I would be there. Until then, I left it alone.
Vince pulled us up in front of a house sitting on a large property. It was surrounded by trees. The house was just outside the city. It was close enough that it wouldn’t take long to get back into town but far enough that the road wasn’t overrun with traffic.
“Whose house is this?” I asked, looking back at Vince.
He winked, killing the engine and leaving the car.
I opened the passenger door as he came around to my side of the vehicle and held out his hand. I slipped my fingers between his, letting him help me out of the car. “Vince.”
“So impatient.” He chuckled, placing a soft peck on my forehead before going to the back of the car and pulling the car seat out of it. Hannah was sound asleep. She looked so peaceful. Not like she had almost lost her life. “Come.” Vince kicked the door closed and came up to me, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and leading me up the sidewalk to the front porch.
“I’m not impatient you know. I just have no idea what we’re doing here.”
“I’ll tell you in a moment.” He went up the steps and unlocked the front door. “Ready?” He pushed it open and stepped to the side. “After you, Gigi.”
I had no idea what was going on but went into the house anyway. My eyes widened at what laid before me. To the right was a large living room. To the left, a set of stairs went up to a second floor. Straight ahead of me, was a hall that I could only assume led into the kitchen. “Vince, who lives here?”
“We do, baby.”
I spun around. “What?”
Vince placed the car seat on the floor, lowering to one knee. He pulled a small box out of his pocket and opened it, revealing a diamond ring.
I gasped, covering my mouth. “Vince.”
“From the first moment I remember meeting you, I’ve been in love with you. I made it my mission to crack down your walls and show you that even though you no longer had the career you wanted in dancing, that you could still be happy.”
I lowered to my knees, covering his hands with mine.
He leaned forward, pressing his forehead to mine. “I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Gigi. Will you marry me?”
“Yes.” I threw my arms around his neck and crushed my mouth to his, knocking him back onto his ass.
He chuckled, hooking an arm around my middle. “You’ve made me the happiest man in existence.” He slipped the ring onto my finger. It had a gold band with a single solitaire diamond. It was perfect. “You hear that, baby girl?” he asked Hannah. “Your mama is going to finally make an honest man out of me.”
I laughed, kissing him fully on the mouth. “I love you.” I kissed him again. “I love you so damn much,” I said between pecks.
“And I love you.” His hands cupped my ass, pulling me flush against him. “Let me give my girls a tour and then later…” His thumb brushed along my bottom lip.
A sly grin spread on my face. “You want to christen the house?” I asked, waggling my eyebrows.
“I want to give you a special tour. Later.”
“I like that idea.” I sealed it with a kiss, a silent promise that I refused to break.
Later that evening, we were lying in bed. Holding, touching, just being together in a way that we almost lost.
Because of Tenise and Mason, everything could have turned out much worse. Vince never told me what happened with Mason, but I knew he had confronted him. How could he not? All he told me was that Mason ended up in jail with a few bumps and bruises and maybe a broken bone or two.
I shivered at the thought of Vince losing his temper like that.
It had been a few hours since Vince proposed. He promised over and over again how he would take care of me. Take care of us. He truly showed me that he was determined to break down my walls.
An impromptu one-night stand so many years ago started our obsession.
And now we were together.
As a couple.
As a family.
Finally, after all of this time, we were one.
Vince
I slipped my fingers between Gigi’s, glancing at our wedding rings. All this time after so many years of doing what I could to make her mine, she was finally, in fact, officially mine. In every