Page 21 of Meeting Melody
I foundteaching.
No, I didn’t.
I stumbled into teaching when I failed to become a writer.
I fell into this shitty adjunct position at Crown Point University when I got fired from my last job and I had nowhere else to go. When my diploma sat in a box, gathering as much dust as my degree did in my brain.
“If this is my passion, just kill me now.” I tip my head back and close my eyes.
Jacob takes the mug from my hands. I open my eyes again. At some point during our talk, the whipped cream had spilled over the edge and run down my fingers. He sets the mug aside and brings my hand to his mouth. Then my fingersintohis mouth.
Desire flits through me, and I do everything in my power to stop from shifting or giving myself away at all. Instead, I just… watch him. And feel his tongue. And try not to picture that same tongue giving my clit the same treatment.
He lowers my hand but doesn’t release it.
“Who else besides your mom?”
I wince. “I don’t want to talk about my past anymore.”
“I’ve got a younger sister. My dad is a police chief. Mom’s a doctor.”
“That would explain the second house,” I say with a small smile. But really, all it does is cement that we’re in such different places in our lives. Or just different places in the world, really. Where he has a supportive family, I’ve got no one but a few friends and a head full of trauma.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” I ask instead. “Doctor, like Mom? Or a police officer? Or will you play hockey professionally?”
He shakes his head. “If I get recruited, I’d follow that to the NHL. But that would only happen if we play excellently this year. Not impossible, but… there are a few hurdles.”
“So…”
“I like math. So maybe I’d become a high school algebra teacher.” He grins. “And I’d teach some sports, too. Hockey, definitely. Maybe lacrosse in the spring.”
“Did you play lacrosse?”
“Yeah, in high school. I was good, but not get-a-scholarship good, like hockey.”
I nod along. “Okay.”
“So I’ll teach a high school math and mentor kids and I’d have a wife and a few kids running around. Nothing fancy. Nothing dangerous.”
“You don’t want an adrenaline high at work?”
“I think I’d get that from walking in the door afterwards and seeing my family.”
My stomach twists, and I can seethathappening for him, too. A young wife who supports him, who matches his beauty and arrogance and—
“I’m talking about you, songbird,” Jacob whispers. “Because I know you think I’m just saying senseless words about an uncertain future, but I’m pretty sure you’re it for me.”
“I’m definitely not. Gorgeous hockey player with his life figured out, compared to… me. An emotional brick wall with too many cracks in the foundation.”
“Melody.”
“Jacob.”
I push off the couch. “Can you take me home, please?”
“No.”
“I—” I glare at him. “No?”
