Page 50 of Between Our Hearts

“An jooce! I want jooce.”

“This one drives a hard bargain.” He bounced Lottie, squeezing her thigh, and she giggled. “All right. Fruity Pebble pancakesandjuice.” Clark pinned Sadie with a teasing glare, his mouth forming his fully dimpled smile. “I hope you know she gets this commanding behavior from you.”

Sadie opened her mouth, but her husband interrupted her with a kiss. It started soft, almost like a peck, but then he pushed further. Light streaked through her chest at the pressure of Clark’s lips against hers. His face hovered millimeters from hers when he spoke. “I love that about her, and I love that about you.”

?Chapter 26?

Sadie’s beautiful ankle crossed over her knee before she nestled Lottie in the little crater she’d created with her legs atop his folding chair. Clark would be content to stand for hours if he got to gaze upon his wife beneath his canopy tent all morning. The weekend his parents had been visiting, he’d been nervous bringing Sadie to see what he’d been doing with his weekends, but now that they’d agreed to talk things out together, he wanted her here with him every Sunday.

“I never really got to see how this worked before,” she said, seemingly reading his mind. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

His chest squeezed, but he kept his words even as he finished his setup. “Not really. We wait for people to come to us, answer questions, and cash out purchases. You can keep Lottie distracted. It’s been busy the last couple of Sundays.”

Sadie kissed their daughter’s cheek. “That I can do.”

The market was bustling today, and since Clark didn’t have much time to chat with his family, Sadie offered to walk Lottie around. He’d be halfway through explaining which types of wood were in a piece to a customer and catch his wife’s auburn ponytail in the distance chatting to Thatcher or another seller. Every time he caught a glimpse of her, his heart would stumble on its beat.

When they finally came back, Lottie held one of his wife’s hands while the other held an agave lollipop. Since yesterday, he could almost see every action his wife had taken through a new light. Sadie trying to connect with the people in his life was her way of trying to stay connected to him.

Although the morning was already hot, he felt warmed from the inside out. “There are my loves.”

Lottie ran over to him, holding up her lolly. “Look, Dada.”

“You must have been visiting Miss Robin,” he said, picking her up.

“She reminds me so much of your mom.” Sadie pushed her sunglasses onto the top of her head.

A deep smile lifted his lips. He’d missed moments like this when he and Sadie had always been so in sync. “That’s the first thing I thought when I met her.”

This insecure look raced across Sadie’s face before she tucked it away.

Quickly reading and understanding her expression, he added, “That’s theonlything I thought.”

“Really?” The question was more of a breath.

“Really.” He settled his lips securely over hers.

His wife’s hand rose to grip his bicep. The soft but passionate kiss was interrupted by Sadie’s phone ringing in her back pocket.

She gave him a look of apology before she took a step away. “It’s Linus. Just give me a minute.”

His attention was diverted by another market patron for a few minutes before his brain started picking up the single side of his wife’s phone conversation.

“It doesn’t matter that I got my shift covered yesterday. Kerem was more than happy to finish it for me. That’s why we have that system set up—to help each other out. Why does Josh even care?”

After her colleague’s quick answer, she scoffed. “What? That’s ridiculous. Reagan graduates intwo weeks. She could have done the ORIF entirely on her own. Me stepping out while she closed is a nonissue.”

His wife fell silent, listening to her colleague speak as he cashed out the middle-aged woman.

Lottie fussed on his hip. “Down. I want Mama.”

“Not right now, little love. She’s on a work call, give her a minute.” His eyes watched Sadie stalk back and forth in the small space behind his tent, each turn of her sandaled foot becoming more aggressive than the last.

“I was late to one surgery.Onemorning. We’ve all slept through our alarms before. We’re human. And I worked through lunch, so only the morning schedule was slightly behind.”

Guilt twinged through Clark’s belly right next to where his daughter’s leg was impatiently wiggling, knowing he was the reason Sadie had been late that day.

“Review board?There’s nothing to bring me up for.”

---