Page 35 of Trouble

“Did you seriously just win another round?” Colby asks as I lay down my last match.

“It’s Go Fish,” Mason grumbles, shifting in his chair.

I laugh for what feels like the first time in days. It bubbles out of me, and when it hits, I can’t stop it. Shawn and Colby are smiling, and Mason, of course, is still scowling when the door upstairs scrapes open.

On instinct, I search for the man I can’t stop thinking about. He appears at the floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the bay again, zeroing in on me with a small frown.

I hold up a handful of cards and shriek, “I won!”

In response, his lips tug upward into a real smile.

My body is moving before I have the chance to overthink this. “Be right back, boys. I’m going to gloat.”

“I’ll start on dinner,” Mason says, pushing from his chair.

As I scurry across the space, I keep my focus fixed on that smile waiting for me upstairs. I lose sight of him when I hit the stairwell, and by the time I make it up, he’s moved back into his office. He probably expects to be left alone again, but my restraint is gone. I can’t explain the way I’m constantly being pulled toward Declan, like he’s the sun, and I’m caught in his orbit, but I can’t deny the urge to seek him out, to demand his attention. Under his watchful gaze, I feel safer, more at ease, than I’ve ever experienced.

I tap on the door but don’t wait for him to answer before I step into his office. When he looks up from his desk and zeroes in on me, my breathing stops. Why is it that when his brows pull together, almost like he’s annoyed, my blood heats?

“You ready to go home?”

With my lip caught between my teeth, I wander toward him. “Are you?”

His forehead creases as he studies me. “I’m good with whatever you want to do.”

I perch myself against his desk, right next to his chair. He has to tilt his head back to maintain eye contact.

“Are you done with work?”

“Melina—”

“Why do you always call me that?”I ask, frowning.

Declan doesn’t make a smart-ass comment about how itismy name, after all. Instead, he regards me silently, his expression full of sincerity. “Because that’s who you are to me.”

My heart clenches. I’m certain he’s the only person who can see through my façade to the real me. Sometimes not even Lake can tell when I’m wearing a mask. But Declan? It’s like our souls connect on another level.

Cade may have my heart, but I think Declan has my soul.

Is it possible to fall for two people at the same time? To want them in different ways but also recognize that without one, the other couldn’t make me whole?

I don’t know how else to explain it. When I’m with Declan, I’m safer, more comfortable, than I’ve ever been. But thoughts of Cade give me butterflies. He’s exciting, while Declan grounds me. But who am I to them? Based on the interactions I’ve observed between them, it’s hard not to wonder whether they’re the soulmates, and I’m the distraction.

I barely know them. They barely know me. But there is no denying that they are incredibly important to one another.

“Everyone else calls me Mel,” I mumble, as if he doesn’t know that.

He nods, his eyes swimming with confusion as they dart from my face to where I’m propped up on his desk and back again.

“What else am I to you?” Vulnerability leaches into my tone in a way I wish I had the ability to hide.

Declan doesn’t shy away from the rawness of the question.He doesn’t look away.

The tension between us grows as I wait for his response. Lips parted, he angles forward.

My heart rate ratchets up.

Is he going to pull me onto his lap? Kiss me?

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