Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Twenty-first encounter
“You don’t have any food in the house.”
"So you looked in my cupboards?”
“I wanted to know if you had any granola bars or something. I need something to eat before round two.”
“You want to eat with me?” she asked, perplexed.
One corner of his mouth lifted in a half-smile. “No. Whether you’re here or not is irrelevant.”
Ten minutes with Melody and Lucas at the breakfast table and Anna knew why the goalie always smelled of honey: His daughter loved to smear it all over his face.
To tickle him under his chin. To giggle when he did the same to her.
And there was something to be said for watching the two of them make a mess.
Observing Lucas with Melody...did strange things to her.
In her medical opinion, an earthquake must be the reason for the turmoil in her insides.
It couldn’t be anything else. A tall, muscular, and typically bad-tempered hockey player calmly explaining to his daughter the difference between a trident and a fork, and that it was a trident, not a fork, in the Ariel movie, had no effect on her emotions whatsoever.
Or her hormones, or her heart, which fluttered nervously.
No. It had to be tectonic plate movement.
She knew that Lucas could be just as gentle as he was tough, but to see what it looked like when he truly loved someone...
“Do you have your saw with you?” Melody interrupted her thoughts — and she was glad she did! She didn’t like the turn those thoughts had taken.
“I have it in my backpack,” she said, nodding firmly. “I’d be happy to show you how I use it.”
“And can I use it?” she asked hopefully.
Uncertain, Anna looked at Lucas, who was frowning. “I don’t know, Melody. You might be a bit young to use a plaster saw.”
“Not at all!” Her eyes widened. “I’ll be six in less than a year.”
“Oh yeah, when?”
“In February,” she said seriously. “That’s soon.”
Anna laughed. It was May. “We’ll see. And I like February.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s short, but I get the same pay for my job,” she whispered earnestly. “And now because of your birthday.”
“That’s a good reason,” Lucas confirmed, still trying to rub honey residue off his fingers.
Mel smiled broadly. “I like June! Because it’s going to be the best month ever. That’s when Lu and his friends come to our kindergarten!”
“Really?” Anna glanced up in surprise.
Lucas nodded.
“Why?”
“It was Lucy. She chose me, Dax, and Leon, and maybe Fox too, to visit a kindergarten. For publicity. One of the kids there painted a picture for us and asked us to visit for his birthday. It’s good for the club if they send someone.”
“But why you?” she asked, surprised.
“Leon and Dax, because they have a bad reputation. Me, so I’ll seem less like a killer. Fox, so he’ll look after us,” he remarked darkly.
Anna laughed and reached out to squeeze his arm. “That sounds like a fantastic idea.”
“Yes!” Melody agreed loudly, her face lighting up. Anna’s thoughts began to race when she noticed Lucas shifting restlessly in his seat at Melody’s enthusiasm.
His teammates didn’t know Melody existed. Melody’s kindergarten friends, as well as their parents, didn’t know that Lucas was a famous hockey player with sole custody.
What would he do? Tell everyone...?
No drama.
No, probably not. He could tell everyone he was her uncle without mentioning that he was raising her because her mother had died.
But if he told everyone, it wouldn’t matter if it came out that they were sleeping together. Sure, her brothers would freak out and so would the press, but otherwise... it would be okay.
He won’t tell anyone, Anna. He’ll protect Melody.
She lowered her gaze. Naturally, the voice in her head was right. And it didn’t matter. She didn’t want everyone to know that she and Lucas... That she... Yeah, that she what?
God, her life really wasn’t any less complicated since she’d finished school!
“It’s so great, Lu,” Melody continued, waving her hands in the air. “Because then I can prove you exist. The kids in my class don’t believe me.”
He frowned. “They don’t believe what?”
“That I’m not alone, that I have you. They think I don’t have parents. But that’s not true, is it?” She looked at him uncertainly — and if her expression was already breaking Anna’s heart, she didn’t want to know what it was doing to Lucas.
“No,” he murmured somberly. “That’s not true.”
Melody breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s what I always say! You can also tell them that I used a saw all by myself. That’ll make them jealous.”
“Mel, we’ll have to look into the saw thing,” he replied hesitantly. “You might have to get a little older before you...”
“I’m really old,” Melody interrupted loudly. “I even got to have a sip of Grandpa’s coffee.”
Oh dear. Anna practically felt the dark shadow of displeasure crossing Lucas’ face.
“You got to what?” he asked sharply. “God...”
Anna cleared her throat loudly before Lucas could curse too much.
His gaze flicked to her, and he sighed heavily before asking more calmly, “You got to have coffee, Mel?”
The girl’s head sank between her shoulders. She obviously realized she’d said something wrong. “It was just a tiny sip. And I can saw, really. I’m old enough. I can even handle a sharp knife!” See?”
The next moment, she picked up the sharp bread knife that was lying on the table in front of Lucas. Unfortunately, she grabbed the blade, not the handle.
“Fuck,” Lucas blurted out, pulling the knife out of Melody’s reach. But it was too late.
“Oh,” Melody said, staring at the blood on her hand — her breathing rapidly growing erratic.
“Melody, it’s okay, it’s just a little blood,” Anna said gently, although maybe she should have directed the words at Lucas.
“Oh God,” he exclaimed, abruptly jumping up from his chair.
His face was the color of the milk in Melody’s glass, and Anna noticed his panicked expression.
“We need a cloth. We need...” He reached for a dishcloth — which was so dirty that millions of bacteria along with other harmful microorganisms were probably partying on it.
“Oh no,” Anna said hastily, pulling the germ-riddled cloth from his grasp.
“Melody, give me your hand so I can put some pressure on the cut.” She pulled a section off the paper towel roll, folded it, and wrapped it around Melody’s small hand like a pressure bandage.
Melody was crying and holding out her hand, so that little drops of blood splattered the kitchen floor.
“Melody, are you dizzy?” Lucas asked frantically, one hand in his hair. God, he really wasn’t good in emergencies. At least not when it came to Melody. “Are you feeling ill?” He held out his hands to her. “Are you…”
“Okay!” Anna said loudly. “Lucas, sit. You’re not helping anyone with your honey hands and panic. Melody, it’s fine.” She smiled encouragingly at the girl. “It’s not a deep cut. And we doctors see blood all the time, so it doesn’t bother us at all, right?”
Melody sniffed and pressed her trembling lips together, nodding.
“Good. I know it hurts, but it’s nothing serious. It’ll pass.”
“Soon?” Melody sniffed.
“Yes. Soon. Come on...”
“Wait, she...” Lucas began, but Anna didn’t let him finish.
“She doesn’t need you right now,” she said, smiling. “Or do you, Mel? We can manage this between the two of us.”
She sniffed and nodded. “Yes. I’m really old, Dad,” she whispered.
Lucas merely nodded stiffly...and Anna wondered if he’d noticed that Melody said Dad and not Lu.
“Come on, let’s go upstairs to the big bathroom, then we can wash out the wound and put a bandage on it.
I don’t think you’ll need anything else.
Lu can make sure the toast doesn’t burn.
” She gave him a meaningful look, then took Melody by the uninjured hand and hurried out of the room with her.
Lucas panicking wasn’t going to help right now.
Children noticed when adults became agitated.
And she understood that he didn’t take well to seeing his daughter bleeding, but they all had to go through it.
It really wasn’t a deep cut. She’d seen ten thousand worse things.
Melody clung to her hand and climbed the stairs. And when Anna set her on the stool by the sink to clean the wound with cold water, she behaved bravely even though it had to sting.
“See? The bleeding has almost stopped,” Anna murmured encouragingly, stroking Melody’s head...when the doorbell rang downstairs.
Melody glanced up, but Anna ignored the bell and continued gently washing the wound.
“It’s cold,” the five-year-old complained.
“I know, but it’s important to clean wounds so that they don’t become infected. Remember that if you want to become a doctor.”
Melody looked at her soberly and nodded firmly. “Okay.”
Anna suppressed a smile. The way her brows furrowed, the knowledge seemingly etching into her brain, she was rather certain Melody would never miss a chance to wash a wound for the rest of her life.
Anna turned off the water and pulled the first-aid kit from under the sink. She knew where it was because they’d needed it the last time Melody had patched her up.
“The cut really wasn’t deep. What kind of bandage do you want? The selection is huge.”
Melody opened her mouth, surely to tell Anna exactly which bandage was suitable for which wound, when two voices wafted up from below. One was Lucas’ deep bass voice and the other was a high, irritated voice Anna didn’t recognize.
“...that's what happens if a five-year-old girl gets a hole of a bread knife and cuts herself!”
“And I don’t understand how a grown man could give her coffee!”
“She asked your father what it tasted like, and he thought his description alone didn’t do the drink justice.”
“She’s five! In ten years, it might be okay to give her caffeine. But even then, I’d try to talk her out of it!”