“Deal,” Davey said with a smile.
“Thanks,” David said to Sarah as she walked him to the door. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“Just take care of Bailey. Davey and I will be fine,” Sarah said before she shut the door.
“Now, Davey. What do you want to do for the next thirty minutes?”
“Can you help me with the book Daddy bought me about horses?”
“Sure, I can. Go get into your pajamas and bring back the book,” Sarah said as she headed for what looked like a comfortable spot in the family room.
Half an hour later, Sarah had answered every one of Davey’s questions concerning how to tack a horse and the different names for each part of the saddle and bridle, watched him brush his teeth and given him a drink of water. She’d missed this ritual of putting a child to bed. She’d spent hours of her life reading bedtime stories to Cody and hearing him plead for “just one more” before she turned out the light. How she regretted all the times she’d told him, “No more stories tonight.”
Closing her eyes she let her mind wander to her memories of her little boy all dressed up in his dinosaur pajamas that had been his favorite as he begged for just one more story.
David knelt down beside the large recliner that sat in his family room. He felt a bit like the bear that came home to find Goldilocks asleep in his bed, except his version of Goldilocks had dark brown waves instead of golden curls.
Leaning down he brushed a strand of hair back from Sarah’s face. Sighing, she turned her face into his hand then opened her eyes. Dark chocolate eyes blinked open then closed again. He had a couple choices here. He could let her sleep where she was or he could carry her off to his bed, which would be his first choice except for the fact that his son was asleep in the room next to his.
“Give me a couple minutes,” Sarah said as those beautiful eyes blinked open again. He watched as she performed a full-body stretch that had him wanting to crawl into his recliner with her.
“How is Bailey?” Sarah asked, yawning then sitting up in the chair.
“He’s stabilized. They’d already had him in the OR by the time I got there,” he said. “I appreciate you taking care of Davey. Did he give you any trouble?”
“No. He wasn’t any trouble at all. I had no idea how bright he was. He showed me the book you got him on horses and he had a lot of good questions,” she said as she tried to climb out of the deep chair. David pulled her up from the chair and steadied her. “Thanks. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”
“And I didn’t mean to be so late,” he said as Sarah moved into his arms. The warmth of her body against his had him pulling her closer until their bodies aligned perfectly. The feel of her breast brushing against him had him wishing he had gone with his first choice of action when he’d first found her sleeping. They would have been snuggled in his bed together by now.
“Look, I owe you an apology. I checked on Lindsey before I left the hospital and you were right, Hannah was there with her. I spoke with the night nurses and they said she has been there every night since her daughter went on ECMO,” David said as he let Sarah pull back from him.
“I’m sorry too. I certainly don’t have the right to tell you that you need to move on from what you went through with your wife. If anyone should understand how hard that is then it should be me. I’ve spent the last three years trying to work through my own issues,” Sarah said. “We both have some baggage and I shouldn’t have told you that your time for working through it was up.”
He pushed the hair back from her face. Did she realize that in some ways she did have the right? Or at least the power? He’d taken what she had said and given himself a long hard look and realized that she was right. That it was time to get rid of the bitterness that he had carried around with him for the last six years. When he’d stepped in to check on Lindsey and saw Hannah at her bedside he knew that he had let his bitterness toward another woman influence his opinion of a young mom he didn’t even know.
“I’m glad you did. I do have some issues. Lisa leaving like she did was rough. I suddenly had a sick young son to take care of and I’m sure that there were people who didn’t think I was going to be able to make it on my own with Davey. I should have given Hannah the same benefit of the doubt that I needed with Davey.”
“Thank you for that,” Sarah said as she leaned in and placed a kiss on his cheek.
“And thank you for staying with Davey,” he said as they moved to the front door.
“It was my pleasure,” she said as she stepped outside the door then hesitated. “You don’t have to do everything alone. It’s okay to let others help you. It’s not a sign of weakness as much as an act of sharing.”
He stood there watching her as she walked to her car and he let her words sink in. There were times when he felt that Sarah could see through him into his soul. It was that connection again. That wonderful connection that had him wanting more with Sarah then he’d ever wanted from another woman. A connection that if broken he didn’t know if he would survive it.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“BUT WHY CAN’T I go too?” Davey asked
