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rearrange things a little.  I wouldn’t mind rearranging things a lot; rings, marriage, the whole deal but I wanted to be bringing home a solid paycheck with benefits first.  We hadn’t even talked about it in a while.  I guess somehow we were afraid of disturbing what we had. 
    I ran my fingertips up and down her arm.  “You hungry?”
    She gave me an arch look. “What are you offering?”
    “I grabbed some Chinese food from Magic Garden.  It’s in the fridge.” 
    “You get pepper steak?”
    I snorted.  “And she asks if I got pepper steak.  Of course I got pepper steak, Steph.  Do I look like I’m new here?”
    We sat on the floor of the kitchen and ate cold Chinese food out of the white paper cartons. Best damn meal ever. 
    Stephanie yawned and rested her cheek on my shoulder.  I set my carton of Chinese food down and wrapped my arms around her. 
    “I tire you out already, baby?”
    Another yawn.  “It’s not you.  Long day.  What time is it?” 
    “A watch doesn’t go with this ensemble.”
    She looked me over.  “What ensemble?”
    “Exactly.” 
    She squinted at the clock above the stove.  “Only eight o’clock.  Hey, you’re hanging out with your brothers tomorrow night, right?”
    “That’s the plan.  With one thing or another it’s been a few weeks since we’ve been able to be in the same place.  Haven’t seen the boys since the night of my graduation.  I’m sure we’ll just shoot the shit at the tattoo shop, maybe head to dinner and a bar.  You want to come along?”
    She shook her head with a smile.  “No.  Far be it from me to interfere with the Gentry boys.” 
    “You couldn’t interfere with the Gentry boys.  You’d only enhance them.” 
    “Go with Cord and Creed.  It’s fine.”  She crept over to the fridge and stowed the carton of pepper steak on the bottom shelf.  “Think I’ll leave that for leftovers tomorrow night when I’m sitting here all by my lonesome.” 
    I grabbed her.  “Let’s get a puppy.”
    “What?”
    “When we move.  New place allows dogs up to forty pounds.  I already checked.”
    An odd look crossed her face.  “Chase.” 
    I collected her back into my arms.  “If you had a puppy you wouldn’t be lonely on the rare occasions I go somewhere without you.  He would be so cute.  We could name him Gentry.” 
    She tipped her forehead into my chin.  “Yeah.  We could.”
    “Steph?”
    She gave me a quick kiss.  “We’ll talk about it another day.” 
    I got my arms under her and lifted her from the floor.  “In the meantime, let’s make a night of it and go crazy.  We can roll out the futon and watch a baseball game.” 
    She settled against me.  “That sounds wonderful.”
    I carried her into the living room, grabbed an extra blanket from the closet and pushed the futon into a reclining shape.  For the first time tonight I noticed that she was a little pale and the protective instinct surged in me.  I laid her down beside me, covered her carefully with the blanket and switched on the game. It was one of my favorite things about being us; we were just happy to be in the same place together.  Before I met Stephanie I’d never had anything like it.  I fucked with random enthusiasm and vaguely wondered if I’d ever find something worth a second look. 
    We fought sometimes, Stephanie and I.  We yelled and cursed and stomped around, but always found our way back to each other before any damage was done.   As I absently ran her long, curly blonde hair through my fingers I tried to imagine my life without her and couldn’t. 
    Saylor, my brother’s wife, once told me that love was unpredictable.  And irreplaceable.  Saylor was usually right.  Lying here with the girl I loved in my arms was about as close to heaven as I could get and still be earthbound.  There’s no way for me to know if it’s the same for all men.  My brothers had found it.  I’d found it.  That right there said