Not Betting on Forever, page 22
“Yeah, it’s fun. I go across the lake to Greenwood Fitness.” A slightly guilty expression crossed her face. “We should have a climbing wall here. Then I wouldn’t have to drive all that way.”
“We don’t have the room for it, or I would.”
“Yeah, true…” She paused as if she was going to say something more on the subject, but then changed her mind. Instead she said, “Mitch signed up for the pie-baking event.”
“I saw that. Didn’t know he was a baker.”
“Oh yeah, he’s a whiz in the kitchen,” Joanie told him with a grin. “Thank goodness, because I’m a lousy cook. And his pies are the best.”
“That’s good to hear.” Maybe they’d get a bunch of points for the event. “Hope I get his pie, because I signed up for the pie-eating event on Sunday.”
“Can’t wait to watch that,” she said with a giggle. “I’m going to be sure to record it.”
He grimaced. “I was afraid of that.”
Joanie leaned forward a little. “Don’t want to get too personal, but I hope everything is okay with you and Melanie. It was lousy that someone snuck a picture of you like that, but don’t pay attention to the mean gossips out there. I think you make a great couple.”
“Thanks for that.” Unfortunately, it wouldn’t do any good.
She popped out of her chair then. “I better go check on those ladies. And thanks for the vote of confidence. I’ll let you know as soon as I decide.”
…
Melanie was awakened by a pounding on her front door. She blinked, then grabbed for her phone on the nightstand at the same time she noticed Nick wasn’t in bed. She groaned when she realized her phone wasn’t there. Which meant that not only did she not know what time it was, she didn’t have her alarm—which was set to go off every work morning—either.
The pounding started again. Melanie dragged on a pair of lounge pants and a wrinkled tee. “Coming,” she shouted.
She threw open the door to a frantic Lucy. “You’re okay?” her friend cried.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” Then Melanie noticed how light it was out. “What time is it?”
“Nine.” Lucy pulled her into a big hug. “No one could reach you. Bridget called me first when you didn’t show up for work and she couldn’t get ahold of you. Then your mom called right after because you haven’t responded to any of her messages since yesterday. She was ready to call 911 to bust your door down. I told her I’d check first.” She stepped back and sent Melanie a frown. “And then your car is sitting there in the driveway, which it never is, and all I could think was someone snatched you last night.”
“Sorry.” Melanie pulled Lucy into the house and grabbed for her purse. She dug around, then dumped the contents out onto the sofa cushions, but her phone wasn’t in there. “Shit. I must have left it at Anita’s last night.” But when she called her friend, she hadn’t seen Melanie’s phone at all.
“I don’t know where else I could have left it.” She hadn’t stopped anywhere else.
“Check your car.” Lucy followed Melanie outside, all polished in her office outfit; heels, classic black trousers, and a purple wrap blouse. The contrast to Melanie in her sleepwear was stark. “Why did you park out in the driveway?”
Because she’d been so excited to see Nick waiting for her on the front porch. So eager to be in his arms she didn’t want to waste the time pulling it into the garage. And then he left without waking her up. Maybe he hadn’t been as okay as she thought when she’d ended their relationship early.
“I got distracted. Maybe my phone fell out of my purse.” She crawled around, checking the floors front and back, before she found it wedged between the passenger seat and the console. She hit the power button while she was in the driver’s seat, bracing herself for the number of missed calls and frantic messages. But it was dead. Nothing was going to be easy this morning.
She trudged back to the house, straight back to the kitchen and the charger she kept at the end of the counter. She grabbed the coffeemaker carafe. First things first. “Want some coffee?”
“Love to, but I’m late for work now. But how about a Wine Night tonight? My place?”
“Sounds great.” She’d tell them then that the fling was over.
“I’ll text Ginny.” Lucy nodded toward her phone. “Want me to let Bridget know you’re not dead in a ditch?”
“Thanks. Tell her I’ll call her as soon as I can.”
“Will do. Glad you’re okay. See you tonight.”
Melanie brewed her coffee and took a bracing sip before she turned her phone on and saw all the missed calls and messages. Most of them were from her mom and Bridget. Oh, and Daniel. Shit, he was only going to call in case of an emergency. She called him immediately.
“Is Ava okay? My phone was in the car all night. I haven’t even had a chance to check the messages.”
“Yeah, she’s fine,” he said with a sarcastic slide to his voice. “But how do you think she would have felt if she’d seen Facebook?”
A wave of relief hit her that Ava hadn’t seen the picture. She knew they’d have to deal with it, but Melanie would rather do it face-to-face. Thank goodness they’d agreed to a moratorium on cell phones. Evidently Daniel hadn’t adhered to it. “Where is she now?”
“Another teenage girl boarded the train yesterday morning with her grandparents. They’re up in the observation car playing cards.”
Melanie couldn’t help the grin. “Hope Ava’s not fleecing her new friend.” Ava had learned poker from her grandparents when they’d first moved back to Lakeside. She was a natural.
“Don’t change the subject. Are you really fucking your sister’s ex?”
“God, why is everyone so worked up about this? We’re both consenting adults. You were fucking your intern when we were still married.”
He ignored her last statement. “I’m only concerned about how it will affect Ava. When I bring her home, are you going to be playing revolving beds with the guy next door?
“No. And that’s all you need to know. The rest is none of your business.”
“What do you want me to tell her if she sees it?”
“Tell her to talk to me.” Ava was old enough to understand if Melanie told her they dated for a while but it didn’t work out.
“Think about what you’re doing, Mel. Don’t let your horniness screw up our daughter.”
That comment didn’t even deserve a response. She glanced at the time. “I have to go now.” She called Bridget next, apologized for being late again, and made plans for the rest of the day.
She took another sip of coffee before she called her mom.
“Hey, Mom, sorry to worry you.”
“Where have you been, Melly? We’ve been scared witless.”
“Sorry. I didn’t know my phone fell out of my purse. It was in the car all night.”
“So maybe you didn’t see the picture of you and Nick that was posted on the village page?” The scared-witless tone of voice had quickly changed to the pissed-off-mom tone.
“I saw it.”
“Shelby called us all upset, or we never would have seen it.”
Thanks, Shelby. “What does she have to be upset about?” Leave it to Shelby to think it okay to get their parents all worked up.
“You’re going around with your sister’s ex. We’re supposed to be on her side. What do you have to say for yourself?”
What about my side?
“I’m forty-two years old and I make my own decisions, good or bad. And for heaven’s sake, Nick’s not the enemy.”
“Of course not. But he’s not family.”
Melanie’s first instinct was to argue that he was family, at least he had been, but that wouldn’t help her argument any.
“I just want all my girls to be happy,” her mom went on.
Melanie was afraid Shelby was never going to be happy and so she tried to make other people as miserable as she was. “It’s not up to you to make us happy, Mom.”
“I’m so worried you’re going to get hurt. Just like Shelby did.”
“I’m strong. I can handle it. Please don’t worry about me, Mom.” A new thought hit her. “Hey, maybe Ava and I can fly out to see you at Christmas.” She could use some of that money she’d been saving up to buy the land. She’d either win it or she wouldn’t.
“That would be wonderful.”
“Great. We’ll make plans soon. But I have to get in to work.”
“Do you think Nick has changed from when he was married to your sister?” Her mother’s voice was softer now.
“He’s not a kid anymore. And neither am I. We’ve both changed a lot.” She sighed, remembering their breakup conversation. “To be honest, this thing between us was never going to be long-term. If that picture hadn’t been posted, we would have gone back to being neighbors and friends with no one knowing a thing.”
“Secrets don’t last long in Lakeside.”
Maybe sex secrets, but land wagers had evidently never come out. “Mom, we don’t want you and dad to get pissed at Joe and Angie this time, okay? They don’t have any control over what Nick does any more than you do over the decisions I make.”
Her mom didn’t say anything, which meant she wasn’t going to promise not to give her best friend the cold shoulder for the next twenty years if their kids didn’t do the right thing.
“I’ve got to get ready for work, Mom. I’ll talk to you soon. Tell Joe and Angie I said hi. And really, don’t worry about me.”
“It’s a mother’s curse. To forever worry about her children.”
…
“Do you think anybody really cares that Nick was married to your sister for a few years almost thirty years ago?” Lucy asked.
Melanie sat with Lucy and Ginny around the small table in Lucy’s kitchen nook that overlooked the lake. The wine had been flowing for a while now, and the cheese and crackers were almost gone. “Probably not the villagers. They only care about putting their two cents in,” Melanie admitted. “But family? It’s a big deal.” She told them about her conversation with her mother.
“Does it still bother you?” Ginny asked. “I know it did at first that, you know, Nick had had sex with both of you.”
“That’s bullshit, and you know it,” Lucy snapped.
“Not if it’s the way Melanie feels,” Ginny reminded her. “She’s allowed to feel the way she feels.”
“I’m over that. Over anything about Shelby,” Melanie said. These were her best friends, she could tell them everything. “Probably about the time my heart got involved.”
“Love? You’re in love with him?” Ginny asked.
Melanie winced. “Maybe?”
“Have you told him?” Ginny asked.
“Of course not. I’m not even sure I am in love. But it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done to break up with him.”
“You broke up with him?” Ginny and Lucy’s voices rang in unison.
“Last night.” That hollow feeling in her chest was there now. “But it started.”
“What started?” Ginny asked.
“The suspense. I couldn’t stand it, dreading the next time he doesn’t have time for me. Dreading the time when it’ll be too much trouble to text or call me. So I called it off.”
Lucy had started to reach out to grab a cracker, then she stopped and asked. “Was it that bad?”
“It was getting worse. And that was the reason Shelby said their marriage broke up. He was always at work and never made her a priority.”
“He’s probably going to be even busier at the gym now that Lou Cirincione quit,” Ginny said slowly.
“Quit?” Melanie scoffed. “Is that Lou’s story?
Ginny’s eyes widened. “Are you saying Nick fired him?”
“I heard it from the source.”
Lucy tapped her fingernails on her glass. “So it sounds as if you’ve spent enough time together in the past few days that Nick was able to tell you what happened with Lou.”
“Well, yeah, but—”
“And it sounds as if he’s made an effort to see you even if he’s extra busy at work now.”
“Well, yeah, but—”
“And it sounds as if he spent a lot more time with you before he kicked Lou to the curb.”
“Well, yeah, but—”
“Don’t you think maybe it’ll get better once he hires someone to replace Lou?” Lucy asked.
“He did hire some new employees.”
“See? Then I’m surprised he has time to do anything else right now,” Lucy said. “Maybe you have to give him the benefit of the doubt at the moment? That is, if you really love him.”
“I don’t know that I love him,” she reminded them. “But I don’t want to lose his friendship. And we have to live next door to each other. It would be horrible if we ended up hating each other.”
But was Lucy right? Was she having a knee-jerk reaction to something that would smooth out before too long?
With Nick’s history, there was a good chance things would never smooth out. He was a self-proclaimed workaholic.
“I can’t go through it again—feeling as though I was less than. Knowing I wasn’t important enough for my partner.”
“We’re not talking about Daniel,” Lucy reminded her.
“And you don’t have to marry Nick,” Ginny said. “But if you like being with him, maybe you don’t need to break it off already. Maybe you need to give it a little more time.”
“He’s never said he loved me.” He said he couldn’t sleep without her. And he also couldn’t promise he could see her tonight. Or any night. “I’m not going to sit around waiting for him.”
“No one expects you to do that,” Lucy said with a wave of her hand. “Live your life. Let him live his. If things are meant to be, it’ll happen.”
Had she been too hasty? Was she cutting down something that hadn’t yet had a chance to grow? Could they give it a little more time without losing their friendship?
When she got home from Lucy’s, Melanie headed straight for her tree. The sky was a canvas of sparkling stars, and she stopped in the center of the contested lot and soaked in the sense of the majesty that was the universe. Then she turned to the welcoming red maple.
It was a quick climb up to her favorite branch, so familiar she didn’t need to see where she put her feet, so easy the effort didn’t burn off much of her restlessness. Nick’s car wasn’t in the driveway, and the house was still dark. Maybe he was still at the gym. Maybe he was out for a late dinner or beers with friends. Wherever he was, it was none of her business.
Her friends were right. It was early days. If she really was in love with him—was she in love with him?—she shouldn’t shut the door on their relationship. What did it matter what anyone else thought? The only ones who mattered were the two of them.
She missed him already.
Melanie stared at the darkened window on the second floor, the one she used to gaze at when she was too young to understand what a crush really was, what the warmth in her chest when she thought about Nick really meant. She’d been too young to control her emotions back then, but she couldn’t blame puberty now.
They needed to talk about it.
Chapter Fourteen
In some ways, it was hard to believe it was the last weekend of the BoB already. In others, Nick felt as though he’d lived a year in the past four weeks. So much had happened.
Mitch was off in one of the kitchens at the culinary center of the community college, baking his two apple pies. One would be judged this afternoon. The other would be used tomorrow for the pie-eating contest.
This morning, Nick and Joanie were competing in the cornhole tournament. He couldn’t remember if Melanie was entered in this event or not. He tried not to wonder about it. He thought about her too much. She might as well have been in his bed for all the sleep he got.
He had to stop living his life as if she were going to be a part of it. It had been crazy how quickly she’d gotten tied up in his thoughts, in his life. How quickly his life had gotten entwined into hers.
That had to change now. She deserved more than the scraps of his time he could give her. And besides, she didn’t want him anyway.
Nick was headed toward the lawn of the high school where the event had been set up. As he rounded the corner of the building, Noah stepped in beside him.
“How’s everything this morning?” he asked.
“Great,” Nick lied. “How about with you?”
“The same.” But from the sound of his friend’s cheery tone of voice, Nick was sure they weren’t feeling at all the same. “Heading over to watch the cornhole event. You participating?”
“Yep. Funny, when we played it in the yard as kids, our folks called it a beanbag toss.”
Noah chuckled and shrugged. “Maybe they started filling the bags with corn instead of beans.” He focused his gaze over the crowd gathered in the parking lot as he asked, “So, you get things settled with Melanie?”
“Turns out it’s not going anywhere after all.” Nick shouldn’t have been surprised by the pain in his chest as he spoke the words. He’d almost called her last night when he left the gym. Almost dropped in on her, like he’d been doing every night for the past couple of weeks. But he doubted he could change her mind. “We’re done. She’s adamant she doesn’t want anything long-term.”
“Sorry to hear that.” Noah looked around at the increasing number of people around them, all heading for the same place. “So how are things going at the gym? I heard there was some excitement there yesterday.”
“It settled down quickly enough.”
But he’d been lucky. He didn’t see how he’d be able to back off from the gym for at least the next few months—or even years. It was his responsibility, no one else’s. And that was the main reason he didn’t try to talk Melanie out of ending their affair. He’d been too weak to break things off, his need for her too strong, so strong he let himself get distracted from his family duty.
