I stopped, squinting through the mist at the familiar shape walking toward me.
I don’t know how, but he’d found me.
My heart could have been auditioning for Dancing with the Stars with the rate it was jumping about.
He grinned as we reached each other, holding the edges of my hood like he always did, bringing me in to kiss him, humming on my lips before stepping back slightly. “I like you in my clothes.”
I couldn’t hold back my smile. “What are you doing here?”
“You left your phone at home and I thought you might want it.”
My face scrunched up. “You drove all the way out here to give me my phone?”
He chuckled softly and pulled me into his arms, wrapping them around my waist. “No, Emerson, I drove out here to find you and bring you home, and to tell you I love you and how sorry I am for everything.” He brushed some hair away from my eyes, leaving his hands cupping my wet cheeks. “I’m so sorry, I really am. I should have protected you from the beginning, not just the last week; protected you against Richard, all the gossip, and the tabloids. I should have done a better job of everything.”
I sighed into his embrace. I could see the responsibility weighing heavily on him and wanted to take it away. “Babe, you have. This isn’t your fault, it’s mine. I should have dealt with him better instead of ignoring him.”
He shook his head, his thumb brushing across my swollen, crying face.
“Don’t you dare blame yourself. You have done nothing wrong. Nothing.” His arms moved back to my waist and wrapped tighter, pulling me closer. “But we’ve made a start to fixing it. Jupiter and I have managed to get everything taken down from Page Six and the lawyers are working on the rest. And we also put out a statement which has gone everywhere. The lawyers also sent it to the hospital with a letter including information about the restraining order. He’s not going to hurt you again, sweetheart.”
“Hurtus.” I ran my hands around the back of his neck. “You and Jupiter really wrote a statement?”
He nodded, taking his phone out and handing it to me. “Yes.”
It was open on his Instagram page. I read through it, my heart heaving with emotion. It had over one hundred and forty thousand likes already. I checked Jupiter’s page, and his had nearly two hundred thousand.
I sniffed. “Thank you, seriously. This means a lot to me.”
“Emerson, we’re in this together. I’m always going to have your back in the same way I know you have mine. Any problems come, and we fix them together. We’re each other’s safety net.”
He dipped down, his eyes staying open as he smiled against my lips.
“I have something for you.”
He pulled out an envelope from his pocket, handing it to me.
“What’s this?”
“It’s your Christmas present, but I thought you could probably do with it now.”
Excitement was radiating off him as I opened it up, pulling out a thick brochure for a warehouse and ownership papers with my name on them. I flipped through it to take a closer look. Yes, it was definitely a warehouse in Soho.
Cool exposed brick, but still a warehouse.
We hadn’t ever properly given each other presents before, so I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this.
I looked at him with more than a little confusion. “Babe, thank you. This is very sweet… but why do I want a warehouse?”
He responded with a lopsided smile. “It’s not a warehouse, sweetheart, it’s a studio space. Your new studio, if you want it.”
Say what now?
I looked at him, his eyes wide and serious, filled with hope and expectation; filled with love, because they were always filled with love.
And I knew that this wasn’t something he could have sorted out overnight. He’d put thought and effort and time into this. My heart burst open and spilled over with all the tension I’d been carrying around, which made the crying start up again.
“You bought me a studio?” I sobbed.
