“Melanie, can I talk to you for a minute?” I ask her, pushing back from the table. She won’t look at me and I start thinking this has all been a huge mistake. She’s not comfortable in my space, but now she’s close enough that she can walk out and be home in less than a minute.
“I need to get Brody outside,” she says, rushing toward the door. More than anything, I want to race to her side, reaching out to stop her, but I can’t. If she wants to go, I can’t keep her here, but I need her to stay so we can talk about this shift that is already taking place between us, whether we want it or not.
I follow her into the hall, only because I can’t exactly blurt out what I need to say in the presence of my brother and son. “Melanie, will you please come back after you let the dog out? We need to talk about what happened last night, that’s why Braydon is taking Jacob for the day.”
She leans against the railing, one foot on the landing, the other on the top stair. If she doesn’t say something soon, I’m worried I’ll resort to begging her to not leave. She pinches the bridge of her nose, eyes clenched tight. When they open, I see anxiety swirling in her deep brown irises. I get that feeling because I’m so nervous my breakfast is threatening a return trip. But the fact remains, we’re grown adults and we owe it to one another to lay it all out and decide where we go from here because ignoring the chemistry isn’t working for us.
“Yeah, I’ll come back, but I’m going to go home and change first.” Taking another look at her pajamas that do little to conceal every delectable curve of her body, I’m tempted to find her a t-shirt and sweatpants. It’s daylight now and the thought of anyone else seeing her like this makes me want to punch something. It’s bad enough that I have to live with the knowledge that Braydon saw her like this. I don’t care that he’s likely seen her in less, back when she was tending bar.
“Probably a good idea,” I say curtly. After debating the consequences, I lean in and kiss her cheek, figuring she’ll either get pissed off at me for the gesture or she will leave here with a slight hint of what I feel for her. I’m okay with either outcome because it’s progress. “I’ll see you in a bit.”
Without saying a word to me, she turns down the stairs. Like a lovesick fool, I stand watching her until I can no longer see her toned legs walking down the sidewalk.
“That didn’t take long.” It figures that Tyler would be walking out of the building between mine and Xavier’s just in time to get the completely wrong impression. I consider setting him straight, telling him that I was only there for Jacob, but he knows me well enough to know that I’m on a slippery slope right now. He would see the truth as fallacy, assuming I’m trying to dodge the inevitable lecture on why being this close to Xavier is a bad idea for me. I suppose I am, to some extent, because Tyler only knows how Xavier and I were together when we were both younger and didn’t have the same responsibilities we do now. Before Xavier became a widower with a young son. Before I was possessed the confidence to go after what’s important in my life.
“Good morning, Tyler,” I say sweetly, pretending I’m not standing in plain view of the entire complex wearing little more than underwear.
He comes to stand slightly behind me, as if his wiry frame could shield anyone from catching a glimpse of the bottom of my ass cheeks hanging out the bottom of the nearly transparent boxers. “Do I even want to know?” he finally asks.
“If you want to know anything, you’re going to have to follow me to my place,” I inform him, picking up Brody so I can get to my apartment as quickly as possible. There’s no need to look back to see if Tyler is following me. We may have drifted apart a bit since college, but he’s still a hound for juicy gossip. Who knows, maybe this whole screwed up situation with Xavier will bring us closer. Lord knows I could use that seeing as I have no intention on mending fences with Stacey and I’ve been far too devoted to work to think about having a social life.