Safe Word Read Online Free PDF Page B

trying to impress him?  Maybe, Melody reasoned, it wasn’t about that.  Maybe it was about making herself feel pretty so she could face him with her head held high despite his rejection.
    Melody stood outside the bar for a few minutes watching for Zane.  She expected to see him walking down the street but he was nowhere in sight.  Crossing her arms, she leaned against the building and wondered if she’d been stood up.
    Then a deep masculine voice said, “Hi Melody,” from behind her.
    She jumped and spun around.
    Zane was standing in the doorway of the bar, a bottle of beer in his hand.  His hair was hanging across his forehead sexily and when he smiled at her, it showed not only on his lips but also in his eyes.  He was gorgeous.  Even though she hated to admit it, she melted a little inside at the mere sight of him.
    “Hi!” she exclaimed, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically, as she tried to calm herself down.  Gesturing to his beer, she commented, “I didn’t know it was going to be a drunken walk down by the river.”
    “Yeah, neither did I,” he mumbled, tossing the beer bottle into a nearby garbage can.  “Sorry,” he said as he walked over.  “If it makes any difference I’m not drunk – just slightly buzzed.  Are you ready to go?”
    “Let’s do it.”
    The river wasn’t far, so Melody left her car parked outside the bar and they walked. 
    She liked the way it felt when they would accidentally get too close and Zane’s arm would brush against hers.  In fact, she started deliberately moving over so that it would keep happening.  It seemed Zane wasn’t interested in her but after all his mixed messages, who knew? 
    All Melody knew was it felt good to be close to him.  It must have been a pheromone thing.
    But maybe she wasn’t as subtle as she’d thought because pretty soon, he turned to her, chuckling.  “I thought I was the only one who had been drinking today,” he told her with a teasing, playful wink.
    “What do you mean?”
    “You do know you seem to be incapable of walking in a straight line today, don’t you?”
    “You’re crazy,” she shot back, feeling her face redden.  Thankfully, they were almost at their destination, so she took the opportunity to change the subject.  “River Park is always so beautiful this time of year!”
    The petting zoo was set up down by the river every year, a longstanding tradition.  Most of the animals came from nearby farms where they were kept during the winter months.  But in the summertime, the goats, sheep and llama seemed perfectly content to hang out in the pens that had been constructed for them at the edge of the park.
    “What kind of ice cream do you want?” Zane asked as the ice cream truck that was a permanent fixture in the park during the summer months came into sight.
    “Um, caramel pecan, if they have it.  Oh wait no, raspberry cheesecake please!”  Unable to make up her mind, Melody instructed, “Surprise me.”  Then, as Zane walked over to the truck to wait dutifully in line amidst hyperactive children and their weary parents, she made her way down to the riverbank to enjoy the pretty view across the water.
    When Zane returned to her side a minute later, she was busy watching a young family as they threw breadcrumbs to the geese that frequented the park.  In fact, Melody didn’t even see him until he was right beside her.
    “Here you go,” he said.
    Melody turned around to accept her ice cream cone and then blurted out, “You can’t be serious!”
    Zane held two ice cream cones in his hand and was offering them both to her.  One was raspberry cheesecake and the other was caramel pecan.  But they weren’t ordinary ice cream cones.  No, these ones were each piled six scoops high.  They looked absurd, like leaning towers that were going to fall over at any moment.
    “You told me to surprise you and you look surprised,” Zane grinned.  “Mission accomplished.”
    “But –”
    Zane cut her off