I really like that part.
Almost as much as I like the feel of her in my arms.
Grinning, I fuss with the blankets and straighten, knowing I need to let her sleep, but when I go to turn away, her hand finds mine.
“Stay?” she asks, lids half-mast, her eyes drowsy.
“As you wish.”
Who’s the cheesy one now?
But I can’t help it.
I love this woman to distraction.
Her lips curve and I climb under the blankets, slipping my arms around her, and for the first time in five years, I fall asleep knowing that everything is going to be okay.
THIRTY-EIGHT
BRIAR
I wake slowlybut not for a second do I wonder where I am.
I’m in Brooks’s bed.
In his arms.
His breathing is steady and even but I know he’s awake.
He nuzzles at my hair, presses a kiss to my nape. “You sleep okay?”
Did I sleep okay?
“I feel…”
He smooths his hand down my back, waits patiently for me to get my brain together—because of course he does.
“Good,” I finally finish, when it’s not the right word, can’t begin to encompass what I’m feeling.
Because it’s like all the pieces are coming together.
He chuckles and I roll over in his arms.
“Not the most effusive word choice, I know,” I say, stroking my fingers through the stubble. “It’s just like…this is right and easy.” His eyes hold mine. “It’s like I’m whole again, you know?”
The past isn’t gone. The threat still looms.
But somehow, for the first time maybe ever, I know it’s all going to be okay.
“Yeah, baby. I knowexactlywhat you mean.” He sighs and draws me closer. “You know the only good thing about us being apart?”
“What’s that?”
“I know how fucking lucky I am to have you back and I will never,evertake it for granted.”
My eyes burn as that flows over me—how much I can see he feels it, how much I feel the same.
But I don’t want to go back to us apologizing to each other.
