Page 77 of Love is a Harmony
“And we’re inviting Mel,” he told Jo.
“Mel? Why? She’ll probably go somewhere fancy with her dad. Noah, she isn’t really our friend as much as we love her. We’re her job. No way she wants to spend Christmas with us.”
“Oh, I think I can change her mind.”
“Wait.” Jo gasped. “Noah, you didn’t. Did you go and fall for yourfakewife?” She emphasized the word fake, and Noah flinched.
“Gotta go, Joey. Good chat.” He hung up, cutting off her barrage of words.
“What am I being invited to?”
Noah turned in her arms, taking in her messy hair and makeup-less face. She was breathtaking, and he was the only person who got to see her unmade, natural. “Christmas.”
Her lips turned down. “Oh. I’d love to, Noah, but I spend Christmas with my dad every year. I really am sorry.”
“No.” He bent to meet her eyes. “No sorries between us.” He pressed a kiss to her lips. “I like having you here in the morning.”
She smiled and ran a hand up his bare chest before stealing the coffee mug from his hand and taking a sip. “I like being here.” She smirked. “If for no other reason than your coffee maker is better than mine.”
He laughed, walking her back to the pair of deck loungers. He dropped into one and pulled her with him. “I’d bet the label pays you well, Mel. You could afford a better coffee maker.”
She set his mug on the table beside them. “I usually just get coffee at the office. I don’t really spend much. There doesn’t seem to be a point when I’m never home.”
“You work too much.”
She shook her head with a laugh. “We can’t all be rock stars who do what we want when not on tour. Some of us have to make sure those rock stars have long careers.” She poked him in the bicep.
He pulled her closer, so she leaned against his chest. “I’m sorry if I’ve made your job harder all these years.”
“No sorries, remember?” She kissed a line across his jaw. “You and I are what we are. We don’t need to pretend to be more or less.”
“And what are we?”
Her teeth grazed his earlobe, and the sensation went straight through his core. “Noah Clarke and Melanie Snyder are just trying to get through the days.”
Was she right? Did they cling to each other because they were lonely? Because a little girl needed them?
He closed his eyes as her lips moved down his neck and back up. She bit his chin, and he put a finger under hers and tilted it up to give him full access to her mouth.
“I enjoy kissing my wife,” he whispered against her lips.
She chuckled low in her throat. “It didn’t hit me until we were home. I married you. In another life, I’d have your ring on my finger.”
“But you don’t.” She’d slipped the ring off as soon as they’d board the plane to L.A.
“A wedding ring has meaning, Noah. I’ve worn one before, and it took me five years to take it off. I won’t replace it with a fake ring and take away that meaning.”
But it could mean something. It could mean a lot.
Noah had never seen himself getting married. He hadn’t pictured a home full of kids.
But sometimes, life gave you what you didn’t know you needed.
He had no more words for her, so he kissed her like he’d kiss a true wife, the line between lies and reality weakening.
He’d married Melanie for Stella, but he wanted her here now for him.
The front door slamming jerked Melanie upright. Footsteps sounded inside, and Noah peered over his shoulder as Stella burst outside.
