When I pulled into the driveway, there was a Chrysler already parked, but no one was in the car.

Okay …

Maybe they were out looking around the back? I got out of my car and walked to the front door to open it, and went in to turn on all the lights in the house. Just as I set my phone and keys down, someone came up behind me and wrapped their arms around me.

I did what any woman who’d just been startled would do—I brought my elbow back with as much force as I could, hitting the person, clearly a man judging by the solid body that I connected with, in the stomach. Then I picked up my foot and brought the point of my heel down on his foot. I quickly turned around and shoved my knee up into his groin, before taking off out the door. I made it to the doorway when I heard a raspy voice call out my name.

“Harper, wait.”

I stopped, then slowly turned around. Kyler was lying on the ground holding himself, his face masked with pain.

“Ky?”

“Fuck, woman, I think you broke me,” he groaned. “Yep … gonna puke.”

“Jesus Christ, Ky, you scared me to death! I thought you were like those crazy people you see on TV who trap realtors, then kill them.”

“You paint a vivid picture. Glad to know you’re able to take care of yourself when you come in contact with one of those crazy people,” he said from the floor. “Are you going to just stand there, or are you going to come help me up?”

“Oh, shut up,” I said, while I moved toward him. “I’m trying to calm down my racing heart here. I couldn’t give two shits about your balls at the moment.”

“Nice. Would you at least rub them? They need to know you still love them.”

He slowly got up from the floor, using a hand to lean on the counter. He looked a little pale and his forehead glistened with sweat. Even though I felt bad for dropping him to the ground, it was a satisfying to know I would have been able to get away if I’d needed to. I quietly high-fived myself.

Rolling my eyes I said, “Well, I don’t love your boys at the moment. What are you doing here? And why didn’t you just come to my house?”

He stared at me like I was dumb. “You honestly think if I’d gone to your house, you would have opened the door for me? Shit, Harper, you won’t even talk to me.”

He was right—I would have ignored him.

“Aren’t you supposed to be on tour still?”

“Yeah, but Anders came down with laryngitis and the doc said that he had to rest his vocals. It could end up taking a month, so we cancelled the last few cities. The band will make them up on their next tour,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.

“Oh,” was all I could say.

“Harper … I’ve missed you. And, well … I’m really fucking sorry. I sort of lost it with the whole Michael situation. I should never have suggested that you would run straight to him after you’d just been with me. This silence is killing me, though. I’m going out of my mind. Please, Harper, please.”

The poor man looked defeated. Even though Ky was still as handsome as ever, he looked tired. He had bags under his eyes, his normally messy and spiky hair was flat, and if I didn’t know any better, I’d say he hadn’t showered in a few days.

His words broke through the wall that I’d put up. It was what had prevented me from talking to him the past few weeks. Have you ever had something happen that hurt you and as time went on, you knew you were ready to forgive, but it was so far gone that you didn’t know how to fix it? That was me. But he’d just made it easy for me to run into his arms and forgive him, which was exactly what I did.

“Ky.” I whispered his name.

He opened his arms to me and I rushed to him. My body collided with his, and he enfolded me with his strong arms and held me tight. I don’t know how long we stood there like that, and it didn’t matter. Time didn’t matter. Ky was home, and I needed to never be away from him again.

My words came out muffled because my face was tucked in to his arm, “So what now?”

“Now we pick up where we left off in New York.”

I tipped my head back to look at him. “Did you like, drive around the neighborhood or something until you found a house that I was selling?” I laughed.

He melted me with his brown eyes. “No, I want you to show me this house because I think I want to buy it.”

My mouth dropped open.

“You mean you’re moving back now? I thought you’d go back to Los Angeles for a little bit first.”

He shook his head. “No, there’s no reason for me to be there right now. I have you here, and my parents are here. Plus, I told you, I need to be by my dad right now.”

I nodded, understanding. Taking his hand, I showed Ky around the house and he loved it. I told him I’d draw up the paperwork with the builder and get the process started straight away. In the meantime, I knew that I didn’t want him staying at a hotel—or his parents’ house—when I could have him with me. It seemed selfish, but I missed him.

“Are you going to go stay with your parents?”

“I thought about it, but I was going to ask you if you minded me crashing at your place for a bit?” Ky said, leaning against the wall in the hallway.

He gave me a devilish smile and it made me shiver. Ky living in my house? The possibilities were endless.

“I don’t think that will be a problem.”

He barked out a laugh and put his arm around my shoulders, pulling me to him.

“In all seriousness, though, my boys could use a good stroking. I’m worried they’re broken.”

Rolling my eyes, I laughed and elbowed him again.

“Shut up.”

I had no idea if showing up at the house would work. I was glad it had though. My girl was back with me—no more moping around like a sad heartbroken chick. If Anders hadn’t got laryngitis, I think the boys would have staged an intervention to make sure my man card was still intact … then kicked my ass off the tour. I would never have pegged myself for being a fool in love, but I guess I was.

Harper and I went back to her place, and I put my stuff in her bedroom before taking a shower. Fuck, I smelled bad. While I washed the stench off me, Harper made some calls about the house, and got the paperwork ready to go. Hopefully it wouldn’t take too long—I was hoping I could close the house in thirty days or less. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to stay with my girl as long as I could, but I also didn’t want to wear out my welcome. We were still a fairly new couple, trying to figure each other out. It didn’t matter that we had known each other for years, or that we’d already dated. This was more serious than what we’d had before, and I didn’t want to fuck it up in the first month because I was all up in her space.

When I got out of the shower, I toweled off and grabbed my phone off her dresser. I needed to call my parents and tell them that not only was I in town, but that I was home for good. I’d planned on going over there after I satisfied my libido. Oh, who was I kidding? As long as the sex goddess was in the other room that was never going to happen.

I dialed my parents’ house and my mom picked up on the third ring.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Ma, how are you and Dad doing?”

“Hey, baby boy. Oh … it’s going.” She sounded tired.

“That’s good, I guess. Hopefully I can cheer you up a bit when I give you my good news.”

“I could use some cheering up, hit me.”

“I’m back home, Ma. As in, home for good.”

I expected her to be happy, but what I got was my mother bursting out in tears.

“Ma, what’s the matter?”

“I’m just so happy, baby. Your dad isn’t doing well, and the doctors have been talking about putting him on hospice care.” She was sobbing now.

I had to hold back my own tears. Hospice? Wasn’t that what they did when you were on your last legs? I remembered when they’d put my grandma in a hospice, and my parents talked about it being only to keep her comfortable until she passed away. There was no way my dad was that bad. Last time I was home, he was still doing okay.