Beauty and the Professor (A Modern Fairy Tale Duet 1)

He wasn’t supposed to be thinking of that.

“Anyway, we named this plant the Grumpy Geranium because he looks kind of mad, don’t you think?”

He looked doubtfully at the flowers. They looked…pretty?

She waved away the silent disagreement. “You had to be drunk. But basically he judges us until we’ve done all our homework and done the dishes and taken out the trash and then we can watch TV. He’s like a guard.” She rubbed a petal between her fingers before looking up, something strange and unsettling in her eyes. “You can sit down, you know. Sorry I didn’t say so sooner.”

Nodding, he found a seat on one end of the couch. She perched on the edge of an ottoman. A far cry from the close embrace they’d shared at his house.

Suddenly she looked ready to cry. His muscles tensed to go to her, but he wouldn’t push her, not when she’d made the distance between them clear.

“I’m sorry about Melinda,” he said soberly. “I had no idea she’d come by.”

“But you knew she worked there.” The statement was flat, not a question.

He took a deep breath. “As you may have guessed, we had a relationship. It’s over.”

“She didn’t seem to think so.”

He shook his head, still a little mystified. “I don’t know why she thought I’d be open to that. Or why she would even want to start things up again. She’s the one who broke things off. The truth is, it was more than dating. We were engaged.”

“And she left you?” Erin sounded outraged on his behalf.

“Apparently getting married to the stuff of nightmares didn’t appeal to her. That doesn’t matter anymore. There’s no chance of us getting back together. I made that clear to her when you left. I’m just sorry you had to be put in that awkward position.”

“I can’t believe she left you because of your scars.”

“At the time they weren’t really scars. They were burn wounds, not healed at all. Bright and even uglier than they are now, if you can imagine that.”

Her eyes narrowed. “How soon after the explosion did she break up with you?”

“A couple weeks. I didn’t blame her. She couldn’t even bring herself to meet my eyes. Why would I want her to marry me after that? But it still hurt like a—well, it hurt a lot. They were dark times for me. I try not to think about it. That’s why I never told you about her.”

Curiosity lit her eyes. “Blake. Do you know where Melinda is right now?”

“No idea.” He frowned. “She didn’t talk to you about us, did she?”

“No,” she said, and he felt relief. Then she added, “But I went to see you, and she was in your house, Blake. In your house, wearing your clothes and eating our takeout.”

For a moment, he simply stared at her. Then he realized his mouth was hanging open. “Well, fuck. Why didn’t you kick me in the balls when you first saw me?”

She shrugged. “I figured it wouldn’t make a lot of sense for you to be here if you knew there was a half-naked woman back at your place.”

Shit. He rubbed his brow. Erin had been coming to see him looking like some kind of sex goddess, and she’d found Melinda there. How had Melinda even gotten in? Though he hadn’t changed the locks when she’d left him. He never expected her to come back.

“Erin, I had no idea she was there. I definitely didn’t invite her.”

“I believe you.”

“I swear I didn’t, Erin.”

“I’m serious.” She sighed. “I do trust you, despite my occasional ride on the insecurity train. It just took me by surprise, that’s all. And then I got a little messed up inside. I never want to be that way, the jealous girlfriend asking where you went or who you were with.”

“You have every right to be pissed, to doubt me—”

“No.” She stopped him. “I never doubt you. I doubt myself.”

He swallowed, steeling himself. “What’d the asshole do?”