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Melanie was exhausted by the time she, Carly and Leah climbed the stairs to Brandon and Leah’s house at the end of the day.
The day had been spectacular. The water was warm, the sun hot and the beer cold.
It didn’t get much better than that, in her opinion.
The guys were still down at the dock cleaning up the boat and she was glad for that. She hadn’t had a chance to really talk to her friends and she knew they were dying to know what was going on.
As soon as the door to the house closed, Leah turned to her and said, “Okay spill.”
Playing innocent she kept walking and set her bag on the table. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“Bitch, I will cut you if you don’t tell me what happened last night.” Carly did not like to be left in the dark.
“You’re scary,” she said sarcastically.
“Come on, Mel,” Leah pleaded. “We are dying here.”
Knowing she only had a short amount of time before the guys came up, she gave in. “It was incredible.”
“The sex?” Carly said. “And OH MY GOD why am I asking about my cousin. I am having flashbacks to when Brandon and Leah first got together.”
“Ignore her,” Leah said.
“For your information, we did not have sex. We got halfway between second and third base.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Carly questioned. “If second base is boobs, what’s third base?”
“Isn’t third base like fingering?” Leah asked.
Mel scrunched up her face. “I thought third base was oral?”
“No, no,” Carly said, “Oral is considered sex. So that’s a home run.”
“Do we really need to know what base you got to?” Leah said. “Just tell us what you actually did.”
She exhaled a breath. “Well, last night we left all our clothes on and we...” she trailed off and looked around. At what, she had no idea. “We dry humped.”
“Fully clothed?” Leah asked.
Melanie shook her head yes.
“You said last night,” Carly said. “Does that mean you did more this morning?”
“Observant aren’t you,” she said. “We used only our hands.” She wiggled her fingers at her friends.
“For real,” Carly said. “What are you, like fifteen? What grown adult doesn’t just get it on.”
“You are underestimating a good fingerbang,” Leah said. “Sometimes, it is just what you need.”
Of course Leah would understand. She was in a new relationship so she had probably done all the things people do at the beginning. Carly on the other hand was all about the big bang even if she wasn’t getting it.
Mel was just about to tell them more when the porch door opened and the guys walked in.
Logan was windblown, his brownish blonde hair a mess. Sometime in the last ten minutes he had put on his shirt, making her sad that she could no longer ogle his bare chest. He carried a cooler, his arm muscles bulging from the weight. When he was fully inside the house, he carried it over to the kitchen.
“What are you ladies doing up here?” Brandon asked leaning down to kiss Leah.
“Oh you know, just having pillow fights in our underwear.” Carly always seemed to have a smart remark.
“And I missed it,” Tony said, earning himself a dirty look from Carly.
Shaking his head, Logan came over to her. “Is there a plan for dinner or are we all on our own.”
“I’m too tired to cook,” Leah said.
“Me too,” Mel added.
“I can cook.” Five heads turned and looked at Tony. “I like cooking.” He shrugged.
“Problem solved,” Brandon said. “Follow me and I will show you the kitchen.”
“Of course he can cook,” she heard Carly mumble but when she turned to talk to her, she had already gotten up and walked away.
“We have to deal with that,” she said to Leah. “She is going to combust if something doesn’t give.”
“Are you saying Carly likes Tony?” Logan asked, sitting down on the couch next to her.
“Oh sweetie,” Mel said condescendingly, “you’re a little late to the game.”
Her dig at him should have annoyed him. Yet instead it seemed to have the opposite effect. The look he gave her, told her that if they had been alone, she would be flat on her back on the couch.
“She’s driving herself crazy,” Leah said. “And I like Tony. He respects her.”
“Maybe that’s the problem,” Mel said. “Maybe he needs to be a little less respectful and a little more demanding?”
“Oh,” Leah said. “That could work. She is so hard-headed that if he just told her what he wanted...well that could work.”
Both she and Leah simultaneously turned to Logan. “What?”
“You need to talk to him,” Mel said. It wasn’t a question but a statement.
“Me.” He pointed to himself. “Why?”
“Because you are his friend, and most importantly, you are a guy.”
“Yeah,” Leah said. “We can’t tell him to be forceful with her. He would never go for that. But if you tell him?”
“Let me get this straight,” he said. “You want me to tell my friend to force himself on my cousin?”
Well, when he put it that way it sounded crazy.
“We don’t want him to force himself on her. We just think he needs to stop waiting for her to say jump. Sometimes a woman like Carly doesn’t know that she wants a guy to take control. To be the one to initiate.” Leah was shaking her head yes at Melanie’s statement.
“I can try, but I really don’t want to be involved.”
“Whatever, “ Leah said. “You and Brandon are giant gossips. You both love to be involved.”
Melanie laughed out loud because it was totally true. Everyone in the Graham family liked to be in the know.
“Fine,” he said. “I’ll talk my friend into banging my cousin.”
Mel looked over at Leah and rolled her eyes. “Is this what you have to put up with out of Bran?”
“It’s the curse of loving a Graham man.”
Those words stopped Mel cold. She knew she loved Logan and Leah knew she loved Logan. But Mel had yet to tell Logan. Quickly realizing her mistake, Leah stood up.
“I’m gonna go see where Carly went.” She exited the living room quickly, leaving Mel alone with Logan.
Her back was still to him when she heard him say softly, “Don’t let Leah’s words freak you out.”
She turned and met his gaze. “Oh, Logan.” She reached out and touched his chest. “Loving you no longer freaks me out.”
Gripping her hand that was resting on his chest, he said, “Then you do? Love me?”
“I have forever. But it’s different now. Now I have to learn to love the man you've become and not the man I thought or wanted you to be. It’s gonna take time.”
“I’m a patient man, Melanie.”
A small laugh escaped her. “Yeah, last night and this morning really led me to believe in your patience.”
He moved closer to her. “If my memory serves me correctly, both of those were your ideas.”
Using her hand to bring his head closer to hers, she whispered in his ear. “I don’t remember you complaining.”
His groan and the growing bulge in his swim trunks indicated that complaining was the last thing he wanted to do.
And if she was being honest with herself, she was right there with him.
“You were fucking killing me in that swimsuit today.” His lips trailed down her cheek until they were at her mouth. He nipped her bottom lip and she about came on the spot.
“Less talking.” Her voice sounded strained and she wasn’t even sure how she was forming coherent sentences with his lips touching hers.
“Bossy,” he said and then took her mouth in a fast and furious kiss. Last night she had needed him and their kisses had been a little bit of everything. Sweet, tender, rough, messy. But this kiss...this one was on a whole new level. It was raw and uninhibited.
Like they were finally comfortable enough with each other to just be who they needed.
And it turns out, they each needed the same thing.
“Oops,” Mel heard from behind them.
“Go away, Bran,” Logan stopped kissing her long enough to say.
“I wish I could but Leah asked me to grab Mel for her. She and Carly are outside in front and wanted you.”
Mel sighed, not wanting to let go of Logan, but knowing that her friends would only ask for her if it was important. “On my way.” She let go of Logan and stepped around him.
“That’s not cool,” he yelled after her. “You can’t just kiss a guy and walk away. Haven’t you ever heard of blue balls?”
Not turning around, she instead lifted a hand and waved backward. “It goes both ways...pink balls are a thing.”
Opening the front door of the house, she indeed found Carly and Leah, talking on the swing.
“Sorry to pull you away from Logan and for reals sorry about the love comment.” Leah cringed.
Mel waved it off. “I’m not worried about it. Logan and I seem to be in a good place. The same good place, shockingly.” It was then that she noticed that Carly had obviously been crying.
“What’s going on? What happened?”
“Nothing happened,” she sniffed. “I’m just a loser.”
“Since I already knew that, I might need a little more.”
Leah looked at Mel. “Carly is having a pity party because her two best friends are in relationships and she’s not.”
“It’s less about the relationship and more about the sex,” Carly said tears gone.
Mel plopped down on the swing next to Carly. “If you want sex so bad, go have sex. There are no less than twenty guys in this town who would have sex with you.”
“I’m thinking she doesn’t want to have sex with a guy in this town,” Leah said. “Am I right?”
“Why is he the one guy who I have been attracted to since college? Why him? Seriously,” she looked side-to-side at each of them. “I’m gonna need an answer here. Because I don't even like him.”
“If the him you are referring to is Tony, then yes you do like him,” Mel said.
“No, I don’t. He’s cocky and arrogant and tries his hardest to piss me off.”
“He’s also sweet and kind and hates when other people pick on you,” Leah pointed out.
“You and I,” Carly indicated between herself and Leah, “we are talking about two separate people.”
“No we aren’t,” Leah said. “You just don’t see it because you don’t want to, but Carls, he’s a really good guy and if I’m not mistaken he’s a really good guy who likes you.”
“She’s right, you know,” Mel said. “You should see his face when someone else is digging at you. It’s full of anger.”
“Maybe I’ll just go find one of those twenty guys in town to sleep with. It could make me forget all about Anthony.”
“If you guys have sex, are you gonna call him Anthony, because that really creeps me out?” Mel couldn’t decide if Leah was joking or not.
“Didn’t I just say I wasn’t having sex with him and really, Anthony creeps you out but Tony you are okay with?” Carly shivered. “Yuck.”
“Can we be done with the Carly hates Tony talk for a minute?” Mel asked. “I have something I want to talk to you guys about.
“Shoot,” Leah said.
She lowered her voice just in case Logan was nearby. “I want to help Logan come up with a plan for his photos and I know that between us we know people who could help.”
“I actually do know someone,” Leah said. “And thankfully, she wasn’t a client of my dad’s so she probably doesn’t hate me.”
“Don’t you have some friends in the dance world that would have contacts,” Carly asked her.
“I do, but I’m hesitant to call them.”
“Why?”
She sighed, she hadn’t planned on ever telling anyone this, but it didn’t seem as if she had a choice now. “For the last few years, Juilliard has been trying to get me to come to teach there.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Carly asked. “Why the hell haven’t you told me until now?”
“Because it wasn’t a big deal and I wasn’t interested.”
“Fuck that.” Carly stood. “How can you not be interested in teaching at Juilliard. That’s like the big time.”
“Carly calm down and let Mel tell us her story.”
“You say it’s the big-time like I’m just supposed to want that. But I don’t. I love it here. This town, you guys, my family. Everything. I had my chance and I could have taken it. I didn’t have to stop dancing, I could have healed and joined a show. But that wasn’t what I wanted. From the first moment that the idea of opening my own studio popped into my head, I was done. Having my own studio was my new dream.”
“If you didn’t want to teach at Juilliard, then why hide it from us?”
“Because I knew how you would react.”
“That’s a stupid reason,” Carly said. “You don’t not tell someone something just because you know what they will say. You tell them anyway and talk it out.”
Leah was staring at Carly. “Umm, who are you and what have you done with my hot-headed friend Carly?”
“Is that really how you guys see me? As a hot head?”
“Uhh, kinda,” Melanie said.
“Well, fuck me,” she swore.
“No thank you,” Leah said. “One Graham family member is enough for me.” Leah was always good at lightening the mood.
Carly sat back down, this time across from them. “Okay we kinda got off track. I do have an old friend who might have some contacts but not in New York. In Chicago.”
“Are you talking about Cory?” Leah asked.
“Yeah,” Carly said.
“Who’s Cory?” Mel asked. She was racking her brain trying to remember all Carly’s friends from college.
“He was a guy who lived on our floor sophomore year. Remember, the real skinny but hot guy?”
“Oh yeah,” Mel said. “What does he do that he has contacts in the art world?”
“His husband is an artist,” Leah spoke up.
“He’s gay,” Mel asked.
“How could you not have known that?” Carly was shocked.
“I didn’t live with you guys, so I didn’t see him as much as you did.”
“That’s true,” Leah said.
“Let me know when you contact him and what he says.”
Carly saluted her. “Should we go see what Anthony has come up with for dinner?”
That was the first time that Mel could remember Carly saying his name without a sneer. “Sure.” Mel stood.
“It better be good,” Carly said as they walked into the house.
“He doesn’t seem like the kind of man who does anything bad,” Leah said. “Maybe you should think about that?”
“Have I mentioned that I hate you?” Carly said. “Cause I do.”
Mel didn’t answer or add two cents. She just laughed and followed them into the house.