The question was loaded. I wanted to know desperately what Melanie was feeling but there was a part of me that knew if she said she couldn’t do this again, that it would hurt worse than last time. I held my breath, waiting to hear what was about to fall from her mouth.
“Jack.” She paused and pulled away from me, placing both of her hands on the side of my face. “Will you come over for family dinner tonight? You, me, and Amelia.”
“Yes, of course but how does that have anything to do with how you feel, Melanie?”
“Good. We’re going to do homemade pizza tonight.”
She stood from the table and grabbed her empty cup. She was only a foot away before I reached for her hand, stopping her in her tracks.
“Melanie, what does this have to do with your feelings?”
“It has everything to do with my feelings, Jack.”
I raised an eyebrow at her in confusion. What she was saying was what I was wanting to hear but it didn’t make any sense. Not until her last words before she walked out of the coffee shop. They left me standing there in awe and praying for it to be tonight already.
“Because I love you, Jack.”
Twenty-Two
“Come in,”Melanie shouted after I’d knocked. I made my way into the house; the smell of freshly baked bread filled my nose.
“It smells like an Italian pizza shop in here.” I made my way back to the kitchen, looking in as Amelia started to get toppings out of the fridge and Melanie took the cooked crust out of the oven.
“I wanted to get the crust started before we did toppings.” I raised an eyebrow at her, not understanding what she was meaning.
“What?” she questioned me.“I like to bake the crust a little first before I put the toppings on and then do the final bake.”
“I’ve never seen someone make pizza like that,” I admitted and made my way over to the island counter where Amelia was placing the cheese.
“How are you doing, Amelia?”
“Good! Mommy said we were having family dinner.” Amelia looked up at me and I could see the happiness in her eyes. “Are you part of our family, Jack?”
I looked over to Melanie who was staring at both of us with tears in her eyes. This was probably moving a lot faster than what she’d anticipated with me coming over tonight but here it was. Amelia wasn’t cutting any corners like Melanie and myself were. She wanted to know what was going on and she was for sure going to find out.
“Of course he is, baby girl.” Melanie came over to us, grabbing a hold of Amelia’s hand and one of mine, bringing them together. We stood there in the kitchen, all together, and it finally clicked. This was it. There was no going back from here. Melanie had said she loved me and once was all I was pretty sure I was ever going to need.
I didn’t need an explanation when it came to those words. I didn’t need her to tell me why. Just her saying it them world to me. Now she was telling her daughter that we were a family and I finally felt complete.
Almost.
I still had the ring back in my condo, waiting for the right moment to be able to give it to her. I wanted us to be in a good place as far as telling our families and figuring out what it is we were both wanting out of the long run. I wasn’t planning on it taking long but I knew we still needed more time even though we’d both found ourselves on the same page of love.
“I’m hungry,” Amelia broke the silence between us, pushing me out of the way, and climbing up on the stool that was in front of the island. She ripped into the cheese as Melanie opened the sauce container.
We each made our own pan pizza’s. Amelia had a simple cheese pizza, I had pepperoni with extra sauce but when it came to seeing what Melanie had made, I almost gagged.
“What. Is. That?” I looked at her pizza in disgust.
“A pizza.” She smacked me on the shoulder. “It’s the best pizza I’ve ever had. Barbecue pizza with Colby jack cheese and pineapple.”
“Mommy says it’s good but it’s not,” I snickered at Amelia’s own disgusted face as she left the island and sat at the table with a coloring book. Melanie put the pizzas into the oven and we waited for them to be completed.
“If you say so. I’ll take the pineapple on the pizza any day, but adding Colby jack and barbecue sauce,” I made a disgusted face that Amelia laughed at. “then I’ll just have to take your word on that one.”
Melanie and I leaned against the island counter, our arms touching but nothing more. “But don’t think I’m going to try that nasty concoction, love.”
She rolled her eyes and made her way over to Amelia to help her color the current page she was on. It felt right being back in this house with both of these girls. They looked happy and it was crazy to think that a week ago when I’d seen them, they both looked miserable. Just as much as I’d felt.
