My Peace (Beautifully Broken 5)

I gently make love to my wife. She is mine, and I am hers, and we come together in our bed like we will never see each other again. Something we’ve certainly learned is that tomorrow is never promised.

She arches her back and presses into me and I slide inside, gently, easily, then with more and more thrust.

“I love you so much,” I breathe into her neck. “I love you so much.”

“I love you, too.”

She shudders against me and moans my name and I can’t hold out any more.

My entire body shakes with my release.

We make love three more times in the night. Gently, rougher, then gently again. We are two people who can’t get enough of each other. I get as close as I can, pulling her skin to mine, but it will never be enough.

By morning, we are a tousled mess.

Zuzu runs in at first light.

I’m sleepy, but I open my arms and she jumps into them.

“Daddy!” she shouts, bouncing. “Time to get up!”

“Mommy kept daddy awake last night, “I tell her. “Daddy’s sleepy.”

Zuzu glares at her mother. “Mommy, why did you do that? Daddy has to take me to the park!”

“I’m sure daddy will be fine,” Mila promises her. “Go get dressed, pumpkin.”

“Gabe is taking Eli, too,” she tells me. “So you guys can go together. Maddy and I are going to go shopping for nursery furniture.”

“No rest for the wicked, then,” I roll my eyes as I climb out of bed.

“I thought it would be best to get right into a normal routine,” she tells me worriedly. “Was that ok?”

I stop what I’m doing and come round the bed to her. I cup her face and make her look at me.

“Don’t worry about trying to make life normal for me,” I tell her firmly. “It’s life. We can’t always control it, but it will always be ours. We’ll take it as it comes. But yes, I’m perfectly fine with going with Gabe to the park. Surely, between the two of us, we can control two children.”

Mila smiles and kisses me sweetly, and I’m already looking forward to bedtime again. I tell her that.

“Me too,” she admits.

“Let’s meet here again tonight?” I suggest.

She nods. “It’s a date.”

“Let’s make it a standing date,” I add. “Say… for the next sixty years or so?”

Mila is radiant as she agrees. “I’ll pencil you in,” she says and I pull her to me, and all is right with the world.

“Use a permanent marker,” I tell her and I kiss her until she’s breathless.

“I almost forgot,” she says, and she’s flustered as she gets into the drawer of her nightstand. She pulls out something wrapped in tissue.

“You know how Brand likes to make things out of leather?”

I nod.

“I asked him to make it for you. I didn’t know if you’d wear it or not, but…” her voice trails off as I open it.