“Then why are you hiring another housekeeper?” I wailed.

“Because you are going to have your own house to worry about!” she shouted at me. “You can’t take care of your house and mine too.”

“What house?” They kept talking about a house, and I was so confused I didn’t know what to think. This whole thing was giving me a huge headache.

Jesse

I was still in the shower when I heard my door open. The glass door opened and Drake stood there, breathing hard. “Dude!”

“Layla’s packing! She’s going to leave,” he burst out.

“What?!” I still had soap all over me but to hell with that. I pushed past my friend and grabbed a towel. I moved so fast that I nearly fell on my ass. Wet feet were slick on tile! Righting myself, I wrapped the towel around my waist and ran through the house still dripping wet.

My heart was full of dread. Why would Layla be leaving? What the hell had I missed?

The contrast of the cool evening air on my wet body was a shock to the system, but I didn’t slow down as I raced over the patio and across the little yard to the guesthouse. The door was standing wide open. The first thing I saw was Layla’s big suitcase by the door, and my heart actually stopped for a moment.

“What house?” I heard Layla ask.

“The house that I asked Emmie to buy for us,” I told her. I crossed the room and grabbed hold of her hands. They were trembling, or maybe it was mine that were trembling. “Layla, what are you doing? Why are you packing?”

Tears made her chocolate eyes glittery. “Because you don’t want me anymore.” She whispered, but there was doubt in her voice. “At least I thought you didn’t. I-I-I heard you and Emmie talking earlier. You said you had to go.”

“Of course I have to go. We all do. I want to sleep with you in my arms ever night. We can’t do that here, not without confusing Lucy.” I cupped her face in both my hands, wiping a few errant tears away as they slipped from her eyes. “I wanted to surprise you. Give you the house and the ring at the same time.”

“Ring?” She breathed. Her eyes were huge in her beautiful face.

“This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen.” I muttered, reaching for the towel around my waist as it started to slip. Lana was standing by the door and I didn’t want the girl that was going to hopefully be my sister-in-law to know what I looked like naked. I glanced at her and then Emmie. “Mind giving us a minute here?”

“You and I are going to have a serious talk later, Layla!” Emmie muttered as she left. “My best friend and she thinks that I want to get rid of her…”

I sighed and waited for the door to close behind them both before I gave Layla my full attention. “Now tell me what I missed. Why would you jump to such a conclusion?”

“You’ve been acting so off lately. Your mind is always wandering. I thought you were getting bored with me. And today when I heard you and Emmie talking I just lost it. It broke something inside of me.” More tears poured from her eyes. “I love you, Jesse. If I lost you it would kill me.”

“Oh baby!” I rocked her against me. “It’s the same for me. It’s been like that from almost the second I heard your laugh that first day we met. I love you. I need you.” Her arms wrapped around my waist, and I couldn’t help the way my body responded. I was addicted to her touch, but I had things to tell her before I let my other head take over.

“Have I ruined it?” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to ruin it.”

“No, Layla. You haven’t ruined anything. This might not be how I had planned to tell you, but you haven’t messed anything up.” I brushed a kiss over her eyes, tasting the salt of her tears on my tongue. “I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you after that first weekend. Emmie started making all the arrangements for me. For us, sweetheart. Neither one of us was happy about my moving out, but I can’t start our lives together sharing a house with her and the guys. So she found us a house just two houses over.”

“What?” she exclaimed. “The yellow one that just went on the market?”

I grinned. “Yeah, that’s it. Do you like it?”

“It’s beautiful from what I’ve seen of it. But…”

“No buts.” I hushed her with a quick kiss. “It’s ours. Four bedrooms, so the girls each get their own room…and there is room enough for an addition to the family if we can fit that in later on.” I hadn’t really thought about having kids of my own, but after holding Mia for the first time it had become a kind of ache in my chest. I wanted my own baby. Layla’s baby.

“That…That sounds really wonderful.” She smiled up at me.

I felt a dopey grin split my face. “Yes it does.”

“I’m really sorry.”

“I guess you won’t eavesdrop anymore, huh?” I brushed another quick kiss over her lips.

“Nope, never again.”

“Good.” I pushed her back against the wall. “Will you marry me, Layla?” I murmured, kissing a path from her ear down her neck. “Will you spend the rest of your life letting me spoil you? Letting me make you happy?”

“I can’t imagine being more happy than I am right now.” She shivered as I sucked on the sensitive spot where her neck and shoulder met. “But I’m willing to spend the rest of my life letting you try.”

Epilogue

I had thought the end of that stupid tour would never get here!

I was rushing through the house making sure that everything was in order. Determined that the house was going to be just right for when Jesse got home. I hadn’t seen him in two weeks—two incredibly long, agonizing weeks! It might not be a long time for some couples, but for me it was an eternity.

From the day we were married—which had taken place in at a little chapel in Vegas the day after Jesse had proposed—we hadn’t spent a night apart in the more than two years that we have been married, not until this stupid, completely retarded tour came up. Sometimes, I hated that my husband was the big bad ass rock star that everyone was dying to see live!

Lucy came into the house, tossing her backpack on the sofa. “Is he home?” she asked excitedly. “Did I miss it?” Now eight years old, Lucy had changed quite a bit over the last two years. Her hair was kept short with little ringlets framing her beautiful face, and she had shot up a good six inches in the last year alone. Since I had married Jesse, she had blossomed even more into a young woman that I was incredibly proud of.