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He beams at her. “You are so welcome.”
“You’re really doing okay?” Anastasia asks Sadie. “Do you need anything?”
“Nope. I am perfectly fine. I promise.”
“Okay, well, call if you need anything at all. I’ll be back with dinner for the two of you in a few hours.”
“Correction, I will be bringing dinner back,” Sawyer says. “You are going to sit and rest before our kid comes out stressed and barking orders.”
Anastasia laughs and slaps a hand on his chest. The whole thing is absolutely adorable, and far less nauseating now that I, too, am head over heels in love. Basically, I get the whole puppy dog eyes thing Sawyer and the others do whenever their significant others are near.
“Yeah, yeah,” she replies. “Call me, okay?”
“Will do,” Sadie replies.
Weston offers me a wave, too. Then the three of them leave the apartment. I gave Sawyer, Weston, Ryker, Garrison, and Zane all keys to the bar on the off chance they ever need to get in again. Hopefully, it won’t be necessary, but I have to admit it makes me feel a lot better now that Sadie is here with me.
I kneel in front of her and start unlacing her tennis shoes.
One by one, I take them off before taking my seat where I belong: right beside her.
“Thank you,” she says.
“For what?”
“Taking care of me.”
Leaning over, I run my fingers through the hair at her temple before cupping her cheek. “I will always take care of you.”
“And I will always take care of you right back,” she replies.
I lean in and press my lips to hers, though I fight the urge to deepen the kiss. She’s still healing, and the last thing I want to do is cause her even the slightest bit of discomfort. Even if the humming in my veins turns to a full-blown hammering assault whenever I taste her lips.
“Hmmm. You smell nice,” she says.
I laugh. “Like hospital soap and minimal sleep?”
“Just like it.” She leans back on the couch and closes her eyes. “I can’t wait to decorate everything. It’s going to look so beautiful.”
“Not nearly as beautiful as you.”
She smiles, eyes still closed. “You are quite a smooth talker, Mav.”
“Only with you. Oh, I got you something.”
“What’s that?”
I get off the couch and head over toward the duffel, then open it up and pull out two Bibles I asked Weston to pick up on the way to the hospital this morning. I carry them back and hand her one.
“What is this?” she asks.
“I know you have the one Pastor Reeves gave you, but I wanted you to have one of your own. And now we have matching ones.” I show her mine, and she smiles at me, tears shimmering in her eyes.
“Maverick. This is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.” She hugs the Bible to her chest. “Thank you.”
“Of course. You’re going to have to tell me where to start, though, because I never was a big reader, and this is intimidating.”
She laughs softly and rests her head against my shoulder. I raise my arm to wrap it around her and pull her in close. “We’ll start in the New Testament. So you can learn everything you can about our Savior and what He did for us.”