After they finished eating, Mack wanted to ask Sammi to come home with him, but he was scared. He was scared to push her and scared of the inevitable rejection. So instead, he asked if he could stay to watch a movie and Sammi gave him a strange look with no explanation before walking into the living room and plopping down onto the couch. Following his wife, Mack sat down beside her and told her to choose what she wanted to watch since he got to choose their dinner.
Once Sammi started her movie of choice, she sat back on the couch and Mack immediately pulled her closer to him. Sammi nestled into him and knew she was going to be too comfortable to stay awake and she was okay with that. She was emotionally drained and looking forward to the peace that sleep would bring her, even if just for a little while. As Sammi’s head dropped onto Mack’s chest, Mack massaged the area on her hip where his hand was resting, encouraging her to give in to slumber, while he reached back and grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch.
“Do you want to go to bed, hon?” Mack asked quietly when Sammi stirred as he placed the blanket over her.
“No,” Sammi said abruptly. “I don’t sleep in there.”
Mack didn’t understand what she meant by that, but he felt sad for her, nonetheless. He lifted Sammi onto his body so he could reposition himself into a laying position on the couch and made sure Sammi was comfortable on top of him. Then he moved the blanket to cover Sammi better and pressed his lips to her forehead.
“Sleep tight, wifey,” Mack whispered.
*
Sammi was awake before Mack the next morning and couldn’t move from how tightly he was holding her. His head was back and his mouth agape, causing him to snore and drool. Giggling, Sammi tried to wiggle his arms loose, desperate to get free from the saliva splatter zone. He finally awoke with a start, accidentally knocking Sammi to the floor on her bad arm.
“Ow,” Sammi said, laughing as she sat up.
“That’s it, we’re sleeping in our bed tonight,” Mack grumbled as he was still waking up and not thinking about what he was saying. Sammi looked at him, taken aback and speechless.
Mack was still out of it as he sat up, kissed Sammi on the lips, and got up to go the bathroom. Sammi rolled her eyes as she watched him walk out of the room, not feeling comfortable with this carefree morning version of Mack quite yet. Suddenly remembering that she hadn’t bought any groceries at the grocery store the day before, she realized Mack was going to insist they go out to breakfast and then he was going to hijack the entire day and she was running out of time to decide whether she wanted to go home or not. But as they spent the day together, Sammi realized that even though she wasn’t ready to be his wife again just yet, she couldn’t stand the thought of losing him.
“I guess we should go get you some groceries,” Mack offered, now fully awake as the afternoon approached them. They were sitting closely on the couch watching television after having a large brunch at a nearby diner.
“Do you need anything?” Sammi asked casually, making it about him to throw him off.
“No, I went shopping two days ago,” Mack told her with a subtle shrug of his shoulders.
“Then we’re good,” Sammi said, still playing it cool but having to keep her face turned away from him so he couldn’t see her giant smirk.
“But you have nothing–oh!”
Mack’s face lit up as he planted a kiss on Sammi’s cheek and jumped up from the couch. He hurried into the bedroom and Sammi followed to find him tossing her clothes into her luggage carriers. Sammi walked over to him and placed her good hand on his hard stomach to stop him.
“Baby, slow down,” Sammi told him. “I’m not going to change my mind in the next five minutes.”
“I’m sorry, I guess I got a little excited,” Mack admitted as his face turned red.
The husband and wife spent the next hour or so packing up Sammi’s things and closing up the apartment before making the hour-long trip home to Long Island. Sammi was upset about abandoning the apartment and all its memories, but she was trying to take everything as it came until she could feel at least somewhat normal again. She knew Eli and Kodi would want her to have faith in Mack and she wanted to be able to have that.
When they got home, Mack sent Sammi into the bedroom to unpack and take her time acclimating to being home again while he made dinner for them. Sammi appreciated his consideration, sitting on their bed in silence to collect her thoughts and feel her feelings instead of focusing on unpacking, grateful for the time alone. What really made her okay in that moment was the fact that the man in the other room wasn’t going anywhere despite her attempts to push him away.
After dinner, the couple moved into the living room to cuddle on the couch and watch a movie or two. Neither of them would say it, but they were dreading going to bed. Sammi was nervous about the expectations of sleeping in bed with her husband again and Mack was scared that Sammi was going to ask him to sleep in the guestroom again, even though he had been sleeping in the guestroom the entire week that Sammi had been gone.
Two movies later, Sammi was half asleep with her head drooping lower and lower on Mack’s chest. Mack ran his fingers through her golden hair, causing her to stir and stretch her arms out in front of her. Yawning, Sammi sat up and turned her body to face Mack.
“How are you not tired?” Sammi asked, upset that she was yet again the only one who couldn’t keep her eyes open.
“I am,” Mack said innocently, shrugging his shoulders to dismiss Sammi’s attitude.
“Then let’s go to bed,” Sammi suggested, getting pushy.
Mack smiled at Sammi’s sass before taking her hand and leading her into their bedroom. Sammi changed into pajama pants and a tank top while Mack disappeared into the bathroom. He turned the shower on to give the water some time to heat up then returned to the bedroom where Sammi was climbing into their big, comfy bed.
“I’m gonna get a shower,” Mack told his wife. “Where would you prefer I slept tonight?”
Sammi looked at him, shocked. She patted Mack’s side of the bed with her good hand and Mack grinned. He crossed the room to where Sammi sat in bed and kissed her forehead.
“Dummy,” Sammi said, smiling as she stuck her tongue out at him.
Mack was still smiling as he went back into the bathroom and undressed. His shower was quick because he was anxious to share a bed with his wife for the first time in months. He understood that she was still guarded, but she was working with him and that was all he needed to be okay himself.
By the time Mack joined his wife in bed, Sammi was almost asleep already. But as soon as Mack snaked an arm underneath her waist to pull her close to him, she rolled toward him and snuggled into his warm body. Mack buried his face in her long hair and slept peacefully surrounded by the sweet scent of his yellow cocoon.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Paper Heart
Sammi slept just as soundly as her husband that first night home, embraced by Mack and his love for her. It was a deep sleep and probably the best sleep she’d had since having the help of morphine in the California hospital. And her dreams were visited by memories that had been waiting patiently for her to be ready to see them.
Many years ago, when Sammi was just a child starting grade school, there was a girl in her class who was always getting into trouble. Sammi didn’t really know her, but everyone seemed to think that they were sisters because of their matching blonde hair and similar styles. They were paired up one day for a project and Sammi was finally officially introduced to Kodi Sweet.
From the moment they met, Kodi and Sammi became inseparable. There were many teacher’s notes to follow with recommendations to keep the girls separated because of how badly they influenced each other. They were never the popular girls, despite their breathtaking natural beauty, but they definitely weren’t afraid to fight the cheerleaders in high school. They wore long and baggy clothes while they were in school so boys never noticed them, but they wouldn’t have wanted that attention anyway. The
girls weren’t dumb, and they got decent grades when they actually bothered to do the work. Kodi was a master of math and science while Sammi excelled in English and history, complementing each other in every way possible. With barely present parents who had never wanted children in the first place, there was no keeping the terror twins apart.
In their junior year of high school, Sammi received her only award in her school career. Her English class had to write memorial pieces for a person of their choice but Sammi had never lost anybody she cared about nor did she care enough about anyone in history. So Sammi wrote about the loss of her innocence, hinting at the abuse from her mother’s boyfriends. She expected to get in trouble for not following the assignment correctly or having the school counselor banging down her door because of the blatant cry for help. But her teacher was so impressed with her writing, and apparently ignorant to what Sammi was really saying, that she submitted the piece for a literary award and Sammi won. There was a hundred-dollar cash prize that would be the first money put toward saving enough for her and Kodi to get their first apartment and put as much distance between themselves and their parents as possible.
Seven years later, Sammi was planning her first major heist. She, Kodi, Eli, Shay, and Howard had robbed some convenience stores at gunpoint, but Sammi knew they could do better. Ever since her first thrill of theft, her mind had been racing with crazy ideas of elaborate planning and bigger scores. The team was resistant at first, nervous about branching out and the possible consequences, but they couldn’t deny that Sammi’s plans were good. And it was the way she wrote everything out for her friends to prove how well thought out the plans were that convinced everyone to listen to her.
*
Sammi woke up suddenly, remembering her dream vividly. It was still the middle of the night and the room was dark, but she could tell that Mack was fast asleep under her. Most of her upper body was resting across his chest so she very gently sat up and slid out of bed. She tiptoed across the bedroom floor, listening for any movement from Mack, and slipped out of the room without a sound.
The entire house was dark, but moonlight shined in through the few large windows on the backside of the house so Sammi didn’t have any trouble getting up to the loft. Once she was up the stairs, she turned the floor lamp on that did a good job of lighting the entire loft without spilling light down the loft stairs. Then Sammi found the only empty notebook left in the house, a marble composition book, and settled onto the couch to write.
Sammi wrote all through the night, her words flowing effortlessly through the black ink pen. She wrote about Kodi, about Eli, about Howard, and even some about Shay. She wrote them through her own eyes, speaking on Kodi’s beauty and warmth, Eli’s loyalty and strength, and Howard’s courage and intelligence. Sparing no detail, she told the pages all about her friendship with Howard, about how comparing her and Kodi as sisters didn’t even begin to do their relationship justice, and spilled her love for Eli onto the paper along with her tears. It was emotionally draining, but in a good way. Her words set the ghosts of her friends free, also bringing freedom to herself.
“How long have you been up?” Mack asked groggily, entering the loft hours later. Sammi hadn’t even realized the sun was up.
“Uh, what time is it?” Sammi asked without looking up, her hand still putting pen to paper.
“What…are you doing?” Mack ignored her question as he looked over her shoulder at her writing.
“Making sure the memories of my friends never fade,” Sammi told him.
Mack squinted his eyes inquisitively at her, but Sammi wasn’t paying him any mind. She seemed okay and Mack didn’t want to keep interrupting her, so he gave her shoulder a quick squeeze and told her he’d go make some breakfast for them. Sammi completed her thought before finally taking a break, putting the notebook aside and joining her husband in the kitchen.
“How’d you sleep?” Sammi asked, sitting next to Mack at the kitchen table after grabbing a cold energy drink from the fridge and her favorite travel mug.
“Great!” Mack told her, eyeing the NYPD logo on her cup. “Although, I was disappointed when I woke up and you weren’t there.”
“I’m sorry, hon. Maybe we could take a nap later?” Sammi offered with the brightest smile Mack had seen on her face in months.
“You’re…different today,” Mack said cautiously.
“I can’t even begin to tell you how much better I feel after writing about my friends and how important they are to me. It’s like the heavy black cloud that’s been over me since California has lifted and I can finally see sunshine again.”
“Hobbs always said you wrote the best the case reports in the department.”
Sammi smirked, remembering how she used to proofread Mazzeline’s reports before they handed them in so her partner wouldn’t embarrass her with his spelling and grammar mistakes. For one brief moment, she missed the squad and working alongside Mazzeline and her husband. But the feeling quickly passed, and she knew it was only the people she missed and nothing else.
After breakfast, Sammi hopped in the shower. She wanted to keep writing until her friends’ story was finished, but Mack was returning to work the next day and she’d have all the time in the world for it. Mack was respecting her grieving process and not pushing to read what she’d written so he deserved her full attention while he was home. She wanted to make sure he showed up at work on Monday as different as she had been that morning; she wanted him to finally be happy again.
Feeling extra cute in a pair of slim-fitting black jeans and a sexy, off-the-shoulder powder blue sweater, Sammi skipped out of the bedroom and found Mack standing by the kitchen sink. She danced over to his side and put her good arm around his trim waist, resting her head against his bicep.
“What would you like to do today?” Sammi asked with nothing but joy in her voice.
“You…are freaking me out,” Mack admitted nervously, turning his head and looking down at her face. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you’re feeling better. But this is the type of thing that happens just before someone snaps.”
“No, you’re right, I’m sorry,” Sammi replied, looking down at the floor. “I think I’m overcompensating because I want you to be happy, too.”
Mack sighed and took her hand, leading her into the living room where he sat on the couch and pulled her into his lap. He tilted her chin up so she was looking him in the eyes then kept his hands on her hips.
“I am happy,” Mack said slowly, pronouncing each word seriously. “You’re home, Sam. That’s all I ever wanted.”
“Can I ask you something that might be upsetting?” Sammi spoke softly, playing with Mack’s fingers in her hand.
“Go for it,” Mack told her assuredly, even though he was nervous about what could be on her mind.
“Did you even want another kid?” Sammi asked with uncertainty in her voice. The question had even surprised her as it came out of her mouth.
“Samantha Anne Johnson,” Mack said, getting serious. “I, without a doubt, would love to have a baby with you.”
Mack had kept Sammi’s face tilted toward his so she could see in his eyes how serious he was. Sammi smiled a weak smile as Mack squeezed her body to his and kissed her hair repeatedly. She wriggled her arm around his back so she could return his hug, still feeling too guarded to kiss him.
Displeased with how gloomy things had gotten, Sammi leapt up from Mack’s lap and pulled him off the couch by his arm. She pushed him, steering him down the hall into the bedroom and told him to get dressed so they could go do something fun. Mack chuckled at how cute Sammi was when she was pushy as he swiftly changed into a pair of dark jeans and a grey buttoned flannel and took his beautiful wife to the flea market.
*
Monday morning, Sammi woke up with Mack so she could see him off to work. She made a plate of toast for him while he showered and dressed, the strong desire to send him to work happy still inside her. Mack entered the kitchen a short while later, dres
sed for work, looking handsome but professional. Sammi smiled at him, having not seen him in detective-mode in quite a while, and suddenly remembering how proud she was of him for his career.
“Well, hello, handsome,” Sammi cooed at her husband, making him blush.
“I’ve missed waking up with you,” Mack told her, curling one arm around her waist and kissing her forehead.
“Don’t get used to it,” Sammi teased and stuck her tongue out at him.
“Ouch,” Mack joked, grinning. “Just for that, I’m going to turn on a few extra alarms before I leave every day.”
Mack winked at his wife as he grabbed two slices of toast and headed for the door. Sammi giggled and followed him to see him off, kind of disappointed that he actually had to go.
“Say hi to everyone for me,” Sammi said in the doorway as Mack stepped on the front porch and turned to face her.
“I will,” Mack told her. “Hey, you sure you’re gonna be okay here?”
“Honey, I’m fine,” Sammi answered him. “But call me when you can.”
“I love you, Sam.”
Sammi ran out the door and threw her good arm around Mack’s neck, hugging him tight. Mack put his arms around her and rubbed her back, resting his head on her shoulder. They remained like that for a full minute before Mack had to go.
After watching Mack drive away, Sammi went back inside and cleaned up her toast mess. Then she headed up to the loft and sat down with her notebook to pick up where she had left off on her friends’ tale. It came so easily to her, flowing right from her head, down her arm, through her hand, and out the pen. She lost track of time and wrote throughout most of the day, finally stopping when Mack called her on his way home from work.
While on the phone with each other, Mack expressed an interest in taking Sammi out for a nice dinner that night and Sammi realized she hadn’t even bothered to get dressed yet. As soon as they got off the phone, Sammi sprinted downstairs and took a quick shower. Then she took the time to doll herself up with a couple of curls in her shining blonde hair and just enough makeup to accentuate the blue in her eyes without making it too obvious. To complete her evening look, she chose a black cocktail dress and a pair of black strappy heels. She couldn’t deny that she loved dressing up specifically for her husband.
Love Against the Law Page 24