"Hello, beautiful," my fiancé said, still sounding sad and tired, but, as always, my hero and the man I loved more every day. "Tell me everything."

We hadn't connected the night before like we'd planned, and I was only just realizing that now. Had I said I'd call and failed to? Had he planned to phone and forgot or was distracted by what kept him in California? Didn't matter, not now. Not when he was there, on the other end of the line, available for me, wanting to ...