Caroline closed her eyes at the promise, releasing a shaky breath and clutched him just a little harder, still mindful not to hurt him. She knew that one day she would lose him and hoped it would be in something like fifty years and he’d die in his sleep surrounded by someone that he would marry. With a slew of children grown up and living their own lives. If any of them could manage that it had to be Matt, didn’t it? He was pretty much the only one left of them who could.
And maybe at some point she would need to step away and leave them behind. There was only so long she would be able to stay in Mystic Falls without everyone growing suspicious about why she never aged. But that wasn’t something she wanted to even entertain thinking about along with everything else they had to deal with. Especially since they weren’t in their small town. It was better to focus on the here and now than be overrun by all the what if scenarios her mind was capable of coming up with.
“Good. Because I’d so kick your ass if you did,” she told him, trying for a joke but it came out more as a muffled sob. “We’ll be okay.”
Somehow. They just had to be. No other option was allowed.