Chapter 45
Chapter Forty-Five
RONIN
Speeding down the highway, a wave of déjà vu crashes over me. This isn’t exactly the same as the previous time I’d been to California, but the circumstances feel similar enough that I can’t help but compare the two.
This time, however, I have no intention of leaving without telling Mellie exactly how I feel.
Windows down to let in the beautifully warm LA air, a welcome contrast to the dipping temperatures and wet weather I’d left behind, the breeze kisses my skin.
I glance at the GPS on my phone, flicking on the turn signal as I change lanes.
Mellie’s workplace is nearby, and I know she’s got a relatively slow day today.
I can’t wait for her to get off work hours from now, so straight to her office I go.
My nerves are completely fried. Mellie’s reaction to me showing up at her job has the potential to backfire, but I’m hopeful that won’t be the case.
When we talked a couple of days ago, she told me that half of the staff would be gone due to some group bonding thing they had scheduled.
Mel had opted out to finish a project in the unusually empty office.
So, if she is completely mortified that I’ve invaded her workplace, at least there won’t be a ton of people to witness my humiliation. There’s that, right?
Shaking off my anxiety, I turn into the parking lot of the address plugged into my phone’s map. A few cars are scattered around the empty lot, and I swing my truck into a spot near the entrance.
Taking a deep breath, I flip my visor down to check my reflection in the tiny mirror. My hair is a windblown mess, and I do my best to tame it before gathering up the last ounce of courage I can muster and step out of the truck.
Finding her floor is relatively easy. As I walk through the carpeted halls, I recognize the space from a few quick video chats with Mel—times when she’d escaped into a hall or empty room for a rushed hello.
I scan the doorways and floor to ceiling windows as I pass, searching for the suite I know Mellie’s team occupies.
As I round the next corner, I smack directly into a person who took the turn as briskly as I did. Our bodies collide with a heavy thump and we both go sprawling to the floor.
“Oof.” A familiar grunt comes from the heap of clothing next to me and my head whips up, taking in Mellie’s rumpled form on the patterned carpet.
“Mel?” My voice comes out rough.
Mellie snaps up, her eyes blown wide and her hair in a tousled mess atop her head. “Ronin?”
She gapes at me for a full ten seconds before we both leap toward each other. Her words come out a muffled, jumbled mess against my chest as I crush her body to mine. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh my God, I have fucking missed you,” I breathe into her hair, my eyes squeezing shut. My embrace tightens around her as I fight back the tears threatening to escape at the feel of her in my arms again. I never want to let her go.
“Seriously, Ronin, what are you doing here? How are you here?” Mellie pulls back slightly to stare into my face, her amber gaze searching mine. “Is everything okay?”
“Now it is.”
My lips crashes into hers, capturing her kiss, and I’m home. 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’t want me 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 want you.”
“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 comically wide. “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, not here specifically, 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.
“I think about how much I wanted this job and how I thought it was my dream. But then I realized, it’s not. I don’t want this anymore. All I want—all I want for the rest of my life, is you, Ronin.”
My cheeks are wet with the tears I hadn’t even realized were leaking out until I lean down to brush my lips against Mellie’s, the droplets mixing together with hers. She kisses me back, her arms wrapping around my neck and gripping me tightly against her.
She pulls away first, and it’s her turn to swipe away the moisture on my face. “A life with you. That’s my dream.”
“Shit, Mel,” I choke out, resting my chin on the top of her head as I pull her close. “I love you so much.”
“I love you, too.”
“I don’t care where we are. A life with you is all I want as well.” I tip her chin up so her watery gaze meets mine. “You’re really sure about this? About coming back to Blue Fields?”
Mel nods. “Believe it or not, I miss the place.” She chuckles.
“I miss Bree and Brooklyn making out everywhere we go. Syd being the Gemini to my Leo that I didn’t know I needed.
” She runs a hand down my face, tracing my lips with a fingertip.
“I miss the smell of the diner and the sight of you bringing me coffee every afternoon when you know how tired I am.” She brings her lips to flutter against mine.
“Who would have thought I’d even miss the gazebo? ”
We laugh, our foreheads touching and breath mingling.
“Thirteen-year old Mel is feeling so betrayed by you right now, I just know it,” I whisper, grinning against her lips.
I lose track of time as we stand embracing in the middle of the empty hall.
Eventually we pull apart, but I keep Mellie’s hand gripped firmly in my own.
“What were you doing out here, anyway? Were you leaving?”
Mel laughs, wiping her face with her sleeve. “Oh, um yeah, I was. I actually just quit right before running into you. Your timing couldn’t have been more perfect, because ten minutes later and I would have been long gone.”
I shake my head, laughing. “Fate, you sly lady.”