Page 79 of Shadows Relived
“There you are!” Ronette hollered, arms outstretched like a hurricane in heels. “Get over here, girl! Photo time!”
Meaghan laughed as Ronette grabbed her wrist andtugged her into the corner near the neon wall. Elvis raised an eyebrow as he approached, a curious grin slipping across his lips.
“Meaghan says you get used to her energy,” Callen muttered as he approached his friend, shrugging, but smiling. “They’ve been best friends since Meaghan moved to St. Augustine.”
“Nothing wrong with a lady with enthusiasm,” Elvis said with a grin. “Anything else is just wall-flower boring.”
Ronette spotted him, and her grin sharpened like a shark’s. “Meaghan says you’re a Presley nut. We should doPocketful of Rainbows.”
Elvis cocked a brow. “The King’s song with Juliet Prowse fromG. I. Blues. Lady, you know how to get to a man’s heart.”
Gage hooted from the pool table. “Ten bucks says he cracks by the third verse.”
Sage leaned in, already arguing with Gage about whether Backstreet Boys counted as “classic.” Callen just shook his head.
Chaos. Pure Chaos.
But it was his type of chaos.
“Do I need to find a corner and cry?” Meaghan asked, slipping up beside him with a soft laugh.
“Only if I have to duet with your friend there.”
Meaghan looped her arm through his. “You’d survive. Barely.”
As Abbie and Hawk stepped onto the stage, Callen slipped outside onto the back patio with Meaghan on his arm, the hush of the ocean just faint beyond the buildings. String lights glowed overhead, andCallen leaned back against the railing, pulling Meaghan into his arms.
For a moment, the world was just quiet.
“I never thought we’d get here,” she whispered.
“I didn’t either.”
“I’m still scared,” she admitted. “Of what comes next. Of who I am now.””
He tilted her chin up gently. “You’re the bravest woman I know.”
“I was broken.”
He shook his head. “You were never broken, Meaghan. Just forced to carry more than anyone should.”
She leaned into him, forehead to his chest. “Do you think we could have this? Something resembling a normal life?”
Callen’s smile was slow, deep,
“Normal’s so overrated.”
She laughed softly, and he kissed the crown of her head. But then she lifted her face, and their eyes met, and this time, there were no walls. No ghosts.
Just them.
Their lips met—tender, open, true. It wasn’t a kiss fueled by desperation or rescue or fear. It was the kind that whispered, we made it. We’re still here.
When they parted, she murmured, “Say it.”
He cupped her face, voice rough but steady. “I love you, Meaghan Harrington. Always have.”
Her breath hitched. “Took you long enough.”
