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"I think that can definitely be arranged." Hope grinned up at him. "And the sooner the better."
A smile lit up his beautiful blue eyes, warming Hope from the inside out. "My thoughts exactly."
Hope laid her head on his shoulder, her hand over his heart—strong and steady, just like him. "Thanks for not giving up on me, Drew."
Wrapping his arm around her, Drew pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I love you too much for that to ever happen, Hope. Never doubt that."
Once again, her heart simply melted. "I love you, Drew. And I can't wait to spend the rest of my life showing you just how much."
"Me too, sweetheart," Drew said softly as he lowered his head, stopping short of her mouth. "Me too."
And when his lips met hers in a kiss that branded her soul, Hope knew she was exactly where she was supposed to be.
Home.
For now and forever.
Epilogue
"She's absolutely beautiful, isn't she?" Hope asked Drew as their daughter began to nurse for the first time.
"She takes after her mother," Drew answered, pressing a kiss near Hope's temple. "You did good, babe."
"I couldn't have done it without you," she replied, leaning her head against his. He'd been a champion through every second of her nearly twelve-hour labor. Never leaving her side. Making sure she was comfortable. Offering encouragement. Feeding her ice chips. Letting her squeeze his hands so tightly she feared she might have cracked a few of his metacarpals in the process.
When the baby stopped nursing and detached, Hope handed Drew his daughter and snapped her maternity bra back into place. "We should probably invite your parents in," Hope suggested. "I'm sure Anna is itching to get her hands on this little princess."
"You think?" Drew countered with a grin in his beautiful blue eyes. Ones she hoped their daughter would share. "The first girl in the family in two generations—yeah, we'll be lucky if we ever get to hold our daughter again."
"Go tell them it's okay to come in."
"Are you sure you don't want a few more minutes of peace?"
Hope rolled her eyes. "Go get your mother."
"Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you," he relented with a teasing grin as he handed their daughter back to Hope.
He wasn't gone three seconds before the door swung open, and Anna burst into the room followed a little more slowly, albeit not much, by Eli. Drew brought up the rear but quickly returned to his place by Hope's side.
Anna hovered at the edge of the bed, her eyes brimming with tears as she clasped her hands in front of her heart. "Isn't she the most precious thing you've ever seen, Eli?"
"She sure is."
"Gram, Gramps, may we present your first granddaughter, Samantha Logan Blackwood."
"Aw, you named her after your father." A tear spilled onto Anna's cheek. "I know he has to be smiling down from heaven."
Hope brushed away a tear of her own. She had a feeling Sam was beaming indeed. "Would you like to hold her?" Hope asked Anna.
"Are you sure?"
As Hope held Samantha out, Anna carefully transferred her granddaughter from Hope's arms to her own. She eased into the chair by the bed, pure devotion shining all over her face as she pressed a kiss to Samantha's forehead.
"We’ll never get her back," Drew murmured as he stretched out on the bed beside Hope.
She swatted at him. "Behave."
For the next half hour, Samantha received quite the royal treatment from both her Gram and Gramps. With every minute that passed, Hope's eyes got heavier. It had been a big day, and though she didn't want to miss a minute with her daughter, she felt like she'd worked a forty-hour week doing hard labor.
