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And she was mine.
“I was reading,” she grumbled, leaning her weight into me as I took her face in my hand.
“You were. And then you were looking at me,” I chuckled. “Is it so awful of me to want a minute with my wife?”
Long lashes fluttered up at me as she stuck her lower lip out. “Yes,” she deadpanned. “Criminal behavior, if you ask me.”
I snorted. “Lock me up then.”
“Oh, I’ll absolutely be reporting you to INTERPOL.”
“And rip our children away from their father? Monstrous.” I pressed my lips to her cheek, her jaw, the soft spot beneath her ear, letting my nose trail along her skin. “At least I’ll have something pretty to play with if I’ll be on the run.”
“You’re such an ass,” she said, a breathy chuckle turning into a little gasp as the tip of my nose ghosted across the spot on her neck that made her shiver.
“I love you, too.”
I pulled her in with a hand around her waist, pressing her flush against me. The wind kicked up again, carrying the scent of salt and citrus from the shore, a reminder of the lemon groves nestled in the cliffs above. The temperature was dropping, and soon, we’d need to move somewhere warmer, somewhere sunnier. But for the next week at least, the Amalfi Coast was warm enough during the day to keep us a little longer.
“Their birthday is next week,” I said softly, dragging her attention back to my eyes as I lifted my head from the crook of her neck. I’d been meaning to discuss her plans when it came to birthday celebrations, but every time she’d managed to distract me, managed to wipe the thought from my mind.
Her expression flattened sarcastically. “I know that.”
“Did you want to fly back home?” I offered, tucking a stray bit of hair behind her ear as the wind whipped. One of the twins cried out again, and Lucas’s voice carried as he soothed them. “Your dad might want to see them.”
Her lips formed a hard line, and I dragged my thumb along her cheek, trying to smooth out the muscles. She sighed. “Can I be honest for a minute?”
“Of course you can.”
“Guys, I think Lucy is hungry,” Lucas called, his head popping up on the other side of the deck. “Want me to feed them both?”
“Yes, please,” we said in unison.
Lucas lifted a single hand with his thumb up as he descended into the interior of the boat.
“Right, honesty hour,” I chuckled, drawing her attention back to me as she tried to crane her neck to watch Lucas disappear. “Go.”
Her mouth scrunched up on one side while she tucked herself back into my chest. “Yeah, sorry,” she sighed. “I…don’t think I want to go back to New York anytime soon.”
My brows knit together as I studied her expression, trying to pick it apart in my mind. I bumped her nose with mine. “Why? We can’t keep Lucas out of school once summer is over.”
She shrugged. “It’s just nothing in comparison to all of this.” She nodded her head toward the cliffs and villages behind us. “We could homeschool Lucas, at least for a little bit.”
A creeping laughter crawled up my throat. “I’m sorry,” I chuckled. “But you were just nose-deep in a book five minutes ago and not paying a single lick of attention to our surroundings.”
Her eyes rolled dramatically. “You know what I mean.”
I pressed a kiss against her lips. “I do,” I whispered. “We can look at homeschooling Lucas.”
The grin that spread across her cheeks was as wide as the cliffs behind us.
“But that still doesn’t give me any idea what you want to do for their birthday,” I teased, pressing in a little further, forcing her back to bend as I kissed her again, and again, and again. Her stoicism broke, little fits of giggles breaking free, and there she was, pretty in the twilight and the reflections of the streetlamps in the water, pretty in my arms.
“I’ll call him,” she said through her fits. “We can see if he wants to fly out, okay?”
“Would you be happy with that?”
“Yes,” she beamed. “I’d be happy with anything other than going home just yet, as long as I’ve got you and Lucas and the girls. Honestly.”
Behind her, the stars were just beginning to blink into view in the velvety hues of twilight, the light of them reflecting just barely off the mostly calm water beneath. She looked up at me, those same stars twinkling in her eyes, shimmering and magnificent, and a sense of pure calm washed over me as I pressed my mouth to hers again, lingering against her lips. Out here with her, with our kids, under the fading light of day and the emerging glow of night, everything felt right—like this was exactly where I belonged, where we belonged, and for once, there was nothing missing.
“I’m not going anywhere, Aves,” I grinned. “You couldn’t get rid of me if you tried.”
THE END
