He stroked his fingertips along her jaw and up onto the bottom curve of her cheek. Finding the edge of her smile and drawing it out with his thumb. Savouring this moment, his heart hammering against his ribs. “That you’re mine, and you’ll always be mine. No matter what.”
“I’m going to hold you to that,” she whispered. “Because I love you, too.”
“I know.”
“Josh!” She laughed. “So cocky.”
“It’s not cocky. You just seriously overpaid for a year of oil changes. There’s only one reason to do that.”
“Maybe I did it for the incredibly hot sex.”
He grinned. “What we did in my office? That was love.”
“It really was.” She shivered. “Do we need to go back inside? Or can we go home?”
“Will knows where to find you tomorrow to demand payment.”
He held her hand the whole way back to the garage. Carefully locked the door behind them, then followed her upstairs and showed her just how much he loved her.
Twice.
It wasn’t marathon sex. It was fast the first time, and sort of silly and quick the second time. But it was incredible. A little gritty, a lot real. The best sex of their life, probably, because it felt joyously like the start of something. Like the start of forever.
And when they were finished, she rested her cheek on his damp chest and they came up with a plan.
Step one was to make a midnight snack.
Step two was to go for a walk down to the lake.
“I can’t believe the snow has all melted.”
He caught her hand. “Careful. Stay on the path. The mud is disgusting.”
She sighed happily and spun in a circle, then she looked up at the sky.
“The sky is different here,” she whispered.
He knew it was, but he wasn’t looking at the heavens tonight. He couldn’t look away from her upturned face.
She’d come back to him.
“Josh?”
“Yes?”
“What star is that?”
He dragged in a long, slow breath, then gathered his wife in his arms and followed her finger to a bright spot just above the horizon. “Sirius, I’m pretty sure.” He pulled out his phone to check an app to be sure. “Yeah, that’s Canis Major just about to disappear. And that’s Canis Minor. So if we go over from there, that long constellation is Hydra.”
She snuggled in against his chest. “Nice.”
“Ready to go back to bed? You must be exhausted.”
She glanced up at him and bit her lip.
“What?”
“I am tired.”
