Oh, they had worked for this. They had worked to get here.
“You saved me,” she forced out past her tightening vocal cords. “Do you remember in that clearing during the war? You saved me.”
Vic gripped her jaw gently and eased her back just enough to press his lips to hers. She was crying all the way through that kiss, but it was okay. He didn’t seem to mind.
When he finally eased out of it, he rested his forehead against hers. Vic’s voice was still hoarse from being unused for so long, and there was still a touch of the wolf in it. There was truth to every word he uttered to her though. “You saved me back.”
Chapter Thirteen
Lyric reached for Vic’s side of the bed, but it was empty.
Frowning sleepily, she sat up to find him sitting at the edge of the bed, staring at Earl’s cage.
“Vic?” she asked softly.
He turned his profile toward her. “Did you do custom lighting in Earl’s cage?”
“Yeah. Earl goes crazy on his wheel at nights, and I didn’t want him to be living his best life in the dark. Also, Earl is a girl.”
She could see the frown from here. “What?”
“Um, I’ve been doing all this research on hamsters and apparently they have to have nuts to be boys.”
He twisted around and stared at her, dumbfounded. “What?” he asked louder.
“You never checked for balls?”
“Why would I look at his balls? That’s like a violation of his privacy or something.”
“I don’t know, I’ve seen pictures of boy hamsters. Their balls are really big. It’s kind of obvious.”
“Earl?” he said to his hamster.
“I’ve been calling her Earline.”
Vic ran his hands through his hair and just froze, staring at the little critter who was running for her life in the wheel on the bottom level of her upgraded cage.
“Um, I got you some books,” she said, pointing to the stack beside the cage.
He picked up the top one and read the cover. “How to be a Girl Dad.”
Lyric pursed her lips against her smile.
Vic looked at her, and at the book, and to Earline, and back, and then a small laugh escaped him.
Which made a small laugh escape her.
Which made his laugh bigger.
Which caused her laugh to be bigger.
Earline stopped running and stared at them.
“I got you a book with knitting patterns for hamster dresses.”
“Oh my God,” he said, laying down beside her and pulling her on top of him as he tickled her ribs. They were both cracking up.
By the time they settled, she cupped his cheeks and asked, “Why are you awake? It’s the middle of the night.”
