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She shudders and sticks her tongue out in a way that’s so cute I want to pull her into my arms and kiss her adorable, angry face.
“Would you be jealous if I called out his name in my sleep?” she continues with an arched brow. “Is that the kind of person you are?”
“Melody, please I—”
“If so, tell me now.” Unshed tears begin to shine in her eyes. “Tell me, so we can end this before I scandalize my entire family by announcing that I’m moving in with you, and that I don’t care what they think about it, and that I don’t care if we’re engaged or not because I’m a full-grown woman and I’m going to do what I think is right.” She sucks in a shaky breath. “And you are the only thing that feels right. Except I’m so hurt by you right now that I could just spit.” She finishes with a soft sob as she crosses her arms over her chest and glares up at me expectantly.
I stand frozen for a moment, so overwhelmed and happy and sorry and hopeful that I don’t know what to say first.
I can’t believe she still wants to be with me, that she’s still planning to move in—assuming I can convince her I’m not a complete asshole.
“Well?” she asks after a beat. “Should I leave?”
“No. No, please!” I reach for her, cupping her elbows and holding her gently in place. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t jealous of Brian. I was…”
I pause, searching for the right words.
“Okay, maybe I was jealous,” I admit. “But mostly, I was hurt. I jumped to the wrong conclusion, and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have. And I shouldn’t have left that hospital until you were awake, and you’d told me to get lost yourself.”
“Which I wouldn’t have,” she says, sounding slightly mollified.
“I know that now.” I force my fuzzy thoughts to focus, determined to make this better. “I’m sorry I doubted that. I was so busy hating myself for what I did to you that it was easy to imagine you hating me, too.”
Her expression softens. “Why were you hating yourself? That’s crazy.”
“You almost died,” I say, my throat tight. “I was so scared I was going to lose you, and it would be all my fault.”
“It wasn’t your fault. It was a freak allergy. And you shouldn’t hate yourself. You got punched in the face by a crazy person because of me.” She lifts her fingers, letting them feather gently over the bruised place on my jaw. “I’m the one who should be hating myself.”
“Never.” I draw her closer. “I’m glad I got a chance to punch that asshole. If he comes near you again, I’m going to break his face.”
Her lips curve gently. “So…we’ve made up?”
“I hope so. I don’t like fighting with you. Or disappointing you.” I brush her hair from her face and cup her jaw in my hand. “You talk really fast when you’re mad. My dumb brain has a hard time keeping up.”
“You’re not dumb.” She leans into my touch. “Not usually, anyway. Only when you try to give up on me.”
“I’m sorry.” I brush my thumb back and forth across the petal soft skin of her cheek. “I won’t make that mistake again. And I promise, from here on out, I’ll do my best to make sure there are no more nasty surprises in our future.”
She wrinkles her nose. “We have had a streak of bad luck, haven’t we?”
“Do you think we’re cursed?”
“No, I think we’re actually pretty fortunate in the grander scheme of things,” she whispers. “Bad luck can’t last forever, but we can.”
I blink, surprised by the stinging at the edges of my eyes. But then, if anyone is going to make me cry happy tears for the first time in my life, it would be this woman, the first and last I’m ever going to love.
“I love you,” I say. “Thank you for coming here and fixing this. Us.”
“You’re welcome,” she says with a happy sigh, wrapping her arms around me and snuggling against my chest.
“I can’t believe they let you out of the hospital that fast.” I kiss the top of her head, unable to keep my lips from her body, so grateful that I was wrong and that she didn’t hesitate to set me straight.
“They didn’t,” she says. “I waited until Mom went home to change clothes and sent Brian to get me a fancy coffee from the hospital cafeteria. Then I put on the clothes Mom brought me and sneaked out. A lady I met in the parking lot gave me a ride here.”
“What?” I pull away, worry eclipsing the happiness of having Melody in my arms. “You broke out of the hospital and hopped a ride with a stranger?”
“It’s not that big a deal. I feel fine.” She lifts her chin. “And Mimi isn’t a stranger. She’s a hairdresser who drops her daughter off at the hospital gift shop for work every morning.”
