His mouth is open a little. His lashes are dark against his cheekbones.
The gray in his beard catches the morning light. The ink on his arms shifts when he breathes.
This is the man I love, even if I’m too chicken shit to admit it right now.
I said I have love for him, but the truth is, I’minlove with him.
I lean over and kiss the corner of his mouth.
He wakes the way he wakes—all at once, eyes open, hand reaching for the dresser before he places where he is.
Then he sees me and his hand stops. "Hey, baby," he says.
"Hey."
"What time is it?"
"Late enough that Pops is on his second pot of coffee."
He pulls me against his chest and holds me there for a long beat. “We were drinking coffee all damn night. Guarantee he’s somewhere around his seventh pot of coffee.”
I breathe him in—coffee from last night, the soap from his shower at the cabin yesterday morning that already feels like it was a hundred years ago, the warm smell of his skin.
His arm tightens around my shoulders. "How's the wrist?"
"Sore."
"Show me."
I sit up and unwrap a corner of the gauze for him.
The ink looks angry in the morning light—red around the edges where the needle worked the skin, the black letters of his name still sharp.
Spur on the inside of my left wrist where my pulse runs.
He looks at it for a long moment, then leans down and kisses the unmarked skin above the gauze. "Good. It's healing right."
"Yeah," I say.
He swings his legs over the side of the bed and reaches for his boots. "Pops is in the kitchen with Holt. Marlena's making breakfast."
"You been up already?"
"I was up with them till about six. Came back to bed when you were still out."
"You sleep at all?"
"A couple hours."
"Spur."
"I know, baby. I'll sleep when this is done."
I sit up the rest of the way and reach for the pajamas Grace left me—soft sleep pants and a t-shirt that probably belongs to Shadow because it's too big to be hers.
I pull a hoodie of Spur's over the t-shirt because the main house always runs cold in the morning, even in May.
Spur watches me dress with his hand still on the boot he hasn't laced yet.
