The Secret Admirer Next Door (Love Next Door Series Book 1) *Editing*

Chapter 10

Valerie was always amazed that the only person to help her clean up after dinner without being asked was Abe, and he did it with a smile on his face. It was like no matter what the two were the only sensible mature adults. It was almost funny. She'd even thought of earlier how they both had their reservations about going out afraid the 'children' would reek havoc on the houses. It was almost laughable. She was going to talk to Mike about Melanie, but he was already upstairs talking to Melanie himself. She decided to put it off.

After to Goodwin's left Melanie went in her room. Even though the questions she asked Mr. Abe were for a story she had been dabbling around with in her mind. There was something in the way Mr. Abe talked that made her believe that Mr. Abe believed in the Disney stuff she wrote about.

She hated Mike when she first met him, she thought he was pompous and narcissistic. Her views hadn't changed to much, except that she'd realized he'd had his shining moments. These days they came few and far between, but she couldn't help but wonder what it would feel like to love someone the way Mr. Abe described. The way she wrote about. A love so intense that she walked the line of insanity.

She typed away at her laptop, building a dialog between two such people, and every twist in the seen brought a deeper longing in her heart. If that love did exists, if it was out there, was it for her? Was there a love out there for her like what she wrote about? In the songs she was listening to as she wrote?

She hated sounding like a Disney princess. That was what her sisters teased her about. She lived in a dream world. She preferred it.

She paused tugging her fleece robe to her, as her gaze moved to the window. She thought about Christian. Her cheeks burned and her lip twitched. In her girlhood she would have thought he was that one. Now she knew he was a crush. Her heart was exhausted. Not from her own life, the love she'd had lately had done nothing to challenge it. She hadn't felt butterflies since high school. She longed for that again. The excitement of being in love.

"Melanie, can we talk?" He'd removed one of her earbud in the middle of her zone. It was a pet peeve to any writer and he did it frequently. She felt the heat of her homicidal maniac inside. "Please?"

She slammed her laptop closed. He'd made it seem like she had a choice in the matter. He'd stay there and ruin her mode until he got what he wanted. He'd done the same thing when she read books. He'd just start talking.

He slid into the bed beside her and she crossed her arms.

"Mel, I've been doing a lot of thinking."

She blinked hard as her jaw shifted.

"Melanie, I'm sure that you're the one for me. I feel it in my gut."

She huffed.

He gentle held her arm. "Baby, I know you have your doubts. Especially lately." His eyes searched hers, "You already know that I've never let anybody in the way I let you in. You've done something to me, that I didn't think was possible Mels." His head touched hers with a smile. "Mel, I was a player before you, you know that. Thinking that I could use women like they were disposable. Melanie, I love you and if I have to spend the rest of our lives together to showing you, than so be it."

Melanie just scoffed and turned away, but he caught her chin and dragged her back to his big hazel eyes. She had to admit they had some allure to her.

"I love you Mel. Let me make you happy."

"Do you even know what that is, Mike?" She challenge, "Do you even care or are you just want someone to show your parents that you've changed so they don't cut you out of your beloved trust fund Mike?"