Lovers’ Dance, Vol. 2

Chapter 30 #4

“They are. What do you want to do? I’m happy with us,” He glanced at the crib.

“As long as the four of us are together, I don’t care one jot either way. Did my parents say something?”

I shook my head.

It wasn’t his family, but mine.

My aunt to be precise.

Aunt Cleo and Uncle David had flown over to England when the twins were only a week old.

They stayed for three weeks and I loved every moment of having them here.

Even the initially strained get together Matt’s parents had arranged a few days after their arrival.

Grumps was on his best behaviour, I was certain Matt had threatened to kill him in his sleep if he insulted my family.

Portia and Aunt Cleo had a tense moment over cuddling the twins.

A really tense minute where they side-eyed each other until Natty and Nicki jumped the queue and picked up their cousins.

I quietly reminded Aunt Cleo there were two of them and to stop using her death stare on my ex-mother-in-law.

The next thing I knew, they were laughing and chatting while swapping babies every fifteen minutes.

Aunt Cleo later told me she felt sad for Portia and when I asked her why, she had just shook her head and patted my shoulder.

The night before they left, Aunt Cleo had helped me give the twins their bath and took the opportunity to question me about the future.

I didn’t have any answers for her.

She asked if Matt and I loved each other and when I confirmed we did, she smiled and told me not to be so afraid to be happy.

Aunt Cleo was the perfect example of how to forgive and forget, she had done so with Matt and he had gone out of his way to be the best ex-nephew-in-law…

was that a real title?

Painstakingly working with a determination to reinstate himself in the ranks of my family.

Forgive and forget.

I still brought up the ‘theft’ of my memory box whenever he irritated me, it usually ended any arguments in my favour.

If I really wanted to shut him up, or wanted to get away with murder, all I had to do was refer to his ex.

I could trade on his mistake for the rest of our lives perhaps.

Was it terrible of me?

Yes, it was.

Did I worry my inability to completely let it go now we were together would cause future problems?

Of course I did.

Would I ever stop bringing it up when it served my purpose?

Who the hell knew, sometimes punishment was good.

Spare the rod and spoil the child…

the man…

look, I’d get over it when I was damned well ready.

But back to the proposal.

“What do you want to do?” I asked.

Matt grinned then shrugged his broad shoulders.

“If you’re happy, then I’m happy.”

“You don’t want to?” The slight edge of disbelief in my voice didn’t go unnoticed by Matt.

He shrugged again and unhooked his clasped hands to rest them on my hips.

“What I want doesn’t matter-”

“It does.” My interruption was a bit loud and Matt shushed me whilst glancing nervously at our babies.

Eva was finally starting to doze off next to Ethan.

He had wriggled around in his sleep so they laid with their heads together.

So very sweet.

“Ask me.” he said, one eyebrow raised in challenge.

“I just did.”

“No,” he drawled as his fingers trailed the elasticated waist of my shorts.

“You didn’t ask me.”

A little smile tickled the edges of my mouth.

He was leaving it up to me.

The ball was firmly in my court.

I remembered Aunt Cleo’s words.

I didn’t want to be afraid anymore.

“Will you marry me?” I asked point blank.

“Hmm,” Matt sighed, then he huffed.

“I don’t know.”

“Son of a-” I stepped on his bare toes and tried to jerk away at the same time.

Matt tightened his grip on me and simultaneously shushed me.

“You’ll wake them.” Then he wrapped his arms around my rigid body and kissed the side of my face.

“Why do you want to get married? If it’s because you think it’s what people expect us to do, well, I don’t believe that’s a good enough reason. Tell me why.”

“Because I love you.” I wrapped my arms around his waist.

“I love you too,” he murmured.

“But I don’t want you choosing something you might regret doing later.”

“Is it because our marriage sucked ass before? Did that put you off the whole thing?” I asked.

“Just forget I said anything. It was just a thought.”

I kissed his chest then tried to escape his embrace.

Matt let me go and turned to check the babies were both fully asleep before he crooked a finger at me and headed for the master bedroom.

I was embarrassed and sorely wishing I hadn’t brought up the topic.

With a quick glance to confirm my babies were sleeping, Ethan had stopped snuffling the moment Matt put Eva next to him, they were practically hugging each other in their sleep now.

So very, very sweet.

I followed Matt into our bedroom.

He was heading for the walk-in closet.

“I’ll be one minute.” he called out while I got back into bed.

It was actually five minutes later when he returned with his hand behind his back.

“Whatcha got there?” I drawled.

“Whatcha? Come on, poppet. You drive me insane with that vernacular.” Matt frowned at me before diverting his approach towards the bed.

He sauntered over to the lovely antique desk by the windows and nabbed some paper and a pen.

“Urgh.” I started the grumble immediately.

“Why do you need that? It’s early o’ clock and I am not in the mood for,” I suddenly licked my lips.

“Is it something kinky? I read something, uh, somewhere, about this thing you can do with, well it’s better if you use – let’s forget I said anything.”

Matt spun around and resumed his approach to our bed.

“You have a dirty mind, do you know that?” His gaze travelled the length of my body sprawled across the mattress.

“I like it.” A necessary wink to confirm his appreciation of my dirty mind was sent my way as he got on the bed.

“But we’re going to make a list.”

I snorted then gave him my back.

A list?

At this time in the morning?

No chance.

There was some rustling behind me as Matt’s hand landed on my ass.

Seconds later the warmth of his body mingled with mine as he slid right up behind me.

His hand on my ass was gentle in its caress while his lips landed on my shoulder.

A little laugh left my own lips when Matt nabbed the straps of my top and my bra between his teeth and he dragged them off my shoulder.

“A short list.” he murmured in between little nips.

“Then you can decide if you truly want to propose to me again.”

Mmm, I chewed the insides of my cheeks then asked, “Are you going to say yes or no if I ask again?”

The hand which was rubbing my ass slid around to grip my thigh as Matt pushed his groin forward while pulling me back.

I moaned softly when I felt the hardness of his arousal pressing into my ass cheeks.

“You have to ask properly.” Matt’s husky reply was full of promised pleasure and his hand, which had been gripping my thigh, was now languorously trailing upwards.

“If you ask me properly I’ll give you the answer you want.”

“We don’t need to make a list.” I said breathlessly then wriggled around to face him.

“Let’s get married.”

Matt arched an eyebrow in my direction before raising himself into a seated position against the many pillows I forced him to endure in our bed.

“List first, then you can ask me,” He smiled.

“Properly.”

Grumbling under my breath, I sat up and observed as he drew a line down the middle of the page.

At least I wasn’t tasked with doing my own list.

“Ok, let’s note the cons first.” Matt was all business.

He could switch from sensual to strict in the blink of an eye.

I would never get used to that trait of his.

“Wealth-”

“Do you want me to spank you?” Matt threatened, quite seriously might I add.

“If you dare mention any thing financial, I will put you across my knee and spank the living daylights out of you and I don’t care if its misogynistic or despicable behaviour from a bygone patriarchal era which has no place in a modern society. Try me, poppet, just try me and I promise you that arse of yours will be spanked. Mention wealth again,” he dared me.

“That goes for racial differences also.”

I grinned before giving him a nonchalant shrug.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? You have a weird fixation with my ass. If we get married, I might let you do a kinky spanking session…I mean, not often, maybe once a year, at Christmas. Nothing else with my bum though. We’re not doing that thing – I’m not talking about this anymore.”

Matt bit his lower lip hard, it wasn’t erotic.

He was trying his best not to laugh at me.

Now he had switched from serious to amused, he shook his head and wrote something down quickly.

“What was that?” I leaned over to check.

“Excuse me? My thought process is not a con. Scratch that off. Matt, scratch it off now.”

He did while I huffed and muttered about his cheekiness.

“Ok,” Matt was back to being serious.

“I’m a difficult person to live with.”

I nodded quickly.

“We both are.” Matt amended then wrote it down.

“Our work lives are beyond hectic.”

I nodded again as he wrote it down.

“You continue to be frigidly aloof with some members of my family.” Matt pointed out.

“I’m trying, Matt.” I jumped to my own defence.

He leaned over to give me a quick peck on the mouth.

“I know you are, sweetheart. I’m just verbalizing any possible problems.”

“You still treat me like a child sometimes and I resent it.” I reminded him.

“That’s not good for a marriage.”

Matt wrote it down and said, “You’re good friends with McGregor, it still winds me up. Why does he have to call you so much? And that new dancer in your corp, what’s his name? The one with the small scar on his neck. I don’t like him. He’s too familiar with you, even Dante mentioned something along those lines.”

The expression on my face was eloquent.

“Whose con is that? Because it sure as hell isn’t mine.”

Matt, noting the fire in my eyes, uncomfortably cleared his throat.

“Ah, my overprotectiveness could be seen as a problem.”

“Jealousy, not overprotectiveness.” I stated flatly.

“Put it down. You get jealous when you have no reason to be.” When I saw his eyes bulge, I hastened to add, “Dougie and I are cool now. It was a misunderstanding. Let’s not drag up all that old drama. He’s got a girlfriend now. Did I tell you that?”

“Hmph.” He snorted before listing his jealous trait as a con.

“I hate the fact you didn’t trust me during our first marriage.” I admitted with unsure eyes.

We had promised to be honest with each other when we got back together.

Honesty could be hard, but it was necessary.

“Sometimes, not often, but sometimes I kind of want to thump you. Yesterday for example. You came home from work and you brought me that special cheesecake I asked for. I wanted to thump you and you hadn’t done anything wrong. It’s probably residual anger.”

“I see.” Matt did well to keep the alarm out of his voice.

“Let’s put down your semi-violent tendencies, shall we?”

“Hey, that’s unfair. You have to put it in context.” I argued.

Matt rolled his eyes and made an annotation of the context, then his next words made my heart ache.

“I can’t forgive myself for what I put you through, and it makes me angry anytime I think about it.”

It was my turn to lean over and kiss his lips.

He managed a smile when I pulled away.

“What about the media intrusion in our lives? The need for bodyguards? The constant scrutiny?” I wanted to change the topic.

The bitterness and self-recrimination creeping into his handsome face made me feel guilty.

Was his inability to forgive himself stemming from my inability to completely let go of my wronged feelings?

Shit.

I needed to stop subjecting him to any passive-aggressive emotional punishment in order to win arguments.

Damn it.

I was not going to become a crazy ass witch.

Maybe it was already too late to avoid that title.

“How big of a con is it?” Matt asked.

I raised both eyebrows and he wrote it down.

Twenty minutes later the line dividing the page in half had become useless as Matt had covered the whole page in cons.

We managed to fill the whole page with reasons why we shouldn’t get married.

“Well,” Matt eyed my despondent face.

“This is slightly depressing.”

“Slightly?” It wasn’t even an attempt of a joke.

I was dismayed we had found so many arguments against getting hitched.

Then I thought about what really mattered.

“Can I have that?” I took the pad and pen out of his hands before he could refuse.

I looked over his neat handwriting and sighed.

“Ok, on paper it might not be a good idea, but,” My words trailed off and I turned the pad away from his gaze to scribble something.

“But what?” Matt pressed.

“Gimme a sec.” I went over the words a few more times to deepen their outline then passed it over to him.

He started to smile and it was both sweetly angelic and deliciously wicked at the same time.

“You love me.”

I nodded.

“Everything about me.” Matt put the pad and pen aside.

His piercing grey eyes sparkled with memory and tenderness.

I love you.

Everything about you.

Those were the same words he had written on our first trip to New York together when he had made me do that pros and cons list.

I nodded again and repeated his very words with a little tweak, “That trumps any fucking con we might think of. Now do you want to get married, you big oaf?”

Matt stuffed his hand under one of the pillows and pulled out a little black box.

He placed it in front of me and waited.

I picked up the box and opened it then started crying like a big sissy baby.

“You kept our rings.” I sniffed.

It was bad enough my eyes were leaking, I couldn’t deal with the runny nose also.

Matt nodded before casually throwing a leg over mine.

“Ask me properly.”

“This is really cheesy.” I blubbered.

It was.

A veritable cheese fest, mozzarella, brie, gorgonzola, gruyere, stilton; you name it, we had it.

We were cheesing big time.

“Stop stalling and ask me properly.” Matt coaxed while wriggling closer.

I realized then what Matt wanted from me.

I had asked, numerous times mind you, he wasn’t hoping for a proposal he wanted something more.

I took out his wedding band and grabbed his left hand.

“I give you this ring as a token of our love and marriage, I promise to cherish you and be at your side in sickness, please don’t get sick, and in health,” I sniffed some more, at least my eyes were behaving now.

“You are my shelter and your love is my anchor. You are my best friend, well,” I didn’t want to jinx my other close friendships.

“With Dante and Sol and Bret, but you’re a best friend I can boink. You have sole boinking rights.”

Matt bit his lip again and tried to maintain the required serious expression for such a momentous occasion.

“I love you and our babies, and I promise to always put our family first and I won’t keep secrets.” I assured him as he started to chuckle under his breath, then he fell silent when I pushed the wedding band over his ring finger.

“This is a symbol of my eternal love and the promise of all my tomorrows.”

“Did you just make that up?” Matt asked tenderly.

I nodded, feeling quite pleased with myself.

Matt cupped one side of my face and used his thumb to wipe away the moisture lining my face.

Then he pressed his lips against mine.

Eagerly I allowed him entrance into my mouth, a willing party to his heated kiss which soon tipped from playful sweetness to rough desire.

Nipping my bottom lip sharply, Matt broke the kiss.

The ragged puffs of air we both inhaled and exhaled was proof enough of where things were heading.

There would be sex sweat and lovely aches, maybe a few teeth marks, definitely a few orgasms.

I touched his lips with my fingertips and he did that slow, sexy smile which always broke me out in goose-bumps.

“My turn.” Matt murmured against my fingertips as he plucked my rings from the box.

I dropped my hand and blinked expectantly.

This would be good.

Matt was great at these sorts of things.

He would say something mind-blowingly beautiful and I would swoon then let him have his wicked way with me.

“I love you.” He eased my old engagement ring on.

Damn.

It looked good.

He really did have a great eye for jewellery.

“And we’ll have a big wedding this time around. The whole malarkey with all our family and friends.” Matt now slid my wedding band on.

“I’ll notify Rachel when I go into the office this morning and you can have her on loan, she’s marvellous with planning and execution of-”

“What?” I interrupted his glowing praise of the world’s best super-secretary.

Matt gave me a slightly perplexed look.

I widened my eyes to saucer size.

“That’s it? You love me and we’ll have a big wedding? Where are your pledges of undying love?”

“I told you I love you.” Matt countered with an exasperated roll of eyes.

“What more do you want, poppet? We’re wearing our rings. In my eyes we’re married now. Hmm, this feels very pagan-esque, it’s strangely nice.”

I huffed.

Matt winked at me then let out a deep masculine laugh before tugging me into his arms.

“Oh sweetheart, you do make me laugh.”

Matt started smothering my face with little kisses while his hands began to wander over my body.

We got maybe two minutes of canoodling before loud cries blared through the baby monitor.

We groaned in unison and I turned over to glance at the video monitor.

“It’s Eth this time.” I muttered.

“I’ll go.”

Matt stopped me with an arm around my waist before I could slide off the bed.

“You do know, don’t you?”

I scrutinized every inch of his expression and nodded.

“I know.” I smiled at his look of relief and stole a kiss.

“You love me more than life itself.”

Matt nodded.

“Hurry back.”

“He’ll probably want a feed. It’s his hungry cry.” I warned then glanced at my rings.

My delighted smile was duly noted by Matt and he kissed my collar bone before waving me away.

I jumped off the bed and warned the love of my life, “Don’t spy on me when I’m breastfeeding. It’s weird, in fact,” I flicked the monitor off then blew him a kiss before hurrying off towards the nursery.

“You really should let them cry for a little bit, poppet.” Matt called to my back.

“It teaches them self-discipline.”

I stopped, shook my head then went to soothe my son.

Let them cry?

Matt was one to talk!

He fussed over them much more than I did.

Half an hour later I returned to bed with an achy back and achy arms.

A quick flick of button and the baby monitor was back on.

Matt had ditched his pyjama bottoms while I dealt with our son because his nakedness was the first thing I spotted when crawling under the covers.

“Mmm,” he murmured, half asleep and sporting a semi hard on.

He rolled over and grabbed me around the waist before fumbling with my silk bottoms.

When he realized they weren’t going down fast enough, I was lying on my side so the shorts were trapped above my hip, Matt snuck his hands under my top and started feeling up my boobs.

He grunted in sleepy dissatisfaction.

“Bloody maternity bra. Bloody breast pads.”

I smiled in our dimly lit bedroom and sat up.

Matt cracked one eye open, half-scowling at me as he tugged on my top.

“Off.” he grumbled.

I gave him a look and he added a curt, “Please.” He twisted sideways in order to gain access to my stomach, which he proceeded to kiss with a few sensuous licks thrown in.

“What time is it?”

“About 4:30.” I replied then yawned.

“Bollocks.” Matt rolled onto his back and sighed loudly.

“We need a nanny.”

“No.” I was quick to shoot the idea down.

It was an ongoing bone of contention between us.

I wasn’t ready to share the care of my angels with someone who wasn’t related to them by blood.

“They’ll probably start sleeping through soon.”

Matt grunted again then flipped back on his side.

“Take your clothes off.”

I raised an eyebrow and he arched one right back.

Okay then.

I took my clothes off.

Matt spared a moment to glare at my maternity bra and fresh breast pads, which I laid neatly on the edge of the bed, then yanked me into his arms.

“We’ve got two hours before the alarm goes and I have to start getting ready for work.” his husky drawl was accompanied with a hand snaking up my stomach and softly cradling one of my boobs.

He rubbed his thumb lightly over my nipple, peering at my face to gauge if it was allowed.

When I didn’t growl my usual ‘leave it’, he lowered his head to press a whisper of a kiss on the swell of my right breast while his hand sought out the left.

Matt’s feather light kisses and tentative caressing of my breasts were nice for about five minutes before I put a stop to it.

“It’s not fair.” he muttered between my breasts as I ran my hands up and down his back.

“They’re all round and soft and big and I’m not allowed to enjoy them properly.”

That comment earned him a smack.

“I knew you were a breast man.”

Matt gently nipped the inside of one boob and I let out an exaggerated yelp.

He kissed my soft flesh.

“I’m your man, big or small, I don’t care. I’m your man.” Then he untangled himself from me and laid on his back.

He licked his lips and crooked one finger at me.

“Come up here.”

I eyed his stiff cock, licked my own lips and twisted over so I could straddle him.

Matt grabbed me around the waist and dragged my lower body upwards with that devilish glint in his eyes.

The friction of my bare bits moving up his abs was enough to tease a throaty gasp from me.

“Up here.” he repeated, this time his tongue was slow in its journey across his lower lip and the glistening trail of moisture it left was a promise of things to come.

“Yeah?” I was already moving up.

“Mhmm.” Matt slid down a bit lower as I got into position.

“You should brace against the headboard, poppet. You’ll need something to hold onto.”

“Cocky.” I retorted.

Matt gave me one of his arrogant looks before turning his mouth into my inner thigh as his hands ran up the outsides of my legs.

I moved slightly more to the left, his mouth was situated more left, and he chuckled under his breath.

“Patience, sweetheart.” he drawled then began kissing his way to my fast moistening flesh.

“I love when you come all over my face.”

I opened my eyes, they had been closed in preparation for my love licking.

“I aim to please, hon.”

“As do I.” Matt replied.

His voice was an aphrodisiac, his hands holding me in place, his tongue now drifting lazily over my clit.

He was a big ole aphrodisiac, and he was all mine.

A tremor rippled through me and I exhaled noisily.

I felt him smile and his gaze was fixated on my face.

I did have need of the headboard when Matt began to devour me, there was no other suitable word.

He devoured me.

And I fucking loved every spine tingling heated moment.

“Mmm.” I groaned, one hand gripping his hair while the other kept me supported against the headboard.

“I’m-”

Matt tightened his grip on my hips as I tried to rise off his mouth.

I didn’t want him to stop but it was almost unbearable.

He closed his mouth over my clit at that very crucial second and lightening shot straight up my back before I began to orgasm.

He kept his eyes on my face, watching me as I came undone for him.

I held his gaze with my lower lip caught between my teeth.

Only when he was satisfied, only when he’d enjoyed every last shudder of my pleasure did he unlatch his hands and release me.

I practically collapsed into a heap, luckily Matt pulled me down his body before I smothered him between my legs.

“Poppet.” the low, throatiness of his voice conveyed his need.

It took a slight shift to put myself in an ideal position.

Matt kissed me as his hands trailed over the back of my thighs, opening them so my legs cradled his from the outside.

I kissed him back, hungrily licking and sucking on his mouth.

We shared a gasp of air when the tip of his hardness rubbed against my slick swollen lips.

Matt growled and grabbed my ass as he pushed his way into me.

“I love you.” I pledged.

He rolled us over and I wrapped my arms around his broad shoulders, locked my legs around his lower back.

Matt grunted and using one hand, roughly unhooked my legs.

He wasn’t controlled or measured.

He pushed my arms off before grabbing one of my hands to lace his fingers through mine.

Matt wasn’t gentle, nor was he overly vigorous; it was a mix of both and it was simply, purely, raw.

There was nothing but unchecked passion and love between us.

Nothing but the truth of us.

Raw and unhidden from each other.

He cupped one side of my cheek with his other hand and I mirrored the action as we stared at each other.

His thumb brushed my mouth and he closed his eyes for a second before he opened them.

A glimmer of moisture, a shine made obvious by the play of dim light.

He was unguarded before me.

Every stroke, every breath, every touch of his body against mine; I welcomed it.

I took everything he had to give, not just with his body joined so intimately with mine, but with the look in his eyes.

The unasked question made known by the growing desperation on his face as he neared his climax.

“Yours.” I answered and Matt gave one final deep push and came magnificently.

His whole body shuddered and I felt his spasms deep inside me.

Thick and heavy and right.

He felt right, we felt right together.

Matt dropped his head into the crook of my neck, taking deep ragged breaths as he let his body enjoy the rush of endorphins.

We stayed like that for only a moment before he flipped us over and I laid on top of him.

He gave me a lazy smile then kissed the tip of my nose while drifting his hand up and down my back.

“I love you too, poppet.” he replied.

Then Matt chuckled, a deep rumble of a chuckle I felt vibrate from his chest.

“God. Do you remember the first time we made love? Right in this bed and you were so eager and scared shitless. One of the best days of my life to be honest.”

I raised my head, hand beneath my chin as I peered into his face.

“Sorry about those sheets.”

He smiled and angled his head to kiss my nose again.

“What sheets?” He winked at me before letting out a relaxed sigh and entangling his fingers in my hair.

“I want everyone we care about there at our wedding. I want everyone to know that you are, without doubt, the only woman for me. And, ah, I have one tiny request.”

I twisted my mouth sideways, already prepping my ‘no’.

His sheepish turn of behaviour meant it was probably something I wouldn’t want to do.

“Can we just do the straight Bradley this time around?” he asked bluntly.

“I think this hyphenated thing jinxed us.”

“You don’t believe in jinxes.”

Matt shrugged and wrapped one of my curls around a finger.

“Madison Bradley sounds perfect. Plus you can use my embroidered robes and my personalized letterhead writing paper. I’m MB and you’re MB, win-win for everyone.”

I shook my head then laid my head down on his chest in order to listen to his strong heartbeat.

“I’ll take that as a yes then.” Matt decided at my silence.

“And no pre-nuptial agreement either. I’ve amended my will, that way you and the children will never have to worry about finances if anything happens to me.”

The reassuring thud of each beat was in sync with mine.

I liked that.

“This is nice. Lying here is nice.” I sighed and started to move but Matt tightened his arms around me, keeping me in place.

I had to give the warning.

“My boobs will leak all over you if I fall asleep like this. I should put my bra on.”

“We’ll deal with it if it happens. You’re right, this is nice. I miss holding you like this, poppet.”

“Mmm.” If he wanted to risk it, who was I to complain?

“I’m serious about the pre-nup though-”

“Go to sleep, hon.” I murmured.

“And we are doing the pre-nuptial thing. I’m getting kind of rich and famous now. Have you - (yawn) - seen the write ups about my ballet company? Collins said-”

“Collins? When have you spoken to my solicitor? Wait, why are you even talking to a solicitor?”

“He called a couple of weeks ago and you weren’t here. We talked about stuff. I’m tired. Anyway, pre-nups aren’t that bad. You’re old money, knight. Old money means pre-nup and I’m cool with it. Sleep tight.” My eyelids closed.

I was in sleepy-after-sex mode, and actually always exhausted these days.

Oh crap, what about when I returned to work?

How did single parents do it?

They must be part-superheroes.

“We’re not signing any bloody pre-nups.” he grumbled before pressing a soft kiss into my curls.

“And you’ve forgotten your head scarf. Your curls are loose, don’t complain about knots in the morning.”

Then in a down-to-earth, practical show of love, Matt stretched his arm across to the edge of the bed in an attempt to snag my discarded headscarf.

Once he had it, he haphazardly wrapped it around my head and tied it off.

Forget the big gestures, that right there was true love.

“Thanks.” I murmured in appreciation.

“I do love you more than anything, poppet. You and our children.” Matt whispered right before sleep took me.

Those words followed into my dreams, and they were happy ones.