He handed it to her before he sat down and pulled her back into his arms. Quietly, she ate the cold treat, her eyes still on the black screen of the TV.
“Does the ice cream make you feel better?” He pulled her attention from the past again.
“Yes. It shouldn’t, though.” He let her feed him a spoonful of ice cream.
“So why the movie marathon today?” Taking the spoon from her, he ate a bite of cold minty ice cream.
“Hazel said I had yelled at her a lot when we played sports. I didn’t remember that.” She looked at the black TV screen.
“And now?” He knew she had already watched it. Hazel was right; he had been to enough of her games to have seen it firsthand.
“I was awful. If I coach, I don’t want to be like that.” She ate another bite.
“You won’t do that. When you were playing with Della’s girls, they messed up all the time, and you said nothing. Just helped them. Then when we were playing kickball with the entire family, the rules weren’t even followed, but you just let it happen and had fun. And did you yell at anyone the other day playing volleyball?”
“No,” she answered, but he could feel her mind was elsewhere.
“Did Hazel tell you not to coach?” He knew she would have asked.
“No, she said I would be good at it. Just to not take it too seriously. Just have fun,” Natalie admitted, her concentration on her ice cream.
“I think Hazel is right. You need to look at this as a fun thing, to not take it too seriously. If you win, you win, but if you lose, you still had fun.” He kissed her hair.
“Thank you, Sam. For everything you have done for me.” She leaned more into him.
“I’m glad I took you home after the wedding. My life has made a change for the better since that day.” He kissed her head again.
“Even if I cry a lot? And I mean a lot.” Natalie put the ice cream on the coffee table.
“Are you going to cry again?” he asked, watching her turn to look at him.
“No. I just want to look at you.” She touched his cheek gently.
“Why?” he asked, looking into her green eyes.
“Because I think you said you loved me when I was sobbing on the couch. Not the time to tell a girl that.”
“I think I did too.”
“Will you say it when I’m not crying?” she asked, still looking him in the eyes.
“No, I will not. Only when you’re crying.” His words were barely out before she attacked him, pushing him over.
Laughing, he grabbed her into his arms before she could push him off the couch.
“You are a jerk, Mr. Sullivan.”
Holding her tight as she tried to wiggle free, he replied, “And I love you, too, Natalie Beckett.”
Pulling her to him so he could kiss her, she kissed him back. Repositioning herself, she was straddling him, then she pulled away a little. Looking into his eyes, she touched his forehead with hers and said, “I love you, sexy Sam.”
Running his hands up her back, he fought the urge to slide the shirt up her body. “When are you moving in then?”
She pulled back more and looked at him closely. Her green eyes pierced his in confusion. “I am moved in.”
“You have almost nothing here.”
She looked around at the room. “I don’t have much.”