Page 173 of Angel

‘This place could be heaven, Angel, to raise a family.’

‘Exactly. We’d need to buy Elsa’s share, though. Think she’d be up for it?’

‘We can ask. Speaking of, Mum called earlier,’ Roxy said, a sudden smirk playing on her lips. ‘She filed the divorce paperwork today, and she’s packing her bags for Europe next month. She’s spending the winter in Florence to clear her head. She deserves every single bit of it.’

‘Good for her,’ I rasped, capturing Roxy’s mouth in a slow, deep kiss flavored with caramel and vanilla from the ice cream we had for dessert. ‘But right now, I only care about the one woman and baby in this room and creating a beautiful life, wifey.’

Elsa agreed to the sale of her portion of Hazelwood, and I settled with her for over and above the going rate.

As Roxy’s belly grew, I locked in a construction crew to take on the renovations.

I wanted to be in by the time our baby was born, so I paid top dollar to move fast.

We moved back to my house in Nashville while the farmhouse was being upgraded.

The contractors gutted the bedrooms, added ensuites to each, extended the central living space to frame the horizon, and redid the kitchen.

We also put in a natural saltwater pool.

I brought in landscapers to plant acres of wild lavender and weeping willows and built a timber pergola right on the lake’s edge, where we could drink, eat, and play by the lake at sunset.

During the chaos of the renovations, Roxy crushed her professional goals.

She dropped her Capri Caper art collection alongside a series titled Slayed Soul, pulling rave reviews from the elite culture critics.

With my home front secured and my head straight, I rejoined the guys in the studio, laying down riffs as we started the tracking for the next Six Sinners record.

Roxy and I moved in with three weeks to go before our baby was due.

Our renovated house stood finished, a masterpiece of timber and glass set in a serene lakefront backdrop.

Inside, the design leaned into modern luxury mixed with organic textures.

We layered the expansive living spaces in creams and brushed golds, with oak flooring.

We loved the massive vaulted ceilings and kept them as-is.

Matte-black metal fixtures accented the clean lines of the kitchen, where a solid-quartz island sat ready for family gatherings.

Taking pride of place was the trio of hand-painted ceramic salt, oil-and-vinegar canisters we bought in Anacapri on our fated honeymoon.

My new music studio occupied the north wing, soundproofed, with reclaimed barn-wood walls and loaded with top-tier mixing boards and my guitar racks.

Roxy’s art space sat next to the courtyard, flooded with natural light from floor-to-ceiling windows and stocked with fresh canvases.

We spent two whole days finishing the baby’s nursery, painting the surfaces a calming blend of dove gray and cream.

Roxy and I decorated the space with a plush wool rug, floating bookshelves, and hand-carved wooden forest animals.

After we moved from my Nashville house, I added it to my exclusive rentals portfolio, so the place would host industry executives and visiting VIPs to Nashville.

We moved into Tabitha’s Farm and nested, building the baby’s crib with much hilarity as I misread the instructions and installed the side panels upside down twice.

Roxy sat on a floor cushion, laughing so hard she had to hold her stomach while I cursed the tiny Allen keys.

Back from Florence, Elsa proved to be super helpful during those final weeks.

She came over often, kicking her heels off the second she crossed the threshold and rolling up her sleeves to get to work.