I run a hand over my face and hope she’s listening.
“I should have seen everything she is sooner. Maybe we could have been happy for years, but you know, I don’t know if that’s true. I think we had to take the path we did so I could really see her and appreciate her. I’m sure you all heard about what happened with Hollie Berry and her ‘claim your coal’ campaign. My girl has been a fan of Hollie’s for a long time and was pissed about the way she was treated. She jumped right on board and wanted to claim her coal.”
I pause, unsure how much I really want to say. I don’t want to share too much, but at the same time, I need to say enough.
“She needed my help with what she wanted the most in her life. I won’t reveal what that is because she deserves her privacy, but the moment she asked for my help something clicked inside of me and I was able to see Justice for all she is. I realized she’s more than my best friend. She’s mine. My woman. The love of my life. The only person who ever touched my soul.”
My engineer’s eyes are wide, and he points to the call lines lighting up. I smirk at him and hold up a finger.
“I fell in love with Justice and I’m pretty sure she fell in love with me, but for the last week, she’s been icing me out. I don’t know how to reach her another way so that’s why I’m here. I love her. That will never change and she’s scared, but I can’t live without her. I don’t blame her for pushing me away, I get it more than probably most people can. I’ve spent most of my adult life pushing people away, but that was because I had the best thing I could have right beside me. So, listeners, I need your advice. Have you been in my shoes? How did you get through to them? I also need to hear about the success stories you have, and I know you have them. I want to hear about the love you’ve found, especially when you’ve had to overcome hardships and get through the darkest days. Maybe she’ll even call in. Give me some hope, New York.”
The first few calls are full of praise telling me this is the sweetest thing they’ve ever heard and that my gesture should work or that it would work on them. I take it all in stride, but none of the calls are Justice. None of them are the woman I want to hear from and it’s hard for my gut to not sink like a stone.
Then the calls we start putting through are all about the love people have found, the love they’ve fought for, the stories of their worst days and how they led to the best ones. Hope starts to unfurl in my belly, and I hold tight to it.
I need to.
When the door to my studio bangs open, I startle and then jump up without taking my headphones off because Justice is standing in the doorway with her chest heaving. Her brown eyes are big and round. Her cheeks are flushed, and her coat is almost falling off her shoulders.
Fear grips me. She could be so mad at me for doing what I’ve done today, but the way her eyes are glassy with tears and the guarded smile on her face make hope grow a little bigger inside of me.
“Justice,” my voice is choked.
The caller who is talking, a sweet older lady who was telling me about being married to her soulmate for 40 years, sucks in a sharp breath and giggles. “Good luck, young man. I think you’ll find everything is going to work out just as it should.”
I barely hear her as I tug off my headphones and shoot a look at my sound engineer. When a commercial starts to play I close the distance to my woman, the distance which should have never been there in the first place.
“Corbin,” her voice cracks and she flings herself at me, burying her face in my chest and sobbing. “I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry. I didn’t know how to get back. I didn’t know how to undo how dismissive I was to you and how I sent you away. I wanted to open the door every day, but I was embarrassed and ashamed.”
“Babe,” I coo as I run my fingers through her hair. “I love you. Forever. You have no reason to be embarrassed or ashamed. I just wanted to be there for you.”
She pulls back enough to look up at me and I wipe the tears from her cheeks. I hate seeing her cry. It twists me up inside and makes me want to slay every dragon out there for her.
She takes a deep breath and fucking slaysmewith her words, “I love you, Corbin. I love you so damn much. I want to claim our coal, together. I want everything you’re offering and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you a week ago. I’m sorry I got in my head, and I pushed you away. I’ve been miserable and I should have held tight instead of pushing you away because I was afraid.”
I cup her face in my hand and kiss her sweetly, sighing because of how fucking right it feels to have this woman, the only woman I’ve ever loved, in my arms again. I think I’ll be questioning how I didn’t see it sooner for the rest of my life. I know the answer won’t ever matter because I see it now, I know it now.
“Fuck, Justice, you have no idea how happy I am to hear those words from your sweet lips,” I mumble, unable to stop kissing her, unable to let her go.
She giggles and when her arms wrap around me tighter, I swear I can feel her promise that she’ll never let me go. “Thank you,” she whispers.
I jerk back slightly and look down at her, my eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Why are you thanking me?”
“Because you didn’t give up on me. You poured your heart out for everyone to hear. You were brave and it made me realize I need to be brave too,” her voice is soft, and I feel myself fall a little deeper in love with this woman.
I smirk at her and wiggle my eyebrows, “I need to wrap up my little impromptu show, turn on the recorded one and then we can get out of here.” I lean closer and whisper in her ear, “We have a baby to make.”
Her laughter fills the small room around us, and I lead her over to my chair where I sit and then pull her down onto my lap. I can barely tear my eyes away from my girl.
“Thank you, New York. You’ll be happy to know Justice is here with me and she says hello to all of you. You’ve inspired me, and I’m sure many others, with your stories of love. I’m going to want to hear more of these from you soon. I think starting out the new year with hope and love is the best thing we can do. I’m going to be starting up one of our old shows because there is a certain woman I love who I need to go and celebrate with.”
I give the nod to my sound engineer and give a wave before I pull Justice out of the booth and then out of the station. It takes far too long to get back to her place, but I make sure I keep touching her the entire time.
The moment we’re inside, I push her against the door and kiss her like it’s been years and not days since the last time I was able to do this. I murmur against her lips, “I need you so fucking much, Justice.”
“I need you too,” she moans. “Don’t make me wait.”
“Never,” I promise.