Daniel’s eyes sparkled in the porch light. “I gave her to you the moment I heard your voice on the other end of the line after Faye passed away. Knowing you were there and I wasn’t when she needed me the most? I put my trust, all of it, in you. And I know that, if I don’t beat this cancer like I want to, that you’ll be there for her then, too. You don’t need my permission. You’ve had it for a while.”
I felt something lodge in my chest that felt like happiness and hope.
It was an odd feeling.
“You will come tomorrow? I know a judge that’s willing to wait until I get off tomorrow to marry us.” I paused. “If I can find her a ring.”
Daniel’s eyes sparkled as he disappeared inside his house.
I didn’t bother following him.
I was so fuckin’ tired that I could nap standing up.
The sound of his boots treading lightly on the old farmhouse floor had me opening them to him, extending a box out to me.
“This was my late wife’s wedding ring,” he said. “It’s not much. Honestly, at the time, I knew it wasn’t enough. That’s why we upgraded her ring for her when I could afford more. But since she was buried with that one, unless you want to go rob a grave, this one will have to do.”
My lips quirked up at the edges.
“I hate when you don’t make things easy for me, Daniel,” I bitched.
Daniel chuckled, leaning against the doorjamb, relaying his own exhaustion.
My eyes were caught on the cup of coffee he’d left on the railing on the back porch.
Which reminded me of the time Daniel had explained DS and Sabrina’s cookie-sharing habit.
I looked toward the deck where DS was sitting, holding his coffee cup out to Sabrina, who was dipping her ginger snaps into his cup.
“Why do they do that?” I shook my head. “Why not just get coffee?”
Daniel looked away from the sight outside, then to me.
“This is just something they’ve always shared,” he admitted. “Sabrina doesn’t want the coffee, per se. She only wants to dip her cookies, make them soft. And she doesn’t use enough coffee to make pouring her own cup worthwhile. So my dad allows her to share. He’s been doing it since she was four, and he introduced her to those hard cookies from hell.”
I grinned. “They’re definitely not my favorite, either.”
Daniel agreed with me. “I’m telling you. We used to always have stock in those when she was younger. It was the only cookie she’d eat for the longest time.”
I’d noticed myself that she always had them on hand.
Though, I’d never noticed her eating them.
Which, I realized now, was because she’d been sharing them with her grandfather. One day after DS had passed away, I’d offered her my coffee to dip her cookies into, and she’d lost it.
Though, when she was done crying, she did share my coffee with me
It wasn’t my favorite thing in the world—to have cookie parts floating in the bottom of my coffee. But if it made Sabrina happy? I’d do just about anything.
“Go to bed, Daniel,” I teased. “Big day tomorrow.”
Daniel winked. “You, too, son. I’ll see you tomorrow at the courthouse.”
I arrived home to Sabrina sleeping. Like always.
I kept long hours lately thanks to the hurricane that’d hit. I was gone before the sun rose, and home way after it set.
Sometimes, like tonight, I was home so late that I often contemplated whether going to sleep for only a few hours was worth it.
But I always dismissed the thought. Mostly because for those few hours, I got to sleep next to the woman of my dreams.
After a quick shower and a midnight snack, I crawled into bed next to Sabrina and let out a small groan, causing Sabrina to roll over in the bed.
She didn’t stop rolling, though, until she was all the way on top of me, straddling my hips.
I wrapped my arms around her and squeezed her tight, so utterly exhausted that even the small act of her pussy rubbing against my cock was only enough for me to get hard. Not to act on it.
“Poor baby,” she whispered as she placed kisses along my jaw. “You’re so tired that you can’t…”
“I’m so tired that literally the most beautiful woman in the world is touching her vagina to my cock, and I can’t do a damn thing about it,” I finished her sentence, sounding just as exhausted as I felt.
“You just go to sleep then.” She moved down the length of my body. “I’ll do the work.”
I swallowed hard, allowing my hands to fall to the sides, flopping gracelessly to the bed.
Her magical fingers moved to the waistband of my underwear, pulling them down until my cock popped free.
I groaned when her hot mouth met the solid flesh.