I blink once. Then again. Then a third time.
She’s still there.
So I do the only logical thing I can think to do.
I poke her in the shoulder.
The woman of my dreams is standing at my doorstep and I justpoked her in the shoulder.
And now I’m blurting, “You’re real.”
Her smile shifts from hesitant to full-on blinding. “I am.”
“You’re here.”
“I missed you. I didn’t get to say goodbye. I didn’t want to say goodbye. And I thought,what would Amanda do, and since IamAmanda, I decided the best thing to do was hop on a plane and come see you.”
Chili’s circling her, rubbing his body against her legs. No luggage. Just a backpack.
She really did spontaneously fly out here to see me.
“I don’t want to be friends,” I say.
Her brows lift in surprise.
Fuck.That came out wrong. “I was on my way to the airport. To come see you. To be more than friends. If you want. Because I want. I want you. And I—”
I thrust a hand through my hair.
I was supposed to have five hours on a plane to figure out what to say to her, and instead, I’m a stuttering, stammering mess.
“I want,” she whispers. “I’m here because I want.”
It’s not real until she steps into my space bubble and goes up on her tiptoes, wrapping her arms around me and pressing a kiss to my lips.
The feel of her against me jolts me back to reality.
And thisisreality.
She’s here.
She’s solid and warm and she smells like cinnamon sugar and tastes like dreams come true and she doesn’t have to be here for any reason beyondwantingto be here.
“I wanted you to be at the party so bad last night,” she whispers between soft kisses to my lips and my chin and my jaw. “It felt like I was missing half of myself. The better half.”
A shudder ripples through me.
Relief? Overwhelming joy? Love?
All of it?
I boost her up into my arms, and she wraps her legs around my hips, kissing my face while I push my suitcase back into my apartment, pull my dog inside, and shut the door.
And then I take charge of the kissing.
All my awkwardness melts away, leaving me with nothing more than a feeling of utter adoration and desperate need for this woman who came to getmebefore I could leave to go get her.
She wants me.
