AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I didn’t mean, I…oh God, that didn’t come out right.”
“It’s okay.” Millie got up. “Don’t apologize for being honest. Cal and I are complicated. And truthfully, right now, I’m probably more confused than you are.”
“Does that mean you’re getting back together?”
Millie Sue slowly shrugged. “I know what I want. I don’t know if I can have it.” She smiled, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Not every love story has a happy ending. Sometimes two people are meant for each other, but that doesn’t mean they should be together.”
“I call bullshit. Sorry, Millie, but don’t you think you should at least try? You’re both very different people now. You’re grown-ass adults with the tools and capability of dealing with problems.” She tossed a piece of chocolate into her mouth. “We live in a world that can be hard and cold and unfair. Love is the only thing that makes it all worth it. Come on, Mills, every song you’ve ever written, every song Cal has ever written, has been about love. If you have a chance at it, why wouldn’t you fight to keep it?”
The conversation had turned heavy, and Millie Sue was searching for a joke or something funny to lighten things up when her office door opened, and Mike Paul strode in. If he was surprised to see Ivy, it didn’t show.
“You need to come out to the bar.”
Irritated, Millie Sue was about to tell Mike Paul where he could stuff it, when he interrupted her.
“Cal’s here. He’s on stage. And he’s waiting.”
Cement took hold, and she couldn’t move. She hadn’t talked to Cal since she’d thrown herself at him the night before. He’d sent two messages asking how she was feeling, but she’d been too embarrassed to reply. Cheeks red and heated, she waited a few moments, but then Ivy pushed her, and the cement crumbled.
She followed her friends out into a hushed bar, where the only sound was the slow strumming of a guitar. The melody wasn’t something she’d heard before. It was full of minor notes, the kind that tugged at a heart and enveloped a soul.
She walked to the bar and stood off to the side, eyes on stage as Cal peered back at her. He looked so damn good, dressed in old worn jeans and a simple black T-shirt. His handsome face was framed by five o’clock shadow, and his eyes glittered from the stage lights trained on him.
His band was with him, but they were silent as he strummed the hypnotic melody, and when he began to talk, the entire bar was silent, save for Cal.
“I went to Nashville to make a name for myself. I wanted to make it big.” Cheers rang out at his words, and he played on. “I thought it was what I needed to be happy. And I was for a while. My songs went to number one. I was on the road all the time. When I was off, I had the big spread in Tennessee and a ranch out in California.” He shrugged. “I’ve spent exactly three nights at that place. Kind of silly, don’t you think?”
He strummed a few more bars and then stopped. “I came home because my brother needed me. Because my family needed me. It was broken, and I was a big part of that. It took time, more time than it should have, for me to know I had to work at mending some fences. I left Big Bend because I thought it was the only way for me to reach for the stars. To have what it was I needed to be happy. But I was an idiot, because what I need to be happy, what I need for my heart and my soul, is right here.” He paused and, with the bright lights shining in his eyes, shaded his face with his hand so that he could see her.
“Millie Sue Jenkins.” He smiled, and her heart ached at the sight of it. “You been tattooed into my skin since the day we met. There isn’t a memory in my mind that doesn’t have you in it. I know you think we can’t be together. That our worlds are too different. But I’m here right now telling you that they don’t have to be. I’m done being afraid to take what I want. Afraid to do whatever it takes to get that. And what that is, is making you happy. Because you make me happy. You make me still, so that I can see. You make me calm, so that I can rest. And you make me mad, so that we can make up.”
A loud cheer rang out at that, and Mike Paul kissed the top of her head before pushing her forward, toward the stage.
“I love you, Mills. I’m not leaving again.” He winked. “Though I do have to get up on stage on occasion.”
“Hell yes,” someone shouted.
“But if you’re not with me when I’m doing it, then I’m coming right back home to you.” He paused, and she saw his heart in his eyes. “That’s if you’ll have me.”
White noise rang in her ears, and Millie Sue felt as if she was in the middle of a storm. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t talk. She could do nothing but watch as he set down his guitar and hopped off the stage. The crowd fell back, giving him space, and he didn’t stop until he was inches from her. So close she could count his eyelashes, feel his heat, smell his aftershave.
“What do you say, Millie?”
The ground gave way, her feet were released, and she jumped into his arms, holding him fast as her mouth devoured his. She kissed him until her head spun and her knees went weak. And then she kissed him some more. When they finally came up for air, Cal looked at the crowd around them and quipped, “I guess that means yes.”
He set her down and then held out his hand. “You care to join me on stage?”
Her heart was pounding out of her chest. It had to be. There was no room inside because it was too full. Cal followed her onto the stage, and someone handed her a guitar. Automatically, she tuned it and then turned to Cal, waiting—for what, she had no idea, but that was okay. She wasn’t alone.
He began to play the melody he’d been strumming earlier, and she quickly followed suit, waiting for him to sing. When he did, she found herself rooted in place, listening to his warm, rich voice sing a song about a girl with blue eyes and freckles. A girl who’d stolen his heart. One he’d lost and then found again. By the time he got round to the chorus for the second time, she joined in, her harmony so perfect, it made most folks cry.
It was a night spoken of fondly for many months to come. The night one of their own came home for good. And as the last of them cleared out of the Sundowner many hours later, it was a night that had only begun for Millie.
She said goodbye to Ivy and Mike Paul, the last two to leave, and turned to face the only man who made her heart sing. A small smile tugged at her mouth. “What now?”
Cal grabbed hold of her chin and slid his mouth along her jaw until he claimed her mouth in a soft, gentle kiss. Then he nipped at her throat and murmured, “I’m taking you back to your place. It’s time to get naked.”
With that, he scooped her into his arms, and she laid her head on his chest. She was exactly where she was supposed to be.
