Page 69 of Revived

Mel didn’t look tired, just sated. I trailed my hand down her satiny skin and then gently turned her to face me. “Seriously, was it too much?”

“No. My body just needs a minute.” She flushed from chest to cheeks again. “I’m a little sore,” she finally admitted as we both ducked under the dual shower heads.

“Whatever you need, sweetheart. We’ll get you some Motrin with breakfast.”

“Oh great!” Mel barked out a laugh. “Chevy will never let me live that down, and you’ll be the stud of the year for all of them.”

“Good. Let them follow my example.”

“And what example is that?”

“Hold out for the woman you can’t live without, and then never let go, even if that means you have to wear her out so she can’t walk away.”

“You are too much,” she told me as our laughter melted in a kiss under the stream of hot water that washed away all of our old bullshit and put a shine on what was to come.

~*~

6 months later

“Mel, are you ready?” I called from outside the guestroom door where John and Jade had graciously allowed us to stay for the past three weeks. Mel had been picked, by an actress she worked with on set in Georgia, to accompany her to a movie set in Los Angeles. Since I no longer had my own house there, John put us up. He maintained his place there while having a new house built in John’s Creek so that all of our families could be near one another.

“I’ll be down in a minute,” Mel called out. Little did Mel know, she was coming downstairs to a completely changed house. It had been a challenge to have things set up while she was still in the house, but her schedule at the studio had changed, so there was no getting around it.

“You sure you’re ready for this?” My son asked me as we put the finishing touches on everything.

“Never been surer of anything in my life.”

“That’s good, because you might be my dad, but if you fuck up and hurt her, I will end you!”

I pulled my son into a hug and held on tight for a moment. “I appreciate that you think so highly of Mel that you would end me for hurting her. I want you to hold true to that, always.”

Chevy had come in late last night to be here for this. It was the three of us in the beginning, learning who we were around one another, and I thought it was only fitting that he should be there as we took the next step in our lives too. Upon hearing the bedroom door click shut upstairs, we both moved to the bottom of their stairs where she would be able to see us and we’d be able to get a look at her. I’d told her to dress as if we were headed to an award ceremony.

Mel did not disappoint. She wore a black, shimmery dress with thin straps holding it in place on her shoulders, while the swells of her body were accentuated with each movement she took. It was like liquid sex, as she began to descend the stairs, still not having taken notice of us yet. Her thigh peeked out as she stepped down again. It was then that I leaned over and covered my son’s eyes. He definitely shouldn’t see his soon-to-be stepmom looking so completely, breath-takingly fine. It must have been the movement I made that had her glancing up from the steps toward us. I should have known, she was probably so intent on each step, to keep from tripping in those ridiculously high heels she had on.

“Oh my God!” She called out as a hand flew up to cover her mouth. “Chevy! What are you doing here?” She called down to him before starting to make her way to us a bit quicker.

“Maybe I should be jealous,” I joked.

My son winked at me and then smiled broadly at the woman who was quickly closing the distance. “Are you saying you missed me, Mel?”

“Of course, I missed you!” She cried out, and it was only then that I noticed she really did have tears in her eyes. “It’s been months since I’ve seen you.” When Opal finally put her foot down about their relationship being over, Chevy took off for a while to go find himself and explore some different styles of music. His brothers were still in school, and Kendra had put a firm foot down about them finishing school before they ran off to be rock stars. It was something we were all still working on her about.

Chevy hadn’t returned until two days after we had departed for California, so this was the first time they had seen one another in person since. “You look well, that’s good,” she cooed as she finally made it to the step just above where we stood. Mel launched herself at my son, wrapping her arms around him, and vowing to never let go again so he couldn’t wander off and leave her worried again. Her unconditional love of the both of us was why tonight was happening. There wasn’t a day in our future that I wanted to live without her. In the past six months, we both had birthdays. She cried on hers and made me celebrate mine. I knew why she cried. The older she got, the more hopeless having a baby seemed. Not that we’d been officially trying, since I wanted to be married first. We hadn’t exactly been careful about things though.

“I missed you too,” Chevy whispered into her ear, but the emotion, thickening his voice, made it sound out loud and clear to me too.

“So, tell me, what are you doing here and why are we all dressed up tonight?” Mel finally asked as my son and the love of my life finally let go of one another.

Chevy turned his cocky grin on me and then shot a wink back to Mel. “Might want to ask my dad that question. Seems he has something up his sleeve tonight.”

Mel turned curious eyes my way, but only momentarily, because it was then that the rest of the grand room behind us finally came into focus for her. Her gasp was precious as her hands once again shot to her mouth in an attempt to hide her surprise. If only her wide eyes didn’t reflect the shock she felt back into the world. She glanced between the decorations, my son, and then me. “Are you serious?”

That was when I got down on one knee and took Mel’s hand. “Melanie Gusterson,” I said, calling out the name she had kept even after her divorce. That was the other reason this needed to happen. There was no way I’d continue to let her live with that name as her own. “I love you with all that I am; and there is not a day that I have left on this Earth, that I don’t want to spend it breathing the same air as you.”

“Gabe,” she breathed out.

“We started this journey together, getting to know one another, and thought Chevy should be here when I asked you to become a permanent, legal part of our family.” My son chuckled then.

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