Don't call me baby when you're pissed, Sweet Pea."
"Don't call me Sweet Pea at all, baby

You're bossy, arrogant, intrusive, annoying... "
His minor grin amplified.
See! Totally unrepentant...
"Do I have anything going for me?"
"... you can be sweet, you're a cuddler, and you carried me out of a burning building..."
"I'm a cuddler?"
"You spoon."
His brows went up. "That's important enough to be on your list?"
"Uh... yeah."
[He's grinning] "Fuckin' ridiculous what women think is important.

Our relationship wasn’t easy. It wasn’t mellow. It wasn’t comfortable and sedate. He was too bossy and I was too much of a smartass. We bantered and sometimes we fought. But I’d learned I was completely unable to endure Hawk being mad at me and then I’d noticed that Hawk felt the same. No grudges were ever held. We created sparks but those sparks never caught the kind of fire that could do damage. Instead, we got over it and moved on.

He started to pull away again but she called his name so he stopped.
“Yeah?”
“Before you go, give me the dimples,” she demanded.
That thing in his throat prickled and Hawk dipped his head and kissed the indentation at the base of his wife’s throat. Then he lifted his head and smiled at her.
Her hand came to his face and he felt the pad of her thumb in one of his dimples.
Then her eyes moved from her thumb to his and she smiled back.
 

Go to him, Sweet Pea.

You're cute in the morning," he told me.

"I am?" I asked.

"Cute and sweet."

"Mm," I mumbled, glad he thought that but I'd always been a morning person. I was a night person too. I was an anytime person when I wasn't stressy and in a bad mood.

One of his hands left my back and I watched his eyes get heated and intense as they studied my face.

Then he did something beautiful, something amazing, something that, if I'd had any doubts as to my certainty, they would have disintegrated.

He tenderly slid the backs of his knuckles against the skin of my cheek while he muttered, "A year and a half. Totally fuckin' missed out.