I'd be there tomorrow and every day I was lucky enough to have her, to make sure she knew how much she was loved.
For now, it was time to go home. I turned to Royal, but he was already on it. “Tenn's going to give us a ride home. That okay with you? Griffen and Hope have your things from the apartment.”
“Sounds great.” Suddenly, I was exhausted, one blink away from falling asleep. I let Royal tug me toward the elevators at the end of the hall.
“Ready to sleep now?” Royal asked, a laugh hiding in his voice.
“Yes, please.” Standing in the elevator, I let my eyes slide shut, my face buried in Royal's chest, snuggled into his arms. “I'm going to pass out right here. Now that I know J.T.'ll be okay, there's nothing keeping me awake.”
“Nothing?” Royal asked with a raised eyebrow and a wicked quirk at the side of his mouth. My body hummed but couldn't kick into gear. At the regret I knew was all over my face, Royal burst into a full laugh. “Maybe tomorrow,” he said, rubbing my back.
“Definitely tomorrow,” I murmured into his shirt.
He dropped his head, his lips at my ear so no one else could hear, and detailed exactly how he planned to wake me up. It was almost enough to bring both my brain and my body back online.
It was definitely enough to guarantee I had very nice dreams. And I did. Dreams that came true as I woke on the crest of orgasm with Royal's mouth between my legs.
I was suddenly very, very glad I'd agreed to move in, even if it might only be temporary. I wanted to wake up with him every day for the rest of my life. We hadn't quite gotten around to talking about forever, but this was a good start.
He moved over me, inside me, his body and mine creating a perfect circuit, a connection that my heart knew was forever, no matter what we had or hadn't discussed.
We didn't need to talk. We knew what we wanted. The details could come later.
Epilogue: Part One
Daisy
It was easy to say the details could come later. Pinning them all down was a lot more complicated. J.T. was stuck in the hospital for almost a week before we could bring him home. Grams insisted he recover at her house, and between Grams and Clay hovering, J.T. was on his feet faster than anyone expected.
He loved Grams, but by the time he was up and around, J.T. was eager to move back into the apartment so he and Clay could have a little privacy. I didn't blame him.
Despite the number of Sawyers living in Heartstone Manor, the sheer size of the place meant I wasn't having any issues with privacy. I wasn't wild about the longer commute to the bakery, but otherwise, I loved living at Heartstone. Probably because I loved living with Royal.
Which didn't explain why I hadn't fully committed to the move. My mail still arrived at the apartment mailbox, and while I'd moved my clothes, there were plenty of things I still hadn't packed. Books, knickknacks, the prints and photographs I'd collected over the years. Royal wanted all of that in our rooms at Heartstone. I was dragging my feet.
And yes, I was back at the bakery. I needed to talk to Grams about everything that had happened, but I was dragging my feet there, too. The confrontation with my father had made a few things clear. One of them was the realization that though I loved working with Grams with all my heart, I didn't want to spend the rest of my life as an hourly worker when I was doing the work of an owner.
My father had shown me just how little security I had the way things were now. I didn't want to quit on Grams, didn't want to leave the bakery I'd grown up in. I wasn't ready to abandon our dreams for the future.
I also wasn't going to strong-arm Grams into giving me a piece of the business. She'd started Sweetheart Bakery on her own when my father was only a child. It was hers to share or keep to herself, and considering everything that had happened with my father, I could understand Grams being a little low on trust.
All of that left me backed into a corner. If I left the bakery for good, I wasn't sure I had any prospects in Sawyers Bend. The town wasn't big enough for two bakeries, and I couldn't bring myself to think about competing with Grams. Not to mention my lack of start-up capital.
We did have plenty of restaurants in town, and I was sure Royal and Tenn would give me a job at The Inn, but after so many years basically being my own boss, I wasn't looking forward to punching a time clock for someone else.