Page 64 of Healing Fate

Then he set a plate in front of me that made my mouth water. Rice, chicken, and applesauce. It was so simple but smelled amazing.

“Good, Doc,” Vada praised. “Tummy all better.”

“Not quite munchkin, but it’s a start. Let’s see if you can manage to keep that down.”

I took a bite of the rice, closed my eyes and moaned in appreciation.

When I opened my eyes, Micah was staring at me with a heated look in his eyes.

“I have a feeling I’m going to be cooking a lot more often if that’s the response I get.”

I blushed but I wasn’t going to complain if that was a job he wanted to take over.

“Why don’t we call it a night?” I finally said. “This little lady could use a good night’s sleep.”

Micah seemed hesitant but nodded.

“I’ll clean up while you put her down.”

“No, Doc!” Vada surprised me by saying.

“Um, how do you feel about baby duty instead?”

“I not a baby,” she insisted.

“No, you aren’t,” Micah told her as he took her from me and headed to her room.

I got up and cleaned up. He was great about cleaning as he went about his day. I’d noticed it at work and at home.

Once done, I sat down on the couch, exhausted from quite possibly the longest day of my entire life. After a few yawns I knew I needed to go check on things before I fell asleep right there.

In the nursery, I found Micah half snoozing with Vada fast asleep on his chest. Somewhere along the way he’d stripped off his shirt and was only wearing his sweatpants. I gulped at the sight as my heart lurched in my chest.

“Hey, she’s asleep.” I started to take her from him, but his eyes looked a little wild and uncertain. “She’s okay,” I assured him.

“But what if she wakes up sick in the night? Maybe I should just stay here and keep an eye on her.”

I couldn’t help but smile, feeling grateful at the love and care he showed her.

“You can stay if you want.”

“I can? I mean we never discussed it, so I didn’t want to assume.”

“Micah, if we hadn’t been interrupted, we’d already be fully mated by now. Unless you’re having second thoughts, then I guess we need to start talking about it.”

It made me nervous, but not scared anymore. He was mine and one thing I knew with certainty was that I fought for what was mine.

“Come on,” I said, taking his hand.

I’d expected him to put Vada down in her bed, but instead he kept one hand in mine and the other carefully holding her.

“Are you keeping her with you all night?” I teased as I let go of his hand and crawled into bed.

“Can I?” he asked.

“Don’t make a habit of this,” I warned him as he settled into bed beside me carefully cradling her to his chest as he used his free arm to snuggle me into his side.

Everything about this moment affirmed to me that this was the man I was meant to share my life with. It terrified me just how much I trusted him, and I prayed he never broke the faith I was placing in him.