Epilogue

Keira

Three Months Later

I was so nervous standing on Pierce’s doorstep. It’s not like he’d invited me to Nashville or even knew I was coming. I just woke up that morning and decided I’d had enough.

It was still early, barely seven o’clock, and I knew he liked to sleep in late when he could. I rang the doorbell a second time, praying he answered, not his housekeeper. I’d feel terrible if I woke her up too.

Pierce was bleary-eyed but sexy as hell, shirtless with bedhead when he finally opened the door. “Baby, what’re you doin’ here?” he asked, pulling me against his bare chest as he kissed the top of my head. “Why didn’t you tell me you were comin’?” He spotted my car in the driveway. “You drove all the way here? At this hour. What the hell could be so important that you—”

“Pierce, we need to talk.” I could feel his heart rate accelerate to match mine. He wasn’t the only one who was nervous. I was too. This conversation could end us if it didn’t go as planned.

He stepped back, looking serious as he searched my face. “About what?”

“Us.”

He slammed the door, suddenly looking panicked and wide awake as he ran a hand through his disheveled hair. “If you’re here to break up with me, I’m gonna lose my shit.” He drew a deep breath when I didn’t respond right away. “No! Fuck no, Keira. You can’t do this. I know the long-distance thing hasn’t been easy on either one of us, but—”

“That’s what I want to talk about.” I stepped away, not trusting myself to get the words out while he was looking at me like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“Okay, so talk.”

I could tell he was on edge, but he wasn’t the only one. We’d been trying to do the long-distance thing for three months, and it was so fucking hard I didn’t think I could do it anymore. I missed him too much. And now he was taking my best friend on the road with him, as his opening act. Next week she’d be packing up and moving to Nashville, leaving me in Albany without two of the most important people in my life. That’s not what I wanted.

I was wringing my hands as I walked around his huge open living room. God, I loved this house. High sealed-wood ceilings, tons of windows and natural light, and a massive wraparound deck that backed on to a pool and hot tub surrounded by forest. What a place to live and work… and raise a family with the love of my life. If he’d have me.

“Goddammit! Would you just say something? I’m losin’ my mind here!”

“The long-distance thing isn’t workin’ for me. I tried,” I said, unable to stop the flow of tears. I was so scared this plan could blow up in my face, and I’d lose him for good this time. My insides were quivering as I tried to get the words out. “But I just can’t do it.”

“You can’t do it?” he demanded, his face a mask of fury. “So that’s it? You’re not even gonna try to work this out? You’re just gonna dump me and get on with your life?”

He couldn’t have been more wrong about my intentions. Moving on without him was the last thing I wanted to do. “I don’t want to lose you,” I whispered, brushing away the tears as I stepped closer, closing the distance between us. “I just want…” I sniffled, sacrificing my pride for the truth. “I want you to want me here.”

“What?” he asked, looking stunned.

“If you don’t think we’re ready to live together, maybe I could get a job in one of the bars on Lower Broadway. You know, until I finish school and can find work as a bookkeeper. I could get my own apartment and—”

“Like fuck you will.” He yanked me against his chest, wrapping his arms around me. “If you’re movin’ to Nashville, it’ll be to live with me.” His voice broke when he said, “Jesus, Keira. I thought I was gonna lose you. Don’t ever do that to me again.”

“I’m sorry.” I was laughing through my tears. “But I didn’t know how you’d feel about my plans. I didn’t want to be too presumptuous, invitin’ myself to move in here with you.”

“Babe, are you crazy?” He wrapped his hands around my face, brushing the tears away with his thumbs as he kissed my lips. “I bought this house for us. I couldn’t wait for the day when you’d share it with me. I wanted to ask a hundred times, but I was afraid it was too soon. I knew how you felt before, that you wanted to stay in Albany ‘til after we got married and—”

“Everything’s different now,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around his waist. “What we have, it feels so solid, Pierce. So right. I don’t want to wait to start our life together. I’m done waitin’.”

“Then you’ll marry me?”

I laughed. “You think my daddy would’ve let me come all the way out here to live with you unless I promised him we’d be gettin’ married soon?”

He lifted me off the ground. “Define soon. ‘Cause I’m thinkin’ day after tomorrow works for me.”

I loved that he couldn’t wait to marry me. I felt the same way. “I don’t need the big white wedding, babe. And with my sister gettin’ married this year too, that’d be a lot of stress on my parents. I don’t wanna do that to them.”

“How ‘bout a destination wedding? It would still be special, but wouldn’t require nearly as much plannin’?”

“I love it,” I said, kissing him. “It’s perfect.”

“The ring I gave you—”

“I still have it. It’s in my bag.” And I couldn’t wait to slip it back on my finger where it belonged.

“I feel like I should buy you a new ring, baby. To mark a new chapter in our lives.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head emphatically. “That’s the ring you gave me when you asked me to marry you, and that’s the one I want to wear.”

“Whatever you want.” He reached for the hem of my tank top, pulling it over my head as he backed me toward the sofa. “As long as I get to make you my wife, I don’t care.”

“We can’t do this here,” I hissed, slapping at his hands when he reached the buttons on my jean shorts. “Your housekeeper.”

“Didn’t I tell you I had a little guest cottage built out back for her?” He was kissing my neck while his hands worked the button and fly on my shorts. “And she doesn’t start ‘til nine. That gives us plenty of time.”

Oh, thank God. After the morning I’d had, imagining all the things that could go wrong with my plan, I needed more than anything for him to sink inside me and remind me that nothing could ever tear us apart again.

I tugged on his black drawstring pants as we fell back on the sofa. Clothes were flying and our hands were all over each other’s bodies while our lips were fused together, our tongues dueling amidst throaty moans.

I grabbed his ass, whispering in his ear, “Fuck me, Pierce. Please, I need you. Now.” When I opened my legs for him it left no question, I was more than ready to take him.

He thrust inside, pinning my legs back as he stood over me. He wasn’t gentle, but I didn’t need gentle. I needed him to pound into me, to obliterate all of my fears and anxiety and tears with every powerful thrust.

“I was dyin’,” he said, his voice raspy as he glared at me. “Thinkin’ about what it would do to me if I lost you again.”

I moaned, feeling the pinch of pain and pleasure that always sent me freefalling as my body protested his strength and size when he was on the raw and ragged edge, trying to deal with emotions that threatened to overwhelm him. Make-up sex had always been like that for us. After a big fight, we’d heal our wounds in the bedroom where we learned to breathe together, all over again.

“I’m never gonna lose you,” he said, as I screamed with the force of my release while he continued driving into me like he couldn’t help himself. “You’re mine from now on. My fiancée. Soon you’ll be my wife.”

I nodded, knowing he needed the reassurance. Our road had been a rocky one, paved with pain and heartache, but it made us stronger, and I wouldn’t have traded a single moment of it. Not even the year we’d been apart because it made us appreciate being together so much more.

“Ah, fuuuccccckkkkk!” He tipped his head back, groaning as he spilled into me.

His whole body shook before he finally sank to his knees and pulled me close, cradling my head in his hands. “No adrenaline rush quite like wakin’ up to the love of your life standin’ on your doorstep tellin’ you that y’all need to talk.”

“I’m sorry,” I muttered through a laugh, wiping his damp hair off his face. “I didn’t mean to scare you. But for the record, I was scared too. I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about me wantin’ to move here to be with you.”

“Keira,” he said, looking into my eyes. “Don’t you know that’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted?”

My heart felt so full I could barely breathe. “I do now.”

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