AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Lance hums, his fingertips pressing against my lower back gently as he semiforces me toward the crosswalk. I don’t want to cross the street. I don’t want to go anywhere near that salon, but it seems as if I don’t get a choice because that is exactly where he guides me.
“Lance,” I exhale. “Please don’t.”
We walk across the street, then stand directly in front of the door. What once was my door. He lets out a grunt as I turn to him.
“I don’t want to be here,” I whisper.
He hums but doesn’t say anything immediately. He lifts his coffee cup to his lips and takes a long sip.
“Lance, please,” I whisper.
Wordlessly, he shifts his hand, then shoves it into his pocket. When he brings it back out, there is something that glints in the sunlight. I don’t know what it is immediately, but he holds his hand out, the object dangling in his fingers, and I realize that it’s not just one glinting item but two.
Keys.
“Lance?” I whisper.
“It’s yours.”
Two words.
That’s all he says. My entire body freezes. I turn to him with my lips parted as I stare up at him. I don’t take the dangling keys from his hands. I continue to stand in the middle of the street, my eyes wide, my lips parted, full of disbelief. I also feel like I want to burst into tears… immediately.
I don’t.
I continue to stare. I don’t know what to say, what to think. What to even believe. I can’t breathe. I can’t do anything except stare at this man dangling those silver keys from his fingertips.
“The salon is yours, buttercup.”
He says those words, and I understand them, but they do not sink in at all. I continue to simply stare, frozen in complete shock.
“Lance,” I whisper. “I… I don’t know what to say.”
My words come out on a whispered breath. It’s all I can manage. Then, before I realize what’s happening, I am crying and trembling. I’m a mess. Standing in front of everything I thought I’d lost, keys dangling to give it all back to me.
“How?” I ask. “You’ve been paying the rent?” I ask. “I’ll pay you back every single cent.”
Lance chuckles, shaking the keys gently again before he speaks. “I didn’t rent anything, Reese. I bought it. And you don’t have to pay back shit. You’re my woman.”
“What?” I breathe. “What?”
His chuckle turns into a full-on laugh, but he doesn’t jingle the keys again. Instead, he moves toward the door, and I watch as he slips the key inside, then turns it. I’ve opened that salon door a hundred times. When it sticks, my lips curve into a smile—it always sticks.
He pulls it open and stands to the side. His eyes find mine. They hold my own, and I suck in a breath as I take a step toward him, then another, and another, until I’m completely inside. Standing in the middle of the salon, a place I built. A place that hasn’t changed since the day I walked out, except it’s a bit cleaner now.
“You bought this?” I ask. “Just bought it?”
He hums before he tosses the keys on the reception desk. I watch them land, then shift my gaze back to meet his. Tears are not just falling down my cheeks now. They’re pouring. I watch as he shifts his attention toward me, closing the distance between us.
He lifts his hands, cupping my cheeks as his eyes find mine. “For you, yeah.”
“But you didn’t know I was going to be coming back,” I whisper.
Lance shifts his head closer to me, his mouth touching mine before he speaks. With every word he says, his lips brush mine, touch mine. And every second he does this, it drives me completely insane.
“Yeah, I did. I knew you’d be back here eventually.
“How?”
