Because knowing he watched over the world while I slept in his arms?
That meant I was safe.
Our kids were safe.
And that the world was too.
So I allowed myself to succumb.
With him, sleep was possible.
With him, I’d slowly begun to accept,anythingwas possible.
SEVEN
When the elevatordoor opened on the first floor and I saw Savannah standing there, the burden of being an O’Donnelly shifted off my shoulders.
She did that to me—every time. It was why I fucking loved her so much. She brought so much goddamn happiness to my life that I knew, no matter who was right or wrong, I was always the asshole for creating that air of misery around her.
Her eyes warmed when she realized I’d been coming up from the parking garage, but she stepped into the elevator with a hesitation that crushed my heart.
That hesitance said, ‘Does he want me in here with him? Should I wait for the next?’
Like she wasn’t the most important person in my life.
Fuck.
“I was wrong.”
She shuddered.
“Little one?”
Was that my voice?
That raspy, husky plea?
“I’ll do better.”
She peeped up at me, but whatever she saw, maybe my goddamn devastation, had her rushing toward me. I immediately opened my arms, and she hurled herself into them.
As the doors closed behind her, I tightened them around her upper back and pressed my lips to the crown of her head, closing my eyes in relief at her proximity.
It never sat right with me if we were at odds. Not just because I wanted peace in my home after dealing with the bullshit outside of it, but because Savannah was relatively easy-going.
“I hate it when we fight,” I admitted gruffly, then I smiled when she tunneled between the flaps of my peacoat, getting as close to me as she could.
“I don’t like it either, but I especially don’t like it when I don’t understandwhy.”
My gaze caught our reflection.
I saw the strain in my expression, the fatigue from all the hours we’d been putting in recently, the bruises from the punches Brennan had managed to land, but mostly the exhaustion from a night spent without her in bed beside me.And I saw that same fatigue etched into her beautiful features.
Our codependency came as a shock.
I never imagined I’d become the type of guy who struggled to fall asleep without the warm weight of my wife at my side.
But I was.
