Amazingly, even though it was almost last minute, I was able to get a reservation for the night at a B&B just outside Nashville. It helps that it was for February thirteenth instead of fourteenth too. What Lyric doesn’t know is I already packed for her and we’re going straight there.

Not that it takes long for her to figure it out. I pass the turn for our neighborhood and I can almost feel her mind working. “Where are we going?”

I look over at her, and one side of my mouth lifts in a smirk just thinking about my plans for tonight. “I told you, for the next twenty-four hours, you’re all mine.” Her mouth drops open, and I continue. “If I take you home, you’ll be too easily distracted trying to get the house baby-proofed when you know good-and-hell well she’s only six weeks old and won’t be moving around.” Lyric huffs, but she knows I’m right. In fact, she likely has a list of things she wants to buy just for that exact purpose.

Thankfully, since it’s early afternoon, traffic in Nashville isn’t as bad as it would’ve been if I’d waited until she got off, but it still takes us close to twenty minutes to reach the Bed & Breakfast that Sam, one of my bartenders, told me about. We pull into the tree-lined drive, and it feels more like we’ve driven to a plantation than a B&B. We pull up in front of the house, which has a circular drive much like my parents old house and I park quickly, eager to get her inside.

Because I did most of the check-in process online, it only takes a few minutes to get our key. When we walk into our room, Lyric stops dead in front of me, covering her mouth with her hands just as she lets out a huge gasp. I set the two bags from the trunk of the car on the ground and she turns to face me. Her eyes are wide and glassy, the first of her tears falling down her cheek. Stepping closer, I cup her cheek in my hand and wipe away the tear. “Hey sweetheart,” I murmur, “what’s with the tears?”

“I just …” she stops, taking a shaky breath to try to steady herself, but it doesn’t work. Her arms wrap around my waist, she buries her face in my chest, and I have to strain to understand her mumbled words against me. “No one’s ever done anything like this for me before.”

The disbelief I can hear in her muffled voice coupled with the way she’s shaking against me makes my heart squeeze in my chest. Once again, I’m reminded of why I would gladly end that fucker she was engaged to. He didn’t appreciate what he had with her, and part of her is still expecting me to do the same. One day she’ll know exactly what she means to me. “You deserve all this and more, darlin’”

I wrap my arms around her carefully, taking care not to squeeze too tightly, and rest my chin on the top of her head. We stand in the middle of the room, just enjoying being together for longer than I’d like to admit, but finally, her shaking stops and she pulls away enough to look up at me. “I love you,” she says, her voice low and earnest. “I love you so much, David.”

“I love you too, baby. Always will.” Her eyes go soft at the word ‘always’, and I can’t stop myself from pressing my lips to hers.

As soon as our mouths touch, she melts back into my embrace and her arms tighten around my waist. One of my hands travels up her back to tangle in her red hair, pulling just enough to make her gasp, giving me the opening I need to stroke her tongue with mine. We make our way blindly backwards toward the bed, and my last thought before she follows me down onto the bed is that I should have made our dinner reservations for later in the afternoon. We just might miss them. Then, Lyric’s hands move to my belt buckle, and I stop caring.