And then I enter her, and I can feel my world changing around me with each deep stroke.
With each connection of our eyes.
With every beautiful sound that falls past her lips.
She’s mine.
Forever.
Epilogue
ELI
I shift in bed and reach for Penny, but when my arms come up short, on the cold side of a bed, I quickly sit up and look around the dark room.
She’s not in bed, nor is there a light on in the apartment anywhere.
Worry immediately strikes me as I stand from the bed and go straight to the bathroom, where I flip the light on. She’s not here.
I slip on a pair of shorts and then quickly stick my head into the baby’s room. She’s not there, either.
Next is the living room, dining room, kitchen area. I turn on the light, but she’s not here, either.
What the hell?
Are her keys here? I check the console table near the entryway and see that her keys and wallet are missing. She left?
I jog back to our bedroom and pick up my phone to dial her number. When her phone on the nightstand rings, I curse loudly. Checking the time, I see that it’s three in the morning. Where could she be at three in the morning?
Would she go to the hospital without waking me up? That doesn’t seem right.
I walk back into the living room, keeping my phone close, and I attempt to figure out where she’d go just as the front door opens. She pauses when she sees that the lights are on.
“You’re awake?” she asks.
“Jesus, yes, I reached for you, and you weren’t in bed, so I looked for you. Where the hell were you?”
She steps all the way into the apartment with a brown bag. “I went to find a donut,” she answers casually. “I wanted a chocolate one. You’d be surprised how hard that was to find. I went to four different stores.” She holds up the bag. “Don’t worry though, I got a dozen.”
“You . . . you went to get a donut at three in the morning?”
“Technically, when I left, it was two, but the answer is yes. I didn’t think I could sleep without one.” She takes a bite of one. “You look sweaty. Are you okay?”
“Penny, you didn’t take your phone with you, so I didn’t know where you were. Please don’t fucking do that to me again.”
“I didn’t do it on purpose,” she says, taking another bite. “I just really needed a donut, Eli. You can understand that.”
“Babe, ask me to do it next time.”
“Uh, no. I’m not going to do that. You don’t need to be parading around Vancouver looking for donuts. Trust me, I had it handled.”
I step up to her and take the bag. Gripping her chin, I say, “Next time, wake me up, or there are going to be some serious problems.”
“Are you . . . threatening me, Eli Hornsby?”
“Yes.”
“Ooo.” She smiles. “And what exactly is the punishment? A solid spanking?”
