next kiss. “I don’t care, Declan.”
He searched her face, a frown forming. “Did you change your mind?”
“No, I don’t care if I get pregnant or not. I only care about you right now. About us. About finding our way back to each other and not letting anything ever get in the way of us again.”
A shadow crossed his expression, fast and gone before anyone who didn’t know him as well as she did would ever have noticed. “There’s going to be an us?” he asked.
“There is an us.”
“What about…life? And where we live? And how we live?”
“Can we figure that out as we go along?” she asked. “I’m drunk on Declan and can’t think straight.”
That made him smile. “E.” He whispered the single letter, tracing her lips with his finger. “E is for everything. Excellent. Electrifying.”
“Big D,” she teased. “For delicious and darling and…” She bit her lip. “Daddy.”
With a moan that sounded like it came from somewhere deep inside, he squeezed her in a full-body embrace. “I can’t remember the last time I was this happy.”
“I remember it. I just remembered every moment of it.”
He closed his eyes and rested, wrapped together, not moving for a long, long time. And Evie finally, finally felt as if twenty years had never passed.
* * *
Something wet and heavy scraped Declan’s face. Hot breath puffed against his ear. And a hairy paw landed on his chest, making him grunt and open his eyes.
“Whoa…” He groaned the word, eyeballing the dog trying to get onto the bed.
Next to him, Evie stirred, flipping her head on the pillow and opening sleepy blue eyes. She gasped and popped up. “Judah! No.” In a flash, she was out from under the covers and rolling over Declan and using both hands to keep Judah down. “I know you feel good, honey, but you can’t climb onto beds yet.”
Judah let himself be eased back to the ground, his brown eyes locked on Evie’s bare breasts.
“Annnnd I’m naked,” she said, sliding a slightly shy look at Declan.
“And the problem with that is…” Smiling and not able to take his gaze from her, Declan reached down to the floor and grabbed the first article of clothing he found. “Fine. But she looks good without her fur, right, Judah?”
He barked twice.
“What’d he say, Dolittle?”
“He said you’re a dirty dog.” She pulled the top over her head, which was a waste of time since he’d have it off in a minute anyway. Like he had last night when they’d slipped into the kitchen at midnight to devour hoagies and potato chips and each other up against the counter.
As soon as she scrambled back under the covers, Declan wrapped himself around her. “God, you’re the best thing I’ve ever opened my eyes to see first thing in the morning.”
She kissed him lightly, then pulled back. “What time is it?”
Declan slid deeper into the bed, rolling onto his side to line up their bodies, curling his leg over her bare thigh. “Time to try again.”
“Mmm.” She bent into his body, warm and silky. “But I have to get Granddaddy’s breakfast at seven. Is it past seven?”
He eased back to break the news. “It’s past eight.”
“Dang it.” The covers flipped again. “He’ll be starving. Where’s my phone? I need to check to see if he’s still in bed. Oh, and Nellie Shaker’s coming over at noon with some of the ladies from the Historical Society, but I invited your sister and cousins and mom and the grannies to come at eleven.”
He drew back, confused. “Why?”
“To pick out some dresses for the Founder’s Day Living Museum party. I want your family to have the first choices. And this afternoon, I have some patients to see at Molly’s after I take Judah over to Vestal Valley for a session with Christine. What are you doing today?”
“I thought I was making a baby, but it seems that Mom is way too involved in other stuff.”
She smiled as if the name had given her a genuine kick of pleasure. “Then rest today and store up for a big night.”
“Nope. We’re going to baby-make before anyone shows up before eleven.” He pushed out of the bed. “You stay here, and I’ll get Max’s breakfast.”
“And explain your presence how?”
Snagging his boxers, he threw her a look. “First of all, if he knew the truth, he’d dance down those stairs and throw a party. Second, I could have shown up here to work. Or to check on Judah. Or to see you.