Touch & Go (22 page)

Jesus!
Sam jerked back, gently cradling his little pink girl as he tried to extract her teeth from both the shirt and skin beneath she'd laid claim to.

Ava was laughing, wiping at her cheeks with her sleeves as their boy flipped over on his back and swatted at the air with his little paws.

It was just the reminder he needed.

“Looks like he's got something caught on his collar there.” Sam pointed, setting his wriggling pup aside as Ava carefully turned the green collar around the neck of hers. And then stopped, her breath rushing out on something that sounded suspiciously like “greenbean” as she found the two-karat emerald-cut engagement ring he'd secured with a thin silk bow.

Freeing the ring, Ava looked up at him—her eyes filled with uncertain hope.

“Ava, you're my best friend—”

She was nodding, coming up on her knees in front of him.

“The woman I love, my family, and my future—”

“Yes,” she whispered as Sam slid the ring over her finger.

“—I know this seems fast after everything that's happened—”

“Yes, Sam. Yes,” she promised, before he'd made it through the words he needed to say. She laughed emotionally as more tears spilled over her cheeks. And that laugh—it did more to mend his heart than any medicine ever could. The puppies liked the sound of it too, because they were springing around their knees, rolling over each other and tugging at ears.

Then Sam was laughing too, but the next words were as serious as any he'd ever spoken. “Ava, I don't want to waste another minute.”

Her laughter eased, but the smile that did all the right things to that place deep in his chest was as bright and strong as ever when her eyes met his. “Then don't.”

“Marry me.”

She nodded, leaned in, and pressed her lips to his. “Yes.”

He could have stayed like that forever, caught in the free fall of a promise that was the key to his whole world. But there were things Ava needed to know. He didn't want her to worry, not about anything.

“I know these next months are going to be tough while I wrap things up with Farrow Contracting, but I'll be back and forth every week. We'll get through it. And then I swear I'll never leave you again.”

Ava pulled back, searching his eyes. “What?”

“I'll sell the business and start over in San Diego.” What did she think, that after all this, he was going to suggest some kind of long-distance thing?

Her eyes closed and for a moment, he thought she might cry again. But then she just smiled up at him. “The Chicago office offered me a ginormous raise to stay today. I turned them down, but I suspect they'll be relieved to hear I've reconsidered.
This is our home, Sam.
”

He shook his head. “
You're
my home.”

“Well, your home is staying right here.”

Sam kissed her harder. “Jesus, I love you.”

She looked into his eyes and gave him everything in her heart. “I love you too. Forever. For always.”

And because he needed to hear it one more time, “For all the days of our lives?”

Damn, that smile.

“Yes, Sam. For all the days of our lives.”

“You're not,”
Ava laughed, breathlessly backing down the second-floor hall of her house toward a bedroom that saw more than its fair share of action. “I don't even know why I ordered that one.”

Sam was a pace back, matching her step for step, with Pinkie and Greenbean following eagerly at his heels. But the lopsided grin sitting on his sexy face, stretching wider as he helped himself to another look into the priority shipping box he held in one hand, was just for her. “That's how you're going to play it, Ave?
You don't even know why
you ordered this—”

“Don't say it!” she squeaked, heat blazing through her cheeks and pooling deeper through her center when those worn-denim eyes locked hot with hers.

Okay, she knew why she'd ordered it. A couple of nights back, Sam had been working on his hobby project—converting the building he'd bought from Ford into a single two-story residence. She'd just gotten out of the shower when she found Sam on the construction side of the plastic drapes, marking up some plans. He'd been leaning over his makeshift plywood desk, so she could see the phenomenal terrain of his sculpted back beneath the cotton stretch of his white T-shirt…and
he was wearing the tool belt.

She'd tried to be good. Really she had.

Because this project was important to Sam. It was their home. And while she didn't really care what the timetable was, so long as she had her incredible husband warming her bed each night and brightening her every day in a thousand different ways,
he
cared about making it perfect and about giving her the kind of home she'd had growing up. The kind of home
they'd
had.

So she couldn't distract him…which meant distracting herself instead.

They'd already had the puppies playing over in the doggie corner of Wicker Park, so both Pinkie and Greenbean were dead to the world, refusing to lift so much as their heads when she'd tried to entice them with Squeaky-Piggy. Maggie was as big as a basketball and sleeping as much as possible, with Tyler hovering close at her side, so Ava tried to restrict her stalking to a window of hours between nine and nine. And Ford…he'd been even more distracted than usual lately with finding a new property to reinvest his money from the sale of this building, and the launch of his latest game.

Which left the computer.

Only she didn't want to work. And after a few wayward keystrokes, she'd found herself back at her favorite adult shopping site. Getting hotter and hotter thinking about her husband down the hall…wearing his tool belt…and what she wanted to do to him once he finished whatever it was he was working on. Or ten minutes from then, which was about all she thought she could reasonably be expected to wait.

One thing led to another, and two days later Sam was signing for another multibox shipment.

Giving her that hot look that had her melting into a puddle as she sprinted for the bedroom.

Teasing her with her purchases. The naughty presents she'd been so bold buying, but now…well, this one in particular? She didn't even really know how—

But then it seemed Sam was through with his game of cat and mouse. Closing the remaining distance between them in two strides, he caught her around the waist with his free hand and pulled her in hard against him, balancing the box out to the side.

His mouth was on hers, his tongue sweeping between her lips, as he backed her the rest of the way into their bedroom and onto the bed. The box fell to the floor with a heavy
thunk,
but Ava couldn't think about anything but the drugging sensation of Sam's mouth on hers. His hands sliding under her shirt. His muscles tensing beneath her roving touch.

They were desperate, pulling at each other's clothes like their next breath depended on it. And then he was above her—her husband, her lover, her best friend in the world, and the man who'd made her every fantasy come true. He pushed deep inside, filling her completely. And when there was nothing but the two of them together, connected in a way she'd only known with him, he stared into her eyes. Letting her see everything in his heart, he told her the words he couldn't seem to say enough and that she would never tire of hearing.

“I love you, Ava.”

“I love you too.”

An hour later, Ava was tucked in the crook of Sam's shoulder, their legs an intimate tangle beneath the sheets. She turned, scooching around until her chin rested on his chest and she was looking up into one very satisfied and supremely smug face. “Okay, so I'm not regretting my purchase.”

Sam laughed, the low rumble of it doing things to her heart she wondered if she'd ever get used to.

“Yeah, I kinda got that feeling when you were screaming my name for the third time.”

Ava's face heated, and those worn-denim blues softened as he brushed a thumb across her cheek. “How is it even possible I can still make you blush?”

Only she didn't have time to answer, because then her phone was vibrating from the nightstand to the right while Sam's started jittering across the table to his left. Their eyes met for one knowing beat, and then they were tumbling out of bed, pulling their clothes on as fast as they could, unconcerned with details like seams going on the inside as they dashed for the door—because
Maggie was having her baby.

Ford had Tyler's car warmed up and waiting downstairs by the time they got there, the windows cleared of the inch of new snow that had fallen since that afternoon. Tyler and Maggie made it down the front steps and for a second it looked like he was going to try to carry her, but then Maggie gave him the scariest look Ava had ever seen and the guy had the good sense to back off. Helping her to the car, he got her into the front seat, while Ava stowed Maggie's overnight bag in the trunk. Then Ava, Sam, and Ford piled into the backseat—because Tyler didn't trust anyone to drive his precious cargo but him—and they started at a safe, conservative pace for the hospital.

“You're doing great, Maggie,” Tyler promised for about the thirtieth time since they'd pulled away from the curb two blocks before.

“Yeah, really good, Maggs. Anything we can do for you?” Ford asked, while Ava stared at her husband, who seemed to have fallen into some paralytic state watching their friend panting and grimacing in the front seat.

“Sam?” she asked quietly. But not quietly enough, because then Maggie was looking back.

Her face was contorted and she leaned forward. “Ty, I think you're going to have to hurry.”

He blanched.

“Oh fuck, Maggie, is the baby coming now?” he demanded, starting to pull over. “Ford, call 911. I read up on this, I can deliver the baby if I need to, but hopefully an ambulance—”

Only then Maggie was gasping,
laughing
at her husband. “I'm sure you could. But I just meant, I think Sam's going to pass out if we don't get there fast.”

The next few hours were a blur of low-speed precision driving, registration and paperwork, escalating contractions, the realization that Ford had a suspicious smudge of lipstick on the bottom hem of his T-shirt, his refusal to answer the subsequent onslaught of questions, and then finally…about forty minutes of Sam, Ford, and Ava sitting silently in the waiting room while Maggie became a mommy.

And when it was done, and they were allowed to file back in, one after another, it was Sam who took the words from Ava's mouth.

“She's a
miracle.
”

Ava was nodding, staring down at the beauty nestled in her mother's arms.

“She's perfect,” she whispered, overwhelmed by the sight of this tiny human she'd been waiting to meet for so long. “Maggie, you did
so good.
”

Her friend smiled up at her, fatigue etched through every line of her blissful face. “Tyler helped a little.”

He smiled from beside her, where he was sitting with one hand over their baby girl and one hand at Maggie's hair. “No, Maggie, this is all you.”

And then Tyler and Maggie were staring into each other's eyes, smiling in a way that made Ava feel like truly, everything was right with this world.

Sam wrapped his arms around her from behind, and holding her close…he smiled against her ear.
“Soon, Ava.”

She looked over her shoulder and, with tears in her eyes, smiled into the face she loved best in the world. “Yeah, soon.”

For Nicole Resciniti

Truth or Dare

Touch & Go

USA Today
bestselling author M
IRA
L
YN
K
ELLY
grew up in the Chicago area and earned her degree in Fine Arts from Loyola University. She met the love of her life while studying abroad in Rome, Italy, only to discover he'd been living right around the corner from her back home. Having spent her twenties working and playing in the Windy City, she's now settled with her husband in rural Minnesota, where their four beautiful children provide an excess of action and entertainment. When she isn't reading, writing, or running to keep up with the kids, she loves watching movies, blabbing with the girls, and cooking with her husband and friends.

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