Without a word, she turned, and a few moments later, a steamy bowl of froth was set in front of me. “Thank you.” I looked up. “These are as incredible as I remember.”
Her smile was bright, her voice teasing. “I guess after making about a million fucking dozen they should be.”
My biscuit froze partway to my mouth. “You don’t swear.”
She smirked, then turned and walked away. “I learned,” she called over her shoulder.
I chuckled as I ate my biscuit.
Learning. That was what we had to do. Relearn each other. Move forward from the past.
Could we do that? Could we be Linc and Sunny again?
She slid into the seat across from me, sipping a cup of coffee. She looked out the window.
“It’s almost summer,” she mused. “It’ll be busy here again.”
I reached across the table for her hand. She let me take it, and I liked how mine engulfed hers, folding over her small palm protectively.
“Will you try with me, Sunny? Can we use the summer to get back to where we were?”
She shook her head, and my heart sank.
“I don’t want to go back to where we were, Linc. It was too tumultuous and scary. Can’t we just be Linc and Sunny now? Two people who have met and want to get to know each other?”
“Let the past go, you mean?”
She looked down at our hands. “The past shaped us, made us who we are. It will always be a part of us, but I would rather face the future looking forward.” She smiled. “I know we still have a lot to talk about, and deal with, but I would like to try.”
“With me?” I asked, hopeful.
“With you.”
“Another summer of us, then?”
Her reply was all I needed to hear.
“I’d like to think of it as the start of us. A lifetime instead of a season.”
There was so much I wanted to say. Thoughts and dreams I wanted to share with her. Memories I needed to talk about and clear from my head. But with her words, I knew I could. We would find our way, and with time, we’d heal and move forward.
Together.
I leaned over the table and brought her mouth to mine.
“I can live with that.”
She smiled as I kissed her.
And I was finally home.
Also by Melanie Moreland
Vested Interest Series
Bentley (Vested Interest #1)
Aiden (Vested Interest #2)