Page 11 of Frozen Hearts

“Enough about my dog child. Have the two of you picked a day for your wedding?” Mel asked. She saw a pink blush forming across Jordan’s cheeks.

“This one keeps walking back our dates,” Reese teased.

“I can’t help it, things are so crazy with work,” Jordan complained.

“We’ve got to get you two down the aisle. At this rate Lena and I are going to beat you,” Brynn laughed.

“Did I hear my name?” Lena asked, approaching the table. Mel had been so drawn into the conversation she hadn’t even noticed Lena come through the door.

Mel moved from her seat beside Brynn so that Lena could fill the space. Then she pulled up a chair. Lena sat beside Brynn and gave her a kiss on the lips. Mel was glad that Brynn had hired a couple of servers to take care of orders. It had left Mel free to oversee the general flow of the cafe. She wasn’t above taking orders or scrubbing a table as needed. But it was nice to get to enjoy her workdays.

Mel heard the tiny bell chime over the door and gave her standard greeting before turning around.

“Welcome to Mallie’s.” The words had just left Mel’s mouth as she turned to see who had entered. When her eye fell on Willow, Mel’s eyes widened. How had Willow managed to track her down at her job?

Mel couldn’t tear her eyes away as she watched three other women enter with Willow. One was clearly the woman who had been with Willow at the dog park. Willow glanced over to their table and caught Mel’s eyes. Mel was taken aback by just how green Willow’s eyes were. Eyes weren’t meant to be that bright. Mel thought about her own eyes, they were an unassuming blue. Mel desperately wanted to look away, but her eyes remained fixed on Willow. She watched as Willow elbowed the woman from the dog park. The woman shot Willow a hard look. Willow nodded her head, not subtly in Mel’s direction and the woman turned to look at her then looked away quickly.

Willow seemed to be committed to making their interactions as awkward as possible. Mel turned back to find her entire table staring at her. Mel could feel her cheeks turning how.

“What was that?” Brynn asked.

“What was what?” Mel returned. She desperately wanted to play things cool, but one look at her friends told her that was going to be impossible.

“The exchange of looks between you and that woman over there,” Reese answered.

“Do the two of you know one another?” Jordan asked.

“Unfortunately,” Mel groaned.

“Sounds like there’s a story there. Tell us,” Brynn demanded.

“Well for starters, her name is Willow. And she hates me,” Mel explained.

“How could anyone hate you?” Jordan demanded. There was something sweet in the firmness of the statement.

“She lives in my neighborhood. The first time we met her dog tangled us up in its leash. We ended up falling into the mud. Willow blamed me for not being still long enough for her to untangle us.”

“Wait a minute. Her dog wrapped its leash around you and she blamed you for falling?” Jordan asked incredulously.

“She did. The second time we met I was throwing a ball for Mase at the dog park. I didn’t see Willow standing beside me and accidentally knocked her down.”

“There seems to be a lot of falling in the dirt involved in this story,” Reese observed.

“There is. And every time is somehow miraculously my fault,” Mel explained.

“Are you comfortable with her and her friends being here? Because I can ask them to leave if you’re not comfortable,” Brynn said. Mel watched as Lena gave Brynn’s hand a squeeze.

“No, don’t do that. I think as long as we stay in separate corners we’ll be fine,” Mel smiled.

“Okay. But you say the word and she’s gone,” Brynn directed. Mel shot her a sweet smile.

“I have to ask. Is there something else going on between you two?” Lena was always good at cutting straight through the nonsense into the heart of the matter.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Mel said, hoping to put an end to the conversation before it began. She should have known better.

“Well, for starters the two of you looked at each other like you wanted to devour one another,” Reese suggested. She smiled unassumingly at Mel.

“I think that’s just Willow’s murder stare. I’m not sure whether she eats her victims after,” Mel laughed.