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I cross my arms and lean back in my chair, waiting for him to finish. I check my wrist even though I’m not wearing a watch, just to let him know I’m awaiting his answer.
He swallows and takes a drink of his water. He keeps drinking until he’s nearly finished the entire glass.
I roll my eyes. “Oh my gosh. Just answer the question already! I answered yours.”
He takes a deep breath and blows it out slowly. “Alright. Well…” He clears his throat. “You’ve always been beautiful, Mel. But like a princess in a story book, with your big blue eyes and all.” He finishes his water before continuing. “But now you’re a beautiful woman. You’ve transformed into a confident, strong queen. Nothing princess-like about you anymore.”
His gaze doesn’t stray from mine as he says it. There’s no hint of humor in his voice now. I feel my cheeks heating again—actually, my entire body suddenly feels hot.
“Oh, thank you.” I take a drink of my cold water to cool myself down.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
WEST
Sitting next to Melanie, in my house, looking into her eyes… it makes me feel like I’ve just been sleepwalking for the last five years and I’ve finally woken up. More awake than hockey makes me feel, or even winning a game. I can’t fathom that I ever thought my feelings for her would just go away, that I could find someone who made me feel the same way she does. That my feelings for her were just some silly teenage crush.
I wasn’t lying when I told her she’d changed from a girl to a woman, from a princess to a queen… but her gorgeous blue eyes are still the same. Their deep blue color has always captivated me. My eyes are so light blue they’re almost grey. But Melanie’s large, round eyes are a dark azurite blue. Azurite has long been my favorite color, and I had convinced myself the azurite stones on my mantle were purely for decoration. But really, they just reminded me of her eyes.
We finish eating and I take our plates into the kitchen. Melanie follows with the water pitcher and glasses. “You don’t have to get that, you’re my guest,” I say.
“I don’t mind. You did make dinner after all. The least I can do is help clean up.” She turns the faucet on and grabs the scrub brush and soap.
She looks determined so I don’t argue. Plus, I know she genuinely loves cleaning and organizing. I help her by loading the smaller items into the dishwasher, and she starts washing the skillet I used tonight. It feels like we’re an old married couple, and I don’t hate it.
“So, Harrison is visiting next week?” I ask.
“Yeah! I’m excited to see him. With his work schedule, he only visits about once a year.”
I lean against the counter. “I keep telling him I can get him a job with the Eagles. We could always use a good physical therapist.”
“Oh, that would be amazing! He loves his job in Philly so much though, not sure he’ll ever move.” She shrugs but continues scrubbing the pan.
“Where does he stay when he visits?”
She wrinkles her nose. “He gets a hotel; my place is tiny. Just enough room for me and my roommate.”
I grab a towel and begin drying the dishes she has washed. “You have a roommate?”
I shouldn’t be surprised; D.C. is expensive, and she probably feels safer with a roommate. What if it’s a guy? I’ll kill him.
“Yeah!” She grins and hands me another dish. “Noel. We met at college. She was already working on her PhD, but we ran into each other in the library and hit it off.”
Internally, I breathe a sigh of relief. “Very cool, I’ll have to meet her sometime.”
She smirks. “Alright, but you should know… she hates sports.”
My eyebrows shoot up. “What? Why?”
“She’s a history professor. One of those bookish academic types.” She chuckles to herself, like a funny memory just popped into her head. “She has an entire bookshelf just for her Lord of the Rings collections.”
“Wow, well, maybe we can get her addicted to hockey.” I laugh.
“It’ll never happen,” she says, looking over at me. A challenging gleam is in her eye.
I narrow my eyes at her. “Challenge accepted.”
She laughs and it makes my heart feel light. I love that sound. Melanie washes the last dish and hands it to me. Grabbing the dish from her, our hands brush and our eyes meet. I want to grab her hand and pull her into me like I did at the coffee shop, but she blushes and looks away. I hold back a smile, loving that she’s playing hard to get. It’s even more appealing to me after dating women like Katarina.
