Page 126 of Melted by a Man

“I can’t even move,”she breathed.

I chuckled next to her, half my face buried in the pillows as I mumbled a response, “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

“Good,” she couldn’t even roll over to look at me, “Very, very good.”

* * *

It wasone week after Vincent gave me a concussion. It was my first day back at rugby training because Taylor didn’t want me participating in any games or taking any hard hits yet. They didn’t hesitate to remind me how hard I fell when I wasn’t recovering from a concussion. But I needed to get out of my flat. I wasn’t allowed back at work until next week, according to Brandon, and I was itching to do something with my time besides spiral over Jacqueline Williams.

Jacqueline never came over again. She never invited me over to her flat again. Instead, she would text me to check in and make sure I didn’t have any additional symptoms from my concussion or to simply chat. She would send me what songs she was listening to, and we would FaceTime when we ate dinner at our separate flats.

I didn’t care about my fucking concussion anymore.

I just wanted to know where she and I stood.

Could I keep casually interacting with her at work without knowing if she loved me like I loved her? I wasn’t sure. Each passing day felt like torture. My mind spiraled with a constant stream of worst-case scenarios.

“Last one!” Taylor shouted when we finished the last lap of the day. Zaid was glued to my side, even though I told him he didn’t have to be, he watched me carefully as we came to a slow jog, stopping by our bags at the edge of the pitch.

“Over here!” I heard Taylor call from behind us. I glanced at them over my shoulder, confused by the smirk they were wearing as they jogged toward us. They winked at me before waving their hand at someone near the edge of the park.

When I followed their gaze, I widened mine when I saw a familiar beauty walking toward the pitch.

Next to her was a man. Instinctually, I wanted to shove him away from her, but as they approached I realized the similarities. The dark chocolate hair, dark eyes, the shape of their mouths.

It must have been her brother, Marco. He was speaking low, and his dark eyes kept darting over to me with a smile on his face. Jacqueline would nod at him, but her eyes stayed locked on me.

Behind them, Signe, Mary, Jamie, and even Nicole all followed. Mary and Jamie were carrying a large speaker, and Taylor ran over to them to take it before it dropped.

Jacqueline wasn’t wearing her office attire, even though she must have come straight from the office based on the time of day. She wore a cream-colored sweatshirt and sweatpants. She loved baggy clothes, but these were a couple of sizes too big for her.

She probably loved it.

“Do you have any plans right now?” Jacqueline asked as she finally approached Zaid and me, with no segue into the question.

I stared at her, wondering how in the fuck she still took my breath away when she was dressed in the frumpiest clothes I had ever seen her wear, before I answered, “Um, no.”

She nodded.

Then she shifted from foot to foot, twisting her hands together.

She was nervous. But why?

I was practically holding my breath before she released a large one of her own and stepped closer to me, speaking lower.

Behind her, Marco smiled, crossing his arms.

“…Have I ever told you what I think about your eyes?” Jacqueline asked. She kept her own down, tracing a delicate finger along the collar of her sweatshirt.

I thought about it for half a second before replying, “No?” like my answer was a question.

She nodded, tucking her lips between her teeth before replying, “I think that they’re beautiful.”

I gave Mary and Signe curious glances, because they just stood behind Jacqueline with amused expressions, before looking back at her and responding with, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she sucked in a short breath, holding it, and lifted her gaze to meet mine, “…They’re such a specific shade of light blue. Icy, almost. The first time I saw your eye color in that bar… I thought that they reminded me of glaciers.”

My facial expression smoothed at her words, but my body tensed.

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