“Momma, we’re playin’ Uno! Get down here and play with us,” Kasha bossed.

“We’re not playin’ Uno,” Kat contradicted. “Daddy and I wanna play Operation.”

“Operation is stupid!” Kasha, whose little fingers weren’t as coordinated so the patient’s nose was always glowing red, snapped.

I watched this go down, no longer shocked the intensely masculine, slightly scary, totally badass Knight Sebring was completely cool with playing Uno (but he preferred Operation).

Instead, I watched it remembering that I’d been tormented by bad dreams since my parents died when I was a little girl.

But when Knight entered my life and made me his in a way he told me was forever, then proved that true, I’d not had one dream.

No, in sleep, I never dreamed.

Now, watching my man with our girls, knowing Nick was somewhere safe and happy…

Life was another story.

* * * * *

Olivia

Fifteen Hours Later

“Livvie.”

I was dreaming.

I felt soft breath on my neck as a gentle finger slid over my shoulder.

“Baby.”

Happy dreaming.

A hand cupped my jaw, a thumb sliding across my cheek, my ear, into my hair.

And a whisper from close.

“Dawn is coming, honey. Open your eyes.”

I was scared.

Terrified.

If I woke up, like so many mornings before, a lifetime of them, it might be gone.

But the promise was too beautiful.

And now, I believed.

I opened my eyes.

And there it was, an inch away.

Swimming in an ocean of blue, a new day dawning.

And me?

I woke up from my dream to a living dream.

Complete, happy…

And loved.

Epilogue

Perfect World

Nick

Three Days Later

Nick opened his eyes and saw the bed empty.

Three days he’d had his Livvie there with him in Tennessee and each morning he’d had to wake her up.

Now she was gone.

He threw back the covers, knifed out of bed and saw the door to the bathroom open. Seeing that, he prowled through the house but stopped when he saw her out in one of the Adirondack chairs on the back deck.

She was sipping coffee and staring at the mountain view.

He drew in breath, let it out, retraced his steps, took a piss, washed his hands, brushed his teeth and headed back out, straight to the coffeepot.

He got his cup and kept his gaze on his girl as he moved out the back door to join her.

She looked over her shoulder at him, her face soft, untroubled, and Nick relaxed more.

Approaching her at the back, he stopped behind her, bent, and kissed the top of her head.

She gave him a small smile as he straightened and she turned back to facing the mountains as he moved to the chair situated close beside her.

He settled.

They sipped.

No words were said.

But she’d been there days and they hadn’t talked much. There were other things to do. Show her the house. The town. Familiarize her with the area. She’d unpacked the surprisingly little she’d brought. They got groceries. They cooked. They slept. They fucked.

Now there were things she had to know.

“We’re covered, baby,” he said to the rim of his cup. “You know I owned that building where my place was. Sold my place and the building. Knight bought out my stake of the club. Hawk Delgado is lookin’ after my boys. He gets a cut, I get my take. And I got healthy investments. We got no worries here. We’re good.”

She held her cup close to her mouth, eyes to the view, and didn’t respond.

“We gotta get you a car,” he continued. “Go into Nashville, get you some more clothes—”

“Stop,” she said in her delicate voice.

Nick stopped.

She didn’t start, she just stared at the view.

“Liv—”

Still in that voice, she cut him off, “My job to make it worth it.”

Nick didn’t like that.

“That’s not how it works,” he stated.

Finally, she turned to face him.

“You’re wrong. It is. I get it now. It was your job to do all that. Now it’s my job to make it worth it.”

“Babe, this is just our life how we gotta live it.”

“Yes,” she agreed. “It’s our life. It’s your purpose in this life to take care of me. And it’s my purpose to give that back.”

He tried to read her, thought he got a bead, and said, “You don’t gotta make any grand gestures.”

But he’d read her wrong.

“You’re right, I don’t. You love me and I have one simple task. To make that worth it.”

“That’s not gonna be hard, baby, you do that by breathing.”

Wet welled in her eyes as she held his.

Then she leaned his way. Dropping her cup to the arm of the chair, she reached her other hand out to slide the tips of her fingers along the stubble at his cheek. Up, she smoothed the hair over his forehead. Back down, she cupped his jaw.

“I think, if you don’t mind, sweetheart, I’ll put a little more effort into it,” she murmured.

Fuck, he loved her.

“Knock yourself out,” he murmured back.

Her glistening eyes smiled and she slid her thumb over his cheekbone, his lips, before she took her hand away and settled back in with Nick and their view.

“One regret,” she said quietly.