Free Cherish (Covet #1.5) by Tracey Garvis Graves Page A

would. I was in a dark place, and no matter how much you tried to help me, I didn’t know how to get out.”
    I cradle her face and brush her tears away with my thumbs. “If it wasn’t for you, I’d be the one in that dark place.”
    “I owe you that.”
    “I’m not keeping score, honey.”
    This brings a round of fresh tears, but they seem more like happy tears. After she pulls herself together, she steps out of my embrace and turns back to the stove. “The chili should be ready soon.”
    “Hey, Jess?”
    She wipes her eye with the back of her hand. “Yeah?”
    “You took my breath away that day, and I remember thinking I was the luckiest man on earth to be marrying a wonderful girl like you.”
    “I’m the one who was lucky,” she says softly.
    I squeeze her shoulder on my way out of the room, wondering if Jess and I might get lucky again and hoping with everything in my power that we can.
     
    “Do you want to watch a movie?” I ask after we’ve eaten the chili. “We never did watch Foul Play . Who knows? For me it might be like watching it again for the first time.”
    She smiles. “I love that you can joke about it now. You’ve come such a long way. I know it may not feel that way, but it’s true.”
    “Yeah, I know.”
    “Let’s watch it,” she says. “But first let me make some popcorn. You like yours with M&M’s in it.”
    I snap my fingers and point at Jess. “We used to buy a package of M&M’s at the theater and pour them into our tub of popcorn.”
    “You refuse to eat movie popcorn any other way.”
    “God, it feels good to remember things,” I say. “Even the inconsequential crap.”
    Jess pops the popcorn, and I dim the lights. I’m sitting upright on the couch with my feet on the ottoman, and she’s lying next to me with her legs bent. Halfway through the movie, almost unconsciously, I reach over and grab her feet, settling them in my lap. I don’t know if it’s because I suddenly remembered that’s how we like to watch movies on the couch together, or because it just feels right.
    Jess’s focus remains on the screen, but she doesn’t move her feet away. When the movie is over, she yawns and sits up, placing her feet on the floor. “Well? Was it as good as you remember?”
    “Better.”
    “I’m going to get ready for bed,” she says.
    I lock up and turn off the lights in the kitchen. When she returns to the living room wearing her pajamas, she makes up her bed on the couch.
    “Good night,” she says.
    “Good night.”
    I turn off the living room light, but before I reach the doorway that leads to the hall, I stop and turn around. “You don’t have to keep sleeping on the couch.”
    “I don’t mind.”
    “I know you don’t, but I’d like it if you slept next to me.” Sometimes I feel lonely, and I lie in bed thinking of Jess out here on the couch, wishing she was beside me.
    She rises silently from the couch and follows me down the hallway into my bedroom. She slips under the covers, and there’s a bit of tossing and turning as we get comfortable and settle into our positions, but that night I sleep better than I have in a very long time.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
    JESSIE
    In an effort to jostle some more memories loose, we’ve been going through the contents of Daniel’s home. We’ve already made our way through the boxes in the spare bedroom, but they’re mostly filled with receipts, our old tax returns, and owner’s manuals for things Daniel and I don’t own anymore, like the big-screen TV from our old house and the snowblower he replaced last winter. We eliminate what we can, and Daniel organizes the rest in the filing cabinets in his office, which is something he said he’s been meaning to do since he moved in but never made time for. It’s tedious work, but he doesn’t seem to mind. Reviewing and cataloguing the information helps him feel more in control of his surroundings, and according to his therapist, tasks like these will help him improve