Page 60 of Sticking Around

“You love me?” I ask like a fool as an exuberant childlike laugh—a sound I’m sure I’ve never made before—bubbles up in my throat.

“Yeah, I do, and when we get home later, I’m going to show you how much, just like you showed me how much you loved me earlier.”

I capture her lips with mine, and kiss her with all the love exploding inside me. Nothing in my life has ever felt so good or so right. I’ve been so afraid for so long that I haven’t even been living. I’ve been hiding.

Music begins playing and she wraps her arms around me and we hold each other like our lives depend on it as we sway to it. We dance for a while, and when Gina starts bringing out hor d’oeuvres, Melanie breaks away.

“I should go help.”

“It’s your party.” I take her shoulders and guide her to a table. “Gina, you’ve done enough, too. Have a seat. The guys and I will get the food and drinks.”

She looks perplexed. “Are you sure?”

“Sit,” I demand in a playful voice. She nods and drops down next to Melanie. Brighton and a few of the other women join them. Tania and Trevor are too busy chatting it up with Elias to even notice anyone else is in the room.

“Conner, Gunther!” I yell. “Come help me in the back.”

I turn to spot Conner off to one side, no longer joking and happy. His head is dipped and he’s in deep conversation with Dani, and for a second, my muscles tighten. I can’t hear what they’re saying, but from the looks of it, it seems pretty intense. What the hell? I know they have history and hang out a lot, but Conner is big into the bunnies. Wait, I haven’t seen him with too many bunnies lately. Is there something going on between him and his sister-in-law?

“What’s going on there?” I ask Gunther as he walks over to me.

He turns to see what I’m looking at. “No clue, man.”

“Ash, give us a hand,” I say when he starts walking by.

We all head to the back of the small café and step into the tiny kitchen. I pull open the fridge and find trays of food.

“Who’s this Gina chick, anyway?” Ash asks.

“Melanie and I met her one day on the beach. She inherited this place and is pretty new to Boston.”

“She’s kind of hot,” Ash says and jokingly sticks a toothpick into one of the meatballs and holds it up to examine it. “And I do love a woman who knows how to handle balls.” He tosses the meatball into his mouth and moans in appreciation.

“She’s a mom,” I quickly inform him.

“Oh,” he blurts out, stepping back like I was about to light him on fire. He holds his hands up, palms out. “Kids change everything.”

“Yeah, they kind of do,” I agree. That thought suddenly sours my stomach. I know in my heart that deep inside Melanie, she wants kids of her own. Fuck, there’s no way in the world I’d want a kid ever counting on me to be a parent.

Gunther takes one of the trays from me, a grin on his face. “So, you and Melanie, huh? You’re pretty into her, aren’t you?”

“I like her.” I’m not about to tell him that we’re in love. It’s new and exciting, and I want to keep that inside me for a little while longer.

“But the real question is, do I owe you another?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Double or nothing remember?”

“What?” I take another tray of food and hand it to Ash.

“You got her into your bed, so I owe you a beer,” he explains. “Now do you owe me a beer because she didn’t fall for you, or do I owe you two?” He angles his head. “I actually think she did fall for you, and I owe you two.”

Knowing he’s joking and ignoring that, I zero in on ‘fall for you’ comment. “You think she’s fallen for me, huh?” I ask, keeping the private words we spoke private.

“Oh, yeah, big time, dude.”

“You looking for me?”

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