Chapter 0443
Chapter 0443
“Oh?”
He nodded, letting Melody play with the seashell around his neck as he bounced her in his arms. “I can’t sleep without you, Hannah.”
He said it so simply, so matter–of–factly; and yet I felt my throat close in response, my heart momentarily stilling in my chest.
Little did he know that I’d had a rough time sleeping since we’d separated, too.
And now here he was, holding our daughter in bed. I never thought it would come to this, but the sight of it made me tear up.
Clearing my throat, I turned and began rearranging the plates on the cart. “Lily and I made breakfast,” I said, pushing the cart up to the edge of the bed. “Thought it might be nice to have breakfast in bed. You, me, and Melody.”
Noah’s eyes widened as he took in the sight of all the food. “Hannah, you should have woken me-”
“Ljust…” I cut him off, shaking my head. “I wanted to do something nice.”
Noah and I were both quiet for a few moments, although the air was filled with unspoken words–and Melody’s happy little gurgles as she played with her father’s dark hair.
Finally, Noah was the first to break the silence. He held out his free arm, beckoning to me. “Come here.”
Tears pricked at the backs of my eyes as I walked over to him and let him gather me against his side, tucking my legs up underneath me. Noah, noticing my emotional state, brushed a bit of hair out of my face and gently kissed my temple.
“Thank you, Hannah.”
“It’s just breakfast-”
“No. It’s not.” He hiked Melody up in his arms, holding her between us. Her big green eyes, the exact same shade as his own, lit up as she saw my face come into view. I nearly burst out crying when her tiny hands reached out toward me.
“It’s this,” Noah said as he carefully shifted our daughter into my arms. He gestured to me, to himself, to Melody, to the room, to the steaming food sitting in front of us. “It’s everything. Thank you. For doing it all over again with me.”
The tenderness in Noah’s voice left me silent, my throat working uselessly. To think that we had lost this, nearly for good… It was almost too much to bear.
But just as that first tear was about to slip out, Noah picked up a strawberry and held it to my lips.
I hesitated for a moment before opening my mouth and biting down on the sweet berry. The juices exploded on my tongue–and also on our daughter, whose face scrunched up at the sensation of sticky sweetness hitting the tip of her nose.
“Oh-“I gasped, nearly choking with laughter, as her mouth opened in a perfect little ‘o‘ of surprise, clearly caught somewhere between giggling and crying.
Chapter 0443
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Noah had to press the back of his hand against his mouth to keep himself from laughing.
“That was my fault,” he said, grabbing a napkin and wiping our daughter’s strawberry–stained face. “I should have known that would happen.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Maybe breakfast in bed with a baby isn’t the best idea.”
“Not your finest, I’ll admit,” he chuckled.
With that, we gathered Melody and moved to the small table by the window. Noah held her in his lap, bouncing her on his knee as he fed her little berries and dollops of whipped cream from his coffee, practically forgetting to eat his own food in the process
All the while, I just leaned back, sipping my coffee and watching with a smile on my face.
No tears were spilled that morning–but if they had, then they would have been tears of joy and laughter.
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