I take a bite of the brownie and shake my head. “So good.”
I walk to the kitchen and place the container on the counter. She follows me in, talking with Mila. I look down at Melly’s legs in the black tights and internally sigh. Mila leaves two minutes later, and Melly looks at me.
“Are you going to be okay tonight?” she asks.
“What do you mean?”
She smirks. “You didn’t start a fight at last night’s game, so I’m a little worried you have some pent-up energy.”
I inhale.She has no idea.“I’ll be fine.”
“You look tense.”
I can’t help but let out a small laugh. It’s because she’s dolled up, and I have to protect her from my horny teammates.
“Water?” I ask.
She nods. “Yeah.”
I get both of us waters, and the crowd of girls walks in, being loud about I don’t know what. Melly seems to know because she butts in. When she does, she slides under my arm withoutmeaning to. I look down at her and let my arm rest on her shoulder.
She leans against me, and my heart’s racing wildly against my ribs. I inhale her shampoo and blink slowly. Tonight’s going to be a slow kind of torture with all these fucking people in my house.
Stanley makes a sound, so I lean my head back to look in the living room. I don’t know what the hell he’s doing, but he’s got my full attention. When my head tilts back, I learn that he was trying to get my attention. He points at the Hawthorne House rules on the whiteboard. I lift my hand and flip him off.
Melly looks up at me, so I look down and smile. I place my hand down and whisper, “Wanna go upstairs and talk?”
She looks at my mouth. “Talk?”
I nod. “Yeah, I have something I wanted your opinion on.”
That catches her attention, so she nods. I grab her hand and lead her away from the noise.
“Where are you going?” Stanley says in a sly voice. “Upstairs is off-limits, Melly girl.”
I tighten my grip on her hand. “Don’t listen to him. He needs to get a life.”
We walk faster up the stairs now that the entire house is our audience.
One of the girls catcalls us.
“God,” I mutter.
I pull her into my bedroom and turn on the light. I shut the door and turn the lock. She walks to the bed and sits on the edge. She sets her hands in her lap and looks at me.
“You look stunning, Melly, as always.”
“Always?” she asks.
I nod. “Always.”
I sit on the bed next to her and say, “The get-together tonight was Benson’s idea, but I was hoping to hang out with just you.”
“Oh,” she says. “What did you want to do?”
I shrug. “Watch a movie or something.”
“I thought you wanted to talk?” she asks.
