She crossed her arms and sat back. “Because of Natalya?”
“She’s definitely made me cautious when it comes to women.”
“Are you afraid I’m just like her, or are you afraid you’ll have to hang out with her again if the two of us are friends?”
“Both?” I’d have to tread carefully here. “Tell me about your fiancé.”
“No.” She balled up her now-empty chip bag like it had personally offended her. “Your curiosity is not a good enough reason to open up to you, Connor. I’m not telling you just so you can be amused by it.”
“I’m sorry.” And I was sorry. I’d given her no reason to trust me, and the only reason I wanted to know was so I could either confirm that she’d driven a man to run, or come up with a new conclusion.
But the more I got to know Melissa, the less likely it seemed that anyone would purposely run away from her. Maybe she did have a fiancé in the witness protection program after all. Maybe she really was eternally ‘not single.’ The thought filled me with more dread than thinking she might be stalker material.
I was pressing my luck, but I had one more question. “Do you still love him?”
Melissa’s eyes narrowed, and she leaned across the table. “Why do I get the feeling you have a hard time hearing ‘no’?”
There was no point in answering that. She already had me pegged. “Ready for ice cream? There’s a great place right across the park next door. We could walk.”
Melissa’s mouth opened to tell me no, but she paused and stared at me. “Yeah, okay. I never turn down ice cream.”
“Me either.”
13
________
Melissa
Connor and I traded off sprinkler duty, and for the rest of the week, he found an excuse to come over every evening after I got home from work. It was like he took my accusation about us not being friends as a personal challenge. The first night, he claimed he needed a break from the bongo drums. That, I could understand. We made tacos together while I introduced him toInvestigation Miami.
The next night he claimed he couldn’t watch the next episode ofInvestigation Miamiwithout me.
By the third night, I just left my door unlocked and texted him to bring dessert. Yes, we’d exchanged numbers. But we didn’t talk about being friends. We didn’t touch, not even in passing while we cooked. We just co-existed while whatever battle he was fighting in his head raged on.
For some reason, he was hung up on the fiancé thing, and I couldn’t decide whether it was because I wouldn’t tell him what he wanted to know or because he assumed I was engaged and wanted to keep certain boundaries in place.
Natalya wanted to go to dinner and a movie on Saturday night, so I texted Connor to let him know I wouldn’t be home.
He offered to feed my dogs and keep them company while I was gone. I had no idea how far that commitment went until I came in the door at eleven and he was sitting on my couch with Buster dozing on his lap. The coffee table was covered in thick stapled paper packets.
“What are you doing?”
Connor reached up and stretched, showing off his very fine triceps. Not that I was paying attention to them… much. “I’m deciding which dental practice to join up with. These are the offers.”
“Oh.” I sat down next to him and listened while he went through the pros and cons of each.
“It sounds like a good dilemma to have, to be honest.” I was impressed that three different dental practices wanted him.
“Yeah. I guess it is.” He put down the packet in his hands and turned to study me. “You smell like movie theater popcorn.”
“Guilty. I almost finished off a whole bucket.”
His smile at my words warmed every part of me, but it also shifted the precariously balanced friendship boat we were sitting in. I should be annoyed that he was here, but all I could think about was how much I wanted to be near him. Really near him. Not sitting and chatting, but having his hand on my knee, or his arm around my shoulder, or even an accidental brush of our hands. The butterflies gathering dust in the pit of my stomach would take just about any hint of excitement, no matter how small. But I would not make the first move. At this point, it was a matter of principle.
“I’ll let you have your house back.” He carefully lifted Buster off his lap and placed him on the rug at our feet. The dog let out a funny little snore, but otherwise didn’t notice the change in location. “Oh, what movie did you end up seeing?” Connor asked.
“Love is for Suckers. It was Natalya’s pick.”
