Suddenly, after months, Nick could breathe.

She was in pants. A blouse.

They didn’t match.

Suddenly, after months, Nick almost smiled.

And she had on spike heels.

That didn’t stop her.

He finally pushed away from the truck when he saw her begin running.

He started toward her swiftly but had to stop as she picked up speed.

He braced for impact, which was good since, when she hit him, she nearly knocked him off his feet.

Her hands were wrapped around the back of his skull, her head tipped back, her hair streaming down the arms he’d curled around her, he got one look into her shining green eyes. A look that obliterated the cold dead he’d last seen in them, which was a look that had tortured him for months. A look that was so gone, he got half a second to wonder if he’d actually seen it before she was up on her toes and her mouth was pressed to his.

He had words he wanted to say.

He’d take the kiss.

So he took it.

The sob that tore from her forced its way down his throat as she ripped her lips from his and buried her face in his neck.

He liked that, that emotion from his Livvie, fucking loved it.

But he wasn’t going to give her time. Maybe later.

Now he had to know.

He dipped his head and put his lips to her ear.

“Do you believe, Livvie?”

She nodded immediately, her face moving in his neck, her body trembling in his arms, her fingers digging into his scalp.

“Say it.”

He felt her swallow. He knew by the feel it was painful.

But she did it.

Her head dropped back and her shining eyes came again to his.

“I believe, Nicky.”

Nicky.

Yeah, finally, he could breathe.

Before, she’d kissed him.

Right then, he kissed her.

When he broke it off, it was Nick who tucked her face back in his neck.

Her sobs were gone. Now her tears were quiet and through them she held on.

He lifted his gaze to his brother standing at the bottom of the steps to the plane.

Knight had his arms crossed on his chest, but even if he wasn’t close, Nick could see his brother’s smile.

Nick held tight to his girl and smiled back.

* * * * *

Anya

Five Hours Later

I opened the door to our condo, peeved.

Knight had gotten home twenty minutes ago, or so his text told me.

His text.

The man was exasperating.

He’d not said how things went with Nick. He just said he “had the girls” and he’d “see you at home, babe.”

That’s it.

Of course, I left the salon immediately after my return text of, “How did it go?” went unanswered, as did my three calls.

I threw my keys and clutch on the table by the door and my heels declared how pissed off I was as they struck the floors on the way down the hall.

When I made it to the end, at a glance, I could see that Kasha was totally bossing whatever was happening in our sunken living room. In this glance, I also saw my man on his ass on the rug by the coffee table, Kat on hers next to and slouched into him. Kasha was on her feet, bossing (of course) but also leaning her front into the other side of her dad, the side that Kat wasn’t occupying.

Of course, the vision of this made me no longer pissed off which in turn immediately pissed me off again because just seeing my man with our girls made me melt and that was tremendously annoying.

I stopped at the top of the steps, looking down, my eyes pinned to Knight.

“Well?” I asked.

His mouth twitched like he was amused.

Oh yeah.

The man was exasperating.

“Babe, been gone hours. It didn’t go good, I would not have been gone hours,” he stated as a belated explanation.

“What went good?” Kasha demanded to know.

“Nothing, baby,” Knight muttered to his baby girl.

“Can we speak in our bedroom?” I asked, starting to move that way.

“You gonna give me shit, I go with you to our bedroom?” Knight asked, making me stop dead and whirl his way again.

“Do not say shit in front of the girls!” I snapped.

“You said shit too, Momma,” Kasha pointed out. “Just now.”

Knight burst out laughing.

I looked to the ceiling, making a frustrated noise.

“No need to go to the bedroom.”

At his words, I rolled my eyes back to my man.

“You remember what I said to you in that kitchen the first time you were in this space?” he asked, tilting his head toward our kitchen.

My heart skipped as I pressed my lips tight.

I remembered. I remembered every word.

He’d held my face in his hands and said, Wars fought over a face like this. A man would work himself into the ground for it, go down to his knees to beg to keep it, endure torture to protect it, take a bullet for it, poison his brother to possess a face like this.

“My brother found that face,” Knight finished.

Nick hadn’t found that face.

He’d found that woman.

Suffice it to say, I was getting it that all went really well with Nick and his girl.

“Good,” I whispered and watched Knight’s face grow soft.

“What face?” Kasha demanded to know.

“Later, baby,” Knight muttered.

“Is Uncle Nick okay, Daddy?” Kat asked quietly.

“Yeah, beautiful girl, he absolutely is,” Knight answered.

Kat smiled at her father.