“Forgive me,” he said, whirling around to hand her a business card that read Fontenot Fine Jewels. “I’m Dominic Fontenot, and I believe I’m about to make you a very wealthy woman.”
“What?” She looked from the card to the man and back again.
“I spoke with your husband, Sean King? He insisted I come to the island to see your work for myself, and I can tell you, I don’t ordinarily enjoy travel.” He sighed and glanced at the jewelry again. “But this was worth it. I would like to represent your work. I can promise you that a designer of your talent will go far. Why, this necklace alone…” he pointed to the teardrop design Melinda had made for Kathy, “would easily fetch more than twenty thousand dollars.”
She staggered a little and slapped one hand down on the glass case to steady herself. “Twenty—”
“Your husband spoke so highly of your talent,” the man said, sighing wistfully. “It’s very clear to me that he loves you very much.”
At least he used to, Melinda told herself sadly. Her heart ached. Sean must have set up this meeting before he left. He had believed in her talent. In her. He’d found a way to help make her dreams come true. And she’d allowed her own hurt and anger to let him slip away. God. She was such an idiot.
“When did you last speak with my husband?”
He checked the gold watch on his left wrist. “Oh, an hour ago.”
“What?” Shock jolted her. “Where? I mean, where did you see him?”
The man blinked at her in surprise. “Why, at the hotel not far from here. It’s much smaller, but he explained that he was using it as office space. Now, if you’d like to discuss—”
He was here? Sean hadn’t left Tesoro? Hadn’t left her? The dark cloud that had been hanging over her heart suddenly shattered under the force of what felt like a million suns exploding inside her. Melinda could hardly breathe.
She smiled, then grinned, then laughed out loud.
“Mrs. King?”
“God, that sounds good,” she said, still laughing. “Mrs. King. Mrs. Sean King. Now and forever.”
“We were speaking about your work,” Mr. Fontenot said slowly and carefully as if he were speaking to a deranged three-year-old.
And Melinda could see why he would think that.
“I’m so sorry,” she blurted. “But it’ll have to wait. I really do want to talk to you, but first I have to see my husband. I’ll be back. Later. Much later, hopefully.” She laughed wildly, gave the man a quick hug and said, “I really have to go!”
“Well, go and talk to her!”
Sean gripped the phone more tightly and said, “You know what, Rafe, I’m done taking your advice. I’ll go see Melinda when I think it’s time.”
“Always were a hardhead,” his brother muttered.
“Good talking to you, too,” Sean snapped and shut the phone off. He tossed it onto his desk and scowled. Three days since he left Melinda. Felt like three years.
The hotel where the King crew would be staying was just a few miles from the Stanford hotel. But as far as what Sean was feeling, it might as well have been on the dark side of the moon. He was further away from Melinda than ever and waiting to see her was slowly killing him.
He rubbed the center of his chest in what was becoming a habit. But the pain that was lodged around his heart just kept throbbing in time with his pulse. She was in his soul. His bones. She was a part of him and until he got her back, nothing was worth a damn.
He kicked the desk and a scatter of papers floated to the floor. “Damn it,” he grumbled and bent to pick them up.
“Mr. Fontenot told me where you were.”
Sean froze at the sound of that voice. The one voice he’d hungered to hear for days now. Slowly, he stood up and turned to face the woman he loved. Melinda stood in the open doorway, and the world started turning again. Everything in him came back to life in a painful rush. Just seeing her was enough to ease the aching inside him. But he wanted more.
“Thought he might.” Sean couldn’t stop staring at her. Everything about her was perfect, from her wind-tousled hair to her red T-shirt to her favorite sneakers.
He had hoped that she would come to him after talking with Dominic. But if she hadn’t come, Sean would have gone to her by nightfall.
“You didn’t leave,” she said, taking a single step into the room.
“Of course not.”
“Why did you let me think you did?”
“I was giving you time to cool off,” he admitted, scraping one hand across the back of his neck.
“How much longer were you going to stay away?”
“Couldn’t have waited much longer,” he admitted. And now, looking at her, he couldn’t imagine how he had waited this long. “If you hadn’t come here, I’d have been beating your door down tonight.”
Her mouth curved into a faint smile before it was gone again. “I was leaving at the end of the week. Going to Long Beach. To see you.”
He drew his first easy breath in way too long. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” She nodded and whispered, “I thought you left me.”
Sean stalked across the room and stopped right in front of her. Staring into her eyes, he willed her to believe him when he said, “I love you, Melinda. I will never leave you.”
She gasped and smiled. “You do?”
“Yes.”
“But you miss your home. I know that and—”
“You are my home,” he said simply and caught her when she threw herself into his arms.
“I love you so much,” she whispered, and Sean held her tighter, harder, glorying in the sound of those words and grateful as hell that she’d said them.
“Damn, Melinda, I’ve missed you. Longest three days of my life.”
“You’ve been here?” she whispered, voice muffled against his shoulder. “At Grandfather’s other hotel? All this time?”
“Yes,” he said, kissing her neck, her jaw, moving his mouth up to take hers in a fierce, hard kiss that left him hungering for more. “And it’s been hell.”
“I’m so glad.”
He laughed. “That’s my girl. One of us suffers, we both suffer.”
“Exactly. Oh, Sean I missed you, too.” She drew her head back to look up at him. “I’m so sorry. I told you I wanted the truth and then when you gave it to me, I turned on you.”