Her kissed her hand again before laying next to her, having at least the courtesy to kick off his boots. She was putting a lot of trust in him to say yes even after what he had told her, and his primary job now would be to keep that trust. He would need to prove he could be good. He had made his promises to her, and now he aimed to keep them. For right now though he was just happy she had not told him to leave, a lot of others would have, or ran straight to the nearest law or both. She was giving him a chance however, and he knew that full well as he softly stroked her stomach.

She found it odd that he was stroking her stomach, still not even considering the thought of being pregnant yet. Her eyes drifted closed because it was causing her to feel more relaxed. Cerise had a lot to think about. She knew that marrying him was the right thing to do based off of how they lived together. People were beginning to ask questions except for those who worked at the tavern and sort of adopted her into their fold without a word of unkindness. And there was Sam, a self proclaimed murderer, and she could be looked at as foolish, but... he seemed earnest to do what he needed to in order to right as many things as he could. She fell asleep, finally moving to be the little spoon against him. He could cradle her better that way.

Sam cradled her gladly, but he did not sleep for a while yet himself. he had things to figure out after all. It felt so odd not to have the colt on his hip, or easily accessible, but it was a feeling he would have to cope with as well as the least of what he had to do. It took a long while but after an hour or two his eyes finally closed, still cradling Cerise close to him, his hand over her stomach, almost in a protective way, fingers spread to cover as much as possible.