My lips crashes into hers, capturing her kiss, and I’mhome. Her breath escapes as she opens for me, and I dip my tongue inside her mouth to brush against hers. She tastes like mint, and my soulmate, and the other half of me, and I’m finally whole again. I’m finally home.
Her hands wind into my hair, holding my head in place as she meets my kiss with equal fervor. Our bodies are saying what we haven’t verbalized yet, fitting back together like the two halves they are. I’m not complete without her, and she’s not whole without me.
I pull her tight against me once more before releasing her. Standing, my hands find hers and I help pull her up. She adjusts the small bag strapped across her chest before looking back up at me.
“What’s going on?” A smile finally breaks across her face and the sight of it nearly brings me back to my knees.
I swallow, my throat tight. Finding my voice is suddenly impossible and all I can do is stare into her golden gaze for a moment.
“I had to see you. I was so lonely back there, Mel. Losing my mind without you. Day after day just going through the motions, but my heart wasn’t in it. It wasn’t in anything anymore.” My eyes devour her. She is a balm to the steady, aching pain that’s been eating away at me for months. “My heart was with you, here.” I shrug. “So, here I am.”
Mel’s lashes are lined with silver, the unshed tears nearly spilling over her flushed cheeks. “I still can’t believe you’re actually here.” She grabs my hands, running her thumbs across my palms. “How did you get here?”
“I drove.”
Mellie’s mouth falls open. “You drove all the way here from Blue Fields?”
“Sure did. I left yesterday and stopped at a motel overnight, but otherwise drove straight through.”
Her grip tightens on mine. “I’m so happy you did.” She pulls me to her, burying her face in the fabric of my flannel. “I missed you so much it hurt.”
“Well, you don’t have to anymore. I’m here now, and I don’t plan on leaving you again. Not ever.” My arms find their way home to rest across her lower back as I hold her tight.
Mel is quiet for a moment. She pulls away suddenly, her gaze studying mine, confusion flickering in her eyes. “Wait. What do you mean you’re not leaving?”
“I don’t want to be apart from you anymore, Mel. Where you go, I go. So as long as you’re in LA, I will be too.” I swallow hard, the reality of what I’m saying still setting in. “I told Will I can’t buy the diner. I’m helping him look for a replacement for me in the meantime, but once I get that squared away, I’m yours.”
Mellie takes a step back, letting our hands hang between us. “No.”
I blink.
“No?” Oh, this is my worst fucking nightmare. Mellie doesn’twantme to move here.
“No,” she repeats, shaking her head. “You can’t just give up the diner, Ronin. There is no way I’m allowing you to do that for me.”
“It’s not only for you. I’m miserable there without you, Mel. I don’t want it anymore.” That’s only half true, but the fact remains I don’t want to be where Mellie isn’t. “I wantyou.”
“You can’t move here.” Mellie’s face is set, determination painted across her features.
“Do you…not want me to move here with you?” I can barely get the question out.
“What?”Mellie seems genuinely surprised, her eyes comicallywide. “Ronin?—”
“You don’t want me here?” My heart is sinking down to the carpet, disappointment flooding my veins. It’s happening again, and I don’t think I can handle another rejection?—
“Of course I want you here,” she says, and my pulse stutters back to life. “Or, notherespecifically, but with me, yes!”
Now it’s my turn to gape. It takes me a full minute to find my voice, to remember how to use my words as she continues, “But, you can’t move here because I’m moving back home, you dummy.”
“Moving…back home?” My heart is pounding furiously in my chest and I’m legitimately concerned I may pass out. “What are you saying?”
Mel’s eyes bore into mine, the amber shining under the bright hallway lights. “Everything you said, about just going through the day to day stuff and feeling like part of you was missing, that’s how I’ve felt too. Here I am, working on an absolute dream job, and all I can think about every single day is you.” Tears finally escape her brilliant gaze, spilling down her cheeks. “How much I miss your face. How badly I want to run my fingers through your hair, and feel your heartbeat under me as I lay on your chest after you’ve just blown my mind with another earth-shattering orgasm.”
I can’t help the smirk I shoot her with those words, and she lets out a laugh through the tears still streaming down her face.
“I think about the future we were building, and living together with you, and being there for all of the silly festivals and town drama. Writing that book I’ve been talking about all year. I think about Syd and the girls and my family, and the bookstore and Nora and Julian.”
I reach up to wipe her tears with my thumbs as I cup her face in both hands.
