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.She set the champagne glass on the counter just before walking out of the kitchen.She’dhad enough.It was bringing out the idiot in her.Grabbing the remote from the coffee table, she clicked the television on and made sure to take aseat on the recliner that sat one.She didn’t want him thinking she was suggesting anything.She couldkick herself now for flirting with him.Like Nellie had mentioned that first day at the gym, the oldVeronica was a flirt.The champagne seemed to have allowed it to resurface.She made a mental noteto keep the alcohol intake to a minimum while around Noah, especially alone.It was hard enough notto notice how incredibly sexy he could be even when she was completely sober.Adding alcohol intothe mix was just stupid.She should’ve seen that coming.Noah waltzed into the living room, looking a little too smug.Veronica gave him a quick glancethen averted her eyes to the television.“Polar Express! My favorite.And it just started.” She jumpedout of her recliner.“I’ll go make popcorn.”Halfway into kitchen she heard Noah call out.“You gonna put whip cream on that?”Then she heard the laugh.She bit her tongue holding back what she really wanted to say.That’snot the kind of salty stuff I was talking about.Instead she said, “Ha ha.No.That would be way toomessy.”“Isn’t the mess part of the fun?”She spun around her face going hot not just from his words but at the sound of his voice soclose behind her.He stood a couple of feet away from her now, a tinge of humor in his smolderingeyes.Clearing her throat, she turned back to the pantry and grabbed a bag of naturally flavored lightlysalted popcorn.The best thing to do was ignore his question and change the subject.“Do you knowthat not only did I use to buy the buttered popcorn but for a while there I actually added more butter?”As embarrassing as her fat ass confession was, it beat anymore talk of whip cream.Thankfullyshe turned away from his penetrating and playful eyes as she took the few steps to the microwave.“Depression will do that to you.Food is comforting.Lots of people turn to over indulging on itjust like others turn to alcohol or drugs to help them cope.You had every right to be down, Roni.”Their eyes met and his usually intense eyes now teamed with compassion for her.Somethingshe only ever got from Nellie.There were two powerful forces fighting against each other now.While his smoldering eyesearlier had begun to wear her down, making her consider that maybe allowing herself to give in tosomething exciting and so against her better judgment for once in her life wasn’t such a bad thing, thenhe said things like this.The genuine kindness in his voice was undeniable and it reminded her howstupid she would be to ruin a friendship with such a great guy.The microwave beeped just in time for her to catch her breath and turn away again.“Well,” shesaid as she took the popcorn bag out and grabbed a bowl to spill its contents in.“The over indulgingcame with its consequences.” She turned back to him and smiled.“You were witness to that firsthand.No more extra butter for me.”That smile again, so tender but unlike when Nellie smiled at her like this it touched her in a wayshe couldn’t understand.“I’m proud of you.You fought your way out of that dark stage of your lifeand look at you now.” For a moment, the tenderness in his eyes disappeared as he took her in from topto bottom, making her breath catch then it was back and he smiled again.“Not an easy thing to do youknow.You did good, Roni.You should be proud.”She took in a slow breath hoping he wouldn’t notice how a few words and his beckoning gazeaffected her.“I am proud.” Picking up the bowl of popcorn, she started to the living room feeling hispresence right behind her.She now regretted not grabbing another bowl because sitting by herself onthe recliner would be rude since they were going to share the popcorn.Sitting down on the sofa, Veronica decided she would stop worrying about her relationshipwith Noah and just enjoy the rest of her Thanksgiving evening.She didn’t even flinch when he sat abit closer than she had expected and after several times of their fingers accidentally touching as theyboth reached for popcorn at the same time, her heart stopped reacting so erratically.For God’s sake,they were two grown adults not middle school kids.By the time the evening was over they made it through without any more uncomfortablemoments or inappropriate flirting and Veronica concluded this was the beginning of what she hopedwould be a wonderful long term friendship.~*~Visions of Roni and some of the wicked things Noah imagined her doing to him with a can ofwhip cream, made for an extra long shower the following morning.It was becoming increasinglyharder for him to be around her and not let on what he was feeling.Though he wondered if he shouldeven try.If she wasn’t so damn hard to read maybe he’d know whether or not to hide it.She sent outmore mixed signals than a baseball coach.One minute flirting outrageously and staring blatantly at hislips, then in the same breath, backing down and making an exit out of the room just as fast.But it was just as well.Even though it’d be more than fun to have Roni underneath him andadmittedly in the beginning it’s all he thought about.The more he spent time with her and got to knowher, he was now afraid that wouldn’t be enough.If he ever did get that far with her he’d want moreand she made it clear she wasn’t ready for anything like that.Losing the only family she’d ever knownhad to be hard.No telling how long it would take her to be ready.He had to shove the thought out ofhis mind and be thankful for what he did have—her friendship.For now, it’d have to do.Roni had dropped him off at the gym that morning.With the rain letting up even if it waspredicted to be only for a day, he’d finally be back on his bike.Noah was spending a few hours at Gio’s today.He hated to admit it but if he hadn’t alreadyspoken to Gio that morning and agreed to come over he would’ve gladly accompanied Roni to thepark instead.She told him after he’d gotten off the phone with Gio that she was going to be there for afew hours taking pictures—said it was something she used to do a lot until her mom got sick and onlyrecently started doing it again.She even gave him a quick tour of her small darkroom.He got to seesome of the photographs she’d take over the years.To his surprise she had a lot more talent than she’d let on.But even more surprising was howhe’d felt seeing the pictures she still kept of her and Derek’s names carved into a tree with a heartaround it that appeared to have taken a lot of work.He wasn’t going to ask at first but after seeing acouple more the words had just flown out and the contempt in his words had hardly been masked.Why do you still have these?Her answer was unsatisfactory to say the least.She shrugged saying she almost never threw outany picture she took but these pictures were displayed most prominently and it literally turned hisstomach.He’d been that close to asking her if she still had feelings for the dick.But he realized thatwas getting a little too personal.Most importantly alarms had gone off when he glanced at the pictureagain and was inundated with a rage he’d never felt before.Certain that any more questioning wouldcome out more like unjustifiable demands than a simple question, he’d excused himself and walkedout of the dark room confused as hell at his reaction [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]