I fidgeted with my dress for the hundredth time since we landed. The car ride over seemed to take just as long as the plane ride. It felt weird to be back on this street again. Rhys convinced me to come. He had looked up their information, although their address was one I’d never forget.

Opening the door to the car, I smelled the flowers from the nearby flowerbed in the air. The garden was bigger than I remembered, sitting out there in the early spring mornings planting bulbs and seeds with Shannon. What if they didn’t want to see me? What if they’d forgotten about me?

My hands trembled as I pressed the doorbell. I glanced back at Rhys and Esme and gave them something as close to a smile as I could muster. The urge to bite my fingernails made me clasp my hands in front of me. My nails were practically nonexistent after how much I’d gnawed them on the way over. The door swung open and I spun back around, coming face to face with Shannon. Her eyes were wide and she clasped both her hands over her mouth.

“Ben!” she called out. “Melanie,” she whispered. I nodded, my throat too tight to speak. Tears prickled the back of my eyes and tears spilled out onto my cheeks. Shannon stepped out and wrapped her arms around me so tightly I could barely breathe. I brought my arms up and around hers. She smelled exactly the same. The smell brought back every happy memory from my time in this home, and I broke down. Walking back into this house was like I’d returned from an odyssey around the world filled with desperation, heartache, and finally settled into a love that filled me fuller than I had ever imagined possible. But that didn’t mean there wasn’t still that pain of not seeing them. I couldn’t hold back my ragged sobs as I buried my head in her neck. Her arms shook around me as she cried too, her tears wetting my cheek.

“Shannon?” Ben called out from behind her. I glanced up and saw him wiping his hands on a towel. “Mel,” he said, rushing toward us before wrapping his arms around both of us and lifting us off the ground. The years had been kind to both of them. I swore they didn’t look a day older than when I’d seen them last. Mom and I both laughed, wiping our cheeks as he put us back down. Mom, it felt so right.

“Come in, come in,” she said, playfully pushing Ben back inside and waving us in. I glanced back at Rhys and Esme. I was smiling so widely my cheeks hurt. Rhys reached out and slid his hand into mine as we walked into the house. He caressed my wrist with his finger, calming me. I didn’t want this moment to end, it was the perfect moment. I was home, with all my favorite people in one place. Everything in the house was the same. The furniture, the paint, the pillows on the couch. They were all as I remembered. When I tried to transport myself back here those times growing up with Colleen, I’d clamp my hands over my ears, rocking back and forth, as drunken high idiots stumbled around my house, or someone locked me out of the house. Sitting on the curb until the street lights came on, waiting for someone to let me in. Sometimes I thought I’d dreamt the whole thing, but now running my hands along the table by the front door, sliding my fingers across the warm wood, it was all real. Everything I’d experienced here. The love, the comfort and the safety. And now I’d made that for myself with the man I loved. I squeezed Rhys’s hand and he squeezed mine back.

We passed through the hall, following Mom when Esme tugged on my hand.

“That looks like you,” she said, pointing at the pictures on the wall. Framed pictures of my time with them covered the light blue wall. It was still the exact shade of blue I always remembered. Christmas morning, Sunday pancakes, baking, me on the swings, us shooing Ben out of the room when we had our karaoke Fridays. It was all here, up on display. Interspersed among the pictures of me were photos of other kids. There had to be at least ten other kids here. It made me tear up again to know that they hadn’t forgotten about me and they’d been able to open their home up to so many other children over the years. Kids who got to experience everything I had with them. I hoped they’d been able to touch each of them as they had me. They’d cared about me just as much as I had for them and they were even more amazing than I’d known before. Mom came up behind me and put her hands on my shoulders.

“Mel, you were always in our hearts. Always. Not being able to see you was the hardest thing we’ve ever gone through in our lives. We were about thirty seconds from going to jail after trying to track you down and get you back. We hoped that one day when you were ready you’d come to us. That you’d come back home,” she said, her voice cracking. I squeezed her hands on my shoulders and glanced back at her, tears gathering in her eyes again.

“I’m glad I came back,” I hesitated. She’d always been my mom in my mind, but to say it out loud. “Mom,” I said, turning to her. Her tears spilled over then and her sobs rang out in the hall as she wrapped her arms around me and swayed us back and forth. Her tears gathered on my neck, and mine did the same on hers. Pulling back, she ran her hand along my face, pushing my hair back. The smile on her face could have lit a stadium for months and I knew that because I wore the same one.

“You don’t know how happy it makes me to hear you call me that, Mel. The daughter of my heart,” she said, gathering me up in her arms again. I glanced over at Esme and Rhys. Esme’s face was a mask of concern.

“Don’t worry, kiddo. These are happy tears,” I said, laughing. Rhys produced a stack of tissues for the two of us. Mom told me all about the other kids who’d joined their family over the years. Some lived with them for years, while others were only there for a few weeks or months. Each one had a place on their wall.

“So, who are you, young man?” Ben asked, getting all paternal on Rhys. But Rhys was a good sport.

“I’m Rhys Thayer, sir,” he said, holding out his hand.

“Oh wow, I’ve heard of you. But don’t think that lets you off the hook for the grilling that’s coming your way about our Mel,” he said, shaking Rhys’s hand.

“Ben,” I said, embarrassed, like any girl would be bringing a guy home to her dad. The pangs in my chest were hitting harder and harder now. These were my parents. They’d done more for me in the short time I’d been with them than they could ever know.

We spent the rest of the day eating, laughing and hanging out at the house. It wasn’t until later that night in the hotel that I finally took a breath. Esme was asleep in her own room in the suite and Rhys sat up against the headboard holding me in his arms, as I reminisced about the entire day and how far we’d come from our first meeting.

“If you’d told me a year ago, I’d be here with you after introducing you to my parents, I’d have laughed myself into a coma,” I said, rubbing my hands over his forearms. Their warm, heavy weight helped keep me focused on this moment, on how lucky I was.

“Then I’m definitely glad I didn’t tell you a year ago. I’m not into the whole sleeping beauty, unconscious woman thing,” he said, into my ear, giving me a nip on the ear. “And since we’re already in family expansion mode, what do you think about getting started on a new addition?” he asked, squeezing me tighter.

I glanced over my shoulder at him.

“Are you sure? We haven’t even been married a year.” I didn’t want to rush things. We had all the time in the world and I didn’t know the first thing about babies. Esme, I could handle, she could be reasoned with. How in the world was I supposed to be a good parent to a baby?

“You’ll be a wonderful mother. You already are to Esme. And the fact that I don’t have you pregnant already is only by sheer force of will, and the fact that I knew you needed time. So, what do you say? Do you want to make a baby with me?” he asked, his eyes filled with so much joy and love it took my breath away. How could I say anything but YES! to a man who looked at me like that?

I nodded and that was all it took before he growled and flipped me over, so I sat in his lap.

“How do you want it, Mel?” he said, his cock pressing heavy against my panties.

“Any way you want me. I know how much you love to be in control,” I said, licking his lips and grinding myself on his lap. I moaned and he grabbed my ass, squeezing my cheeks as he pressed me down harder on him. His fingers danced across my clit, rubbing it through my underwear. I slid my hands around his neck and up into his hair, devouring his mouth and breathing him in all at once. He lifted me up, slid the crotch of my panties aside and slammed me down on his cock so hard, it took my breath away and I came, my legs shaking, biting into his shoulder to muffle my screams.

He only slowed for a second to let me catch my breath before he lifted me and thrust into me at the same time, driving my pleasure higher and higher. I could tell it would be a long night and I wasn’t going to complain one bit. I’d hold on and relish this wild ride. One that only he could create. He’d give me more than I could have imagined. A home. A life where I mattered. A family. It was everything I’d ever been afraid to hope for and it was all laid out in front of me now.

God, I loved this man.

* * *

If that’s not enough of Rhys and Mel, you can get another speak peek of them in the extended epilogue. Click to get one more day with them!