With his hand settling on my lower back, he ducked his chin in agreement.
We smiled at each other before heading out the door, followed by Yuki’s bodyguard and manager. Security was tight at the hotel as we made our way through the lobby, trailing behind Yuki who was whispering about something to her manager the whole time. This whole experience was just a little surreal, and I didn’t miss it at all.
Rhodes ducked in close, his voice basically a whisper. “Are you okay? You’re not too tired?”
I shook my head. “Not yet, but hopefully I won’t fall asleep because that would be real embarrassing.”
Mr. Overprotective shot me a side look.
We’d gone to my OB-GYN before planning our trip, but I knew he was still apprehensive about the whole thing even though we had driven. Because of my age, I was at high-risk, but luckily I was healthy in every other way, and it was still early on. I wasn’t planning on going anywhere for a while after this. My aunt and uncle were planning on visiting us next. They visited every year.
We stopped at a fancy car I was sure I’d been in before, and he gave my back a little rub. “Have fun.”
“I will. I want to do this just this one time and never again. I’ll probably have enough makeup left over on my face for the next decade anyway.”
His twisting mouth lit up my world like it always did. “You deserve it, angel.” He leaned in and lightly brushed his lips across mine. “Love you.”
And just like it had the first few times he’d said those words, my body reacted the same way: like his verbal declaration of love was some kind of addictive drug it needed to survive. The truth was, I didn’t think I’d know how to keep going without it anymore. For a man who hadn’t used the L-word very often in the past, he wasn’t stingy with it any longer. I heard it every morning and every night. I heard him say it to Azalia in quiet little whispers. He said it to Amos on the phone. My favorite lately was when he mouthed it against my stomach.
So it was second nature to pull him back down to me and tell him I loved him right back. Because a man who could spread so much of it out with not just his actions but with his words too, needed to hear it right back. And that was a job I would gladly take.
A loud whistle had us pulling away to find Yuki there, shaking her head. “You two, you make me sick with happiness.”
I snickered and went up to my toes, kissing him again. Rhodes smiled. “Text me when you’re on your way back.”
“I will.”
I smiled back at him and ducked into the car, clutching my purse as Yuki slid in after me, giving Rhodes a hug on the way. She smiled as she settled in, her manager squeezing in as well. “I love seeing you this happy, Ora.”
My exhale was choppy with the joy in my chest. “I like feeling this happy.”
The last few years had been the happiest of my life. It was Rhodes, Amos, and Azalia, of course, but it was also the whole town in general. My life in general. I’d settled in. It was home. I had family and friends. And I got to see them all the time when they came to visit the shop.
I still worked there.
I owned it now actually.
Mr. Nez had gotten even more ill about two years ago, and Clara had admitted that she needed money for his treatment—adding in a sharp look when I’d opened my mouth to offer to help financially, so I’d closed it immediately—but also admitting that her heart wasn’t in the store anymore and she was considering selling it. She wanted to go back to nursing. I loved working at the store, and I figured, why not?
So that’s what we did. I bought it. Jackie was commuting to school in Durango and helped me. I hired Amos when he was home. And I’d hired a couple more people who moved into town.
Buying it had been a terrific decision.
Just like having an addition built to our house had been.
Then again, just about every decision I’d made since that night in Moab when I had decided to drive to, and possibly settle in, Pagosa had been a great one.
*
“Your face when you won was priceless,” Yuki’s dad chuckled hours later.
His daughter laughed, pushing her chair back. “We were both half asleep when they announced the category, and I had no idea what was going on until I saw the screen with my name on it,” she admitted.
It was the truth.
We had gotten dropped off at the sports bar where the men in our lives had hung out during the awards ceremony. I had assumed she would want to go to one of the after-parties, especially after winning album of the year, but she had shrugged me off with a look of horror and said, “I’m starving, and I’d rather see my daddy.”