AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“So, no sleepovers?”
He shook his head. “No sleepovers. Just sex. In a hotel room. Always with a condom.”
Holly leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. “Thank you.”
“I’m not finished.”
“Okay.”
“Second, there hasn’t been a single day in the last eight years that I didn’t think about you. Wondering what you were doing. If you ever thought about me. Us. Hoping that someday we’d be lucky enough to get a second chance.”
“You were always right here, Chace.” She placed his hand over her breastbone, where he could feel her heart beating beneath his palm.
“I have a thousand other things I could say to you right now, but I think I have something that pretty much sums everything up.”
“Tell me.”
“I love you, Holly McCade. Always have and always will.”
A solitary tear slipped onto her cheek as she straddled his lap and framed his face with her hands. “Show me, Chace,” she murmured against his lips. “Please.”
“Oh, I intend to, sweetheart. Every chance I get.”
19
Chace didn’t disappoint.
Not in word or deed.
That night or any night since.
Yet the way he showed her wasn’t only confined to the bedroom. Oh no.Everythinghe did, morning, noon, and night, was proof positive of his feelings. And in the grand scheme of things, that proof was far from just what he could do with his mouth, his hands, and his body when they were alone.
It was about the details. The little things. The time and effort he put into regular, everyday occurrences. The sharing of responsibilities. The ease with which they fell into a compatible routine.
In the mornings, while Holly prepared for work, Chace took care of getting the girls up and ready for school, fed them a breakfast that always consisted of much more than a cold bowl of cereal or frozen waffle fresh from the toaster, and after ensuring Holly’s breakfast was on the table, he drove Emme and Wren to school.
During the day, he cleaned, did laundry, shopped for groceries, and had dinner well underway when Holly came home, where he never missed a chance to kiss her under every sprig of mistletoe around the house. And every day, there seemed to be more dangling from places she never expected.
Like on the shower head in the master bath.
Yeah, that one was quite an interesting find this morning, and delayed her departure by at least fifteen minutes. Not that she was complaining.
Nope. Not one bit.
In the evenings, if Holly had schoolwork to attend to, Chace oversaw homework, packed everyone’s lunches, and entertained the girls until she was finished or it was bedtime. At first, they alternated the nightly routine with the twins. But the night before, they’d shared the experience, which, in turn, awakened a longing in Holly she’d given up hope of ever happening—having a little family of their own someday.
It was something they’d used to talk about all the time. Getting married. Where they wanted to live. The kind of house they’d build. Although the styles changed as they got older, the number of bedrooms remained the same at four. A master for them. A room for guests. And one each for their two children they hoped would be a boy and a girl but would love and appreciate however they might be blessed.
Holly couldn’t help but wonder if that was still what Chace wanted.
From the way things were progressing between them, Holly was cautiously optimistic he did.
But she didn’t ask.
Not yet, anyway.
Instead, each evening, they returned to the family room and snuggled on the sofa in front of the glittering Christmas tree, listening to holiday music and talking about the events of their day. He rubbed her feet and legs. They engaged in some extremely heavy petting before he carried her to bed and showed her without words just how much he loved her.
