Page 64 of Between Our Hearts

Even though she still felt achy and a little nauseous, she shook her head no. She didn’t have the heart to deny Clark when he was this incandescent. Sadie took a short spin around the kitchen before he delicately placed her on her toes, keeping his arms snug around her.

“Sadie, this is our baby.” His words were whispered over her lips.

She could feel her eyebrows twin together as more than a year’s worth of doubt, pain, and grief flashed forward with that four-letter word.

Her husband shook his head before tenderly kissing the space between her brows. “No. Not this time. Not this one. This one we get to keep.”

“You don’t know that.” Her voice pitched. “I could miscarry again, and then I’ll have to drive around town and add a fourth plant everywhere.”

“No, love.” His lips brushed hers so softly. “Thenwe’ddrive around together. You’re not alone anymore, and neither am I. Anything that comes our way, we face it together.”

When he rested his forehead on hers, Sadie closed her eyes and breathed in Clark’s familiar wood-tinged scent. That impulse to wrap herself around him surged through her muscles, and she gripped his back, pulling them close to the point that no air could separate their bodies. Her husband’s breath broke over her neck as he held her just as tightly.

“It’s going to be okay,” he whispered.

She felt her head dip in affirmation.

Itwasgoing to be okay.

Even if the worst happened. Even if she lost this life, too, her relationship with her husband would survive. It would be devastating to go through a fourth time, but Sadie knew that on the other side of that heartbreak, Clark would be there.

She released her vise-grip and leaned back a little. “Okay.”

“All right.” His grin was soft, supportive, comforting.

Nervously, her hand flitted to the medallion resting just above her neckline. Even after they’d decided to change their family plan, she’d never taken off the necklace. Clark watched her fingertips rub the golden metal circle.

“Tell me, love.” His hand gently framed her face. “Are we having a boy or a girl?”

Out of the swirling maelstrom of emotions over finding out she was pregnant, a single one shined the brightest. It took over the rest like an ever-expanding cloud, tumbling and covering the sky.

“A girl.”

Clark’s full dimpled smile mirrored the elation on her face. “Perfect.”

?Epilogue?

Two years later

“You be good for Daddy today,” Lottie instructed, her overfilled backpack teetering dangerously to one side as she stooped to hug her sister.

Avery’s pudgy little fingers gripped Lottie’s legs in an enthusiastic grip, and Lottie smiled, rubbing her sister’s short dark hair. “I love you too, bug.”

Ever since they’d shared the news with Lottie that she would become a big sister, she’d taken her role very seriously. After Avery’s birth fifteen months ago, Lottie had helped with most diaper changes and bottle feeds. She’d pushed the stroller, held her sister’s hand as she’d learned to walk, and when it came time to teach Avery the challenging world of cutlery, Lottie had explained that blackberry jam was the best pancake topping, even though Avery preferred blueberry.

He and Sadie had waited until Avery’s twenty-week sonogram to explain the changes in their family to then-three-year-old Lottie. Clark could still feel how firmly Sadie’s fingers gripped his as each grey organ was measured and checked on the screen before Avery was determined to be “perfectly healthy.” Two days later, Sadie hadn’t come home after work, and he’d panicked. Once Parker had arrived to watch Lottie, he’d found his wife in the snow at Peaceably Park, weeping in front of the trio of gerber daisy plants with her hands pressed to her belly. He’d simply sat on the hard, icy ground and wrapped his arms around her until she stopped shaking.

As much as they had both been nervous through Avery’s pregnancy, Tara had helped them to focus on the joyful moments. Like when Sadie really started showing and Lottie would kiss her belly every day before Sadie left for work. Or when they got to see Avery over and over again because Sadie had more frequent appointments with her OB, including extra ultrasounds. Every time Clark heard that reassuring whooshing of a heartbeat, his spine settled.

Even with all the extra stress, their relationship continued to strengthen. It wobbled at times, when they argued or tried to fall back into destructive habits, but before any real damage had been done, one of them would pull the other out. They’d falter, learn from their mistakes, and then spend heartfelt intimate minutes making it up to each other.

Avery’s giggle pulled him back to the sidewalk. Lottie was picking her sister up in a rib-squeezing hug.

Holding Sadie’s hand while watching his children embrace, Clark didn’t think he could experience greater happiness. The only thing clouding it was the approaching sound of the vehicle that would take Lottie away for a few hours. Even though the deep diesel rumble of the school bus was still far away at the entrance to their large neighborhood, Clark felt his chest squeeze tighter than a wood vise. Beside him, he knew Sadie was having a similar internal struggle as her wrist twisted more times than it had before her uncomplicated delivery.

“Maybe I should have taken the whole day off,” Sadie whispered.

“No.” He brushed a kiss over his wife’s temple. “It’s better you’re in surgery. It’ll help distract you, and then by the time you get home, they’ll be done with nap, homework, quiet time, and we can all play.”

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