I was about to answer him when Anna’s grip on my shoulder tightened. I slowly turned to meet her heated gaze. “He didn’t see your hair when you filmed the ‘commercial’?” Before I could explain, she answered her own question. “No…of course he didn’t see it. Because you didn’t really stay with your family while you were here. You lied to keep me away…so I wouldn’t find out that what you were filming wasn’t really a commercial.”

Shaking her head, she leaned back in the seat and turned to stare out the window. Fuck. And just when I’d been getting somewhere with her. Dad looked over at me with a frown. “You were in town and didn’t say hello? Marsha is not gonna like that.” Great.

When we got to Dad’s house, I immediately understood what he meant by “busy.” Mom was babysitting the twins for Chelsey, and about a billion of my relatives were visiting; both Mom and Dad came from super-huge families. Somebody was always stopping by. The house was chaos incarnate. Liam was there too, practicing lines for an audition.

Liam blinked in surprise when he saw me. “Wow, you actually did do it. You quit the band. Are you an idiot or just plain stupid?”

I was about to comment, but Anna beat me to it. “Griffin’s not an idiot. He made a career change, that’s all. He’s got a plan…and it’s going to work out fine.”

She said that last part like she was convincing herself as well as my brother, but I was too impressed that she’d actually defended my decision to really care.

I pulled my gaze away from Anna as Dad started pointing to a room down the hall—my old bedroom. “The four of you are going to have to share a room.” He shrugged, like nothing could be done about it. Anna sighed but followed me as I walked down the hallway to our new, albeit temporary, home.

When we got to my old bedroom, which was still awesomely decorated in KISS and Poison posters, I turned to Anna. “Thanks for that.”

“For what?” she murmured, laying Onnika on the ground.

“For having my back with Liam. For saying I wasn’t an idiot for doing this.”

Anna gave me a small smile then started checking Onnika’s diaper. “I’m still not sold on this, Griffin, and I’m still really pissed that you agreed to this behind my back, that you lied multiple times, and that you ever spouted the words ‘end of discussion’ like some controlling dickwad asshole…but I didn’t like what he was saying.” Peeking up at me, her tiny grin slightly widened. “You may be an idiot, but you’re my idiot.”

Grabbing her hand, I yanked her to her feet. She squeaked as she let go of the elastic on Onnika’s diaper, making Onnika smile. Her deep green eyes were a smaller version of her mother’s; even though Onnie’s dark hair wasn’t very long, they were near twins already.

Wrapping my arms around Anna’s waist, I pulled her tight to my body. “Come with me tomorrow.”

Relaxing, she linked her arms around my neck. “To the set?”

I nodded. “Yeah. Come with me and check it out. Then maybe you’ll get excited about this.”

She chewed on her lip, and my cock twitched. Damn that was sexy. “Maybe…All right, I’ll go with you. Could be fun.” She smiled while she held her lip in her teeth, and I saw the familiar playful gleam in her eye spark to life. There’s my girl.

I was just about to ask Gibson to take her sister into the next room when Mom appeared in my doorway. “Oh good, you’re here. You can help me make dinner. And by help, I mean get your ass in the kitchen.” Her smile was warm but her words were firm. There was no getting out of kitchen duty once it had been assigned to you.

“Thanks, Mom, be there in a minute.” Maybe after a quickie with my wife.

Mom started walking away, then she stopped, walked over to me, and smacked me across the head. “That’s for not visiting while you were in town. Nice hair.”

She left the room and Anna started laughing. My head hurt, but hearing Anna laugh again was a relief. “Serves you right. That’s karma telling you not to lie, especially to your wife.” Her eyes grew icy, and I knew that even though she was trying to let it go, she was still pissed about my deception.

Holding her shoulders, I looked her square in the eye. “I’m sorry, okay? And I won’t do it again.” We were already here, there was no reason to lie again now. This was going to be smooth sailing from here on out.

Resentful fire brightened her eyes. “You better not lie to me again.”

Giving her a sheepish smile, I made an X over my heart.

Anna pursed her lips, then slowly nodded. “Okay…why don’t you tell me about your show then, so I know what to expect tomorrow.”

I was giddy to finally be able to tell her about it. Holding it inside had been killing me, but once the secret was out of the bag, and I could talk about it, she hadn’t wanted to listen. Every time I’d tried to tell her about the show the last few days, she’d quietly left the room. “Well, for starters…I’m a rock star.” Her eyes widened and I grinned. “Yeah, I know, ironic, huh? And in a way, appropriate. I’m still living out my childhood dream, it’s just bigger and badder than ever.”

Anna gave me small smile that was more on the encouraging side than the humoring smile, and my mood lifted even higher. With Anna firmly at my side, there wasn’t anything I couldn’t do. I was going to own this town, it was just a matter of time.