Chapter 27
Six Months Later
I look around the apartment that has been my home for almost three years now, and I’m not even sure what this feeling inside of me is.
This place took so much blood, sweat, and tears for me to have, and now, I’m letting it go.
On one hand, I can’t help but wonder if I’m making a mistake, putting all my eggs in Ridge Adams’s basket and moving to Maine.
I swore I’d never give up my life for anyone, and yet here I am.
But on the other hand, the city just hasn’t felt the same since I spent those few weeks in Maine.
And now, after going back and visiting Maine a few times, New York really doesn’t feel like home any more.
I’m not sure that New York was ever my dream, but more maybe a goal that I reached and didn’t want to leave behind.
There’s a knock on the door, causing me to frown. I know the new tenants are moving in, but they aren’t supposed to be here for a few more days, and I’m not sure who else would be coming to see me. The few friends I do have in the city met me for dinner last night, and we said our goodbyes then.
When I look through the peephole, my entire face breaks into a smile when I see who’s on the other side of my door, and I can’t get it open fast enough.
Just as soon as the door opens, I’m leaping against Ridge, forcing him to catch me and wrapping my legs around his waist.
“You’re here!” I squeal, kissing him over and over again—the way annoying girlfriends who haven’t seen their boyfriends in three weeks do. “What happened to I’ll see you when you get here, baby?” I say in my best grumpy Ridge Adams’s voice.
Walking us into the apartment, he grins before kissing me back.
“That was never the plan, babe,” he drawls. “You’re just stubborn, so I had to tell you that to get you to stop insisting that you didn’t need help.”
“I don’t need—” I start to say, but his lips stop me.
Slowly pulling back, he dips his forehead to mine.
“I know you don’t need help, Stella Stewart.
I know you’re a strong, independent woman who could have loaded your own damn car up and driven to Maine all by yourself.
” He kisses me again. “But you have a boyfriend who wants to help. And a boyfriend who isn’t catching shit for lobsters right now and needed to take a few days to let his traps set, anyway. ”
I love when he talks in lobster lingo. And even though, when he’s on the phone with a fishing buddy, I don’t usually know what they are even saying, I love the way he sounds. And by now, I know “super set” just means he’s going to not haul for a few extra days because the lobsters are scarce.
“Okay, so what you’re saying is, me allowing you to help me is kinda like I’m doing you a favor.” I raise a brow. “So, I’m really helping you avoid feeling like a loser who isn’t catching any lobsters.”
“Geesh, go easy on me, baby, would you?” he drones. “But yeah. Yeah, that’s pretty much it.”
“You’ll always be a winner to me,” I say cheesily before kissing his cheek. “I love you. Thank you for coming to help. Even when I swore I didn’t want you to, I did. I’m really glad you’re here.”
“Love you too, you complicated-as-hell woman, who I love so much,” he says, setting me on my feet and looking down at me. “What do you say, Fireball? Time to get the car loaded and head home?”
Home. I’ve never really felt like I had one, but now … I somehow know that’s exactly where I’m headed.
The last time I went to Maine, he walked me around some oceanfront property right next to the wharf.
For the first time, he told me he loved me and that he missed me the second I left Maine.
And even though he’d lived alone for his entire adult life, his house just didn’t feel like a home when I wasn’t there.
Everything he said, I felt the same way. And I think I had loved him long before we said the words out loud, too afraid to actually say them. After all, my track record with being lovable really wasn’t that strong, and I didn’t want to jinx myself.
While we stood next to the water, he told me that even though his family wanted to keep the land in their name, they did want to consider building some sort of educational center for schools to take field trips to.
I think Ridge knew that if I was going to move to Maine, it couldn’t be just for him.
It had to be for something for myself too.
And that’s why, next week, we’re breaking ground on the Holiday Harbor Educational Center. And I get to be the one to design the building plan, per Ridge’s entire family’s blessing.
“You all right, beautiful?” he asks, interrupting my thoughts of what a whirlwind my life has been since mid-December.
“Yeah,” I whisper.
And as I take one last look around my apartment and walk toward the window to look out at the city, I nod slowly. “It’s time.”
A little over six months ago, I went to the coast of Maine to seal the deal on a property that I didn’t realize was priceless. Instead … I brought in the biggest catch of all.
The salty fisherman who wasn’t so salty after all.