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But going back to New York solidified it all. I quit my job to a hearty slap on the back from my boss, Logan, and the warmest of wishes from his wife, Addison. I gave up my rented apartment and didn’t feel even an ounce of doubt. When I told my accountant I was finally going to use my inheritance to start a new life, I could practically hear my mother’s voice urging me on. Encouraging me.
One day you’ll understand, she’d said to me a lifetime ago.Real loved ones stand in your firing line, and you in theirs. They see the very best and worst of you, and they love you anyway.
Hannahhasseen the worst of me. The ugliest parts of me. And yet here she is, standing with her hands knotted in front of her and sincerity shining out of her face.
“I don’t think I’m going to be very good at this,” I say. “But I’m going to try.”
My hands are still in my pockets and my mother’s ring is in there. It’s become comforting to me, in these last few weeks, because every time I look at it I think of the two women who’ve made me understand what it means to be a good man. I’ve kept it in my pocket since the day I visited my grandmother, needing to know my family was close, even if only in spirit.
“I’ve taken the easy route since my parents died, thinking it was the smart thing to do. No one calls me on my shit because I’m so good at hiding all my scars most people don’t even know they’re there. Most people don’t look very closely.”
“But I did.” Her words are soft.
“You did. You looked closer and kept asking, and Iknewyou’d be like that. Ever since we were in the academy, I knew you were smarter and more perceptive than most people. Yousawme and I didn’t like that.” I shake my head. “But I realised after being here, in this apartment with you, that I’d been flying under the radar so long that I didn’t even know who I was anymore. I wasn’t a cop, because I quit that. I wasn’t a grandson, because I deserted my grandmother. I certainly wasn’t a son or a brother. I wasn’t...anything.”
“We’re allsomething, Owen.” Hannah steps forward, as if she wants to touch me. But her hands stay fluttering by her sides. “Even if we don’t know what it is yet.”
“I had to figure out what I wanted to be. Start from scratch. Pretend like I had all the options in front of me when my parents died.” I pull the ring out from my pocket and her eyes glitter like the diamonds surrounding the big, beautiful smoky-coloured stone.
Unusual and pretty, like Hannah.
“And I figured that maybe I could be your partner. Maybe I could be a guy who deserves someone like you.” My throat is all tight and the feeling is foreign and strange. “Maybe we could start over at 21 Love Street for real.”
“I’m not going to quit my job, Owen. I know it’s probably going to stress you out and make you worry, but that’s whoIam.” A tear plops onto her cheek and she brushes it away before I even have the chance. That’s my Hannah, independent to a fault. And damn if I don’t love that about her. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t want this. I do, I want it so bad.”
“I’m not asking you to quit your job. I won’t lie and say it won’t worry me sick when you’re working a case, but you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing in life.” I swallow. “And I want to come back. To Melbourne, to you, to the force, to my grandmother. I want to give my life a second go. And I want to do it all with you by my side.”
“You have no idea how happy that makes me.” She comes closer still and throws her arms around my neck, pressing her lips to my skin and her body to mine. “We fit, Owen. We make each other better. When I’m with you, I feel like I can take on the world.”
“I hope the world is shaking in its boots, then.” I grab her hand and hold the ring, my eyes locked on to hers. “My mother would have loved you, you know.”
Hannah blinks rapidly, trying to stem her tears...and failing. “If she raised someone as amazing as you, then I’m sure I would have loved her, too.”
“Will you be my partner in this crazy adventure? I have no idea what I’m doing and I’m one-hundred-percent certain I’ll screw something up. But I promise you I’ll always listen, and I’ll always put you first. Before anything.”
“Owen, none of us are perfect. I’ll screw up, too and that’s fine. But the main thing is that we love each other as best we can...and I already know this feels right. It feels good and beautiful and perfectly imperfect. I knew how I felt about you a long time ago, and learning about your past didn’t change that. It only made the feeling stronger.”
“So we’re doing this, for real?” Excitement fizzes in my veins at the thought of waking up here, day after day with Hannah in my arms. I’ve never wanted anything as much as this.
“For real,” she says with a nod. “I won’t even complain about having to be your wife this time.”
I laugh and it’s like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. She watches as I slip the ring onto her finger.
“I can’t wait to marry you, Hannah,” I say.
She’s taken the world and painted it with better colours. Given me hope and happiness and purpose. “I can’t wait, either. I guess this means you’ll have to stop calling me Anderson.”
“You want to be a Fletcher?” I didn’t think my heart could be any fuller.
“Of course I do, Owen.” Her eyes glimmer. “There are plenty of Andersons running around in the rest of my family. I figured we could even your side up by one...or maybe two?”
A baby. It’s the very thing that terrified me a month ago and now it’s something I want. Sure, it’s still daunting, and still something that’s guaranteed to knock me on my ass. But I’m not afraid of that anymore. Not now that Hannah and I are a team. A family.
“Hell yeah, I want it all with you. I’m all in.” She kisses me long and hard and I don’t know how I ever got to deserve her. “I guess we’ve got some explaining to do to the neighbours. They’re going to be mighty confused if we suddenly get married...again.”
Hannah hugs me close and presses up on her tiptoes, a wicked smile curving her lips. “I don’t care about what they think, since I have awaymore pressing concern.”
“What’s that?”
She starts to lead me toward the bedroom, her eyes full of fire and love. “I’m hoping you’ve still got a bed in this place.”
Damn. I’m the luckiest man alive.
* * * * *
