Believing that was so much better than accepting the crap as it was.
“I’m sorry it didn’t turn out better,” Caleb said, still staring at where Dad had left.
“Me too,” Summer returned weakly. “But, it could have been worse.”
“We’ll keep trying,” Mel said firmly.
Summer and Caleb looked at her, and for the first time she saw the resemblance. Something about the way their eyebrows raised to practically the tops of their heads when they were surprised.
“He’s still in there,” she added. “The man he used to be. He just has to stop being so afraid. We should keep trying, I think. Not right now, but…we should. Don’t you think?”
Summer’s surprise morphed into a smile, and she flung her arms around Mel’s neck. “Yes, I think so,” she whispered, squeezing Mel tight.
Mel awkwardly patted her back, offering Caleb a “what am I supposed to do?” look, but he just shrugged, and if she wasn’t totally off base, his mouth curled up at the corner just a little bit.
“Let’s eat,” Summer said, finally releasing Mel. Of course then it was Caleb’s turn to awkwardly pat her back when she gave him a hug. “Emotional heartbreak makes me hungry.”
She jangled off to the kitchen, and Mel and Caleb stood there, looking at each other.
“You’re right,” Caleb offered.
“I know.”
This time Caleb really did smile. “That mean you’re going to go make up with that asshole hockey player?”
Mel pressed a hand to her stomach. Dan. Just the mention of him hurt in places that couldn’t be reached, couldn’t be soothed. Not by anyone but him.
But she had said some truly horrible things in her attempt to push him away. How did she face those? How did he forgive those? She might not be strong enough to deny her love for him, but was it too late? “I don’t know.”
“For what it’s worth”—he shoved a hand through his rumpled hair—“you probably should.”
Mel swallowed. “That’ll probably be met with the same reaction Dad just gave us.”
Caleb shrugged. “You’re the one who said we should keep trying.”
Right. Keep trying. Because the hope was better than defeat. Because…life with Dan hadn’t broken her. It hadn’t made everything hard. It had opened her eyes. It had cracked her open, so maybe she could heal instead of soldier on.
Because of him. His strength, his support, his love. She’d been cruel, and it hurt that she’d allowed fear the power to make her cruel. But she was still strong. She was still Mel Shaw.
And she was in love. If Dan didn’t forgive her the first time, maybe she’d just…keep trying.
*
Chicago was no longer home. Dan felt it the minute he stepped off the plane. It dug in during his meeting with Scott, as he walked around his apartment, trying to figure out what he needed to do before he could call someone to pack it all up. As he tried to remember why he’d thought he needed three days here. In retrospect, he wished he’d flown in for the press conference and flown out.
This was not his home, and maybe it never had been. Llamas and mountains were home. Mel was home.
“Well, fuck that,” he muttered. That was… He and Mel were… The word he needed was a word he was having trouble accepting.
Over.
Whether his brain wanted to accept it or not, it was one of those things beyond his control. He had laid his heart on the line, she didn’t want it, and there wasn’t anything he could do about it except accept it and not let it change the course of his life or the decisions he could control.
It was shit, and it did hurt, and maybe it would always hurt, but it wasn’t reason enough to run away. If there was something to be taken away from that phone call with Grandpa, it was that hurt and happy sometimes kind of bled all over each other, and the good parts were worth it. Escape didn’t change the hurt, but it sure as hell kept a lot of the good at bay too.
That phone call had killed him, but his grandpa thought Dan would stay. Someone believed that Dan Sharpe could be happy there. Even if Grandpa hadn’t known who he was talking to, he’d…known.
Mel and Blue Valley had changed Dan. He’d grown into someone else, someone who didn’t fit into his old life anymore, and that was worth the hurt.
It was all worth it.
If when someone knocked on his door his idiot brain fantasized it was Mel on the other side, it didn’t matter. Because it turned out to be his parents. Together.
Surely that had to rank higher on a scale of weird than llamas.
“Mom. Dad. I didn’t know you were both in town.”
Mom smiled at Dad, but it was one of her pressed-lip smiles, kind of pained—a forced show of politeness. “We thought it might be good if the three of us were in the same place.”
He moved out of the doorway so they could step inside. Any random thoughts that perhaps his parents had gotten over their unease with each other disappeared when they immediately separated. Dad going to one side, Mom to the other.
“Daniel…”