Page 30 of January (New Orleans #1)

“O h, just talk to her already,” Bridgette said.

“About her mom? I assume that’s going to happen, but she said it was fine. I considered actually going to jail there for a minute, but I don’t think I’d do well in jail.”

“You’d be your cellmate’s bitch in a heartbeat, but I’m not talking about running into her mom. Tell her about how you desperately want her to stay and never go away.”

“We’re dating, Bridge. I think she knows I want her to stay.”

“Then, at least ask her what her plans are,” Bridgette suggested as she turned the car on the street that led to Kyle’s house, the garden one, which Kyle had requested Melinda to stay in with her that night for some reason.

“She already has. She’s staying until the house is finished.”

“And then, what happens? She leaves? Do you visit her? Does she come back here in a month or something?”

“I know we have that stuff to work out, but if I bring it up now and she says she doesn’t know when we’ll see each other again, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

“So, you’ll continue to delay this very important conversation until you’re saying goodbye to her at the airport?”

“God, don’t talk to me about airport goodbyes. I’m not ready for that.”

“I’m only saying that I think she’s in, Mel. She’s in with you. You two just need to figure out what that looks like after the house is done being fixed up.”

“We will, but not tonight. Her mom is causing all sorts of problems, and I don’t want to add to them by asking her questions she might not be ready for. I mean, what am I going to say, really? Please move here for me, even though we just met and you’re going through probably one of the most difficult parts of your life? I think I’m in love with you, and I know I told you that I move fast, and it’s always been wrong, but that’s not what’s happening now? Please trust me? You’re different?”

“All that sounds good to me,” Bridgette said before she pulled the car over and parked, turning to Melinda.

“Bridge, I can’t put all that on her.”

“Maybe not all of it, yeah, but some of it, at least.”

“Not tonight,” Melinda replied. “Now, go home. And thank you for the unnecessary ride.”

“I hardly ever have the car, so I figured why not take advantage of it.”

“Speaking of that… Why did you? You didn’t tell me.” Melinda reached into the back seat for her overnight bag.

“Just doing the replenishment today.”

“You? What happened to that company you use?”

“Nothing. We just don’t use them anymore,” Bridgette replied.

Melinda met her eyes for a second before Bridgette looked away.

“And what’s the truth?”

“I hate that you know me,” Bridgette said.

“No, you don’t.”

“No, I don’t .” Bridgette sighed, staring out the windshield. “We had to let them go.”

“Did they do something wrong?”

“No. We couldn’t afford them anymore, which is why we haven’t hired anyone else.”

“Couldn’t afford them?”

“You know how I’m supposed to take over the company one day?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, there might not be a company to take over.”

“What?” Melinda asked, turning to face her friend.

“Yeah… We’re hanging on for now, but we’ve had to cut some expenses, and we’ve already dropped some stores in order to make sure we could replenish the ones we can get to without vendors. I’m hoping I can finally convince my pa rents to let me open an Etsy shop or, at least, sell on Amazon or something. They’ve been hell-bent on keeping things local forever, insisting that people don’t buy greeting cards online, but that’s just not the truth.”

“I’m sorry, Bridge.”

“I’ll keep working on them. Hey, are you big on anniversaries?”

“Huh?” Melinda asked, her head spinning a bit at the change in conversation.

“Anniversaries; like, celebrating each month you’re with someone.”

“I don’t know that I’ve ever really cared about months, no. Why?”

“Kyle asked me if you did.”

“She did? When?”

“I ran into her when she was shopping and I was restocking. She asked me if you cared about that stuff.”

Melinda smiled and said, “She did?”

“Ugh! Go inside and talk to her already.”

Melinda laughed and said, “Are you sure? I can tell Ky that you and I need to hang out tonight. Sounds like you’ve got some stuff going on.”

“I’m sure. I’m tired from driving around today and need to chill out.”

“Okay. Well, call me later?”

“Tomorrow, because I suspect you’ll be a little busy tonight.”

Melinda rolled her eyes and opened the door. She waved Bridgette off and carried her bag up the stairs, where she saw Kyle standing on the other side of the screen door with a big smile on her face.

“Hi, babe,” Melinda said as Kyle opened the door for her.

“Everything okay? You were out there for a while.”

“Yeah, we were just talking about monthly anniversaries,” she said, teasing Kyle.

“I should’ve known she’d tell you,” Kyle replied .

She took Melinda’s bag and set it on the floor.

“I’ve never really celebrated them, by the way, but I wouldn’t mind doing that with you.”

“It’s silly, isn’t it?” Kyle asked as she locked the door behind Melinda.

“No, it’s not. I like that you’re thinking about that stuff.” She wrapped her arms around Kyle’s waist. “I think about it, too.”

“Yeah?” Kyle pressed her forehead to Melinda’s.

“Definitely. You’ve kind of taken my whole world and turned it upside down, Kyle Schafer.”

“I could say the same thing about you.”

Kyle connected their lips, and Melinda pushed the smell of fresh wood and paint and something else she didn’t recognize out of her nose because kissing Kyle had a way of focusing all her thoughts on the taste of her, the feel of her, and the smell of her.

“I have a surprise for you,” Kyle said as she pulled out of the kiss.

“I know the work’s not done yet, so what is it?”

“Well, I made dinner. That’s not really the surprise, but it’s almost ready. I went with something easy. It’s pizza, but from a box with a mix, not a frozen one, so hopefully, it’s good.”

“Pizza, huh?”

“Yeah. I didn’t know what you liked, so I split it in quarters and did one quarter with just cheese, one with pepperoni, one with red and green peppers, and one with pepperoni and mushroom. I hope you’ll like at least one of those.”

“All of them, actually. Not a huge fan of green peppers, but I can pick them off. Red peppers are fine.”

“Good. I made a salad, too, just in case, and there’s garlic bread.”

“Garlic?” Melinda lifted an eyebrow.

“I haven’t put that in the oven yet. Should I skip it?” Kyle asked.

Melinda nodded but decided she should probably check in with Kyle on that, too, given what had happened today.

“We don’t have to, you know? It’s been a weird day for you. We can talk and sleep.”

“You think I have to have sex with you?” Kyle asked as she ran her hands up under Melinda’s work shirt. “I want to. And, honestly, I need to.”

Melinda smiled and said, “You need to?”

“That’s how it feels: like I need to be touching you, be pressed up against you.”

“Then, yes, skip the garlic bread,” she replied. “Now, what’s this surprise?”

“Oh,” Kyle said as if she’d just remembered she had one at all. “Outside.”

“Did you buy the chairs or something?”

Melinda was pulled along by the hand.

“What? No. I thought we’d go shopping together for those.”

“Right. Sorry,” Melinda said with a smile as she walked through the kitchen.

Kyle pulled open one of the French doors, and as she pointed with her free hand now, she said, “There.”

In the garden, there were four tiki torches lit in a square around a large tent that looked like it had light coming from the inside, too.

“What’s all this?”

“Well, I don’t have any furniture here yet… And we had such an amazing night out here last time, but I don’t want to get arrested for being naked where children could see, so I thought we could sleep out here. The tent has a see-through vent thingy that we can see the stars through if we want, and I put some blankets and pillows in there. It should be pretty comfortable. The torches should keep the bugs away and give us a little light, too, until we put them out.”

Melinda turned to her girlfriend and shook her head.

“What?” Kyle asked. “Do you want to go to your place? We can. I–”

“When did you even find the time to do this?” Melinda interrupted. “Babe, you’re dealing with so much. You didn’t have to do this for me.”

“I wanted to. This garden is magical.” Kyle looked out at it for a moment before she returned her glance to Melinda. “And I just want to spend as much time in it with you as possible.”

“The pizza’s in the oven?”

“No, it’s done. I just had to make the garlic bread, but since you said you didn’t want that, dinner’s ready. We just need to set the table.”

“Later,” Melinda replied.

She pulled on Kyle’s hand until they were in front of the tent, with Kyle laughing as Melinda unzipped the thing and quickly climbed inside. Kyle followed, zipping it back up, and they knelt facing one another without moving. The sun had only just gone down, which meant they had time before the stars really showed up. Melinda laid back on top of the pile of blankets, resting her head on one of the pillows Kyle had thought to bring. Kyle moved to hover over her. Melinda didn’t wait. She connected their lips, needing to feel Kyle’s own on hers again.

“Wait,” Kyle said and sat back on her heels, straddling Melinda.

“What’s wrong? Did you really want to eat first?”

“No, it’s not that.” Kyle laughed a little. “I’m perfectly fine having a midnight snack with you while we sit out here, naked, under the stars.”

“Okay. Then, let’s start with the getting naked part, babe.”

Melinda pulled at Kyle’s T-shirt until it was off, running her hands over Kyle’s breasts, which were still covered by a black-and-gray sports bra.

“God, you’re sexy in a sports bra. You should wear them more often,”

“Mel?”

“Yeah?” she said and then added, “Babe, take off your pants. ”

“I’m staying,” Kyle told her.

“Staying dressed? What? Why? We’re in the tent this time. I thought–” Melinda stopped when she checked Kyle’s eyes. She wanted to smile but needed to verify what she’d thought she’d just heard. “Babe, are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

Kyle nodded.

“But for how long, Ky? A month? Is that why you were asking Bridge about the anniversary thing?”

“No. That just popped into my head because she was stocking cards, and it made me picture getting you one for our anniversary.”

“Okay.” Melinda sat up a bit but didn’t remove her legs from underneath Kyle.

“And for good,” Kyle answered. “I want to move here.”

“You want to move to New Orleans?”

“Yes. Is that okay?”

“It’s not a decision I can make for you, Kyle. But if you want to move here, I am absolutely okay with that,” Melinda told her, chuckling. “I’m over the damn moon for that.” She placed her hands on Kyle’s stomach. “You want this for you, though, right? Not because of me? I don’t want you to move here because you’re worried about us. I want you to want to live here.”

“I want to live here,” Kyle replied. “I love it here. At first, though, I thought it was because I was seeing it through your eyes, so I wanted to make sure that I did want to live here. I do. I’ve walked around on my own a lot in the past few days, and I’ve been thinking about my life back home, and I don’t feel like it’s home, Mel. I feel like this place is.” She sighed. “I’ll miss being able to see my sister whenever I want, but she can always come here, and I can–” Kyle paused for a second. “ We . We can always visit.”

“We? You and me?”

“Yes,” Kyle said. “Of course, I’d rather Jolie just come here because there’s nothing there for me anymore, but I suspect that I’ll have to go visit her once or twice. She’ll get married one day, and I’ll have little nieces and nephews to visit, too.”

Melinda finally allowed herself to smile and said, “You really want this? You won’t change your mind in a week or two?”

Kyle shook her head.

“So, you’re moving in here?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I think I should still rent it out. The money I inherited is a lot, but it’s not enough to retire on. My income is stable, but there’s not a lot left over when I have to pay for my own health insurance and put money away for a retirement fund with no employer matching it. I want to be smart, you know?”

“I know. But you seem to like this place, Ky.”

“I do. Maybe I’ll just rent it for a while and sign a lease somewhere. I can see how it goes from there.”

Melinda pulled off her own shirt and said, “From there, we could be living together .”

“That sounds nice,” Kyle replied. And when Melinda unclasped her bra, Kyle pulled it off her and added, “And looks nice, too.”

“Babe, you’re really staying?” Melinda asked, still not quite believing it.

“I’ll have to go back to pack and figure out what to do with my car and stuff, but yes, I’m staying.” Kyle lowered herself back on top of Melinda.

“I think I’m going to like celebrating all the anniversaries with you.”

“How about the anniversary of the first time we made love in a tent in this garden?” Kyle undid Melinda’s button and zipper.

“I bet that’s going to be a good one to remember later.” Melinda smiled, wrapping her arms around Kyle’s neck. “I need you pressed up against me, Kyle.”

“I need that, too,” Kyle replied, kissing her.