She laughed up to the sky and held her stomach. “I guess you can say you’re officially a New Yorker now.”
“Very funny, smarty-pants.” He wiped his sleeve with a napkin and threw it in a nearby garbage pail.
Arm in arm, they walked deeper into the park along the asphalt path. It was a strip of black in the middle of dense greenery. Sometimes it was hard to believe that this oasis of nature still existed on the island of Manhattan among the towering skyscrapers. Maybe that’s why she loved it so much.
Her hand slipped from Brett’s waist, and he took it. They swung their arms as they walked, like teenagers often did, and it made her smile. She didn’t need any grand gestures. A simple walk in the park was the most romantic thing in the world to her. Brett made her happy. That’s all there was to it. They found a way to breach the long-distance barrier and be together. Neither one had to give up everything to be with the other. They each gave up a little and met in the middle. He redefined his work as a roadie with Bulletproof and cut back on the tours, and she was scaling back her hours so they could have time for one another. That’s the way relationships worked. “I’ve been delegating some of my business trips to junior executives, so I won’t be so busy. And you know what?” She looked up at him and smiled. “The company didn’t fall apart. I realized that I don’t have to do everything myself. I’ll still handle scouting the cutting-edge bands, but I can effectively delegate some of my work.”
“I’m glad. You work very hard. You deserve to take it easy.” He pressed his lips together in thought. “Do you think your family is going to be mad that you’re moving to California for half of the year?”
“No. I think they were expecting me to move there full time. Angel actually brought it up one evening during dinner.”
“Really? In a favorable way, or in a don’t-you-dare-leave-us way?”
“He pointed out that I have the company jet at my disposal, and that both me and Audra can fly back and forth at a moment’s notice. Immortal Angel tours the West Coast all the time. It’s not that big of a deal.”
He guided her to a bench so they could sit down, “You make me really happy, Kira. You’re so easygoing and fun. You’re smart and sophisticated. You’re giving and unselfish. Sweet and honest. Plus a million other things that I love about you.”
“Flattery will get you everywhere,” she teased, but he didn’t smile. He was being serious and watching her intently. It left a warm tingling feeling inside of her, and she swallowed. “You make me happy too.” The sound of children laughing diverted her attention, and she realized that they were sitting near the playground. It was her favorite place in the park, and just being here made her emotional. It must have shown in her expression because he touched her chin and turned her head to face him.
“I know,” he said. “I brought you to this spot on purpose.”
He knew this place held special memories for her, and it made her heart swell. She had barely touched on the subject, basically mentioning it in passing conversation, but it registered with him. “You remembered?”
“Of course, I remembered. When I’m not with you, I replay our time together in my head. It’s stupid. I know. But I miss you, and it helps.”
It was such a sweet and sensitive statement that it made her tear up. Her shoulders fell and her head lolled to one side. “You’re so sweet. I miss you all the time too.” She touched his cheek with her hand, and he kissed her palm.
“I remember that you told me this place brought you comfort and held a special place in your heart.”
“It does. I have so many happy memories here. It resonates family and togetherness and the love and bond that I shared with my sister and father growing up. We suffered a devastating loss when my mother passed. Not just me and Audra. My father too. I think the time we spent here helped heal his heart as well. This playground brought us closer together during a very uncertain time in our lives.” She quietly reflected on the sentiment that this place infused in her soul. Brett watched her with uncertainty, and she thought he might be questioning whether she really wanted to spend so much time away from New York. She nodded with reassurance. “I want to go to California, Brett. I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it. I’m willing to move there year-round.” She displayed a lighthearted smile. “I can still live in California and be a New York girl. You can take the girl out of New York, but you can’t take New York out of the girl.”
A commotion erupted as a group of children chased after a soccer ball. They were probably no more than five or six, laughing and screaming with delight as they kicked the ball around.
“Do you want children?” Brett asked.
The question surprised Kira. Children never really fit into her life. Before Brett, a man never fit into her life. She had such a fast-paced schedule that having children seemed unrealistic. Audra and Jimmy had been married for five years and still haven’t brought another child into their lives. She shrugged. “I never really thought seriously about it, but I can’t imagine not having kids one day. I don’t know when, though, or how that would fit into my schedule. But Audra and Jimmy made it work with Mason. And Jessi, Tommy and Angel have certainly figured it out.” She looked into his eyes. “What about you? Do you want kids?”
“Yeah. The only family I have is my brother. I don’t really have any aunts or uncles or cousins. None that I’m close to or have seen more than once or twice since my parents died. I want to start my own family one day. With you. Not in the immediate future,” he clarified. “I’m thinking five years or so.”
Her heart ballooned with each word that he said. They were talking about their future together. About marriage and starting a family and a timeframe that worked. It was everything she wanted, and Brett wanted it too. Her heart was galloping in her chest with happiness, while her head was swimming, still taking it all in.
“Is that something you can envision? With me?” he asked.
“Yes.” She didn’t hesitate or stop to think about it. The answer flew out of her mouth with certainty.
He stuck his hands in the pockets of his sweatshirt and slowly nodded. “I’m glad we want the same things. It’s important to talk about them. To make sure. Discuss them now.”
She nodded in agreement. Most men hated talking about things of such a serious nature. It usually sent them running in the opposite direction, even those already in long-term relationships. But Brett was the one who brought up marriage and kids. This man was remarkable.
He started to rise from the bench, at least that’s what Kira thought, but, instead, he dropped to one knee and presented a small velvet box from his pocket.
“Will you marry me?”
She momentarily forgot how to breathe. Her head fogged and blocked out the singing birds and chatter in the park. She had tunnel vision. All of her senses were focused on Brett kneeling in front of her with a ring and a marriage proposal. “Oh my God.” She looked from the box to Brett and back to the box again. She couldn’t answer. She didn’t know why she couldn’t answer or why she kept repeating, “Oh my God,” over and over, but that’s all she could do. The shock of it all seemed to rob her vocabulary and the ability to form coherent sentences.
Still on one knee, Brett opened the small velvet box. It wasn’t a huge diamond. Not even a fraction of the size of the golf ball on Audra’s finger, but it was gorgeous. And it was hers. Tears pooled on her lower lids until the ring blurred. When she looked into Brett’s eyes, two lone tears fell down her cheeks. “Yes. I’d love to marry you, Brett.”
The most amazing smile spread across his face and his eyes sparkled. “You will?”
“Of course. I know we haven’t known each other that long, but I love you, Brett, and I want everything we just talked about. And I want it with you.”
“Me too.” He took the ring from the box and slid it on her shaking finger.
Giddy laughter floated from her lips as she stared at her beautiful new engagement ring. “I love it so much. It’s gorgeo
us.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. He stood up while hugging her tightly to his chest, lifting her feet off the ground and never breaking their kiss.
Waiting overnight to tell her father the news amplified Kira’s excitement, and she had to remind herself not to rush into the house and blurt out the news, as she had done with Audra. The shrill scream her sister had let out upon seeing the ring almost sent poor Aunt Mary into cardiac arrest and had Jimmy running into the room ready to pummel an intruder. Mason had been over the moon and said he was excited to get another uncle. “One as cool as Brett,” as he put it.
Audra had demanded to hear all the details while the boys went to hang out in the drum room and bond over the news. She had pulled Kira into the living room and sat with her elbow on the arm of the couch and her chin in her hand, sighing in all the right places, as she listened to Kira describe the proposal. Kira had to admit, it did play out like a fairy tale.
“I can’t believe he proposed at the playground,” Audra had said, after letting out another long sigh. “That’s so romantic, because he knows how special it is. He’s a dreamboat, Kira. You’re so lucky to have met him.”
The five-year family plan was something else that had Audra squealing. “Maybe Jimmy and I will have another child by then and our kids can grow up together! And Mason can be a big brother!”
The idea that they could have kids at the same time had Kira ecstatic. The ease in which everything unfolded seemed unreal. Audra had barely balked about the fact that Kira and Brett would be living in California for part of the year and already mentioned planning to visit for an extended amount of time.
Now, if her father had the same over-the-top reaction, all would be perfect. But he didn’t accept change easily, and he was a hard sell when it came to marriage material for his daughters.
As Kira walked up to the front door of her father’s vast estate, the house she grew up in, she glanced at Brett. He looked nervous, with a pensive brow. “Why are you so worried?” she asked. “My father likes you.”
Brett raised a skeptical eyebrow. “He does?”
“Yes. You call him sir. He likes that. No one does that outside the office.”
“I think it takes more than the way I address him to prove that I’d be a suitable husband for his daughter. Plus, I’m taking you away to California for half the year.”
She knew how to handle her father. “Leave that up to me.”
“Please don’t argue with him, Kira.”
She guffawed at the thought. “I don’t argue with my father, Brett. Audra is the one who stands up to him. The two of them can butt heads like a pair of bulls, but not me.” She displayed an innocent smile. “I’m the sweet one. I bat my eyelashes and pout, and my father turns to jelly.”
He smiled and tweaked her nose with his thumb and index finger. “Let’s hope so.”
Randolph answered the door, as usual. Naturally, she had a key. She’d lived here for 21 years. But she respected her father and stepmother’s privacy. Plus, she didn’t want to walk through the rooms looking for them, although her father almost always could be found in his home office or the library. It was just easier for the butler to announce her arrival.
They waited in the parlor, which was the go-to room in the house. She always found it amusing that her father still referred to the room with such an outdated term, especially since it contained the most modern and up-to-date entertainment equipment on the market.
Brett refused to sit, so Kira stood at his side and tried to reassure him until her father entered with Claudia.
“This is a pleasant surprise,” her father stated, warmly. He looked at the vintage Rolex on his wrist that had belonged to his father. “I wasn’t expecting to take a lunch break this early in the day, but I can always make time for one of my girls.”
Claudia rolled her eyes. “Honestly, Ron. Do you really need to work every hour of the day? Isn’t it about time you take the weekends off? At least a Sunday, for God’s sake.”
Her father let out an exhausted breath, having had the same conversation with Claudia a million times. “The day I stop working is the day I die. The business keeps me going.”
Kira knew the truth of her father’s statement. She was his daughter, and she shared his dedication to the family business and his unstoppable worth ethic, but she still wished he’d slow down a little.
Keeping her left hand hidden, Kira invited them to sit down so they could talk.
“Is something wrong?” her father asked, his face suddenly filled with concern.
“Nothing’s wrong, Daddy.” She was about to explode the news. Wave her ring in their faces. Jump up and down and scream from the pent-up excitement racing through her veins. “I have something very important to tell you. Please just sit down.”
The four of them sat in the wingback chairs set in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows that faced the tree-lined street. Her father and stepmother were staring at her, waiting for her to speak, but she was gazing out the window.
Images from her childhood suddenly played in her head. She saw herself outside on the sidewalk with Audra. Their mother was between them, holding their little hands, waiting for their father to come home from work, as they often did. The long black limo pulled up to the curb, and Kira and Audra started jumping up and down. Their father didn’t wait for the driver to open his door. He flung it open himself, stepped onto the curb with his arms open wide and squatted so he was down at their level. Both Kira and Audra ran to him and hung onto his neck so he could lift them in a hug. That’s the way they greeted him for years. Until their mother died. It was a memory that she hadn’t thought about in a very long time, and it brought tears to her eyes. She wondered if it was because she would be leaving New York. No. She realized that the memory was triggered by family and the feeling of togetherness it brought. For a brief second, the vision morphed, and it was Kira on the sidewalk with her children waiting for Brett to come home.
“Kira,” Brett called her softly, in order to get her attention.
“I’m sorry. I was just thinking about . . .” My mother. I was just thinking about my mother. “About how happy I am.” She looked into her father’s eyes and smiled. “We’re engaged. Brett asked me to marry him, and I said yes. I’m thrilled. I’ve never been happier.”
Claudia immediately hugged both Kira and Brett. “Congratulations. You make a lovely couple.”
Kira thanked her stepmother and waited for her father’s reaction. His expression was unreadable, and it worried her. “We’ve talked about it,” she said. “And we want a long engagement.” She waited, but her father still didn’t respond. He just sat there, looking at her, as if she commented on the weather instead of making the most important announcement of her life. “I hope you’re happy for me, Daddy.”
He slowly stood up and took a step toward her. Taking her hand, he pulled her to her feet and kissed her cheek before offering her a hug. “I’m very happy for you, sweetheart. Congratulations. You deserve everything. I’m just not ready to lose my youngest daughter. You’re moving to the West Coast, aren’t you?”
She let out a breath that she wasn’t aware she was holding, relieved at his well wishes. “Thank you for being happy for me. About California . . . after a lengthy discussion, we decided that we’d live half the year in New York and the other half in California. It was a compromise. It was actually Brett’s suggestion. I thought I could work out of the L.A. office when I’m there.”
The corners of her father’s mouth curled up. “That’s a wonderful idea. It’ll give your stepmother and I the opportunity to use the Palm Springs estate more often.”
Kira flew into his arms and hugged him tightly. “I’d love that. Thank you, Daddy. I can always fly back at a moment’s notice too. It’s really not that far. Only a few hours by plane.”
Claudia held her hand flat against her chest, eyes wide with surprise. “Does this mean you’ll be taking some time off, Ron?”
“Well,
perhaps it wouldn’t kill me to take off a few days here and there.”
“I can’t tell you how long I’ve waited to hear you say that,” Claudia replied. “I’m going to hold you to it. I love Palm Springs. I’m looking forward to spending some time there.”
“Speaking of living arrangements,” Kira’s father said, folding his arms across his chest. “The L.A. penthouse does nothing but collect dust and increase my real estate portfolio. If you and Brett would like to live there, even if it’s just during the week to ease your commute, the apartment is yours. Consider it an engagement present.”
Shock made Kira intake a gust of breath, and her fingertips flew to her lips. She loved that apartment. It was chic and trendy and had a magnificent view of the city lights. She wrapped her arms around her father and kissed his cheek. “Thank you so much, Daddy. I would love to take the apartment.”
She turned toward Brett, realizing she hadn’t consulted with him before accepting the apartment. He had a home with his brother, and she assumed that’s where they’d be living in California, but spending a few weeknights in L.A. sounded perfect, if needed.
Brett’s mouth hung open as he stared at Kira’s father. “That’s incredibly generous of you, sir. Thank you very much.”
“You’re very welcome.” Her father nodded curtly. “That being said, I would like to speak with you alone, please, young man.”
“Of course, sir.” Brett squared his shoulders, masking the anxiety that was fluttering in his chest.
Kira and her stepmother immediately left the room, barely giving Brett a second glance.
Mr. Abelman went to the large credenza that bordered the back wall. There were crystal decanters filled with amber liquid on the marble top, but Mr. Abelman ignored them and retrieved a bottle from the cabinet below. He snatched two heavy crystal lowball glasses off the credenza and walked back to Brett. “Have a seat.”
Brett did as he was instructed, while Mr. Abelman dropped the glasses on the small round table that sat in the middle of the four wingback chairs, which landed with a significant thud as they hit the tabletop.
The Roadie: Radical Rock Stars Book 7 Page 20