Page 106 of Cluelessly Yours

“Let me guess, you also forgot that you got hit by a cab and are still healing?”

I laugh, but it’s more of a silent whoosh of air than anything else. “Something like that.”

After we were discharged from the hospital yesterday afternoon, Brooke demanded that the boys and Dolly stayed with her and Chase for an extra night, and Sammy and I ended up back at my place, trying to heal and checking in with our friends and family every chance we got. I guess a near-death experience will do that to you.

Mary didn’t tell Kara what happened, and honestly, I’m glad. She’sso attached to me, she wouldn’t have taken the news well. And with Kara, that means neglecting even her most basic of needs.

When I’m healed up a little more, I’ll explain it to her the best I can.

Once the pain settles, I realize that Sammy is sitting up in bed and holding a pillow to her ribs. “Are you okay?”

“I mean, I just feel like a seventy-five-year-old woman who fell down the stairs, but I’m good.” Her eyes are wide, but her lips are still smiling. “The soreness the nurses told me about is real.”

“Did you take anything?” I question, forcing myself to sit up in the bed and rest my shoulders against my headboard.

“Noah, you and I both know that what I’m feeling isn’t going to be resolved by Tylenol. It’s just going to need some time.”

“Yeah, but you also have actual pain medication that would take the edge off.”

“As do you, but I don’t see you taking any.”

“Touché.” I smirk. “We’re quite the stubborn pair, you and I.”

“Nearly hopeless,” she adds with a teasing smile. “Though, good news is that I’ve already DoorDashed us breakfast.”

“Let me guess, St. Luke’s Café?”

“Very funny.” She giggles and reaches out to tenderly brush her hand over my cheek. “We’re getting a full breakfast experience from Waverly’s Diner. I even got a little wild and ordered us both chocolate milkshakes.”

“Sounds very nutritious.”

“We deserve it.” She grins. “I mean, if there are two people who deserve to drink chocolate milkshakes for breakfast, it’s us.”

“On that, we can agree.”

Sammy smiles over at me, and there’s just something about her, somethingabout waking up to her, something about us together in my bed that feels right in a way that I never want to feel wrong again.

“Let’s move in together.”

“W-what?”

“Let’s move in together,” I repeat confidently. Sammy and I are meant to be together—this I know for sure.

She searches my eyes. “You want to live together?”

“You, me, the boys, and Dolly,” I expand. “I want to be a family, Sammy, with you.”

“Where is all of this coming from?” she asks. “You don’t feel like this is a little rushed?”

“No, actually, I don’t.” I shake my head. “I love you. I want to be with you. I want to mix and mingle our lives together. And I sure as shit don’t want to spend another morning waking up without you beside me. You’re the only woman who has ever given me thefeeling. Waiting any longer would merely be a waste.”

“The all-consuming, heart-racing, stomach-aching, I’m-going-to-throw-up-if-this-doesn’t-work-outfeeling?” she asks, repeating my exact words from what feels like forever ago.

“Yes.Thatfeeling.” I smile and reach out to take one of her hands into mine, caressing her fingers with my thumb. “You’re the woman I want to spend my life with, and I want to start now.”

“I don’t want to waste any more time either,” she whispers, and a fresh sheen of tears makes her eyes shine. “I want to keep you forever.”

“Yeah?”

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