"Are you scared?"
"Of what?" I brush her hair from her eyes, trace her lips with my thumb.
She hesitates, searching my face. "Of… all of this. Of how fast it’s happening. Of not being enough for you."
I almost laugh, but the look on her face tells me she’s dead serious. I tilt her chin up so she’s forced to meet my eyes.
"You’ve always been enough. You’re the only thing I’ve ever really wanted," I say, letting the words hang in the darkness between us. "I’m not scared. I’m happy, for the first time in a long time, I’m utterly and truly happy.”
“I hope you know I’m completely gone for you, Sheriff McKenna,” she says, making my smile grow bigger.
I rest my chin on her head. “I know, and I’m never letting you forget it,” I say. “You, me, Tommy, this house. We’re a family now. You got that?”
She hums, sleep already pulling her under. “Yeah. I got it.”
We fall asleep like that, skin to skin, her heartbeat soft against my stomach.
6
LISA
Iwake up in Sawyer McKenna's bed at five AM with sunlight streaming through the windows and my husband's arm wrapped around my waist like he's afraid I might disappear.
My husband.
The word still makes my stomach flip, even though we've been married for exactly fourteen hours. Even though I can still feel the delicious soreness between my thighs, the memory of what it felt like when he worshipped every inch of my body with his hands and mouth.
Even though what happened between us last night changed everything.
Sawyer is still asleep, his face relaxed in a way I rarely see when he's awake. The hard lines of authority and responsibility have softened, making him look younger. Making me remember the boy who used to build me elaborate sandcastles and share his lunch when I forgot mine.
The boy who grew up to be the man I married yesterday.
The man who showed me pleasure I never knew existed, who made me feel things I didn't know my body was capable of feeling.
I should feel happy. Settled. Complete. Instead, there's a knot of anxiety sitting heavy in my stomach, growing tighter with each passing minute. Because in the bright light of morning, with the euphoria of last night fading, reality is starting to creep back in.
Derek is still out there. Still in town, still trying to take Tommy away from me. And now, instead of just fighting for my nephew, I'm fighting for this new life, this family, this happiness that feels too perfect to last.
Sawyer stirs beside me, his arm tightening around my waist before his eyes flutter open. When he sees me watching him, his face transforms with a smile that makes my chest ache.
"Morning, baby." His voice is rough with sleep, intimate in a way that makes heat pool low in my belly.
"Morning, husband." I try to match his casual tone, but something in my expression must give me away because his smile fades.
"What's wrong?" He's immediately alert, shifting to face me fully. "Lisa, what happened?"
"Nothing happened. I'm just..." I trail off, not sure how to explain the fear that's eating at me. "Thinking."
"About?"
"About Derek. About the custody hearing. About what happens if this doesn't work." The words spill out faster than I can stop them. "What happens if the judge sees through us? What happens if Derek's lawyer finds some way to prove this marriage is fake?"
Sawyer's jaw tightens. "It's not fake."
"But it started fake. We have a marriage license dated two days before the wedding. People are going to ask questions,Sawyer. They're going to wonder why the sheriff suddenly married his childhood friend right when she's facing a custody battle."
"Let them wonder." His voice carries that dangerous edge I recognize from when he's dealing with a threat. "Let them ask all the questions they want. The only thing that matters is what happens in that courtroom."
