Page 42 of Between Our Hearts

“I love you.” Those were the only possible words that could have come out of her mouth when she broke the kiss.

His fingers bracketed her ponytail, bringing her lips back to his for a knee-weakening sweep before his forehead touched hers. “I love you so much. I don’t think you have any idea.”

Light flooded her chest as her lips rose in a smile. That cocky confidence that she’d had early in their relationship that they could beat the odds, that what they held between them could be enough, brightened within her.

“Now get.” He grinned. “Go put people back together so you can come back home.” He gave her backside a squeeze with his words, and for the first time in a long time, she wasn’t looking forward to a long day of surgery.

?Chapter 22?

Sadie’s calendar had her booked until four in the afternoon, but for the last two months that meant she usually came home around seven—just in time to tuck Lottie into bed and then disappear into the study to work on charts. So when Clark was lifting their daughter from her car seat after getting home from swim lessons at four-thirty and Sadie pulled into her slot beside him, he tried to prevent disbelief from displaying on his face.

“Hey.” He set a wiggling Lottie on the ground so she could run over to his wife.

Sadie settled their still damp, swimsuit-clad daughter on her hip. “Hi.” The smile she sent him stole his breath, and he had to tighten all of his muscles not to stumble backward. Fortunately, she switched her attention to Lottie. “Did you have fun at swim lessons?”

“I fish!” Lottie beamed.

“I bet you are. Do you want to show Mommy tomorrow? I got my call shift covered so I could have the day off. Maybe we could all go to the pool? As a family?” The last question brought her eyes up to his with an uncertain, questioning look.

Something dawned on him at that moment. With everyone else, in every other situation, Sadie was a confident kick-ass woman. Only moments like this, with him, had she ever shown her vulnerability. His heart pounded thickly in his chest with the knowledge that he was the only one she trusted enough to show this side of herself.

“I think that’s a great idea.” He tried to keep his words light, though emotion jelled his throat.

His wife’s relieved, relaxed smile made his entire day—his lifetime.

He didn’t think. He only responded. Two sure steps brought his lips to hers, his hand behind her head tilting her face in that perfect way so he could taste her more thoroughly. Only Lottie pounding her little hands on his shoulder brought him back to reality.

“Squish. Dada, I squish.”

“Sorry, little love.” He gave Lottie’s chin a gentle pinch as he pulled back.

Sadie’s dazed, unfocused eyes blinked at him before they turned to respond to Lottie’s words.

“I do it too.” Her little hands roughly grabbed Sadie’s head before kissing her ear.

The musical sound of his wife’s laughter as it wove over and under their vehicles, bounced off shelves and walls, warmed Clark in a way that he’d been worried was irreparable. Last night he hadn’t only been able to hold his wife, he was pretty sure he’d convinced her that she was everything to him. Today, with her being here, with her laughter filling the air that entered his lungs, it was almost too much.

Slightly concerned his heart would explode in his chest, he moved to hang their wet towels on the clothesline strung beside his truck and put away the swim bag.

“Can I do her bath?” That uncertain tone was weaving its way through his wife’s words again.

“Yay! Mama wash!” Lottie’s hands were raised in the air before he could even respond.

He smiled larger than he had in months. “I think you’ve got to now.”

The evening felt so much like a blissful mirage that he had to fight against the doubting suspicion that it wasn’t real. At one point, he’d even crossed his arms to conceal himself pinching his bicep. It was like the last year of their lives had been peeled away. This was how it’d been before, Sadie attentive and playful with Lottie, affectionate with him. Home—the three of them together.

Even when her phone rang with the hospital’s caller ID, she looked at him with an apologetic tilt of her head before she ducked away to answer it. Normally, she’d just bark “Carmichael” into the phone and disappear into the study.

Whatever fire she was putting out at the hospital took longer than he expected, so he put Lottie to bed by himself and was comfortable on the couch before Sadie reappeared.

“Sorry about that.”

“It’s okay.” He paused the popular western drama he’d been watching. “Want to watch something together?”

“Sure.”

He flipped to the on-demand list of movies. “You know, you were so close to being my perfect woman except for the one thing,” he said, toggling to the Marvel Studios list with a smirk on his face.

---