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  She slid down from the stool and went to him, wedging herself between his legs. “I can’t believe you’ve done this for me.”

  “It’s for me as much as it’s for you.”

  She ran her hands over his head, letting his short hair glide through her fingers. “You’re the most incredible man I’ve ever known.”

  He cupped her ass and pulled her closer to him. “Give it a few months and see if you still feel the same.”

  She grinned at him. “Deal.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Maya stood in the foyer of Meade’s new Chicago apartment, knowing it was time to go, but having such a hard time separating herself.

  “I’m going to be fine,” Meade said, reading her mind like sisters do.

  Maya looked her over. Just in the past two months, Meade’s transformation had been unbelievable. She’d gained back some of the weight she’d lost in Las Vegas, she’d had her hair cut short so all that was left was her natural golden blond, and her face glowed from her new skin regime. She looked like her old self, the Meade Maya knew from when they were young, not the Meade who let men dominate her life.

  “I know you are, but what about me?” Maya asked.

  Meade peeked out the window at Bo, who was standing on the sidewalk, letting them have their privacy. She met Maya’s gaze, her expression thoughtful. “Come sit with me a second.” She took Maya’s hand and led her to the kitchen table. Maya stiffened. It really felt like Meade was turning a corner, but Maya could never be a hundred percent sure.

  Meade ran her hand over the back of Maya’s hair, cupping her neck, and then letting go. “These past couple of months, living with you, observing you and Bo, it’s been really tough to watch and not be able to say what I’ve wanted to say.”

  Maya frowned, afraid of where this was going.

  “He is a hundred percent crazy in love with you, you know that right?”

  Maya tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “We haven’t said that yet.”

  “I don’t care what you all have said. He gave up everything in his life to move to Indy, from the beach, from all his family and friends and everything he knows just for you.”

  Maya’s throat burned. “You don’t have to tell me that, Meade.”

  “No, I think I do. Why are you keeping him in Indy? What’s there other than your job? And don’t say Mom and Dad, because we both know you are so much better off when you are far, far away from Mom.”

  Maya’s heart pinged around like a pinball machine, just like it’d done every time she saw him and thought about what he was giving up for her. “You are the last person who can understand this, Meade.”

  “Why? Because I’ve fucked up my life a hundred times for men? Forgotten who I was when I saw a handsome face and some abs at the gym? Do you ever think that might qualify me to give this advice rather than detract me from it?”

  Maya’s eyes stung with Meade’s words.

  “You’re miserable at that job. You know you are. You hate it. You complain about it every night. You aren’t taking care of yourself. You haven’t exercised in weeks. You’re losing who you are trying to hold onto a job you don’t even want.”

  Maya clenched her teeth, trying hard not to cry. “I earned that job.”

  “Of course you did. You worked your ass off for it, and you got it. Beat out a whole slew of candidates I’m sure. And now you’ve got this guy who adores you, who’s given up everything for you, and you’re so damned determined to show yourself, and Mom and Dad, and me that this is how it’s done. You don’t let a man run your life. You make your own decisions. And you certainly don’t give up a job you hate for him no matter what the cost.” She tossed up her hands. “I get it! I hear you loud and clear, Maya.”

  Maya wiped tears with the back of her hand. “You don’t get it, Meade.”

  “Oh, but I do. You have no idea how much I get it.” She stabbed a finger at the front door. “That man is not a piece of shit. He’s not someone whose bills you’re going to have to pay, or who’s going to expect you to do his laundry or cook for him without any form of appreciation. He’s never even once asked you to move down to Panama City because he would never put you in that position. He’s in Indy for you. And you’re there for some stupid job you hate. All you ever do is talk about those people down in Florida and the area and how it was the best freaking week of your life. And you have the chance to legitimately go live there with someone who owns a business there and has a house, and friends you love, and family you’re desperate to know. God, Maya, to be the one with the common sense in this family, sometimes it’s like pulling teeth with you.”

  Maya blinked, Meade’s words dropping on her head like a ton of bricks. “How dare you.”

  “How dare you? Open your eyes, Maya, because if you don’t, you’re going to mess around and fuck up the best thing that’s ever happened to you.” Meade stood up and walked out the front door, leaving Maya in a puddle at her kitchen table.

  Maya walked zombie-like to the front door to find Meade standing with Bo, talking with a smile on her face like she hadn’t just cut Maya to her absolute core. She hugged him tightly, and then stood waiting for Maya to come out. She wrapped her arms around Maya, whispering in her ear, “I love you,” and then headed back inside.

  “Everything okay?” Bo asked.

  Maya stared at her sister’s apartment. “Let’s go.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Ever since they’d moved Meade to Chicago last weekend, Maya had been distant. Bo couldn’t be sure why. At first, he figured she was just worried about Meade, but as the days crept by, he was starting to get concerned. She’d had a busy workweek, but he was supposed to spend Saturday with her, all day and all night. He wanted to reconnect with her, because he was starting to get a vibe that she was slipping away from him.

  His text alert dinged, and he picked up his phone from the table.

  Meet me at Monument Circle when you can.

  That was a little cryptic. He’d run past Monument Circle a few times since he’d been there. It was roundabout sort of thing in the middle of downtown with a huge statue. He pulled it up on his GPS so he wouldn’t get lost and headed out on foot. It wasn’t that far. He texted back.

  On my way.

  When he got there, he found her sitting on the stairs to the monument across from the chocolate café. He crossed the red brick street, noticing a little white bag next to her as he got closer. “Hey,” he said, joining her.

  She smiled. “Hey.”

  “What’s this? You have a break in between meetings?”

  “Something like that. I quit my job.”

  She said it just as a big truck crossed by. “What?” he asked, wanting to make sure he heard her right.

  “I want to move to Panama City with you.”

  His heartbeat picked up speed. “Darlin’, we don’t have to—”

  “Of course we don’t. But I want to. I’ve wanted to since the week we spent together there. I want to be a part of your family, and I want to be friends with your sister, and I want another hug from your mom. I want to take your nephews out for ice cream at that place Seanna said would ruin me for all other ice cream and go to your parents’ house for Sunday dinner. I want to go to fabulous seafood restaurants with Sebastian and Marigold, and Desiree and Ashe. I want to double-date with Blake and Seanna and make Chase go on blind dates with eligible women I meet, approved by Felicity, of course.” She squeezed his thigh. “I want to pet Jake behind the ears.”

  He tried so hard to contain his grin, because he wanted to make sure this was what she wanted, but it was so hard.

  “I want this, for me,” she said. “Forget the fact that it’s what I know you want. It’s what I want.”

  “Sweetheart, I’m happy as long as I’m where you are.”

  She smiled, her eyes getting watery. “You’re such an incredible person, Bo. You have no idea how much so. Thank you for sticking this out here with me.”

  “
I wasn’t sticking anything out. I was living here with you.”

  “I know. But you better get packing soon, because I’ve got two interviews set up for next week.”

  “You’ve been looking for a job there?”

  She nodded. “I have. I need to wrap things up here in Indy, so I may be back and forth some, but my boss is completely understanding about all of this. He’s offered a letter of recommendation and everything.”

  “Where are your interviews?” he asked, trying to imagine where in Panama City a woman as classy as Maya would work.

  “There’s a publicity firm in Destin and a small marketing company a woman runs out of her house in Watercolor. There’s also one in Panama City I applied for today. So, I’m learning that Panama City and Panama City Beach are two different places?” she asked.

  “You’re catching on.” He eyed her. “You’re sure about this?”

  “I’ve never been surer of anything in my life.” She smiled at him and then picked up the little white bag. “I’ve got something for us.” She shook the bag.

  He glanced over at the chocolate shop across from them. “Is that what I think it is?”

  She nodded with a sneaky look on her face.

  He wiggled his fingers. “Gimme.”

  She exhaled a deep breath, her expression turning serious. “I love you, Bo.”

  He let out a huff of air, his heart sprouting wings and flying out of his chest. He’d wanted to say it to her a hundred times, but he was being so careful with her. He hadn’t wanted to crowd or rush her, since he’d moved up there without even telling her he was going to. He’d wanted to leave that word alone and let it be on her terms. Let her come to him with that one thing when she was ready.

  “God above do I love you, too,” he said.

  She fell into him, and he cradled her to his chest, wondering if it was possible to soar higher than he was flying at that moment. He couldn’t believe she was his. He wished he could go back and tell his twenty-something self to hang in there till his thirty-fifth birthday, where something this wonderful would be waiting for him, but he never would have believed it.

  The Next Chapter…

  Shayla disconnected the call with her brother, relief flooding through her. Bo was coming home. As much as she didn’t want to admit it to herself, she welcomed the peace of mind that came with having her overprotective baby brother nearby.

  She’d rather be dragged across hot coals than tell him what was going on with her, but just knowing he was in the same town with her would be a comfort, and just in time, too, because by her calculations, her two month’s grace period was ending any day now.

  His house was too damn big. She was tired of having to walk through it with a baseball bat every night when she got home and every morning when she woke up. Her paranoia was stupid, really. Jake barked when a squirrel climbed a tree at the next door neighbor’s house. If someone appeared inside Bo’s house, Jake would let her know.

  Her phone rang again, sending her heartbeat back into orbit. Shayla had been laid back her entire life, until this past year. Now she was more skittish than a Chihuahua, but based on the caller ID, she had reason to be. She let it ring, biting her thumbnail. All her nails were down to the quick. Her text alert dinged and her stomach felt sick.

  Shayla, please.

  She stroked Jake’s fur. With Bo moving home and bringing Maya with him, she’d have to leave and get her own place somewhere. She’d have to give Jake back to Bo, as disheartening as that idea was. She’d have to go to the shelter and get another dog, preferably one that had Doberman or German shepherd in it, a dog that was loyal and protective. Her phone dinged again.

  I’ve earned the right to talk to you. We had a deal.

  Of course they had a goddamned deal. She’d have said her mother was a whore to get out of that situation. She’d never had any intention of staying true to that deal. The only deal she had in mind was one that got her four hundred miles away from him.

  You’re leaving me no choice. If you don’t talk to me, I’m coming down there.

  She clenched her eyes closed. She had to talk to him. This was exactly why she hadn’t changed her number. Brian knew where she was. He could come there at any time, and he would if she kept shutting him out. Besides, she needed to end things in a final way. She couldn’t keep putting that off just because she didn’t want to hear his voice. She swallowed hard and hit his name in her contacts, her heartbeat galloping like a Clydesdale.

  “Thank you,” he said by way of greeting, his voice calm and steady. She didn’t respond. “How are you?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “How’s Bo?” he asked.

  “Good. He’s in the living room, so I can’t talk long,” she lied. If Brian had a clue Bo wasn’t living there, he’d have been down there from Nashville in a heartbeat.

  “I’ve been half-expecting to find him at my doorstep ready to fight me.”

  If Shayla had told Bo what Brian had done, that’s exactly what would have happened. But there was no way she was opening that can of worms. She wanted this to be over and in her past. She just had to figure out how to close it down permanently.

  “I finished the rehab,” he said.

  “Mmm hmm.”

  “It was eye-opening, to say the least,” he said.

  She let silence sit between them.

  “It’s changed me, Shayla.”

  “Good. That’s good.”

  “Sweetheart, you can’t start to conceive of how sorry I am.”

  She dug her knuckle into her forehead, wanting so desperately for this conversation, and this relationship, to be over. “I forgive you, Brian.”

  “Oh, thank God,” he said, his voice cracking.

  “I’m not saying we’re getting back together. I’m telling you I forgive you, and that is the end. I don’t want to be in a relationship with you anymore. This is going to be the last time we talk.”

  “But we had a deal.” His voice was still calm, but it was starting to turn slightly more urgent.

  “I know we had a deal. But I am free to be with whoever I want to be with, and I don’t want to be with you.” She winced as the silence between them hissed like static.

  “Shayla, you said that if I went to rehab you would consider forgiving me.”

  “I have. Like I said, you are forgiven.”

  “But this whole time, I’ve been under the impression that you would consider forgiving me so we could move forward together.”

  “That’s not what I said, and that’s not what I intended.”

  “God—” he stopped himself. “I deserve another chance. I’ve worked my ass off these past two months on this. You told me to give you time, and I granted you that.”

  Who was he to grant her anything? She stood up, her face so hot bacon would have sizzled on it. “Brian, this is the end of this. Right now. Do not call again. Do not text again.”

  “Shayla,” he said, his voice stern, taking on that same quality it had…before. That was all she had to hear. She ended the call and dropped the phone on her bed like a hot potato. She stepped back from it like it was a snake ready to strike.

  The doorbell rang, and she screamed, jumping a mile high. Jake bounded off the bed and ran into the living room barking at the door, the hairs on his back standing on end, just like the ones on her arms.

  “Shayla?” a man’s voice said. She couldn’t make out whose voice though with Jake barking as loud as he was. She grabbed the baseball bat from her bed and eased into the living room, watching the doorknob like it was going to jump at her any second.

  More knocking, which made Jake even more agitated, barking like his life depended on it. The person was saying something else, but Shayla couldn’t understand a word of it and didn’t really care to. All she knew was whoever was on the other side of that door knew her name, and she had just hung up with Brian.

  She froze solid when the deadbolt turned, an icy chill spreading through her veins. She could cal
l 911, but that would mean she’d have to let go of the bat she was double-fisting and there was no way she was doing that, not with the lock on the door handle turning. She pulled the bat back like she was lining up at home plate, the bat shaking uncontrollably in her hand. She’d imagined this very situation nonstop for the past two months, and here it was, playing out like a living nightmare.

  The door opened, and a tall, dark-haired man held up both hands in surrender. “Holy shit!”

  “Who the fuck are you!” she shouted, the bat ready to go.

  “Bo’s friend…Chase.”

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  See what happens with Shayla and Chase…

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  About the Author

  Melissa Chambers writes contemporary novels for young, new, and actual adults. A Nashville native, she spends her days working in the music industry and her nights tapping away at her keyboard. While she’s slightly obsessed with alt rock, she leaves the guitar playing to her husband and kid. She never misses a chance to play a tennis match, listen to an audiobook, or eat a bowl of ice cream. (Rocky road, please!) She’s a member of RWA and serves as the president for the Music City Romance Writers. In addition to the Love Along Hwy 30A series, she is the author of The Summer Before Forever and Falling for Forever (Entangled Teen).

  Also by Melissa Chambers:

  Seaside Sweets (Love Along Hwy 30A #1)