Chapter 23

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The following morning, I woke up to not only sunlight streaming through the windows, but to arms wrapped solidly around me. Arms I never thought I would be back in again. I couldn't stop smiling.

I was still naked from multiple romps between the sheets last night, until we had both fallen asleep exhausted, yet finally satisfied. I didn't care that I was naked. I didn't feel self conscious about my body anymore. Ryan had kissed and marked every inch of me as his.

As much as I would love to stay in bed, I had things to do. I gently detangled myself from Ryan's arms, careful not to wake him. Judging by the generator still running, we were obviously still without power. As I was getting dressed, he woke up and gave me a smile that made me want to strip back down and crawl back into bed.

"What are you doing?" He asked, his voice still raspy from sleep.

"Need to let the dogs out and see if there's any damage from the storm." I replied.

Ryan got up and dressed and we left the bedroom together hand in hand. As soon as I walked into the hallway, I stepped into a puddle of water. I looked up and saw a rather large wet spot in the ceiling. Great. I pointed it out to Ryan, who frowned. Hopefully that was the only damage I had.

I did however smile when I saw Stormy curled up against Sturgill in the dog bed where they were both asleep.

"He's such a good big brother." Ryan said, then reached down to scratch behind Sturgill's ear when he looked up at us.

Ryan's comment made me sad however. "He'd be such a good big brother to human siblings, but I can't give him that. Ryan, are you sure about me...us?"

"Of course I am, baby. We have options. There's adoption...surrogacy. We could be foster parents. We have so many different possibilities we can look into."

I knew he was right, but I just couldn't help but think of what he was giving up.

"Don't even think about it Bree. I'm not letting you go again. We can still have a family. Blood or not doesn't matter. And if for some reason none of those options work, we still have each other. You can't convince me otherwise." He said sternly.

Before I could even come up with a response, I saw his eyes widen as he looked behind me into the kitchen. A huge chunk of ceiling was missing. It wasn't a complete hole, like I could see the sky through it, but the roof had leaked enough to have allowed enough rainwater to seep through, and the drywall just couldn't handle it. How the hell had we slept through that? Or were we too busy having sex?

I was now cursing myself for putting off having my roof replaced. It had been on my to do list a year and a half ago when I thought I was going to sell my house and move into our dream house with Ryan. Then things happened and I left town for a year and a half. "I was supposed to get the roof replaced." I said to Ryan, and then for some crazy reason, I burst out laughing. It was either that or cry, and frankly at this point, I was over crying.

"You've got insurance. It'll be fine." He kissed my forehead.

"C'mon, let's get these dogs out." I said, pushing the situation to the back of my mind.

As soon as I stepped out the door, I was blinded by the sunlight, and it took me a moment to realize why: the metal awning covering my front porch was gone. To my horror I saw it in a twisted heap wrapped to the front of my car, and my storage shed next to my car was completely collapsed.

I'm not gonna cry.

"It's okay baby." He wrapped his arms around my midsection from behind and kissed my temple.

"I guess insurance is gonna have to cover that too." I forced a smile. "Now the question is, is that going to fall on auto or homeowners?" I tried to make it a joke. Hopefully it was just cosmetic damage to my car. It could have been much worse and I needed to focus on the good that came from the storm, like reconnecting with Ryan.

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