“Your what?” she asked, needing to be sure she understood exactly what he wanted from her.
“My partner. The love of my life. The missing piece in our family.” Annie rushed the stage at that, her feet slapping against the floor until she flung her arms around Derek’s waist, her eyes trained on Jo expectantly. Derek skated his free hand over Annie’s hair, pulling her close. “I’m sorry I ever made you question what you mean to me. If you want to work for Midnight Storm, you can report to Kat. I don’t want to be your boss, and I don’t want to keep the way I feel about you a secret.”
“Whatdoyou want?” she breathed.
“You. Just you.”
Jo got to her feet, her legs shaky but her heart so full she thought it might burst. “I love you too.”
“You do?”
“I do.”
“I wished for this! Wishes do come true!” Annie shouted, jumping up and down, unaware of the smattering of laughter from the crowd.
“Can I tell you a secret?” Jo asked as Derek wrapped an arm around her waist and tugged her close.
Derek arched an eyebrow. “Only if you don’t mind several hundred of our closest friends knowing.” The audience whooped and hollered, and Derek pressed his lips together to keep from laughing.
She smoothed her thumb over the creases at the corners of his eyes. “I wished for this too.”
As his lips captured hers, she was vaguely aware of the cheering crowd—her friends loudest of all—of Annie’s fist pumping and celebrating, the band and Kat grinning and egging them on, but none of it was as important as this moment, this man, this love. The future stretching out before them, the life they’d build. Together.
“I love you, little menace,” he said between kisses.
“I love you, daddy fox.”
Epilogue
Three months later
“Ipromise I will read your palm the next time I see you. Your dad and I will be there the day after tomorrow,” Jo said, Annie’s smiling face filling the screen of her phone.
“I’ve been counting down on my calendar. See!” Annie gleefully pointed to the paper taped to the wall above her bed, the boxes neatly crossed off in a rainbow of colors. She’d lost her front teeth since Jo had last seen her and the little girl spoke with a slight whistle on her s’s. “I have so many ideas for what we can do. We can paint our nails and there’s a new ice cream place down the street—oh! And Lainey McKenna said the playground by her house is haunted. Wehaveto go.”
Jo laughed, holding the phone steady as she weaved through the Pennsylvania production warehouse where MidnightStorm was wrapping up rehearsals for the new tour. She turned a corner, nearly colliding with a PA. With an apologetic smile and wave, she turned back to the conversation with Annie. “We’ll have a whole week together to do all those things and more, kid. I know your dad has some ideas too.”
“Daddy said you have big news to tell me. Can you give me a hint?”
Jo ran her thumb over the band of the engagement ring on her finger out of view from the phone’s camera. She still wasn’t used to wearing it yet. “No hints.”
“Is it a baby? Am I getting a little brother?”
Jo nearly choked as Chelsea’s chiding “Annie!” sounded from off screen.
Annie turned towards her mother. “What? Lainey McKenna’s getting a little brother.”
“It’s not a competition.” Chelsea appeared on the screen with an apologetic wave. “Hey, Jo. Sorry about that.”
“It’s fine,” Jo said. “How’s the new house?”
“Great,” Chelsea said, beaming. “Miles is a real estate wizard. He has more vision that I’ll ever have.”
“I have a treehouse in the backyard,” Annie said, bouncing on her bed on her knees. “We can have a tea party in it when you come to visit. And a séance!”
“That sounds perfect,” Jo said.
“Thank you for the housewarming gift,” Chelsea said, a faint blush rising in her cheeks.