It wasn't quite as long on Tahiri's end, but that didn't necessarily make it any easier.

"Boy," she replied with a shaky laugh, "how's that for a greeting to make a girl feel a little better?"

She dug her toes a little deeper into the wet sand -- she'd been standing on the beach when she got the call, ankle-deep into the surf -- and took a breath. "I miss you too, even if you do disappear for a while where it's impossible to call."

Okay, she wouldn't yell at him about it, but that didn't mean she wouldn't give him a little bit of a hard time.