More Than Friends (14 page)

“You have some paint—” She halted when she touched Melanie, just above her collarbone.

Melanie froze, too. She clutched Evelyn’s shirt sleeve tighter, pulling the fabric against Evelyn’s arm.

Her skin tingled where Evelyn touched her. Evelyn’s molten-chocolate eyes were locked on her mouth, and her heart raced with anticipation and nerves as she realized Evelyn’s intention. “Ev?”

“Yes?”

“Are you going to kiss me?”

“What? Shit.” Evelyn pulled back, but the few added inches weren’t enough space to clear the fog in Melanie’s head. “I—ah, yeah. I—almost—”

Melanie closed her eyes and drew a steadying breath. She needed to think, to be rational, to remember how much this would hurt Kendall. The arousal building within her matched Evelyn’s hot gaze. She wanted so badly to kiss Evelyn. Would her lips be soft and tender? Or firm and demanding? But Kendall’s feelings, the chance that they might screw up their friendship, and the scent of alcohol on Evelyn’s breath convinced her that she needed to find some self-control.

She was an affectionate person by nature. Over the years, she and Evelyn had shared numerous touches and embraces. But they had always been platonic; nothing had ever felt as intimate as this moment. “This is not a good idea.” It was downright dangerous. She shoved a hand through her hair.

“You’re right. But there’s no need to beat ourselves up, either. It’s just a kiss and we didn’t even do it.”

“There’s nothing simple about you and me sharing a kiss.” She sighed. She appreciated Evelyn’s attempt to downplay the situation. But she couldn’t reduce the swirl of emotions inside her right now so easily. “I’m tired of everything being so complicated.”

“Maybe you and I are just emotional after everything that’s changed lately. Let’s not make what
almost
happened a bigger deal than it needs to be.”

The knot in her chest eased. She’d almost made a mistake, and now Evelyn seemed to be giving her an out. But the echo of disappointment in the wake of her relief was unexpected.

“I mean, even if we had, we’re such good friends, it would probably be like kissing a sibling or something,” Evelyn said, her words still slightly slurred.

Melanie nodded slowly, though she knew better. Evelyn might be able to blame intoxication for her actions right now, but she had no such excuse. Considering the mental images haunting her lately, she could no longer pretend she had only benign feelings for Evelyn.

“Should we try it?”

“What?” Panic shot through her.
No! Don’t kiss her!
The screaming in her head was clear. Touching Evelyn would surely destroy her tenuous control.

“Let’s get it out of the way—prove to ourselves this is only situational so we can move past it.”

Did Evelyn really believe they could kiss each other chastely and then forget about it? Perhaps she wasn’t experiencing the same attraction that Melanie was. If that was the case, maybe Evelyn’s rejection
would
help her let go of this infatuation. Melanie shifted closer, her gaze focused on Evelyn’s lips. She rested her hand on Evelyn’s thigh. She would have thought touching Evelyn so intimately might be awkward, but feeling the firm flex of her denim-encased muscles only intensified her desire. She could imagine stroking the soft line of Evelyn’s jaw before taking her face in her hands and pulling her closer. She stopped herself before she conjured the feel of Evelyn’s lips moving against hers.

“God, I hope you’re not serious.” She couldn’t initiate the kiss, but she didn’t have the strength to stop it if Evelyn did.

“No. Not entirely.” Evelyn pulled her lower lip between her teeth, and she suppressed a moan. How the hell could she suddenly be finding Melanie so damn sexy?

She sighed and opened her door. She needed to get out of this truck before she did something stupid. She slid to the ground, then circled and opened Evelyn’s door.

“Let’s get you inside,” she said, aware that they’d been in the same situation the previous weekend, but now their roles were reversed.

As Evelyn dropped to the ground, she stumbled a little, caught her arm around Melanie’s shoulder, and righted herself. Melanie steadied her briefly, then stepped back to close the door. Evelyn would have to get herself to the front door, because if she had to walk more than a few steps with Evelyn pressed to her side, she just might throw her down right here on the sidewalk outside her condo.

*

Evelyn patrolled the same neighborhood for the fourth time in an hour. She couldn’t remember the last time work had been this slow on a Monday afternoon. They had three newly graduated rookies on their shift, so the training officers had been grabbing all of the incoming calls in order to get a variety of incidents. She’d been trolling the usual areas looking for a traffic stop that might lead to something interesting. Today, when she needed a little distraction, she couldn’t even find an expired tag or a busted taillight.

The musical peal of her cell phone gave her a moment’s hope for diversion, but when she saw Melanie’s picture on the caller ID, she felt an odd mix of anticipation and dread. She wanted to talk to Melanie—craved it—but was embarrassed by her behavior last night. She’d apparently been just drunk enough to lower her inhibitions but not quite enough to eradicate the details. She’d woken up this morning with a low-grade headache and the trickling memories of the way she’d acted the night before.

Still she couldn’t deny herself the pleasure of Melanie’s voice, so she answered the phone.

“Hey, I’m just calling to check on you.”

“I’ve mostly recovered.” When the light turned green, she continued through it and pulled into the driveway of the elementary school on the corner. She circled to the back and parked in the shadow of the building.

“Are you busy?” Melanie asked.

“Nope. Everyone must be on their best behavior tonight.”

They talked about the minutiae of their respective days until they both fell silent. She searched for something else to say—anything except what she knew she should.

“So, did I really suggest we kiss just to get it out of the way?” she finally blurted.

“Yes.”

She groaned, squeezed her eyes shut, and pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

“Can we just blame it on the tequila?”

“I don’t see why not.”

“Wonderful.”

“But wouldn’t it be better if we just talked about it?” Melanie asked.

“I don’t think that’s going to help.” Damn Melanie’s openness. The last thing Evelyn wanted to do was rehash what had to be the weakest come-on she’d ever perpetrated.

“You said yourself you weren’t wasted. So what was behind that comment?”

“Any chance you’ll let this go?”she asked.

“Please, Ev?”

She couldn’t take the naked vulnerability in Melanie’s plea. She sighed. Maybe she needed to do this now; over the phone might be easier than in person anyway. Her limbs felt weak and her heart hammered. She took a deep breath and forged ahead. “Okay. Recently, I’ve been thinking—well, I’ve been thinking about you—a lot—in ways that I shouldn’t.”
God, that was smooth.
Melanie was quiet for so long that Evelyn rushed to fill the awkward silence. “I know it’s not a good idea, and I’ve mostly got a handle on it. Oh, hell, I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“Evelyn—”

“Think we could blame the tequila again?”

Melanie laughed, and the familiar soft chuckle began to ease her tension. This was Melanie. No matter how uncomfortable this conversation, they could get through it. “A day later? Yes, I’m sure a few shots of tequila could be culpable.”

“Thanks.”

“But, Evelyn?”

“Yeah?”

“I didn’t drink any tequila.”

Was she saying she felt the same way? Stunned, Evelyn couldn’t formulate a response. What now? They still couldn’t act on these feelings. Could they? Kendall would hate them both. She was certain of that. Sure, Kendall said she was cool with Evelyn and Melanie remaining friends, because she believed ultimately that Evelyn’s loyalty still lay with her. But dating Melanie would most certainly cross a line.

As if summoned by her guilt, Kendall called her on the radio, which started her heart racing again.

“Was that Kendall?” Melanie asked.

“Uh-huh. Hang on.” She picked up her microphone and answered.

“What’s your twenty?” Kendall’s voice crackled over the air asking for her location.

“Seventh and Ramsey.” She gave the intersection closest to the school.

“Is she on her way?” Melanie’s question did little to soothe her contrition.

“Yes.” She didn’t know what else to say. Suddenly she found herself in an impossible situation. She’d pursued a number of women that she wasn’t even that interested in, looking for the connection she thought Kendall and Melanie had. Now, her apparent illusions about that relationship had been blown apart and she was—

God, was she falling for Melanie?

“I’m sorry,” Melanie said softly.

“For what?”

“For putting you in what must be an uncomfortable position.”

She scoffed. “You didn’t do this.”

“You work with Kendall. Add talking to me every day, and it can’t be easy. Should we get some distance? Maybe I shouldn’t call you for a while.”

“Is that what you want?” The idea sent a shaft of panic through her chest. When Melanie didn’t answer for an excruciatingly long minute, Evelyn wished she knew what she was thinking. Did the idea of separation hurt Melanie as much as it did Evelyn? Or was she trying to decide how to let her down easy?

“No,” Melanie finally said, sounding as if she admitted it reluctantly. “But I don’t want to cause problems between you and Kendall.”

“Mel—” If she had any idea what to say, she wouldn’t have the chance now anyway. Kendall’s patrol car turned the corner of the building and headed toward her. “Kendall’s here.”

“Okay. Let’s take a break for a while—see if that eases some of the tension.”

“I don’t want—”

“I think it’s the right thing to do.” Melanie sounded sad and not at all convincing. “Have a good week, Ev.” Before she could argue further, Melanie had disconnected.

Kendall stopped next to her car, facing the opposite way, and rolled down her window. Evelyn punched the button to lower hers as well.

“What a boring day,” Kendall said.

“No kidding.”

“Do you want to hit the gym after work?”

“Absolutely.” Maybe a good, hard workout would clear her mind. “How was your weekend?”

“Good, actually. I meant to call you but I got busy. I wanted to talk to you about something.”

Evelyn waited, stifling the urge to defend her time spent with Melanie. Had one of the girls from paintball talked to Kendall? She hadn’t said or done anything inappropriate toward Melanie in front of them.

“I’ve sort of been seeing someone—nothing serious. But more than a couple of dates.”

“Yeah?” Her panic eased.

“I didn’t want to tell you because of who it is.”

“As long as you’re happy and don’t let anyone treat you badly, I’m happy for you.”

“Even if it’s Tiffany?”

She laughed, but Kendall didn’t join in. “Oh, you’re serious.”

Kendall nodded.

“How did that happen?”

“I ran into her at the grocery store and we went out for coffee.”

“Wow. This is unexpected. If I remember correctly, you called her a ditz.”

“Well, yeah, when I thought she’d rejected you.”

“So now, you’re into her?”

“Yeah, maybe, I don’t know. We’re hanging out.”

“Hanging out?” It was a phrase she had used when she wanted to sleep with someone she’d been dating but wasn’t sure if she was serious about her yet. Kendall’s averted gaze confirmed that she meant exactly that. “Wow.”

“It had to happen eventually, right? I mean, Melanie’s not changing her mind. I have to move on.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Anyway, that’s partly why I told you. I wanted you to know, of course. But I also know you’re still friends with Melanie.”

She nodded, uncomfortable with the direction of this conversation.

“Tiffany and I are having dinner with some mutual friends of mine and Melanie’s next weekend. So, there’s a chance she’ll hear about it. I thought maybe if you told her first it would—”

“No.”

“Evelyn—”

“I don’t want to be in the middle of this.”

“You’d rather she be blindsided in front of our friends?”

“Why don’t you tell her?”

“We haven’t spoken in months. I don’t want this to be the first thing I say to her after so long.”

“Damn. Okay, I’ll tell her.”

“Soon?”

“Next time I talk to her.” She hedged, thinking about Melanie’s request that they take some time apart. The dinner wasn’t until the weekend. Maybe in a few days she could use this message as an excuse to call Melanie.

Chapter Twelve

“What’s up, Boss? I’ve never seen you this distracted.”

Melanie threw her pencil onto her desk and watched it roll across the unfinished layout for her next project. Lucas caught it as it fell off the edge.

“Just dragging a little this week.” She’d wasted an entire morning at the office pretending to work on her newest account. Usually, she had no problem losing herself in her work, no matter what was going on in her life. The past few days, she’d had trouble summoning enough creative energy to accomplish much. So she plodded on, doing busy work and promising she would complete the drawings later. Since she had a meeting with the client in the morning,
later
had arrived. “I’m not feeling this design at all.”

“Want me to take a crack at it?” He rubbed his chin, his fingers rasping against his stubble.

She pushed the grid paper across the desk. She’d already sketched out the dimensions they had to work with and taken detailed notes on the clients’ specific desires. He scanned the notes, then pulled the plans closer and bent over them.

She leaned back in her chair, comforted by the rhythmic scratch of his pencil against the paper. He worked quickly, sometimes in long, smooth strokes and other times making short, staccato lines.