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There was no doubt that Emmy was now part of our family, and after my talk with Nolan the other day, I prayed that she would someday soon be part of it, too—officially.
Emmy was excited to see her sister and talked about the horse the whole way home. The instant we arrived, she was unbuckling her seat belt and rushing from the truck.
I caught up to her on the porch as Nolan opened the door, and Emmy stopped and gave her mom a tentative hug before she wanted to know where Lauren was.
Up the stairs Emmy rushed, and Nolan turned to me, shaking her head with a smile. “I’m chopped liver when it comes to her sister.”
“She probably just needs to know she’s home and safe.”
Emmy appeared at the top of the stairs. “Brad, Lauren likes her bed.”
“Glad to hear that,” I called up to her before she disappeared again.
“Thank you for the beds—all of them. You didn’t need to get me one too. I could have lived with sleeping on the air mattress a few more weeks.”
“Yeah, but why should you? That’s the bed you were sleeping on at Kay’s place. The other two are from my parents’ house.”
“I appreciate that. Come on in for a moment.” She held the door wider, and I stepped in. “Can I get you a beer?”
“I’d love one.” I followed her into the kitchen, itching to touch her but not daring to.
“I see I have some pots, pans, dishes, glasses, and silverware now too.”
“Yep, those are from Hunt. He didn’t get rid of his stuff when he moved in with Daniella. He just boxed it up and put it in the basement for a future yard sale or someone who needed it. That should at least make it easier to cook now that the girls are here.”
She handed me a beer and pulled out another for herself. “It will make it easier. Another thing I appreciate about you. You think of details to make life easier.”
I smiled at her. “I am a man of detail.”
She eyed me carefully. “I did pick up on that.”
The two of us studied one another, and as if we’d both spoken, we set our beers down and stepped around the corner of the counter together. I took her face in my hands, staring down into those pretty brown eyes that had been part of my dreams.
Her lips parted, and she moistened her bottom one with the tip of her tongue as I moved closer. Her arms wrapped tightly around my back, and she brought herself closer as she went up on her toes to meet my lips.
As our tongues swept over one another, I felt like I had come home. Like this was where my heart was, and I had finally found it. I held Nolan tightly, loving the way our bodies fit together and savoring the taste of the beer on her tongue and aching deep in my gut as she whimpered slightly into my mouth.
I had never felt any of this with Cheryl. I had loved her, wanted her, but Nolan seemed to be so much more. It was almost like I needed her.
After a few moments, we pulled back and stared at one another. “I missed that,” I said huskily.
“I missed that too. Man, did I miss that.” She smiled up at me and then rested her head on my chest. “Come on, let’s go sit on the back deck.”
I followed her out and found that she had added two chairs and a glider to her back porch. She chose the glider, and I sat beside her and took her hand.
She looked at me. “Thank you for taking such good care of Emmy.”
“You’re welcome. She’s a brilliant little girl.”
“She is, and very headstrong at times.”
“Yeah, I picked up on that, but I think we did pretty good getting around that.”
“Tell me how you managed to do that. You didn’t seem to know too much about spectrum kids before.”
“Ah, well, Wes helped. He told me one day that if I wanted to be part of your life, I needed to prove to you that I could do it. He gave me a lot of information about the medical conditions that the girls had, and I did more research.”
“You did?”
