The next morning…
Rain tapped softly against the bedroom windows.
Jay was still asleep, curled beneath the blanket.
Keifer sat in the armchair beside the bed, reading through a stack of documents.
A soft groan made him look up.
Jay slowly opened her eyes.
She looked around sleepily.
“…Morning.”
“Morning.”
She stretched carefully.
“My stomach still hurts.”
He set the papers aside.
“Did you take the medicine?”
She made a tiny face.
“…Maybe.”
Keifer raised an eyebrow.
“Jay.”
“…No.”
He sighed.
“You never learn.”
He handed her the tablet and a glass of warm water.
This time…
She took it without arguing.
“There.”
“I’m proud of you.”
She smiled proudly.
“I deserve chocolate.”
“You negotiated after taking medicine?”
“I think that’s fair.”
A faint smile crossed his face.
“You really are impossible.”
A few hours later…
The cramps returned.
Jay sat on the sofa in the bedroom, hugging a pillow tightly.
Her eyes watered.
“It hurts…”
Keifer looked up immediately.
“Is it bad?”
She gave a small nod.
“Mmm…”
He walked over.
“What helps?”
She shrugged weakly.
“Sometimes…
just warmth.”
Without thinking…
He picked up the heating pad and placed it gently over the blanket on her lap.
“Better?”
“A little.”
But she still looked uncomfortable.
Her shoulders trembled slightly.
Keifer hesitated.
He wasn’t good at comforting people.
He had never learned how.
Then he quietly sat beside her.
“Come here.”
Jay blinked.
“What?”
“You said you needed warmth.”
She looked at him in surprise.
“You mean…”
He looked away awkwardly.
“I’m not repeating myself.”
A tiny smile appeared on her lips.
Very slowly…
She leaned toward him.
At first, she rested only her shoulder against his arm.
Keifer frowned.
“I said come here.”
Before she could react, he gently pulled her closer until she was resting against his chest.
She became completely still.
His arms wrapped around her—not tightly, not possessively, just enough to keep her warm.
The room was silent except for the rain outside.
Jay whispered,
“…You’re hugging me.”
“Hm.”
“I thought you hated hugs.”
“I do.”
She tilted her head to look at him.
“Then why?”
He answered after a long pause.
“Because you’re in pain.”
She smiled softly.
“…You’re getting soft, Devil.”
“I’m doing this so you’ll stop making that face.”
“What face?”
“The one that makes it look like you’re about to cry.”
Jay laughed quietly.
“It still hurts.”
“I know.”
He gently rubbed slow circles across her upper back.
His voice was unusually calm.
“Just stay here.”
She relaxed completely against him.
The warmth of his embrace eased some of the tension she had been holding.
After a few minutes, her breathing became slow and steady.
She had fallen asleep.
Keifer looked down.
A few strands of her hair had fallen across her face.
He carefully brushed them aside.
She instinctively snuggled a little closer in her sleep.
He froze.
Then…
instead of moving away…
He adjusted the blanket over both of them.
When Felix quietly opened the bedroom door to deliver a file, he stopped in his tracks.
There sat the ruthless Mark Keifer Watson…
Holding his sleeping wife as though disturbing her rest was the last thing he would ever allow.
Felix silently backed out, closed the door without making a sound, and smiled.
“No meetings,” he muttered to the staff.
“The Devil is busy being a husband today.”