I jump out of my chair, halfway to the door when she steps inside, a small smile on her face.“Hi.”
“Hi?”I question.“Hi?What?Where have you been?Why weren’t you answering your phone and what the hell was that note about?I thought we—”
The rest of my questions are cut off when Hannah closes the distance between us, presses up on her toes and kisses me hard, her arms wrapping around my neck and pulling me closer.Groaning with relief, I slip mine around her waist, pulling her in so her body is flush with mine, not caring about answers now because her kiss is only the answer I need.
She smiles against my mouth, her hand curling around my neck.“I’m sorry I disappeared,” she whispers.
I pull back so I can see her, my hands slipping under her chef’s jacket, holding her close.“Where did you go?”
Hannah’s beautiful green eyes search my face, a small smile tugging at her mouth as she says, “I went to see your dad.”
My jaw drops.“What?”
“I went to see your dad,” she repeats.
“Why?”I stupidly ask, even though this is exactly what I wanted her to do.“I would’ve come with you.I thought we—”
She presses another kiss to my lips, silencing my words again.“I know you would have, but this was between him and me.I needed to go and see him alone.”
“And?”I prompt, my heart now pounding in my chest.“How’d it go?”
Hannah tips her head from side to side a little, still smiling.“Okay, I think.I mean, we both said our bit and even though we will have to agree to disagree on how to run a kitchen, the one thing we did both agree on was that we could andshouldmove past it.At the end of the day, we both love you, and neither of us wants to risk hurting you just because we couldn’t work together.Or we can’t put what happened behind us.”
I swallow hard, so fucking relieved that after everything, this might actually all be okay.I mean I always believed my dad would be able to move past this, because as much as he’s an asshole in the kitchen, I have never doubted his love as a father.But I didn’t know if Hannah would ever really be okay.And I also didn’t blame her if she wasn’t either, not after I know what she went through with him.
“And you’re okay with it?”I ask.“With how everything went down?”
Hannah nods.“I’m okay with it,” she says.“In fact, I’m more than okay.I know your dad loves you and I know he only wants what’s best for his family and his restaurant and even though I don’t agree with his methods on the restaurant side of things, I’m not going to lose the best thing that’s ever happened to me just because I couldn’t work with Roy.”
“Fuck, I love you,” I say, kissing her hard as I walk us backward, slamming my office door shut as I back her up against it, my heart beating hard inside my chest as the weight I’ve been carrying all day finally lifts.
“What are you doing?”Hannah asks, a breathy laugh falling from her lips.
“I’m kissing the shit out of you and probably fucking you right here in my office,” I tell her, my mouth on her neck now as I lick and suck her skin.“Kinda prefer if the whole kitchen didn’t witness it.”
Hannah laughs again, her arms draped around my neck.“As good as that sounds,” she says, tilting her head as I kiss a path up her neck, “we do need to get to work.”
“Fuck work,” I growl, kissing my way to her lips.“I need you.Now.”
She places a finger against my lips, her eyes locking with mine.“You’ve got me, Leo, I promise.I’m sorry about how all this happened, about everything, but I’m not going anywhere.I promise.”
Her words are like a balm for my soul, my heart, my everything and I want to scream to the world how much I love this woman.How much she means to me.Instead, I blurt out the words I’ve wanted to say to her ever since I told her that I loved her.
“Move in with me.”
“What?”
“Move in with me.”
“Leo, are you—”
“Move.In.With.Me,” I repeat, emphasizing every word.“I love you, Han and I want you in my life, in my house, in my bed, always.Say yes, Hannah, please say—”
“Yes,” she says, a huge smile on her face now.
“Yes?”I repeat.
Laughing, she leans in and kisses me again.“Yes, I’ll move in with you, Leo.”
