“Hi,” he said, swallowing. “Are you home?”
She was silent for a moment. “Why?”
“Because, um. I’m outside.”
She didn’t say anything for so long that Niko’s heart felt like it was going to beat a hole through his chest. “Are you fucking kidding me?” she finally replied.
Niko opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He had to fight to get air into his lungs. In the background, he heard honking, the hum of traffic. Noises that definitely didn’t sound like Crested Peak. “Where are you?”
“I’m in fucking Athens,” she said before breaking into hysterical laughter. Niko started laughing, too, his hand coming involuntarily to his forehead.
“What?” he breathed, unable to wrap his mind around what she was saying.
“I just landed, I’m on my way to my hotel right now. I thought you were supposed to be here. I was coming to beg you to take me back.”
After twenty-four hours during which it felt like his brain was short-circuiting nonstop, hearing her say that was a hard reset, everything clicking back into place.
“Well, that’s convenient, because I was coming to begyouto takemeback.”
“I can think of a way it could be more convenient,” Merritt said, fighting to hold back her laughter.
“Wait,” he said. “You got on a plane? For fifteen hours? For me?”
“Dead sober, too. That’s how you know it’s really love.” She let out an annoyed exhale. “Shit. I wanted to tell you in a more romantic way than that.”
“I don’t know if there is a more romantic way than that,” he said. “But I love you, too. I love you enough tonotget on a plane.”
He stood there on her stoop grinning like an idiot, and even though she was quiet, he felt like he could hear her smiling through the phone, too.
“I wanted to have this conversation in person, at least.” The pang in her voice reminded him why he’d been spurred into action in the first place.
No point in beating around the bush. “Are you…are you pregnant?”
She was silent. Then, he heard her mutter something under her breath that sounded like “Goddammit, Diedre.” Into the phone she said, “No, I’m not. Is that why you came back?” His stomach clenched, but he couldn’t untangle whether it was from disappointment or the nervous edge to her tone.
“No,” he said. “I came back because I was done pretending I could live without you.”
Her voice softened. “But what about your family?”
“I can still visit.”
“I meant…what about the one you want?”
“I wantyouto be my family, Merritt,” he said, and he wondered if she could hear the pounding of his heart over the phone. “Whatever that looks like. Whether it’s just the two of us, or more than that one day.” He’d walked away from her front door now, staring out at the heart-achingly familiar view of the town, dizzy with gratitude to see it again. “But it’ll never just be the two of us, here.”
“Yeah,” she said, her voice cracking. “I want that, too.”
“I’m going to come back and get an apartment. I don’t care if it’s not as nice as my old place. I’ll figure something out.”
“No, you won’t. You’re going to move in with me.”
His heart surged, then sank. “Are you sure? Moving into your house because I don’t have anywhere else to go…I don’t want to be a freeloader.”
She laughed under her breath. “Well, I would hope it’s not just because you have nowhere else to go. But it’s your house, too, Niko. Every inch of it.”
He felt himself getting choked up again and cleared his throat. “And you’re not worried someday you’ll want…someone on your level?”
She took a sharp, shaky inhale, and he almost regretted saying it out loud. But he had to. It would eat him up inside if he didn’t.
