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She lets out a sigh. “That’s the kind of behavior they look for in nurses, you know,” Melody continues. “Fast-acting, intentional. So when you had such a level head in that stressful situation, it was hard not to be impressed.” I notice the beginnings of a smile on her face.
“Well, I’m glad you’ve turned around,” I respond. “Speaking of being intentional, though, are you aware that your marshmallow is turning into charcoal?”
Melody turns to her marshmallow and gasps, quickly withdrawing it from the fire. She blows off the flames, her expression falling into one of disappointment at seeing it’s charred to the core.
“Damn it,” she grumbles. She goes to discard it, but I grab the stick before she can.
“Hey, no wasting!” I scold playfully. “Ilikethem this way.”
Melody giggles. “To each his own, I suppose,” she says, grabbing a fresh marshmallow from the bag and piercing it with the stick.
“Orcsneverwaste food. How do you think we stay so strong?” I say, popping the crispy marshmallow into my mouth.
“I wish I could say the same for humans,” Melody scoffs. “The amount of sandwich crusts these kids throw away every day could probably feed an impoverished village.”
We both burst into laughter. As much as I love those kids, my parents would be appalled at the amount of food they waste.
“By the way,” I add, turning my attention back to Melody. “I may have been quick to act out there, but don’t eventhinkabout undermining your skills.”
Melody scoffs. “I mean, I panicked. I really don’t know what would’ve happened to those kids if you hadn’t been there… I was kinda useless.”
“Not useless at all. We need you here,” I insist. “I may know what to do when they try to be like the Pirates of the Caribbean, but if one of them came up to me with a scraped knee or a bloody nose? I’d be lost.”
“I suppose that’s true…” Melody says. She pulls her marshmallow out of the fire, this time long before it’s burnt to a crisp. She smashes it between a graham cracker and a square of dark chocolate. “It takes a village to look after these kids.”
“Agreed.”
A silence falls between us for a moment or two, and for a while, I’m content listening to the crackling of the bonfire and the chirping of crickets. But as the night goes on, I realize it’s getting harder to keep my gaze away from Melody.
She’s beautiful in any kind of lighting, but by the flames of a crackling fire, she’s downrightstunning. Even as she bites down on a s’more and gets marshmallow goop all over her lips, I can’t help wondering what it’d be like to kiss her.
Melody notices I’m staring when she turns away from the fire once again and meets my eyes. She doesn’t pull away, though. Her gentle blue eyes simply linger on me, as if daring me to make a move.
So I do. I lean in and gently cup her dainty face in my hands. I kiss her. It’s brief yet fierce, and as we pull away, she has a dazzled look in her eyes.
“Well… someone’s feeling a little brave tonight,” Melody teases. She lowers her gaze and twirls a lock of hair around her fingers.
I grin. “Guess I am. You have a problem with that?”
“Not even a little,” Melody says.
Her gaze focuses on my lips, and I take that as an invitation to kiss her once again. This time around, I allow myself to linger, taking in the sweet taste of her chapstick and the remains of s’mores around her mouth.
16
MELODY
Kissing him is a ridiculous thing to do, I realize, as I do it.
The two of us are coworkers. A whole group of kids is relying on us right now. I should be thinking about them right now and what they need, not how nice it would feel if Jaromir put his arm around me and pulled me close and…
I pull my lips away from his, and it feels disappointing. I want to kiss him more, and harder. I want to put my hands on either side of his face and pull him towards me.But is that what I should be doing?
We sit there, looking at each other, surrounded by the gentle sounds of the night. Crickets chirp. Frogs croak. The wind blows in the tree, and the fire crackles happily. It’s as if the whole world is just the two of us, just this moment.
And if it were, the things I would do with him…
“You’re nice to kiss,” he says. And I wish it were all that simple, because so is he.
