“My daughter knows me very well.”

“It’ll be here in about twenty minutes.”

“Mmm, perfect. Best New Year’s Eve ever.”

“Is it? You wouldn’t rather be dressed up and out dancing somewhere?”

“There’s nowhere I’d rather be than right here with you.”

“Me, too, honey.”

After getting up to eat the dinner he’d ordered, they spent the rest of the night in her bed, where they watched the revelry in Time’s Square on television. As the clock ticked toward midnight, Gray rolled her under him and was deep inside her as one year rolled into the next.

“I want to begin every year for the rest of my life just like this,” she said.

“Yes,” he whispered. “Let’s do it.”

Emma ran her hands over his back and down to grip his muscular ass as he pumped into her.

They were awake all night. At three o’clock, he introduced her to the finer delights of shower sex, and at five thirty, he took her from behind. This was utter insanity, she thought, as the sun began to peek through the blinds. Curled up to him, she hoped her dad would take Simone to brunch the way he often did when she spent Saturday nights with him.

That was the last thought she had before a ringing phone in the other room woke her hours later.

“That’s me,” Grayson said, disentangling from her to answer it.

Facedown in bed, Emma was on her way back to sleep when she tuned in to the tense tone of his voice.

“Are you sure?” After a long pause, he said, “Well, yes, I guess I can do that. Wednesday at ten. I’ll be there.”

Emma waited for him to come back to bed, but when he didn’t, she got up to check on him. She put on a robe and tied it around her waist. “Gray? Is everything okay?”

When he looked up at her, she could see that he was upset.

She sat next to him on the sofa. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“I’m a match for my dad. An almost perfect match, the doctor said.”

She took his hand and held it between both of hers. “They called you on a holiday to tell you that?”

Nodding, he said, “Apparently, his situation is somewhat precarious. They want to do it right away, and they need to harvest the actual marrow, which is a surgical procedure.”

“What does that entail? How long does it take to recover?”

“They’re going to talk to me about the details on Wednesday. This means I have to go back to Vermont Tuesday night.”

“Of course. You have to do this.”

“I want to be here with you.”