it’s not breakfast time, but that’s what I feel like making.” He got off the bed and grab my hand, he led me to the kitchen. “Is there anything special you want?” He opened the fridge and started pulling eggs, bacon and milk.

“If you have the stuff for French toast I could go for that.”

“With bacon?” I nodded my head, he grabbed a pan and put it on the stove. He turn on the stove and started to lay strips of bacon in the pan. “Can you make a pot of coffee or would you prefer milk or orange juice?”

“No coffee would be fine and where do you have your coffee?”

“In the cabinet behind you and the coffeepot is right here.” He opened the cabinet over the sink and pulled out the coffeepot. I made the coffee as he whisked eggs and milk together. He added in some cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg and vanilla. He grabbed another pan and pt it on the stove, he put some butter in the pan. “How many do you want?”

“Two will be fine,” he nodded his head. He dipped two pieces of bread in the egg mixture and then placed them in the pan. He grabbed an orange from the bowl on the counter. “What’s the orange for?” I asked.

 “I put some orange zest in the syrup, it was something Dylan always did and it makes it really good. But you need to make sure to warm it up or it’s not going to taste as good.” He grabbed a zester out of the drawer and zest the orange.

“You know it’s not the first time I heard that,” he smiled.

“Oh yeah, so have you tried it before then?” He asked as he poured some of the maple syrup in a bowl and mixed in some of the orange zest.