Chapter 43 Miles
FORTY-THREE
Miles
The strong smell of coffee wakes me up. I open my eyes to find that I’m in bed. Alone.
I stare at the closed bedroom door and wonder if everything that happened yesterday was a dream.
Then I hear, “No! Don’t lick that!” And then a loud clank followed by a gasp. Footsteps retreat down the hall as I hear Lucy say, “You better clean up every drop of that.”
I press my lips together to keep from laughing. Because this is real. I didn’t imagine last night. Lucy accepted my proposal to stay married, and there’s nothing that could have made me happier.
The couple of weeks she was gone were some of the emptiest days of my life.
It’s funny how if you never have something, you don’t know you’re missing it. But when you’ve gotten to experience someone’s effect on your life…all of a sudden, when they’re gone, it feels like they’ve ripped away a piece of you with them.
Of course I fell in love with Lucy. I don’t know how I thought I’d be able to walk away from our fake marriage without feelings.
The bedroom door swings open, and Lucy walks in wearing one of my T-shirts. She’s carrying two cups of coffee and is trying to shut the door and keep Alexander out.
“Good morning,” she says with a grunt as she tries to close the door.
“Is everything okay?” I ask as she finally closes the door, despite Alexander’s whining.
She shakes her head, trying to get her loose hair out of her face. Alexander lets out a loud bark, protesting that he’s left out in the hall.
“Don’t believe him. He already drank my cup of coffee when he spilled it in the hallway. He’d licked it all up by the time I came back.” She shakes her head and makes her way to the bed, carefully passing me my Stud Muffin mug—or, Mrs. Stud Muffin.
“Are you sure you want to share this cup with me?” I ask.
She sits down, scooting closer while holding the floral mug out. “Yes. It is yours, after all.”
“Actually, I think it’s ours.” I grin at the sound of that. Because I like it.
Ours.
Lucy leans back against the headboard, her side pressed against my shoulder where I’m propped up on pillows. “Do you know what I learned last night? You talk in your sleep. You didn’t disclose that before you proposed.”
The mischievous look in her eyes is making me want to set down the coffee cup and kiss her. “Hmmm, well, I know I used to talk in my sleep growing up, but I didn’t know I still did. What did I say?”
“You were talking about a bear and how you should have never teased your wife about it.”
“I was not,” I immediately defend myself, but then I realize that she called herself my wife. I like the sound of that.
Lucy smiles as she lifts her coffee cup to her lips. “I guess you’ll just have to take my word for it.”
I sigh and reach a hand over to hold her free one. “You’re going to keep me on my toes, aren’t you?”
“All of our lives,” she promises.