“Say it again, Annie.”
“I don’t want you to get ahead of yourself, Nick.”
“No, before that.”
“Slow down. We’ve only been together a few weeks.”
He laughed. “Oh, now you’re going to be a comedian? After that.”
She gulped and replayed their conversation in her mind. “What?”
“Just say it, Annie.”
She groaned. “Nick....”
Nick’s hands landed on either side of her head so that she couldn’t look away from him and he leaned into her until he was so close that she could feel his breath on her cheek, his eyes searching hers desperately. “That song you sang for me the other night-- the one you co-wrote. Did you mean it? About letting go of the life you’d planned for yourself and all of that?”
“I did.”
“So let go, Annie.” He tousled her curls with his fingers and gulped. “Do you love me?”
"I--" Her breath hitched in her throat as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other nervously. "Yeah. I do."
"Say it, Annie," he coaxed.
She felt goosebumps that started at her toes and ran up to the top of her head. She hadn't said those words--other than to Drew or her family, or Andrew in her own private sanctuary, in five and a half years. She wasn't sure she even still knew how, but right there in that moment on top of Nick's roof in the middle of Franklin, Tennessee, with the cold January afternoon air whipping her hair and the winter sunlight warming her face, it felt right. "I love you, Nick," she breathed. "I don't know if--"
"Shh-" His index finger fell on her lips to quiet her. This was a move he seemed to have mastered with her, and truth be told, she kind of liked it. She stifled a grin beneath the pad of his finger and fought the urge to pucker up and kiss it. "I love you, too.” He grinned and literally started laughing out loud. “We’re in love!” he whooped as he lunged forward and wrapped his arms around her waist, then picked her up and planted a kiss on her lips. "Technically, you said it first, you know," he jested with a smirk as he set her back down.
"What are you talking about?" Annie laughed. "You totally said it first!"
"Nuh-uh!" Nick rebutted, waving his finger at her. "I said I was falling in love with you. You were the one who said the words ‘I love you’." Annie laughed and gave him a playful little shove, accompanied by an eye roll. "I've fallen hard and fast, though," he said, his eyes suddenly serious and smoldering as he leaned in to close the gap between their lips again.
“Mama! Nick!” Nick sighed, but grinned against Annie’s lips as Drew’s shouts pierced the air through the open bedroom window. He was secretly a little relieved that Drew hadn’t chosen that moment to call him “Daddy” again. Annie had come a long way in the past half hour or so, and while he’d just told told her that he wanted to be Drew’s daddy one day (a move he wasn’t so sure he should have made quite yet), he feared that Drew’s actually calling him that might just send her back over the edge. He helped her climb back inside the window and followed her down the hallway to Drew’s room. The little boy, ecstatic to see his mommy, started jumping up on the crib mattress happily and gave them a toothy grin as they entered the dark room.
“Hey kiddo,” Nick said casually, giving him a little pat on the back as Annie scooped him up into her arms and planted a kiss on the top of his little blonde head. “So, what now?” he asked her as they headed downstairs after the compulsory post-nap diaper change.
Annie paused on the stairs and looked up at him with a comfortable smile. “We’ll go downstairs and play with Drew for a little while, then you can entertain him while I get dinner started. Is lasagna okay?”
He wrapped his arm around her waist and gave her a little squeeze. “Sounds great.” It wasn’t the answer he was looking for at all, but in that moment, he understood what it meant. They would go on with their lives-- together.
_________________________________________________
Annie awoke early the next morning with her heart beating wildly in her chest and sweat dripping down her back. After an evening of making dinner, relaxing with Nick, and playing with Drew, she’d kissed her boyfriend goodnight and gone to her own bed the night before, where she dreamed about Andrew.....again. She jumped out of bed and raced to the dresser drawer where she kept her wedding rings, pulled it open, and grabbed the velvet ring box. She studied them for a few moments, then took a deep breath and tucked them away again. She tip-toed down the hallway to Nick’s room. The door was open just a crack, so she pushed it open and stood in the doorway. He moaned in his sleep, then rolled over and hugged his pillow, burrowing his face into it and went back to taking slow, rhythmic breaths. She couldn’t bear to wake him up, as she assumed he most likely hadn’t slept well in a while, and she hated to leave him like this, but she knew what she had to do.
Nick awoke a couple hours later feeling more well-rested than he had in weeks. He sauntered down the hall and poked his head into Annie’s room, glad to see that she was already up and had even made her bed-- a stark contrast from the past few mornings. Then, he peeked into Drew’s room, and his crib was empty, save for a teddy bear and a blankie. He noticed that the house seemed strangely quiet as he trotted down the stairs, but breathed in the sweet aroma of freshly brewed coffee and cinnamon rolls. Perhaps, Drew just had his mouth full, and that was why he couldn’t hear his usual happy morning chatter. As he neared the landing at the bottom of the stairs, he smiled at the pile of toys on the rug in the middle of the den floor-- evidence that Drew had been playing in there that morning, since he and Annie had cleaned up turning in the night before. However, when he rounded the corner and entered the kitchen, he found it empty. “Annie?” he called out. There was no answer, but he noticed a red envelope propped up on a canister beside the steaming pot of coffee. Inside, he found a sheet of blank music paper, with her neat, almost calligraphic handwriting scrawled across the staff. He let out a little chuckle before he actually started reading. He thought it was rule that all doctors had to have horrific handwriting. Annie’s looked like it more like it might belong to a Disney princess. “Happy Birthday, Nick,” it read. “Don’t freak out.”
He’d totally forgotten about his birthday, and he assumed that maybe up until that morning, Annie had too. Maybe she and Drew had gone to the store. There was a basket on the other side of the coffee pot, and inside it, he found a pile of unfrosted cinnamon rolls wrapped tightly in paper towels to keep them warm. He licked his lips when he saw the bowl of gooey white frosting nearby, and lunged for the silverware drawer to retrieve a butter knife to spread it on with. After frosting three cinnamon rolls and arranging them on a plate, he poured himself a cup of coffee and headed into the den. He plopped down on the couch and put his feet up, then turned on the tv to watch Sportscenter while he waited for Annie and Drew to get home. When Sportscenter was over and there was nothing left on his plate but crumbs and cinnamon-speckled grease, Annie and Drew still hadn’t made it back yet, so headed upstairs to take a shower. After his shower, they still weren’t back, so he called his manager, arranged rehearsal for the next day, and confirmed a television appearance to promote the start of his tour in a couple of days. Still, Annie and Drew weren’t home. One hour turned into two, and two hours turned into three as countless calls and texts to her cell phone went unanswered. He was freaking out.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Once upon a time, about twenty chapters ago, I said that there were oh, about ten chapters left in this story. It didn't quite happen that way, but now I can safely say that there are only two chapters left...and maybe an epilogue.
