Page 34 of Seven of Hearts

It was a shot straight to the heart. A point-blank bullseye.

“I’m close with Will and Bryan,” I said defensively.

“They married your sisters and you work together.”

“Technically, I’m Bryan’s boss. He works for me.”

“And you work for Will,” Leah countered. “It must be hard to keep friendships going when work and family are in the middle.”

She was right. It was something I had never said out loud. When we were together in person, the conversation always shifted to work. When we were apart, the conversation always shifted to what was going on back home. The things I wasn’t part of.

Leah yawned and looked at the time.

“I should let you get back to bed,” I said.

She shrugged. “You can stay. We can...talk. You know, if you want to. If I haven’t gone to sleep now, I probably won’t sleep at all.”

I grabbed my wallet and started thumbing through it.

“What are you—” Leah’s brows furrowed. “I don’t need your money. I don’t want it.”

I pulled out the little zip-top bag from between the petty cash I kept on hand and tilted my head toward the big binder of old stamps. “I found it online. Apparently, it’s a pretty hard one to hunt down. Didn’t know if you were still adding to your book.”

Leah gasped as she took the stamp from me and studied it. “I don’t have this one. It’s beautiful.”

Without another word, she grabbed the overflowing binder and plopped down on the couch, patting the space beside her. I moved a mountain of jewel-toned throw pillows out of the way and sat down.

“What got you into collecting stamps?”

She smiled as she flipped to an empty divider space and slid the stamp I had found into its new home. “I like the thrill of the chase.”

“Which one is your favorite?” I asked as I draped my arm across the back of the couch.

Her smile was infectious as she hurriedly thumbed through the pages.

My arm ached.My neck was so jacked up I was sure it was permanently going to lean to the left. But Leah was asleep in my arms.

The stamp collection was still open on her lap. Her finger was still pointing to one she had been in the middle of telling me about when she had drifted off.

I was nearing twenty-four hours of being awake and was starting to feel it, but I didn’t want to miss a single second of her curled up against my chest.

I slid my hand across her stomach and rested it there, feeling how tight the gentle swell of her belly had become.

Leah was so beautiful like this. So, so beautiful.

“What time is it?” she mumbled as her eyes flickered open. “Did I fall asleep?”

“It’s just after six,” I said as I shifted, trying to ease the ache in my neck.

“In the morning?”

I nodded.

She rubbed her eyes and yawned, then closed the stamp book. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to keep you trapped all night.”

I chuckled. “I’m a happy hostage.”

“You didn’t fall asleep?”

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