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Jude’s green eyes softened. “You know, sometimes I think about how close we came to losing this. Losing each other.”

Carmen nodded. That mission—the threats, the close calls, the gunfire—had changed them both. It had also been the moment she realized that nothing else mattered more than the woman sitting beside her now. They had survived together, fought together, and in the end, chosen each other.

“But we didn’t,” Carmen whispered. “We made it.”

Jude leaned over, pressing a lingering kiss to her lips. “Damn right we did.”

Binx chose that moment to stretch, yawning dramatically before rolling onto his back, paws in the air, as if demanding attention. Carmen laughed, scratching his belly. “And then we got this troublemaker.”

Jude grinned. “Best decision we ever made. Well, second best.”

Carmen arched a brow. “And the first?”

Jude smirked. “Taking the assignment to protect you.”

Carmen laughed, tilting her head as she regarded Jude playfully. “You were so serious at first.”

Jude was indignant, “I’m a serious operator and I had a serious job to do!”

“And then I seduced you.”

Jude rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. We’ll call it that.”

Carmen smirked, knowing full well that it had been a mutual pull—irresistible, inevitable.

The morning passed in easy conversation and laughter, the way their days often did. There was no rush, no urgency, just a peaceful rhythm they had built together. Later, Jude would head to the base to oversee drills, and Carmen had a stack of books waiting for her in the cozy reading nook inside. They had dinner plans with friends in town, and tomorrow, they were driving up the coast for a weekend getaway—just because they could.

As the sun climbed higher, Carmen stood, stretching her arms above her head. “I think I’ll take Binx for a walk before it gets too hot.”

Jude pushed up from her seat, wrapping an arm around her waist and pressing a kiss to the side of her neck. “I’ll come with you.”

Carmen smiled, leaning into her. “We really did find our happy ending, didn’t we?”

Jude looked at her with a rare softness. “Yeah, we did.”

With Binx trotting ahead, tail wagging, they set off down the winding path toward the beach, hand in hand, the sound of the waves their constant, steady backdrop. The world had once been full of chaos and danger, but now, it was filled with quiet mornings, shared laughter, and the simple certainty that they would always have each other.

And for them, that was everything.