Page 58 of Sticking Around

His grin is mischievous. “Don’t thank me yet.”

I frown and eye him as a bunch of his teammates cheer behind me. I turn in time to see Conner and Ash coming toward me with a great big… Is that a cod?

Brady wags his eyebrows. “Time to get screeched in, Lanie.”

19

Brady

“No,” she yells and stumbles backward, landing right into Brighton, who laughs as she catches her. Melanie turns and gives her friend a hug, and Conner stalks toward her, taunting her with the big fish.

“Conner, get away from me,” she yells, and whacks at the fish, although it doesn’t appear she has any intentions of touching it. “That thing is disgusting and is only going near my lips if it’s deep fried and served with a side of fries.” She glares at me, and while she’s feigning outrage, there’s warmth, playfulness and genuine happiness dancing in her eyes. “This…” she huffs out, and steals another fast glance at the fish. “This is my celebration? This is what you had planned?”

“You said you weren’t mad.”

“This is crazy.” Her words are saying one thing, but that smile on her face tells me a whole other story. She loves this and maybe the fact that I’m asking her to be an honorary Newfoundlander holds a lot more meaning than I’m letting on.

I angle my head. “You’re not going to do it? Not ready to be a Newfie?”

She arches one brow and folds her arms across her chest. “Wait, didn’t we agree that I already kissed the cod?”

Whistles and back slapping erupt around us as the guys jostle one another, totally getting the gist of it. I shrug. “I once tried to give you an out, but nope, you said that was cheating and lying, so the only way you can become an honorary Newfoundlander is to actually do it. This is kind of on you, Lanie.”

She laughs and shakes her head at me, but seeing her this happy totally fucks me over.

“Do it, Melanie,” Gunter yells.

She points to him and laughs. “You do it.”

Big-ass cod still in hand, Conner turns his attention to Brighton. “How about you, Brighton?”

She backs up into Noah’s arms. “Come near me with that thing and I’ll be making deep fried fish and chips with your…” She glances down. “Well, you know.”

“All right, give them a break.” I wink at Melanie again. “For now.”

Melanie shakes her head. “I need a drink.”

Gina sets the cake down. “Right this way.” Gina threads her arm through Melanie’s and Melanie grabs Brighton.

“Screech is over here.” I say as Ash hands me the bottle.

Everyone laughs as I crack open the cap. Melanie glances at me over her shoulder and smiles. I smile back, and can’t deny that there’s something very different about her tonight. Hell, there’s something very different about me, too. Up until Melanie, I tried never to let myself feel and when I did, I hid those emotions behind a veil of sarcasm and humor but feelings aren’t so scary when I’m with her.

Conner backs up, turns the fish toward himself, puckers up and gives it a big sloppy kiss.

“Ohmigod, Conner, you’re disgusting,” his sister-in-law Dani says and cringes. He jokingly grabs her, and tries to put his fish lips on her cheek, but she whacks him and runs to Melanie as Gina pours them all a glass of wine. Man, I can’t believe I pulled this off without Melanie finding out. I had everyone in on it, and thought the perfect place to celebrate was at Gina’s new café, so Gina could meet new people, and Melanie could see just how many friends she really has, how many people really care about her.

Tania and Trevor walk over to me, and they both look so starstruck with so many players from the team here. Trevor slaps my back. “Thanks for the invite. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Melanie surprised before.”

“I think I’m going to pay for this later.”

Tania laughs. “If you’re lucky.” I laugh with her and she scans the room. “I think I’ve died and gone to heaven.” Her mouth drops. “Is that…” Her words fall off as her brain stalls.

“Elias, yeah. Nice guy. Why don’t you go say hello?”

Taking deep breaths, she grabs Trevor’s arm. “You come with me in case I stumble over my words.”

“Like I’m not going to stumble over mine. Jesus, that man is hot.”

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