Sighing, Zander got to his feet and crossed the living room until he was standing in front of me. Cupping my face in his hands, he forced me to meet his gaze. Still hazel. A smile lifted at the corners of his lips. “I’m doing what I should have done seventeen years ago, Anna. I’m picking the one thing I want more than anything else in the world. The thing I love beyond all else.”
My heart stopped. Completely. I couldn’t get it to beat again as the smile turned into a grin and he lowered his head to brush a soft kiss over the tip of my nose. “I love you, Anna. I always have and I always will. I choose you. Nothing else matters. Not the band or the outside world. All I want is to be with you. To be the man you deserve, the man who will pick you over everything else that could possibly matter.”
“I…” I couldn’t think, couldn’t speak. Couldn’t. Fucking. Breathe.
“I know I’m not going to be able to prove that to you overnight, but I’m never going to stop trying. I love you, and our daughter. I want to be here with you and her. Fuck, woman, I want the life we should have had all along. Maybe you don’t want that yet, but I’ll go to my grave fighting for us this time.” A rough thumb skimmed up and down my neck, his smile dimming a little when I didn’t say a word.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to. It was that I couldn’t. The tears stinging my eyes started to fall and I gasped for a lungful of air as I shook my head at the man I had loved my entire life. “Okay,” I whispered, unable to get anything else out.
A choked laugh left him. “Okay?” I nodded and his fingers tightened at the base of my neck. “Well, thank fuck for that.” He brushed a tender kiss over my lips and lifted his head, smirking at the four men standing behind him. “See you fuckers around.”
I lifted my hands to cover his, somehow finding my voice. “But only if you stay with OtherWorld.”
Hazel eyes shot back to mine, not looking nearly as hazel all of a sudden. The gold started to fade, leaving nearly green orbs staring back at me. “What?”
“I’m willing to see where this goes, if you stay with the band. As your new manager, I can’t let you back out of your contract. Besides, when the band has to travel, don’t you want to go with me?” I grinned up at him, loving the shocked look on his face.
“You… But… Okay, explain, woman.”
I nodded at the other guys, Devlin in particular. “Natalie will have to go on maternity leave soon, and she isn’t going to want to come back to work right away. One of the stipulations of the contract I signed with Emmie making us equal partners is that I take over OtherWorld.” I’d known I’d been signing my heart’s death wish when I’d told Emmie I wanted to have the OtherWorld account the day before, but I was a glutton for punishment. Or so I’d thought. Now it didn’t seem that way.
Zander frowned down at me before closing his eyes and dropping his head. Muttering a curse, he opened his eyes again several moments later. “Only for you, Anna. You understand that right now. Only for you.”
I nodded, feeling happier in that moment than I had in a long time. “Okay.”
“So he’s not quitting?” Wroth growled.
“No,” I assured the beast of a man. “He’s not going anywhere.”
“I go where you go,” Zander muttered, making my heart skip another beat. “Don’t expect anything else.”
“So we’re okay?” Liam was looking between Zander and me, his blue eyes concerned. “Anna Banana?”
“I’m cool with you guys,” I assured him. I had no idea what Axton, Liam and Wroth had said about me. Honestly, I didn’t care. It was over. The past was done. I just wanted to concentrate on the present…and maybe the future.
“Z?”
Zander glared at Liam. “Ask me again in a few days. Until then, shouldn’t you be with your little Italian rocker?”
“Alexis is staying with her until I get back.” Liam stepped forward, offering his hand to us. When Zander didn’t look like he was going to shake it, I put mine in the rocker’s hand. He smiled with relief. “I’m glad you’re taking over for Nat. That works well since you’re Brie’s manager too.”
I grinned up at him. “Go home, Liam. Tell Gabriella I’ll call her.” I turned to the other men in my living room. “You should all go home. Your wives will be missing you. I’ve got this handled.”
Strong arms wrapped around my waist and Zander buried his face in my neck. “You’d fucking better believe it,” he growled, kissing my neck.
One by one the four rockers left my house. I stood at the front door watching as they climbed back into the big SUV that had some huge dude in a suit behind the wheel. I assumed it was one of Seller’s men. As I watched, Noah appeared and walked over to the SUV. The grin on my brother’s face told me he was glad to see his old friends.
I turned my attention back to the man who still had his arms locked around me. “What are we going to tell Mieke?”
Zander frowned in thought for a long moment. “I don’t know. I don’t want to upset her.”
“I doubt she’ll be upset if we’re dating. I think that was her goal all along when she went to California to see you.” I knew it was something that Mieke had always wanted —for her mother and father to be together. She’d mentioned it once and only once, but I’d never forgotten it and I knew she hadn’t either.
“Dating?” The gold in his eyes started to fade again. “Baby, I want to do more than date you. I’m going to marry you.”
Again my heart stopped and I couldn’t breathe as I stared up at Zander. Shaking his head, he grabbed my hand and tugged me away from the door, shutting and locking it behind him. Quietly, he pulled me up the stairs and into my room. Leading me over to my bed, he sat down on the edge of the mattress and pulled me onto his lap.
There wasn’t a single gold fleck in his green eyes when he looked at me this time. “One day, I’m going to ask you to marry me. Not today, probably not tomorrow. When you’re ready. When I’ve proven to you that you mean more to me than anything—anything, Anna. Only then will I ask you to be my wife.” He grimaced. “I wish I had Gram’s old ring.”
I felt the pink that filled my cheeks as I glanced toward the small jewelry box on my dresser. “You do,” I whispered. I’d stopped wearing the promise ring when Michelle had died, had even contemplated burying it with my little girl. In the end I hadn’t been able to completely let the little gold ring go.
Zander followed my gaze. “Then one day I’ll put it on your finger—the finger it belongs on. But only when I know you’re ready.”
“Z…”
“Shh,” he murmured, kissing my lips to keep anything I might have said locked away. “We still have a few hours before our daughter gets home, Anna. Let’s not waste them.”
Annabelle
If one more thing went wrong that day I was going to scream. Like, throw down everything in my arms, stomp my feet and scream. I could even imagine myself rolling on the floor in one of the tantrums Mieke had been known to give me on rare occasions when she was a toddler. Right then I felt like I had the emotional stability of a frigging toddler, so I felt like I was entitled to it.
From the time I’d woken up that morning I’d known it was going to be a shitty day. My alarm had gone off and when I’d turned over to snuggle into Zander for a few extra minutes, I’d realized he was gone and had been gone for a while since the bed was cool. Pouting, I’d gotten ready for the zillion and one things that needed my attention that day and went into the kitchen for some coffee and a slice of toast.
We were back in California for the holidays because both Emmie and I were busy as hell with all the new clients we were signing on, plus getting our staff trained and eleven million other things. It was nice staying in Zander’s penthouse apartment, but the three of us were used to the room of my house back in Tennessee. Mieke and her father had been grumbling the night before over dinner about it and Zander had even hinted at looking at houses while we were still in California. I didn’t know what to think. Why would we want to look at houses there when we spent most of our time back in Tennessee?