Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 97592 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 488(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97592 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 488(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
“Yeah, but you also have actual pain medication that would take the edge off.”
“As do you, but I don’t see you taking any.”
“Touché.” I smirk. “We’re quite the stubborn pair, you and I.”
“Nearly hopeless,” she adds with a teasing smile. “Though, good news is that I’ve already DoorDashed us breakfast.”
“Let me guess, St. Luke’s Café?”
“Very funny.” She giggles and reaches out to tenderly brush her hand over my cheek. “We’re getting a full breakfast experience from Waverly’s Diner. I even got a little wild and ordered us both chocolate milkshakes.”
“Sounds very nutritious.”
“We deserve it.” She grins. “I mean, if there are two people who deserve to drink chocolate milkshakes for breakfast, it’s us.”
“On that, we can agree.”
Sammy smiles over at me, and there’s just something about her, something about waking up to her, something about us together in my bed that feels right in a way that I never want to feel wrong again.
“Let’s move in together.”
“W-what?”
“Let’s move in together,” I repeat confidently. Sammy and I are meant to be together—this I know for sure.
She searches my eyes. “You want to live together?”
“You, me, the boys, and Dolly,” I expand. “I want to be a family, Sammy, with you.”
“Where is all of this coming from?” she asks. “You don’t feel like this is a little rushed?”
“No, actually, I don’t.” I shake my head. “I love you. I want to be with you. I want to mix and mingle our lives together. And I sure as shit don’t want to spend another morning waking up without you beside me. You’re the only woman who has ever given me the feeling. Waiting any longer would merely be a waste.”
“The all-consuming, heart-racing, stomach-aching, I’m-going-to-throw-up-if-this-doesn’t-work-out feeling?” she asks, repeating my exact words from what feels like forever ago.
“Yes. That feeling.” I smile and reach out to take one of her hands into mine, caressing her fingers with my thumb. “You’re the woman I want to spend my life with, and I want to start now.”
“I don’t want to waste any more time either,” she whispers, and a fresh sheen of tears makes her eyes shine. “I want to keep you forever.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, Noah.” She nods, and a few tears slip from her lids.
I reach out to swipe the emotion from her face and then carefully close the distance between us so I can press my mouth to hers. My ribs and abdomen sting like a son of a bitch from the movement, but I don’t give a fuck.
“I love you,” I whisper against her lips, and she returns the sentiment by deepening the kiss.
It only takes another minute or so of us riling each other up to realize that we’re in no condition to take things much further than a kiss.
Eventually, we both end it on a combination of laughter and groans and grimaces and smiles.
“Noah, I never would’ve thought I would say that I literally can’t have sex with you right now, but yeah, I can’t.”
“Fuck, don’t make me laugh.” I grasp my stomach as chuckles jump from my lungs.
“I’m sorry!” she exclaims, but then it’s her turn to whimper in pain as she holds the pillow to her ribs. “Ah, shit. That hurts.”
By the time we manage to stop laughing and grimacing in pain, Sammy smiles over at me. “So, I can assume we’ll take a rain check on the sex, yeah?”
“Yeah,” I tell her. “But on the moving in together part? Hell no. We’re going to start figuring that shit out right away.”
“You know… Brooke mentioned that there’s a three-bedroom apartment that just went on the market in her building…”
“She told me about that too,” I answer, and a mischievous smile makes itself known on my face.
“What? What’s that look for?”
“I might’ve put in an offer.”
“When in the hell did you do that?” Her eyes nearly bulge out of her head.
“Yesterday.”
“While we were in the hospital?”
I nod.
“So, what, I was just a forgone conclusion?”
“Actually, when it comes to you, I was the forgone conclusion,” I answer. “And lucky for me, not only did you agree to move in with me, but the seller also accepted my offer.”
Her answering smile is breathtaking, and the kiss she places on my lips is powerful enough for me to forget about the discomfort for a good five minutes.
Sammy and me, together forever. That’s my plan, and I’m sticking to it.
Wednesday, June 22nd
Sammy
I carry the basket of folded laundry into the hall and stop at the boys’ room to put their clothes away. Though, the instant I step inside, my heel makes contact with a damn Lego, and it takes everything in me not to curse up a storm.
Holy fucking shit! I mentally scream as my eyes bounce down to see if my foot is still intact, hobbling on one foot as I do. Son of a motherloving sucking holy hell!