I would have to stay behind. Kiro would be so upset. In all honesty, so would I. I missed him whenever he was away, if only for a couple of hours to practice. We were rarely apart, and the idea of being separated hurt. I didn’t like it any more than he did. But as I grabbed the porcelain seat, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to fly today. I needed to see a doctor instead.

I felt his presence before he said anything. Reaching up, I flushed the toilet and grabbed a cloth to wipe my face. Then I turned to face him. He was watching me with worry and fear on his beautiful face. The last time I got sick, I’d had strep throat. One would have thought I was on my deathbed the way he hovered over me. He never left my side and held my hand even while he slept.

“I think I should go see a doctor and catch up with y’all later this week,” I said, trying to sound brave. If he thought for a minute that I was upset, he’d stay behind with me. They had sold out every show, starting tomorrow night in Boston. He had to go.

“I won’t leave without you,” he said matter-of-factly, then started wetting a cloth with cool water before bending down beside me and cleaning my face with it. “I can’t leave you if you’re sick. You know that. They know that.”

“Boston,” I said weakly, wanting to crawl back into bed and lie down. I was tired today.

“Fuck Boston. I’m not leaving you.”

He had to leave me. So I had to get better. “I’m sorry. I’ll be fine. Let me rest, and by this afternoon, I’ll be ready to go.”

He didn’t look convinced. “I’m calling a doctor to come here,” he said, standing up and then bending down to scoop me up.

“I’m not so sick I can’t walk,” I told him, amused.

“My angel throws up, she ain’t gonna walk,” he repeated, and took me to the bed.

I let him tuck me in. Then he pressed a kiss to my forehead. “I’m calling a doctor. You rest.”

I opened my mouth to argue with him, but he was out the bedroom door before I could. He’d cancel this tour if something was wrong with me. I needed to be OK, or the world was going to hate me. I would be the reason Slacker Demon canceled their tour. The record label would be furious. It would be a train wreck. I had to be OK.

Kiro

The doctor had sent me from the room, which made no fucking sense. He’d said he had to check something, and it would be easier if I waited outside. Emily’s soft pleading was the only reason I walked out, but I was about done with waiting.

That was my woman and my fucking room. I was going in there. Jerking the door open, I found Emily first and made sure she was OK. There was a nervous smile on her face as she sat up in our big bed, looking so damn small.

“What’s wrong with her?” I asked the doctor, taking long strides until I was beside her again. Touching her. Reminding myself she was safe. She was OK.

“Nothing’s wrong. Or at least, I hope not,” he said in a jolly tone.

I jerked my gaze away from Emily’s to look at the doctor. What the hell did that mean? “What?” I asked him, frustrated by his answer.

“Let me leave you two alone. Emily can give you the details,” he replied with a wink at her, then packed up his bag and left the room.

“What did that mean?” I asked her, moving in beside her and watching her face closely.

She took a deep breath, and I watched as her hand fluttered to her stomach and she placed it there like she was protecting something. My heart stopped, and I watched her small hand lying there. Lifting my gaze back up to hers, I waited.

“I’m pregnant,” she said softly, and then tears filled her eyes as a huge grin broke across her face. “We’re going to have a baby.”

My heart started beating again and slammed against my ribs as I let out a loud shout and pulled her into my arms. We hadn’t been trying. We hadn’t even talked about it since we visited Mase for the first time. But I’d daydreamed about it. I’d thought of ways to propose and imagined life as a husband and a dad. I just wanted to live this life with Emily and our baby.

Fuck the stupid tour.

I kissed her as I covered her hand with my own. “Mine. This is mine,” I repeated between kisses, and held her against me. “Marry me, Emmy. I want you to be my wife. I want you to have my name. I was waiting until the perfect moment, when I had the perfect ring, but I can’t think of anything more perfect than right here and right now.”

“Yes,” she said, kissing me back. “Yes, yes, yes,” she repeated.

I pressed her back on the bed and pulled her shirt up so I could caress her stomach. “I love you, Emily. I will always love you. This life and the one after and the one after that. I will always only love you.”

Her soft laughter filled the room. “We only get one life,” she said.

I shook my head. “I don’t believe that. I won’t accept it. I want a million lives with you. You’re my heaven.”

“God, Kiro, you say the sweetest things.” She slipped her hands into my hair.

“Can I get in your panties now?” I teased.

She lifted her hips in response, and I jerked them down her legs and kissed my way up the inside of her thigh. This was my home.

February 1994

Kiro

She was tiny and perfect. She looked just like her mother. Which was fucking insane to say, because until this moment, I thought all babies looked alike. But this one wasn’t a squished-up creature. She was beautiful. Even her lips looked like Emily’s.

“Here’s your daddy,” Emily whispered to the pink bundle in her arms. They had taken her away right after she was born to run some tests. They were worried about her heart, which had scared the shit out of me. Emily had held my hand and reassured me that our little girl would be OK. She prayed to God, so she was banking on the big man to save our baby. I wished I trusted him that much.

“Harlow Manning, meet the most wonderful daddy in the world. Lucky for you he happens to be yours,” Emily said, as she held out the little girl we had made together for me to take her.

Emily had given me a kid. Our kid. The diamond ring on her finger sparkled under the fluorescent lights of the hospital room. Six months ago, she had walked down the aisle of a church in South Carolina and pledged to love me forever. I had thought that was the happiest day of my life. But holding the little bundle of pink in my arms while her mother stared up at me with so much love couldn’t be topped, not even by our wedding day.

“She looks like you,” I said, as I studied the baby’s small face.

“I see you in her, too.”

I thought she was imagining things, but I didn’t care. I wanted my daughter to look like her mother. I’d have two angels on this earth now.

“I’ll keep her safe. I’ll keep you both safe. My girls will always be the most important people in my life. Nothing will ever come before you two. I swear it.”

Emily chuckled. “I believe you.”

“Thank you for this. For her. For giving me this life.”

Her hand reached out and touched my waist. “I love you, Kiro Manning. Thank you for showing me the man no one else gets to see.”

I cuddled my baby against my chest and sat down on the edge of the bed. I had everything in life now. I didn’t need any more. This was all I needed. All I would ever need. My life was complete. My world was perfect. And nothing would ever take these two angels away from me.