He closes the laptop slowly.
“I need more, Zach,” he says after a second.
I sit down across from him.
“What do you mean?”
“They’re pushing me,” he says. “PR. Social media. All of it. I’ve got meetings this week.”
His jaw tightens.
“I built everything on being… that guy. The one everyone watches. The one they want.”
His eyes lift to mine.
“I can’t do that anymore.”
I don’t interrupt.
“I need the world to know she’s mine,” he says, the words coming out quieter but heavier. “I need to be able to say it. I need to stop pretending she’s not everything.”
I lean back slightly, considering that.
“When Elijah gets back,” I say, “and when she wakes up tomorrow, we’ll talk about it. All of us.”
He nods slowly.
“Yeah.”
“Come back to bed,” I add. “Be with her.”
His gaze softens slightly.
“Yeah. Okay.”
He grabs the glass of water from the kitchen bench, and we head back toward the bedroom together.
As we walk, I already know what I’m going to have to do. Jackson needs something solid. Something public. Something that anchors him to her in a way the world can’t ignore.
And Elijah...Elijah is going to resist it.
I can already see it.
Which means I’m going to have to be the one who pushes. Because this isn’t just about her anymore. It’s about all of us. And when I slide back into bed beside her, her body immediately settling back against mine, her warmth grounding me again, her breathing soft and steady, I know one thing with absolute certainty.
I want this.
All of it.
Her.
The life we’re building.
The family that’s coming.
And I’m not going to let anything, or anyone, take that from us again.
forty-five
