They toured the apartment with me and jotted down all the damage for their report before we were at the door again. The officers suggested to Landon that I spend the night elsewhere, making me smile when he put his arm around me and assured them that I would be. They left and handed me a card for if I had any more information, closing the door as Landon told me to check for anything else I’d need for his house. There was a serious tone to his voice, making me nod as I headed back to the bedroom for more clothes.
He was having a heated conversation with whom I guessed with my landlord as I came back into the main room. I looked at him as I walked into the kitchen to get a bag of some of my snacks as he kept talking, his voice rising every moment. I jumped when I heard him say that I’d be moving out of this apartment without penalty given that he hadn’t taken care of the issue when asked. Then he ended the call as he walked in and pulled me into his arms. “That asshole didn’t seem to give a shit about this. He blamed you for giving your key out when he wasn’t on the lease, but he’ll learn not to fuck with a lawyer.”
“So, I’m moving?” I asked in a small voice as I looked around.
“From this unit, yes. I am going to handle everything, Lily. You can get another place in this complex or any other one you choose in the city if you don’t want to live with me.” I looked up at him with big eyes as he stared at me. “This is moving goddamn fast, and I know you’re scared, Lily. Your ex is stalking you, and I can see how that would make you nervous, but I want you in my life regardless of any of that. I want you in my arms every night, and I need to wake up with you every morning.” He pressed his lips gently to mine as I breathed into him, cupping my face gently before a crash sounded and I jumped back with a scream.
Landon opened my door and ran out, calling something as I took a few shaky breaths. I walked into the living room to see the window shattered. Landon yelled and someone responded as I started to cry.
I heard footsteps and looked up as there was another knock on the door. The word “police” was called. I looked through the peephole to see one of the same officers from earlier standing there, and I let him in as he looked at me closely. “Your boyfriend has a guy down there who admitted to breaking your window, and my partner is taking care of him. Are you okay?”
“Scared,” I admitted, and he nodded with a sympathetic look.
“You can get a restraining order against this guy now that he’s a proven stalker if you come down to the station tomorrow. Unfortunately, I don’t think he’ll get a great deal of time for this, so you’ll want to be protected.” He looked around the apartment. “I’m going to call your landlord to get this place boarded up until you can move out, Lily. I am sorry that this happened to you.”
Landon came up a few minutes later and looked me over. “He’s going to the station. The little shit pissed himself when I came running out, and he admitted everything.” He looked into the living room and shook his head. “The cops said they’re calling the landlord to board that up as well.”
“Yeah,” I said in a shaking voice before he hugged me to him.
“I want to make sure that he gets over here before we leave, Lily. That’s all.” I nodded against him as tears slipped down my cheeks. He waited with me on the couch, holding my hand as I regained control of myself.
By the time my landlord arrived, ready to get some wood over the broken window, I was shivering with a blanket wrapped around my shoulders. He grudgingly apologized to me and glanced at Landon, who led me out of there with a dark look on his face. We drove back to Landon’s apartment with my bag in his hand, complete with the ornaments that weren’t broken for his tree.
I took a long shower when we were back in his place, drying my hair before I pulled on his robe. I tied it around my body and padded into the living room to see him on the couch, looking at the ornaments as he set them down on a blanket on the coffee table. He looked at me and locked gazes with me. “Were the ones you loved the most salvageable?”
I shrugged. “Some of them.” I sat down and looked over the small collection as I sighed. “I don’t know why he did this. He knew what they meant to me.”
“He wanted to hit you where it hurt you the most. Emotions are cruel sometimes, baby.” Landon looked at me as he tucked a strand of damp hair behind my ear. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s over, right?” I smiled weakly. “I’ll go to the station and get a restraining order against him like the officer said. He’ll have to leave me alone.” I felt a rush of fear at the idea of what might have happened if I’d been home alone when Brian was there, of where his anger might have taken him. “I want to move out of there. I want to . . . I want to be here with you. I can’t fear moving forward with you because of something that he did. I can’t let Brian hold me back.”
I was pulled against Landon tightly as I gasped softly. “You have made me so happy, Lily.” He kissed me hungrily as he cupped my face, and I felt my need for him outweigh my fear. I dropped back on the cushions of the couch as he stripped my jeans off my legs and took me hard, the way I asked him to. Needing the reassurance that he was here for me, I wrapped my legs around him as he thrust inside me, telling me he loved me.
I called in to work the next day, still too nervous to sleep well. I went to the station to handle paperwork and get the restraining order in place, and I found out that Brian had confessed to everything while also throwing Marilyn under the bus. She’d sent the picture, though it wasn’t of Landon. She knew it would make me doubt and feel insecure, hopefully breaking us up so she could move in for the kill. Landon assured me that she was blackballed in the state of New York as far as practicing law, if not everywhere else.
Brian didn’t get a lot of time, just a few months and probation. I was concerned when he was released, though he made an effort to email me to apologize for everything. He assured me that he would leave me alone—words from my laptop in Landon’s living room.
Landon
I stepped out of the shower and looked in the mirror, brushing my growing hair back. It seemed like yesterday that we were celebrating our first Christmas together, and here it was the following year. Once everything calmed down with Brian’s brief stalking of Lily, things were perfect for us. We made love by the Christmas tree every night it was up, sometimes sleeping on the couch to watch it along with the moon through the window. Lily relaxed as the days passed by, finally smiling when she knew that Brian was behind bars.
She flourished at work, and I knew she could have anything she wanted in the world of law. I had a great setup at my office with a talented assistant who kept everything going smoothly for me, making it easy to go home to the woman I loved.
I dressed in some jeans and slipped a button-up shirt over my torso, leaving it open as I walked out to the living room. Lily was hanging the last ornament with a soft smile, and then she glanced at me, her eyes trailing down my bare chest. “Hey. How was the shower?”
“It felt good,” I said as I walked over to her for a long kiss. They were still just as electric as they had been in the beginning, and I never tired of feeling her mouth on mine. It was a long last day at work before the holidays, and I was looking forward to some quiet time with Lily.
I pulled her to the couch with one hand, sitting her down as I sank to the floor. “What are you doing?” Lily asked, a curious look on her face.
“I have been with you for one of the best years of my life, baby. I have seen you through two holidays now and become a part of your family. I have fallen more in love with you with every week that we spend together, and though I never intended to wait this long . . . I want to marry you. I want you to be my wife, Lily. I want you to have my children.” Tears filled her eyes as she stared at me, and I slipped the box out of my pocket and pressed my lips together. “Will you marry me?”
“Yes, Landon. I’ve been wanting you to ask me that,” Lily said as she bowed her head to kiss me, our lips melting together. She wrapped an arm around me as it deepened, giggling as emotion overcame her. I took advantage of that moment to show her the ring. Her mouth dropped open. “Is that . . .?”
“Amy gave me your mom’s ring. I had it cleaned up and added a slightly bigger stone from my own mother’s ring to combine the two . . . I hope you don’t mind,” I told her as tears slid freely down her cheeks. “I love you, baby.”
“I love you,” she replied, smiling knowingly as she allowed me to slip the ring on her left hand. “I have a surprise for you.”
“What?” I asked, thinking it was about work.
“I found out that I’m pregnant today. I’ve been feeling off lately and started thinking about how I messed up on the pill on our last weekend away. I took a test and, yeah, it was positive. I was considering asking you to marry me,” Lily joked.
I moved up on the couch and pressed my hand lightly against her stomach.
“You’re having our baby?” I asked, and she nodded and smiled sweetly. “Shit. I didn’t think that would happen this fast. I didn’t think you wanted this.”