Page 2 of Melting the Ice

“Seriously, I’m going to need an explanation for that nickname.”

Josie’s eyes twinkled, and she looked around my arm at him. “He and my brother were obsessed with Transformers. Like, crazy obsessed.” She held out her hand. “Hi, I’m Josie.”

I linked my fingers with hers, ignoring the electricity that shot up my arm when I touched her, and tugged her away from my teammate.

“Hey,” Sin called out as I guided Josie away from him.

“Micah, seriously. It’s a funny nickname.”

“Of all the guys on the team you could’ve told, he’s the worst one.” I shook my head. “Fuck, I’ll never hear the end of it.”

She rolled her eyes at me. “Whatever.”

“Now, want to tell me what’s going on? I know Ray gave you my number. But instead of calling, you’re here. Did you know I would be here?”

She was back to nibbling on her lip and it took everything in me not to reach out and touch her mouth, soothe the bruised flesh.

Fucking hell.

“He did. And, yeah, I was hoping you’d be here because talking in person would be better.”

“For what?”

“Any chance you might want a roommate for a bit? You know I’m a great cook.”

“What?”

She sighed. “My idiot boyfriend—now ex-boyfriend—skipped town. We were staying with friends of his and, um, now I’m kind of homeless. I have a few jobs lined up, but, uh…”

She trailed off, and I sighed.

Then she flashed me another smile. “It would just be for a little while until I get back on my feet. You know I’m good at that.” Then the big-eye face came out. “Please? I can crash on your couch or something. You’re gone half the time anyway. You’ll never even know I’m there.”

I barked out a laugh. There was a reason I always told Josie she was a hurricane. I would definitely know she was there, sending my ordered life into a tailspin, because if you looked upfly by the seat of your pantsin the dictionary, there’d be a picture of Josie with an infectious grin on her face.

She batted her eyelashes. “Please, Micah? Please?”

My gut tightened for all the wrong reasons at her words.

“I don’t want to go home. I like it here, and you know my parents.” She dropped her voice. “Why can’t you go to college and get a stable career like your brother? You could be a teacher like your brother.”

I bit back a chuckle. Yeah, that was exactly how her dad sounded.

“You love my cooking, and you know it. And I can sort of be neat. I mean, not like your drill sergeant, everything-perfectly-in-place version, but I’ve gotten less messy.”

“If everything is in its place, you can always find it,” I muttered. And for me, Josie was always going to be messy.

“Chaos is good for you, Micah. Keeps you young.”

“I’m going to regret this.” There was no way I could say no to her, and she knew it.

She launched herself at me, her arms going around my neck as she stretched up on her tiptoes. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. You won’t regret this, I promise.”

What the hell had I just agreed to? And why did she have to feel so damn good in my arms?

Shit.

My arms hung limply at my sides as she pressed her body against mine and kept hugging me, so I awkwardly lifted them and loosely held her, my body stirring in ways it definitely fucking shouldn’t.

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