“Definitely.” I closed my eyes and within a few minutes, I was out.
~*~*~
Lucah had to wake me when we got to the garage where he stored his car.
“I would carry you, but it’s quite a few blocks and I don’t know how well that would go,” he said. He was strong, for sure, but not that strong.
“No, it’s okay,” I said, putting my shoes back on. It was drizzling outside, so we grabbed a cab to take us home.
“Want me to make dinner?” he asked as I slumped on the couch after setting down my bags with my new shoe purchases in them.
“That would be great.” I sighed and then heard some more noises in the bathroom. Oh, bless him, he was going to draw me a bath. There was almost nothing a good bubble bath and some candles couldn’t cure. Sex also worked and when the two were combined, you had something magical on your hands.
He picked me up and helped me to the bathroom and set me in the tub after undressing me.
“You’re the best,” I said, leaning back and resting my head on a towel he’d put on the edge as a cushion.
“That’s debatable, but I’ll take it,” he said, also taking his clothes off and getting in with me. Oh, baby.
“I’ve got a chicken and potatoes going in the oven, so we’ve got at least a half hour,” he said, moving around me and settling down so I could lay against him.
“You’re so wonderful,” I whispered as he covered me with bubbles.
“I love hearing you say that,” he said in my ear. “It makes me sad, though.”
“Why?”
“Because of my parents.” He didn’t usually talk about them, but he was getting more and more open the longer we were together. Sometimes at night I caught him looking through the album of pictures that Tate had given him.
“Because I’ll never get to meet them?” He nodded.
“And because they won’t be at the wedding.” Lifting up my left hand he turned it so the ruby in my ring caught the light and winked at us.
“Maybe they would have hated me,” I said, voicing a worry I’d had for a long time.
“Hey,” he said, turning my head to the side so I met his eyes. “They would love you. Don’t you dare doubt yourself.” I bit my lip and then he kissed me.
“My mother would have told you that she loved your shoes and dragged you into the kitchen to help her make pie crust. My dad would have regaled you with stories of life in the past, when things were more simple. He wasn’t a big fan of technology. He would absolutely hate the fact that phones have internet access on them.” He smiled and my heart ached.
“Sometimes, I have dreams and we’re together and my parents are there. They stand in the background and don’t say anything, but I know they’re there. In those few seconds before I wake up, I forget that they’re dead and then it hits me again. It’s been years, but it doesn’t matter. It still hurts the same.” I’d never been through something like that and sometimes it made me feel inadequate. Like my worries and fears were insignificant in the face of what he’d been through in his life.
I knew he’d tell me I was crazy if I said that, which was why I didn’t tell him.
“Your life makes me sad,” I said.
“I know. There’s not much I can do about that.” We both sat in the tub with our thoughts. This had been quite a day.
“You make me happier than I ever thought possible. Than I deserve, Sunshine.” I reached back and held onto him.
“I love you so much,” I said.
Kids in our future might be uncertain, but if I didn’t know anything else, I knew that I loved him and he loved me and that was more than enough.
~*~*~
We were chilling out after having dinner when there was a knock on the door.
“I’ve got it,” Lucah said, getting up from his horizontal position on the couch with his head in my lap.