Page 75 of Nashville Lights

And then Roxie steps out.

For a second I forget everything else. The squeals of all the women in the office. The scowl on Ainsley Beal’s face. The small box in my pocket, a purchase I made before this meeting. The fact that I’m probably going to be moving to fucking Ohio.

Nothing will fit in my brain except the flood of awe I’m being swept away by, because she’s so damn beautiful it physically hurts.

She’s wearing the flower-patterned dress she put on this morning, and her cowgirl boots. Her dark hair cascades in waves over her shoulders, all the way down to her waist, those little ringlets at the ends curling playfully. Her eyes are blue even from a distance, her lips full and pink and so luscious my cock starts to thicken despite the hell I’m currently in the middle of.Fuck.

I’m so fucking in love with her I feel like it might kill me, right here and right now, as though my heart is getting ready to burst into flames at the sight of her.

A slew of bodyguards surround the Tuckers as they make their way to the door.

They open it.

There are maybe five or six women in the office and every single one of them is squealing and/or crying. One of them, easily the oldest, who might be in her mid-forties, hugs the blond girl who’s still holding Vaughn’s hand. “You brought him! You broughtallof them!Eeee!”

One of the girls literally swoons and someone helps her into a chair.

The blond with Vaughn smiles at him, lightly running her hand over his tattooed arm, as though showing him off. “Jenny, this is Vaughn. Vaughn, Jenny wassohelpful when I was doing my placement here. She’s become a good friend.”

“Well, any good friend of my angel’s is a good friend of mine. The pleasure’s mine, Jenny.” Vaughn kisses the back of Jenny’s hand and she has to hold onto the side of her desk with the other hand as she swoons like a teenager.

“I amsucha huge fan,” she gushes. “VaughnTucker. AndTravis.Kade, oh my god. Would you mind terribly if I got an autograph?”

Roxie comes over to me. All I really want to do is kiss her. “Nate, I tried to call. They thought it might help if they came and explained things themselves. I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right, darlin’.” My voice sounds graveled and defeated.

I’m going to lose them both.

I’m going to end up living in Ohio because what if she wakes up from her nightmares and she needs me? Roxie won’t want to move to suburban Cincinnati. She might fly in occasionally between tours and we can pretend that along-distance relationship is working for a while, until she gets bored with it and decides it isn’t.

My soul feels jaded and battered. I have this weird feeling of not caring about anything anymore, because the only two things Idocare about are slipping through my fingers no matter how hard I try to hold on.

Even so, I don’t have it in me not to fight for them with everything I’ve got. Ididn’tfight for her when I was nineteen and the regret still sits like a big black hole in the middle of my life, inking everything.

Fuck it. I was going to wait until tonight but she’s too fucking beautiful to wait for anything. I never seem to get the timing right anyway so now seems like as good a time as any.

I take the small velvet box out of my pocket and get down on one knee. “This is possibly the least romantic place to do this, but there’s something I really need to ask you, Tuck. I’ve waited so long and I’ve missed you so much that the place doesn’t matter. Wherever you are is the right place. You said yes once but I didn’t have a ring, so I stopped off on the way here and got you the biggest one they had.”

Roxie puts her hands over her mouth in shock. It’s notallshock though. She’s smiling and crying at the same time.

The rest of the office goes quiet. I think. I don’t care about them. I only care about her.

“Roxanne Savannah Tucker, I’ve always loved you and I always will. You’re the only one I’ve ever wanted. You’re theone. You’ve always been the one. Please marry me, Tuck. I love you so much.”

Roxie’s tears spill over, wetting her cheeks. She leans down to hug me. “Yes.” I slide the ring onto her finger and pick her up, holding her in my arms, kissing her.Kissingher. Like we’re the only two people in the world.

Cheers erupt. Gasps. Whistles. More of that gleeful squealing.

When we finally come up for air, I glance over at our audience. I set Roxie down but I keep my arm wrapped around her.

Kade walks over to us. He offers his hand and I take it. He pulls me into a man-hug, murmuring, “You know I’ll fucking kill you if there’s ever a need.”

“Not if I kill you first, brother.”

It’s an inside joke that goes way, way back.

To the room, Vaughn says, “Excuse me, everyone. Since we obviously have some celebrating to do, we’d like to invite you all back to our warehouse where we can continue this meeting and raise a toast to our darlin’ sister Roxie and our now-brother in the true sense of the word—even though he’s always been that. And just to clarify,”—to Ainsley Beal—“I’llbe drinking water out of my champagne glass since I don’t partake in any alcohol or drugs of any variety whatsoever. I’d also like to chip in my two cents that Nate Boone over here is the best father to that little Daisy of any father I’ve ever seen. Hell, I’d ask him to adoptme—if I didn’t already have my savior and true love Gi looking after me.And I have no doubt our boy Nate is going to make a damn good husband. I mean,lookat him, what’s not to love? The three of them are going to live happily ever after like they all fu—for sure deserve to. So how about it, Jenny? Ainsley? Girls? How do you feel about a ride in the limo, a toast, and an exclusive first performance of our brand new song? I think we could also throw in some VIP passes and front row tickets to our next show. And maybe even a 5-star hotel for the night. You in?”

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