All They Need(62)

She started scraping the rust and flaking paint off the garage wall in the afternoon in preparation for painting, and by the time she’d reached the halfway mark she still hadn’t come up with a single decent conversational gambit with which to break the ice with Flynn.

“You know why? Because you’re an idiot,” she muttered to herself.

“Sorry? Did you say something?”

Mel looked over to see her mother crossing the patio, a glass of water in hand.

“Just talking to myself,” Mel admitted.

Her mother passed her the glass. “It’s when you start answering back that you really have to worry.”

“Too late.”

Her mother grinned and shaded her eyes to inspect her progress. “You know, your father promised he’d do this for me so many times over the years, but it’s taken this party before it finally happened.”

“Yeah, and he still isn’t doing it.” Mel couldn’t help pointing that fact out.

“True,” her mother said reflectively. “But he is paying for the party, which is why I’ve been able to guilt you into doing this, so, by extension…”

“You should be in politics. You have a sneaky mind.” Mel took a big swallow of water then turned back to the garage wall.

“Sing out if you need anything else,” her mother said as she headed inside.

Mel’s phone rang as she bent to pick up the wire brush she’d been using. She straightened, leaving the brush where it was, and pulled her phone from her pocket. Her heart did something strange in her chest when she saw it was Flynn calling.

“Hi,” she said, hoping she didn’t sound as pleased—and relieved—as she felt to hear from him.

“Hey. How are things?” His voice sounded so good, so familiar.

“Things are good. Mom’s got me on slave duties for the big party on Saturday night. Although I’m beginning to suspect that this is all a ploy to get a freebie renovation.”

She waited for him to pick up the conversational ball and run with it the way he usually did, but there was a small, awkward pause before he spoke again.

“Actually, I was calling about your parents’ party. Your mother sent me an invitation, and I wanted to check with you before I responded.”

Mel blinked. “Beg pardon?”

“Your mother sent me an invitation to her party.”

“Holy—” Mel swallowed a curse, turning to glare at the house. She could see her mother moving around through the kitchen window. If she could have, she would have grabbed her by the shoulders and shaken her until her teeth rattled. “I’m really sorry she did that, Flynn. Believe me, if I’d known… I’ll tell her to cross you off her list right now.”

“Right. Well, I guess that answers my question,” he said slowly.

“What question was that?”

“Whether you knew if she’d asked me or not.”

She was so embarrassed she could feel heat radiating off her face. It took her a moment to register the disappointment in his voice and longer still to comprehend what it might mean.

“Don’t tell me you want to come?” she blurted.



“The thought had crossed my mind.”

“Why?” The question came from her gut, fueled by all the doubts and regrets that had been plaguing her since she’d pushed him away on Saturday night.

“You really need me to spell it out?”

There was a faintly exasperated note to his voice, but she knew that if he was standing in front of her that there would also be a smile in his eyes. A wave of relief washed over her, so strong that she felt a little dizzy in its wake.

“I thought the next time I saw you was going to be when we bumped into each other accidentally in the village,” she said.

“Did you? And here I was, under the impression that we were friends.”

Her heart was going nuts in her chest. She lay her hand over her left breast to try to contain it.

“I thought that maybe, after what happened, I mean, after what didn’t happen, that it might be too weird—”

“Because we kissed?”

“Because we almost had sex and I freaked out and kicked you out of my house like a complete psycho beast.”

“That’s one way of looking at it.”

“What’s the other way?”

“We kissed.”