A/N: I hesitate to even post this in full here, b/c I know none of you will read it, but I do it w/ all my fics, so I figure I may as well do it here.
An AU fic for the Host (movie/book) fandom that I started over a year ago. I’d love it immensely if some of you would r&r, but if you’re just antsy for westallen fics, those should hopefully be just around the corner as well. :)
Chapter 1 - Lakeland Valley
The sun rose over the top of the hills in the distance, warming the little down and sending glitter sparkling across the lake. It was early summer and the citizens of Lakeland Valley had yet to rise from their beds. As in decades gone by, their work remained fairly steady and simple. There were carpenters, farmers, butchers and blacksmiths. There were teachers and a mayor, along with the small cluster of mailmen and the aging afternoon fishermen. In a world of electronics, where the newest phone, the biggest gadget, a million apps on every size mobile device you could imagine were seemingly the focal point for every human being, this place was still ruled by manual labor. In its simplicity, it thrived and spread magic to anyone who came to it, especially in the summer when true to its name, the lake brought easy joy not easily obtained at any tropical island or expensive resort.
It was also, it seemed, the place where the highly successful Mister and Misses Stryder, originally hailing from upscale New York City, had chosen to send their daughter, Melanie, for the summer. Melanie was smart, beautiful, and resilient in the face of her high school study abroad program shipping her off to London for half the school year. When she returned to New York, she’d looked so weary that her parents had made the almost instantaneous decision of taking a long vacation to a place that had no sign of anything fast-paced or of the modern age. That place, they decided, was to stay with Uncle Jeb and his sister Maggie in the small, simple town of Lakeland Valley, Louisiana.
Jebediah and Magnolia Stryder were an odd pair. Not every pair of siblings into their early sixties and beyond lived together, but they didn’t seem to mind the occasional stare from the townspeople, or the fact that tongues would wag when they spread so much as the hint of a conspiracy theory. People brushed it off as a hobby because Jebediah brought in the best wheat in three counties and Magnolia produced clothing for women that was the envy of every seamstress around. Which maybe wasn’t saying much since the twosome had lived in that small town most of their lives.
The gossip in Lakeland Valley was that Jeb and Magnolia had one other brother, Bartholomew; who lived in St. Louis, Missouri. Bartholomew rarely visited, though he had a son and daughter-in-law, Trevor and Linda, who occasionally showed up for a family vacation with their children, Melanie and James. The children were doted upon, though they had been seen less and less lately with the city life keeping them busy year-round. This year, it seemed though, the speeding lifestyle had gotten the best of Melanie Stryder, and she had come to reside with her Uncle Jeb and Aunt Maggie for the summer.
She saw Jeb first when she stepped off the train. There was no airport in Lakeland Valley and no bus either, but the train station had been built into the town when it was first founded and managed to connect to the bigger stations in all the surrounding towns and cities.
“Hello, Melanie,” he said, smiling at her and taking her suitcase right out of her hand. “You look worn out.”
She half laughed-half sighed. “Hey, Uncle Jeb.” She weakly smiled because she couldn’t manage a hug with their hands full. “Thanks for meeting me. And yeah, I certainly feel that way.”
“Well, don’t worry. Your Aunt Maggie is making you a home cooked meal as we speak. Then I’ll put up a fire in the pit in the back and all you’ll have to do is sit back and stare at the stars. I can guarantee you those are hard to spot back in the city.”
The weak smile remained intact, though there was some regret in it now.
“Actually, I was hoping I could just go to bed after dinner. I’m exhausted.”
“Oh, sure.” He nodded, almost as if he’d been expecting it. “Stars will still be out tomorrow,” he said, and winked at her. She felt her guilt lessen and they slipped into easy conversation till they made their way to the old farmhouse on the edge of town.
……………
Melanie woke the next morning to the sound of hammer pounding on nail outside her window. She opened one eye and winced as the sun streamed directly into it. She groaned and turned the other way on her bed, but it was no use. The pounding was getting closer, and so louder. There was no way she was going to close the window either. As she’d quickly learned when she arrived, it was much hotter in the house than it was outside, and Jeb and Maggie did not believe in air conditioning.
Still, the pounding was a mystery. She had noticed all the repairs that needed to be done when she first eyed the house before going in. Jeb had said nothing of fixing them though and neither had Maggie. Melanie figured they would have if they had planned on construction on the old house over the summer; especially if it would be done in the early morning right by her window before she was likely awake.
Melanie tossed the blankets off, straightened the tank top and shorts she’d gone to bed in and headed straight for the window, determined to give a piece of her mind to anyone who felt the need to make such a racket this early in the morning. Unless it was her family.
The pounding stopped right before she got there and she stopped too for a second, as if connected by whatever was disturbing her. Then she started moving again before the noise could interrupt her from the scolding she very much planned to deliver. She put her hands on the window sill and ducked her head out, looking both directions. She saw a ladder propped against the roof but there was no one in sight except Jeb, visible at a distance, out in the field along with a few other people she imagined assisted him in the task.
She pulled her head back inside and waited, expecting the noise to suspiciously start up again, but it didn’t. She heard a clatter coming from downstairs, though.
Maggie. With breakfast, she thought.
Knowing she was unlikely to get any more sleep in a room that was quickly sweating her skin with humidity from the thick air and scorching sun, she decided to go downstairs where at least there would be ice water at the kitchen table.
The stairs squeaked beneath her as she went down to the lower level. She half-expected Maggie to welcome her before she walked through the doorway. Probably a clipped hello and nothing more, because Aunt Maggie was not the real cheerful type. Just observant, cautious, and a good cook. But there was no such welcoming.
When Melanie walked into the kitchen, it was not her Aunt Maggie she saw or Uncle Jeb. It was a man, a young man from what she could tell. His back was drenched with sweat through the white tank he wore and his dark sandy blonde hair was soaked in it. He was well-contoured from his shoulders to his feet, her lusting female hormones did not hesitate to inform her. But what he was doing in this kitchen still remained a mystery.
Then, most unexpectedly, he turned on the sink where he was standing, rinsing off his dishes and lowered his mouth to the faucet.
“Hey!” Melanie cried out before his mouth touched the gleaming metal.
He stopped, turned around slowly and looked at her. She had to force herself to focus on the atrocity of what he was about to do and not how absolutely gorgeous his eyes were, even from this distance.
“You can’t do that,” she said.
He smiled and her hormones started raging again. She almost said stop it out loud just to calm the butterflies down.
“Yeah? Says who?” he asked, turning the faucet off and then leaning against the counter, hands braced on the edge to give her his full attention.
“Everything that is righteous and holy,” she informed him, eyes widening. He looked so amused now that it was no longer hard to focus on her argument, no matter how hot he looked standing there in her aunt and uncle’s kitchen. “Who are you anyway?” she demanded.
His grin widened. “I’m the reason you’re probably down here right now,” he said and her jaw dropped.
“You’re the hammer and nail outside my window?” she asked, aghast, though she’d suspected as much when she walked into the room.
He said nothing, but returned to the table where an empty glass stood beside a half-full pitcher of ice-cold water. He poured himself some and drank out of the glass then sighed loudly as it rushed through his body, cooling him.
“Good old Jebediah told me his niece was coming to stay with him for the summer.” He started coming towards her and stopped when he was about a foot and a half away. “I have to say though, I wasn’t expecting you.”
She frowned. “What were you expecting?”
He grinned wide. “Not someone this feisty.” He brushed past her, leaving some of his sweat on her arm, though he could have easily avoided it. “Definitely a city girl.”
She turned around and followed him till he was almost out the front door.
“How long are you here for? A few hours?” she asked, a little too forcefully. She didn’t know why.
He opened the front door and turned to look at her. He eyed her open hand, grabbed and wrapped it around the now empty glass. She looked down at it and frowned, then looked back up at him.
“All summer long, Melanie.” He winked at her, then went out into the sunlight, leaving her alone with his empty glass, her jaw-dropping expression, and the butterflies in full flutter in her stomach.
She held the hot container so tightly in her lap that she was likely either burning herself or creating an indented circle on her thighs. The heat on her legs, though, was nothing in comparison to the fury vibrating through her entire being. She couldn’t wait to vent all about it to Sunny. Maybe she’d take her to the lake and chuck some stones into it; pretend it was Jared’s face.
Melanie could feel Ian’s gaze on the side of her face but she refused to give into the temptation to respond to it. She would probably snap at him, which would not be pretty. Besides, it wasn’t his fault she was so upset. If anything she should be thanking him for being the only one around to tell her the truth, whether it had been intentional or not.
The last two days had been a nightmare. She’d alternated between sulking on the front porch – which never lasted long since good old Aunt Maggie always caught her, and sniffling on her bed – which had to be done quietly for the same reason, kicking the trunk of the tree she’d fallen out of, and falling off her bike a grand total of three times, and all before either of her feet had made a full cycle on the pedals.
It was pitiful.
She didn’t know which drove her into a frenzied state more – missing Jared in her daily life or worrying over him being supposedly sick for the last three days straight. She knew now the fact that he’d been ‘sick’ ever since their almost kiss at the park was no coincidence. He was deliberately avoiding her and playing the sick card to do so. A part of her longed to tattle to her Uncle Jeb about it, but there was a little person in her head rolling their eyes at how childish that would be. Besides, it was better to face your problems head on, right?
Well, she fully planned to.
Ian’s comment to her when she got into Kyle’s truck – which should’ve immediately set her off – told her everything she needed to know.
“Jared will probably be by again today, but I need to get Kyle alone. I hope you don’t mind,” he’d said.
Her mind had blocked out all the words except Jared.
“Again?” she’d demanded, completely blindsided.
Ian had frowned, probably confused by which point offended her – Jared’s work attendance or his own insistence on bringing her to town early – but she didn’t help clarify. Luckily he’d figured it out before her patience ran out.
“He didn’t come out yesterday?” he’d asked, still sounding puzzled, but at least he’d narrowed down the cause of her temper. “His truck wasn’t in the parking lot.”
She’d turned her head to stare cruelly out the front windshield.
“No,” she’d said crisply, “he did not.”
The rest of the drive into town remained mostly in silence. Ian didn’t offer anything more and Melanie was so busy figuring out how best to yell at Jared that she didn’t even realize when they pulled into the parking lot in front of Kyle’s apartment building and the engine turned off. They sat quietly for a moment; then Ian turned in his seat, resting his arm on the back of her headrest.
“Do you want me to carry that in for you?” he asked.
She looked at him, then down at the container of hot soap she clutched tightly in her hands and shook her head.
“No. I want to give it to Kyle personally.”
“Kyle? But I thought—”
“I’m giving it to Kyle,” she cut him off. Then she opened the door of the truck and jumped to the concrete, bowl miraculously not spilling because of the plastic lid that was clamped over it. She left her door open, determined and eager to face Jared’s best friend as quickly as possible and unleash some of the anger she was holding as tightly to her as she was the bowl of soup.
Ian didn’t run after her when she went straight for the building. Instead, he lazily got out of the truck, shut his door, rounded the vehicle, shut her door, made sure all the doors were locked and headed for the building. Unlike Melanie, he wasn’t in a rush to confront his brother.
…………
The door was opened a crack when Jared got to it. He knocked hesitantly but the only sound he got in return was the door squeaking as it moved slightly more inward. Looking both up and down the hall and seeing no one, he pushed the door open all the way to find the apartment completely vacant.
“Kyle?”
He stepped inside and scanned the room, looking for any signs of life and finding none. As he moved further into the room he spotted a large bowl on the coffee table. It was covered with a plastic lid and there was a sheet of paper sitting next to it on the plated glass. Oblivious of the still open door behind him, Jared approached the table, curiously drawn to what was written on the note. Hair stirred on the back of his neck when he finally reached his destination. Even without lifting the lid he knew what it was and what the note likely said, or some variation of it. But before he could reach down low enough to grab the sheet of paper and read what it said, he felt a sudden jolt slap across the back of his head.
“Ow!” He spun around to find the guilty party and rubbed his head as he glared. “Kyle, what the hell?”
Kyle said nothing at first, just reached around him and picked up the note Jared had not gotten around to reading.
“Here.” He shoved the note in his face. “Read.”
Still annoyed, Jared lowered his eyes to the hand-written message on the sheet he’d snatched out of Kyle’s hands.
“Out loud,” Kyle demanded when it was clear Jared was only scanning.
Jared sighed loudly.
“Jared,” he began, “I’m so sorry to hear how sick you’ve been. We miss you on the farm. Please hurry back. I’m sending some soup with Melanie. It’s the homemade kind you like. Hope it speeds your recovery along. Maggie.” His reading became slower as he went on. When he reached the end, he swallowed and looked up into Kyle’s glaring eyes and narrowed brows.
“I suppose you want an explanation,” he said.
“That would be nice, yeah,” Kyle spat.
“Look, Kyle, it’s not—”
“No, I changed my mind. You don’t get to speak.” He snatched the note out of Jared’s hand, turned around to slam his front door shut. When he returned he looked even more livid than before.
Jared said nothing, obeying Kyle’s command but that only seemed to infuriate him further.
“You know what I had to deal with this morning? Do you?” Jared remained silent. “It was bad enough having to deal with my brother being back in town, pretending to ‘bond’ with me and Summer the past couple days. But today he arrives with Melanie in tow, who promptly informs me she knows all about how you’ve been avoiding her and she hopes you get sick so you can drink the soup she had so hoped would make you better.” He smacked the side of his head.
“Hey!” Jared slapped Kyle’s hand away from hitting him again. “Stop-”
“What the hell is the matter with you? I told Ian to go inform your lovely employers that you were sick for the day so you and I could hang out and I’d have a reason to not be around when he came back. When you actually turned out to be sick – or so I’d thought—”
“Kyle-”
“I actually felt bad. I thought maybe somehow I’d jinxed the universe by using you as a means to avoid my brother. Apparently, though, I had just given you the brightest idea in the world – use me to avoid the great love of your life, because another something must have happened and you don’t know how to deal with it so you hide away and lie.” He paused to catch his breath. “I bet you weren’t even sick,” he spat.
“I was sick,” he insisted, conveniently – Kyle thought – ignoring all the other accusations.
“Oh yeah? Cough.”
“Well, I’m not sick anymore,” he grumbled.
“Cough,” Kyle demanded.
Jared made a noise that Kyle was pretty sure resembled a dying cat that was being strangled by a mouse.
“That was pathetic.”
“I told you I’m not sick anymore.”
“Don’t lie to me. You can lie to anyone outside this town, to your brother, heck even to Jeb and Maggie and Melanie for awhile. I’d be a little upset if you lied to Sunny, unless it was for her own good. But don’t ever lie to me. I am the only true friend you’ve got here, and you’d do well not to forget it.”
On the verge of defending himself once more, Jared’s shoulders slumped instead and he nodded.
“Okay.”
Kyle sent the note flying and crossed his arms across his chest.
“Why are you avoiding Melanie?”
Jared sighed and went to sit on the couch. He stared at the bowl of soup as if it was the saddest thing in the world.
“I almost kissed her.”
Kyle’s eyes widened. He sank into the chair adjacent to Jared’s couch. They both sat in silence for awhile; Jared not knowing how to continue, Kyle trying to process.
“So, why are you avoiding her?” Kyle finally asked.
Jared looked up at him, then looked away, thought maybe he hadn’t heard him correctly.
“I almost kissed Melanie,” he said again. Maybe Kyle hadn’t heard him, he thought.
“You said that already.”
Jared opened his mouth in shock, closed it, then licked his lips and tried again.
“I thought it would be awkward…seeing her again. I wanted to give myself time to try and figure out how to proceed. I don’t want to hurt her feelings—”
“Too late for that, buddy. I can tell you right now that beneath all the fury she showed up with this morning is a lot of hurt.”
Jared’s throat tightened. “I didn’t want that.”
Kyle sighed again. “You said that.”
Jared shook his head. “I knew she was going to expect me to pick up where we left off at some point, and there’s no way I can do that.”
“Why not?” Kyle asked, exasperated.
Jared blinked. “You’re joking, right?”
Kyle only raised his eyebrows and Jared laughed.
“I can’t ‘pick up’ where we left off, because then I would have to kiss her.”
“I fail to see the problem.”
“The problem is if I kiss her,” he said through grinding teeth, “she’s going to assume it will happen again, and then pretty much we’ll be dating.” When Kyle still looked confused, Jared all but leapt on him in his frustration. “She’s seventeen,” he said, standing up suddenly and running a hand through his hair as he started to pace. “I’m twenty-six, and she’s leaving at the end of the summer. We’ve been through this. Melanie and I are not going to be a thing, no matter how much you want us to be.”
“Then why did you almost kiss her? And what stopped you? All these stupid excuses you’ve been giving me? You sound like a broken record, and it’s not having the effect I think you want it to have,” Kyle said, turning his chair with his feet to watch his best friend pace.
“Clearly not,” Jared muttered under his breath. “Look, we didn’t…kiss because when we were out on the dock some kids—”
Kyle’s brows furrowed. “What were you doing out on the dock? Was this after the fireworks?”
“Yes…” Jared said hesitantly.
“At night or…?”
Jared sighed and gave in. “Melanie wanted to stay up to see the sunrise before going—”
“Romantic,” Kyle remarked, his lips twitching at the corner.
“I wasn’t going to let her do it by herself,” he snapped, “and there was no way Sunny would’ve lasted that long.”
Kyle’s brows furrowed. “She wanted to see it with Sunny?”
Jared nodded. “I assumed that was the plan.”
“But you don’t know for sure?”
He shrugged. “I told her Sunny probably wouldn’t make it. She didn’t clarify the conclusions I’d come to.”
Kyle was quiet for awhile. “So…some kids started splashing in the water when you were in the process of...”
“Yes.”
“What made you almost…?” He left the sentence hanging. There was no need to finish it.
Jared stopped pacing and swallowed.
“I don’t know.”
Kyle stood up and went to stand a short distance behind his best friend.
“You don’t know?”
Jared said nothing.
“I think you do know. I think you know and it scares the hell out of you.”
Jared shook his head and turned around suddenly. He held his tongue and then just let loose.
“I wasn’t thinking, okay? I was just feeling. And she was so…so…”
“Beautiful? Alluring? Magnetic?”
Jared nodded and then sighed. “All of the above.”
Kyle reached out to put his hand on his best friend’s shoulder and then thought better of it.
“Why are you avoiding her?” he asked quietly.
“I told you—”
“The real reason,” he specified.
“Because we’ve gotten close,” he said. “Real close. And in such a short period of time. After almost crossing that line though…from growing friendship to whatever that night could’ve turned into…I’d feel like I couldn’t touch her; that I’d be committing some crime, even if it’s something simple and totally innocent like passing a dish or holding onto the handlebars when she tries to ride her bike.”
Kyle waited.
“But being in such close range and not kissing her would just about drive me crazy.” Jared shook his head. “I’d have to kiss her,” he finally admitted to himself, and to Kyle. “It’s too late for me not to want that.”
“You do know that you don’t just go out to the farm to see Melanie, right? You have a job to do out on Jeb’s farm,” Kyle reminded him, momentarily relenting on his pursuit to get his best friend and the new girl in town together.
Jared nodded. “I know. I wasn’t going to draw it out much longer. It wouldn’t be fair to Jeb.”
Kyle sighed.
“You know how I feel about you and Melanie. Regardless of the age difference, I think there’s something between the two of you that you should explore. You’ll regret it if you don’t.” Jared opened his mouth to speak but Kyle held up his hand to silence him. “When she leaves, which she will, if you haven’t at least tried, you’ll regret it.”
Jared studied him for a long time before saying, “You can’t know that. Not for sure.”
“Let’s approach this another way.” Kyle said, as he slid his hands into his pockets. “On a purely platonic level, if Melanie never speaks to you again because you’ve been avoiding her all week, can you forgive yourself for not being man enough to figure out how to deal with your own feelings?”
Jared’s lips parted but before he could get another word out there was a knock at the door. Both he and Kyle turned toward the sound as if it were life-threatening. Neither moved.
“Kyle, open the door,” Sunny whined from the other side. “I forgot my key.”
He hesitated, then went to the door and briefly looked back at Jared, who made no attempt to run. Resigned, he opened it and put on his biggest smile.
“Well, hello—”
Sunny pushed past him.
“What took you so—”
She stopped suddenly, and Melanie, close at her heels, collided into her. She was about to complain when she looked up at when she saw what her new bestie was staring at. Her eyes narrowed.
Jared didn’t so much as move a muscle. Kyle didn’t close the door, in case anyone decided they needed to bolt.
“Are you going to run, Jared?” Melanie finally asked. He still said nothing. She stepped around Sunny, who sunk back towards her brother, and stopped, right in front of her opponent. “If you’re going to run, I would do it now. You’ll have no other time to avoid confrontation, since I fully plan on informing my aunt and uncle how you’ve been lying to them all week.”
Jared’s eyes widened slightly. He wanted to say you wouldn’t, but he knew very well that she would. In the state she was in now, she would as soon as she got home, and she wouldn’t let him be the one who took her.
Unbeknownst to Jared, both Kyle and Sunny had slipped out the door, not closing it so as to avoid interrupting the showdown.
“The door’s still open,” Melanie said. Jared broke his eye contact momentarily to glance over her head and spot the wide open doorway. “So, are you going to stay?” He fixed his eyes back on her. “Or are you going to go?”
She told herself it was only one day, most of which she had been sleeping because of the all-nighter she’d pulled staying up watching the sun rise with Jared. But there was no point denying the fact that she’d missed him since the moment he left, and even more so when she’d slept half the day away and he still was gone when she woke up.
The silence felt so…wrong. There was no pounding on the roof outside her window, no sound of water being gulped straight from the sink in the kitchen; there were no hands holding the bike steady as she tried to teach her mind and body the skill of riding it. Melanie hadn’t even known Jared for a full week and already she missed him for the barely five hours left in the day, the same amount she’d be without him on any normal day of the week.
Curse off days. What right did Uncle Jeb have to give Jared the day off on Sunday? It was switched to Saturday this week, wasn’t it? It would be unreasonable for him to give Jared two days off.
Right?
…
The next day was Monday. Melanie woke up pleasantly early at 8:30 a.m., hoping for the returning sounds of hammer on nail, murmurs in the kitchen, or even the arrival of Jared’s truck coming up the gravel drive.
But there was nothing.
She crawled out of bed and tossed on a light jacket. Strangely the open window brought in a slightly chilly breeze. Maybe it’s always this way before eleven, she conceded.
She flew down the stairs, only to find out not just the kitchen but the whole first floor, and presumably the house, was vacant. The burners on the stove in the kitchen were turned off but when she lifted the lids on the pans, she found hash browns, bacon and eggs. Fruit was on a covered plate by the sink, beside which was a note informing her there was orange juice in the fridge and her beloved relatives were out working in the fields.
Still down about the fact that Jared had yet to arrive when he was usually there promptly by eight, never one to miss breakfast the moment it was ready to be served, Melanie reluctantly filled up a plate of food, a glass of juice and went to sit on the front porch in wait for Jared’s arrival.
It wasn’t until after ten o’clock that Jared’s truck came to a halt in front of the house. Melanie jumped up immediately, genuinely enthusiastic, despite the lecture she had prepared in her head for why he had taken so long – and any concern or sudden regret if he had a legitimate reason. She couldn’t wait to see him again. Her heart beat faster, all the memories from Saturday and early Sunday flooding through her.
She told herself to calm down. She would smile, maybe give in to a side hug if he initiated, but she would not, under any circumstances, jump into his arms. She wouldn’t spend any length of time staring at his lips either, no matter how badly she wanted to coerce them into kissing hers since that almost kiss in the park. And she would try very hard not to drown in his eyes or become so enthralled by the sound of his voice or that perfect smile that created the cutest dimples, as to be obvious beyond question that she was helplessly infatuated with him.
But it would be difficult.
Fortunately – or unfortunately – for her, she needn’t have worried about how to conceal her feelings bursting at the seams. When the door of Jared’s truck finally opened, it wasn’t Jared’s head that came out from behind it. This man’s hair was several shades lighter, not sandy in color but true blonde like Kyle’s. It wasn’t Kyle though. This guy looked younger and he had bangs to draped across his forehead in a smooth wave.
When the newcomer stepped around the door and shut it behind him, she realized he was wearing a formal button down shirt, dress pants and shoes to match. She saw a blackberry phone in his hand and momentarily her confusion and disappointment faded away to be replaced by amusement and an intense feeling of empathy.
“That won’t work around here,” she announced from her place on the porch.
Previously unaware of any other presence in the vicinity, he looked up at her suddenly, startled.
“Who are you?” he asked, baffled.
She raised her eyebrows, further amused.
“Do you always ask that of people coming out of their own home?”
His jaw dropped, but he managed to shut it and slip his phone into his pants’ pocket simultaneously. Impressive, she thought. He took a few steps toward her.
“Sorry. I’m looking for the Stryder Farm. I thought this was it.” He paused and looked over his shoulder, as if he could see the faded print on the rusty mailbox at the end of the drive. “It does say that on the mailbox…” he squinted.
“Amazing you can see that far,” she observed, smirking. He turned around to look at her. “You must have fantastic vision.” She went down the steps of the porch and stopped.
He sighed, resigned to the inevitable.
“This isn’t the Stryder Farm, is it?” he said neutrally.
She laughed and walked towards him till they were at a comfortable speaking distance.
“No, it is. You’re just fun to tease.” She paused. “And I can relate.”
The shift from chagrin to confusion on his face almost made her laugh again, so she extended her hand for him to shake instead.
“Melanie Stryder, grandniece to Jeb and Maggie Stryder. They’re also Jebediah and Magnolia Stryder, depending on how well you know them. I’m guessing that’s who you came to talk to.”
He nodded in acknowledgement and shook her hand.
“I’m Ian O’Shea. Where are—”
Her jaw dropped, as memories of fast introductions and drunken nights with Sunny resurfaced.
“O’Shea?”
His look of resignation returned.
“You know my brother.” It wasn’t a question.
“And your sister.” She crossed her arms across her chest. “But neither of them told me about you.”
He laughed and rolled his eyes.
“I’m not surprised.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Why?” Then the amusement returned. “Are you the black sheep in the family?” she teased.
“No,” he said, not caving to her playful tone this time. “I’m the white one.”
She blinked and then frowned, confusion clear on her face.
“In case you haven’t noticed…” he gestured down at his ensemble, “I’m not from around here.”
She took instant offense, which surprised even her.
“What are you implying? That Lakeland Valley is where all the black sheep go when they can’t make it in the big city?” she demanded.
“No, that’s not what I—” He shook his head. “Nevermind. Let’s just say after what happened, things have been tense between the rest of the family, myself included, and my siblings.”
“What happened?” Her anger relapsed back into confusion.
“Yeah, you know, three years ago…” He left the sentence hanging, as if he expected her to mentally fill in the blanks.
“What happened three years ago?” she finally asked when for the life of her nothing else came to mind.
She knew her ignorance was clear to him because he opened his mouth to respond and then closed it. The next time his lips parted there was a new look in his eyes. Whatever rift had been caused in the O’Shea family, Ian O’Shea still held a fierce sense of loyalty towards his siblings. Discretion.
“How long, exactly, have you known Kyle and Summer?” he asked carefully.
She knew what he was doing, saying their names to see if she drew a blank. Fortunately for her, that didn’t happen. If it had, it was entirely possible he’d dismiss everything she’d said all together.
“A week…” she began, but he wasn’t stupid. He stared her down until she complied. “…is how long I’ve been here.” When his stare didn’t relent, she sighed and gave the rest. “Two days. I’ve hung out with them – Sunny really,” she emphasized the nickname, so he wouldn’t think the short period was insignificant, “—twice.”
“You don’t live here, do you?”
Her eyes narrowed.
“I didn’t lie to you about my identity,” she said defensively.
“I didn’t ask you about it.”
She hesitated, but then caved as before. This had to be the longest, most invasive first conversation she’d ever had, but for some reason she couldn’t make herself cut it short. Ian O’Shea intrigued her.
“I’m here for the summer,” she told him. “I used to come here a lot when I was a kid, but life in the city got busy and—”
“Life in the city?” he asked, and she saw the returned intrigue and was that relief in his eyes?
She nodded. “The reason I left and why I needed a breather. So, I came back.” She continued before he could ask. “New York all my life, and England to study abroad this last year.”
“Oxford?”
He looked shocked, and despite herself a smug smile appeared on her face.
“Yep.”
“I’m impressed.”
“I know.”
He laughed, and all the heavy unexpected tension over the last few minutes evaporated as if it had never been there.
“Look, I’m just in town for a few days. I came to check in on Kyle and Summer, make sure they’re still alive so I can report back to my mother that all is well. Even if the chances of them returning are very unlikely, as I assume they will be.”
She had questions to say the least, but she addressed the most logically important one first.
“So what are you doing on my uncle’s farm? I don’t think either of your siblings has even ever been out here. It’s Jar—”
“Jared,” he beat her to the punch, “is why I’m here. Apparently he’s not feeling well, and since, as you pointed out, cell reception is pretty much non-existent out here, I took it upon myself to inform his employer he wasn’t coming in.”
A million questions raced through her head now and she was sure her face had paled because her heart had sunk deeper into her chest.
“I’m surprised he didn’t mention you. You’re quite the firecracker. He couldn’t have not noticed…”
She barely heard him speaking. She was still drowning in the fact that she wouldn’t be seeing Jared for another day. It wasn’t going to be just five hours this time. It’d be almost twenty-four. And okay, now there was the fact that Jared hadn’t even mentioned her when he’d apparently sent Kyle’s brother on the mission to call in sick.
“…then again,” he was still saying, “he could have said it and Kyle just didn’t relay the information. He was just on the phone with Jared at the time and refused to talk to me about anything else. I didn’t see Summer around, which concerns me a little, but I’m sure it’s nothing serious.” He looked confident as he talked, but there was a lilt to his voice that gave away the slight worry that simmered beneath the surface.
Melanie forced herself to come out of her own thoughts.
“What do you owe Jared? Or Kyle even?”
He shrugged. “I don’t owe Jared anything. He hates my guts, though I don’t have the faintest idea why.”
She considered his apparel and figured she knew. Maybe it was the tension between his siblings too. Jared and Kyle were close.
“Then…?”
“Kyle needed space. And hey, maybe he’ll have cooled off by the time I get back since I did this for him. And, you know…time,” he said, as if that fixed everything.
“Well, I can deliver your message for you the rest of the way. I’m sure you don’t want to go trudging through dirty fields in your pretty outfit.” She wondered why she suddenly sounded so sassy.
He smirked, not offended in the least. She hoped she hadn’t come across as flirty.
“Thanks.” He looked around the premises and then back at her. “What do you do around here by the way? I’m guessing you don’t spend all day working in the fields.”
She decided not to tell him she didn’t work in them at all. Or that she’d fallen out of a tree. Or that she didn’t know how to ride a bike or drive a car and Jared was showing her how. It looked like he was from the city and he obviously knew how to drive, though why he’d driven Jared’s truck and not a rental was another question floating in her mind that she decided not to ask. He would likely be further intrigued by her interest in that direction.
“Not much,” she said. “Hung out with your sister a couple times,” she reminded him. “If it wasn’t such a long drive I’d probably come in to town every day.”
He studied her, obviously coming to conclusions he didn’t plan on telling her.
“I tell you what, if Jared hasn’t gotten over his illness by Wednesday, I’ll come out here again and bring you into town. Summer is always attached to Kyle’s side unless she’s distracted. You can be her distraction while I get my last words in to my big brother on my way out.”
“How will I get home?” slipped out before she could stop it. The twinkle in his eye almost made her flush and she hated that.
“I don’t mind dropping you off.”
She swallowed and nodded. “Thanks. I’d like that.” But she was avoiding eye contact now and she knew it. Her emotions were raging and she just needed him to leave so she could deal with them in peace.
“Alright, well, maybe I’ll see you then. Good to meet you, Melanie, and thanks for passing on the message.”
“Sure,” she said but it was so quiet he likely hadn’t heard her. Without another word, he climbed back into Jared’s truck, put it in reverse and then drove back down the road into town.
Several minutes later she was still standing there when her Uncle Jeb approached and fixed his eyes on the empty space she was blankly looking at.
“Who was that?” he asked.
“Jared’s not coming in today,” she said, then turned around and went back into the house.
Jeb watched her leave, staring at the closed front door long after she’d disappeared and then looking up at the roof when he heard the sound of a window being shut. Her window likely. He looked back at the road.
The sky wasn’t dark enough for fireworks until 9:45. Having had enough of Kyle’s knowing smirk, Jared left the bar and scanned the fair to see if he could find Sunny and Melanie heading down to the beach. Just as he was about to give up his search, he heard a retching noise coming from behind one of the basketball games. Reluctantly he turned the corner to see who it was. Something about the retching noise sounded familiar. He hoped he wasn’t right, but he suspected he was.
He was.
Shoulder-length, silky, black hair that was pinned back with a silver band, and large white sunglasses that were about to fall into the trashcan she was leaning over; glitter glinted off her eye shadow and manicured nail polish on the fingernails that clutched at the sides of the can. A chic red clutch hung from her wrist on a golden chain.
“Summer?” he asked, during a brief interlude when there was no bile coming out of her throat. Something about her in a fragile, vulnerable state always made him instinctively drop her nickname.
“Jared.” She smiled slightly in relief, and then promptly puked again.
Without hesitation, he went over to her, plucked the sunglasses off her head, dropped them into her half-open purse, and held her hair back till she was finished.
Sunny was as much a sister to him as she was to Kyle. He had babysat her a few times during his high school years, got her through geometry, chemistry, and social studies; he showed her the importance of cash and debit cards, as opposed to credit cards that would easily get her into debt given her shopping tendencies. Her inability to hold her liquor frustrated and tortured him because he could hold his own so well, and she was much more prone to drinking excessively than he was. As much as it hurt him to see her like this, he knew it hurt Kyle more. His best friend knew the real reason behind his sister’s constant drunkenness. It had nothing to do with an addiction to alcohol and the fact that she liked to party.
“Thanks,” she muttered when Jared handed over a handkerchief for her to wipe her mouth with. Then he pulled out a box of altoids, popped the snap lid, and waited till she snatched three of the mints before snapping it shut.
“You okay?” he asked and she nodded.
“Where’s Kyle?”
“At the bar. Come on.” He gently maneuvered her away from the trashcan and towards where he’d left his best friend serving drinks.
“I need sleep,” she muttered. “I can’t wait to get out of here.”
Jared was about to comment when the loudspeaker came on, announcing the fireworks. Sunny stopped suddenly.
“Oh god,” she groaned. “The fireworks. Melanie. She’s—Jared, I can’t let her see me like this. I can’t. She won’t understand it. She won’t.”
Jared gripped her shoulders tightly.
“Hey, hey—she won’t, okay?” He stared into her wide eyes till she nodded and let him guide her back to Kyle.
Jared doubted very much that Melanie would judge Sunny for getting drunk again. From what he’d learned about her, it took a lot to make her get judgy. But he understood where Sunny was coming from. There were a lot of painful secrets he, Kyle, and Sunny kept under lock and key. Two days alone in Sunny’s company was not enough time to bombard Melanie with family tragedies that explained why her new friends acted the way they do. Even him.
He knew if Melanie asked about him now, he would give her the revised version. It was akin to taking her from the city to the farm. You didn’t trade homework for work in the fields; you didn’t trade chaotic city life for tragic, dark, small town secrets. Besides, Melanie had seen fun!drunk Sunny, not the sad one.
He wondered if she’d succumbed to any drinking tonight like she had the last time. He guessed not, given her speech on the way into town that morning when she’d proclaimed she would stay up all night to see the sunrise. She was well aware, she’d informed him, that alcohol tended to induce drowsiness, not prevent it. He smiled slightly at the memory, finally allowing himself to accept that he’d found her rambling absolutely adorable.
“You’re a good guy, Jared,” Sunny said, sounding closer to sleep. “No wonder Melanie likes you.”
Jared stopped instantly, as if his eyes widening also controlled his feet moving.
“What did you s—?”
“Uh oh.”
Jared turned to see what had caused her fact to pale, though he could guess the cause. They were almost to the bar, but Kyle had spotted them already. He didn’t look mad, just disappointed. Jared recognized the weariness lightly veiled in the depths of his eyes. The not again was as clear as day. He likely had expected this would happen, but like a fool thought that he could ignore it. Jared knew that because he had thought it many times himself in recent years.
Any thought of Melanie vanished as Jared continued to steer Sunny towards the bar. Kyle whispered something to the other guy tending the bar with him. The guy nodded and Kyle took his apron off, coming around the side to meet them.
“I’ve got her,” Kyle said, sliding his arm around his sister’s waist on the other side with the intent to guide her to the parking lot and his waiting jeep. Jared released her.
“Sorry, Kyle,” Sunny murmured, unable to meet her brother’s gaze.
Instead of addressing his sister, Kyle continued to address Jared.
“I think I saw Melanie head down to the beach for the fireworks,” he said, giving him a meaningful look.
It said thank you for being a good friend, a good step-in brother for my sister. Thanks for being a good guy in general, for being someone I can count on. Now go be with your girl. Because my sister’s well-being means more to me than anything, I won’t tease you. This time.
Jared nodded once, heading off towards the beach. He heard only pieces of the beginning of Kyle and Sunny’s conversation.
“You taking me home, Kyle?”
“Not yet, Sun. We’ve got to see the fireworks…”
……
The beach was cluttered with hundreds of people. It would be a miracle if he found Melanie. But just as he was about to abandon the search to catch the fireworks from afar, and then just hunt her down after everyone was nearly gone, he spotted a figure leaning against the great oak tree crouched halfway into the water. It was a miracle the old thing hadn’t fallen in yet. Presumably it’d been teetering on that angle for the last twenty years.
The figure turned toward him when he was about twenty feet away and he knew it was her. Melanie’s smile lit up her whole face when she saw him, and his heart beat faster. He recognized the feeling for what it was now. Something definitely more than like, not love yet, but calling it a crush sounded very…high school. Infatuation maybe, but he didn’t like that either. Infatuation was temporary and often superficial. He realized he wanted this feeling to last, and to be deeper than just a gorgeous body and a beautiful smile.
It was probably foolish, thinking in the long term, since she was leaving at the end of summer and there was no guarantee she’d return again, let alone on a regular basis. In fact, this feeling would likely torture him all summer long because he had no intention of acting on it. He couldn’t justify it at all for obvious reasons; reasons that her Uncle Jeb would not hesitate to remind him.
Maybe that was the real reasons he’d let himself stay so stubbornly in denial. His subconscious had known before he did that if he let himself, he would probably like Melanie Stryder. Really like her. He would like her so much that he might even fall in love with her. And then she would leave and he would be the almost thirty-year-old hung up on a teenager. The next time he would see her she’d likely have a degree under her belt, a husband her own age and children that were practically clones of them that she would adore more than anything. Jealousy rose up in him over the fictional future he’d just created for her. He tried to shake himself out of it.
Maybe it would’ve been better to stay in denial.
“Hey!” Melanie said cheerfully, pushing herself off of the tree and meeting him halfway. Maybe he was mistaken, but Jared thought she’d been about to throw her arms around him. He found himself really wishing she had.
“Hey,” he said, smiling warmly instead of voicing his request.
“I thought I wasn’t going to see you for another half-hour. You know, post-fireworks.” She giggled a little and he smiled so wide he was certain he looked like an idiot.
“I found myself unoccupied, so—”
“Wow…” she said, expressing what he hoped was mock disappointment and not the real thing. “So, I was your last resort.”
“What? No! Of course not!” He was horrified, despite the fact that his mind was screaming at him that she was joking.
“You came to find me because you were bored.” She shook her head at him. “Maybe you weren’t even looking for me. Maybe you were just wandering and suddenly there I was right in front of you, interrupting your alone time.” She sighed mournfully but her lips twitched in amusement. “What girl doesn’t love to hear that?”
“Melanie—” But he didn’t say anything word because her lips were spreading into a grin and now he was mentally kicking himself for overreacting.
“Yes, I’m teasing you,” she said. Then she grabbed his hand and weaved him through the crowd till they reached what she had likely deemed was the perfect spot for firework-watching.
“I don’t know what happened to Sunny,” she said, letting go of his hand and sitting down on the blanket she’d set out. “But I think I can guess.”
Slowly Jared sat down beside her, wondering how much he should reveal about that situation.
“Based on the fact that you’re no longer in Kyle’s company though, I’m not too worried.”
He merely nodded, relieved at the conclusions she’d come to. He made no attempt to comment, afraid he’d accidentally spill something he didn’t want to. He could feel her watching his profile, but before she was able her own mouth to address his silence, the sky exploded in color and they were both instantly distracted.
Melanie’s eyes stayed fixated on the fireworks. Jared, however, found himself lured in by her face and its many expressions and sounds of awe responding from the crackling colors in the sky.
She’s so beautiful, he thought, as awed by her as she was by the fireworks. The little invisible Kyle on his shoulder cackled silently and swung his legs. Annoyed for even conjuring him up, Jared inwardly glared at the imagined, non-existent mini-Kyle.
Yes, yes, I know. He tried very hard not to grumble out loud. I’m in serious trouble.
………..
At 3am, Melanie yawned – not for the first time – and Jared held out his hand. Wordlessly she put her empty porcelain mug into his hand and he poured more of the coffee into it from his heat-infused thermal. Before he could bring out the cream and sugar again though, she took it back and downed two large gulps of it.
He looked at her, shocked and then amused as she rapidly blinked from the bitter, sharp taste of it. Then she cleared her throat in the manner of a gasping, croaking toad.
“Bad?”
“Disgusting.” She made a face and mouthed for water. He took a bottle of water out of the cooler he’d brought and handed it over to her. She promptly drank the whole thing down.
“Better?”
She swallowed, but could still taste remnants of the black coffee in her mouth.
“Not nearly.
“I did advise against that after the first time you tried it.”
“True. But I needed a jolt.”
“The sugar wasn’t giving you the jolt you needed?”
“No. It wasn’t. It threw me into the air and then promptly stood back as I fell into the gaping chasm of drowsiness.”
He chuckled. “I see.”
“What about you?” She turned to look at him suspiciously. “You haven’t had any coffee and I have yet to hear so much as the start of a yawn out of you.”
He shrugged. “I don’t tire easily.”
She sighed. “You don’t tire easily…you hold your liquor well—Sunny told me,” she explained when he looked at her curiously. “You can handle just about any chore that’s thrown at you on the farm…is there anything you can’t do?”
He smirked. “I can’t dance.”
Her jaw dropped. “You’re kidding, right?”
He shook his head once. “I’m a country boy. In my opinion, square dancing and line dances are stupid. I’m not even overly fond of farm animals.”
“Haven’t you had a girlfriend before?” she asked, dumbfounded somehow about his claim he couldn’t dance.
“Well…”
“And didn’t she demand you dance with her at some point or another?” she asked, determined to push past the images flitting through her head of him in love with another girl – or several other girls. “Wait, don’t tell me.” She cracked a grin. “Before I came along, you were a bad boy. Dropped all those lucky ladies like a hot potato when they got too complicated.”
He leaned towards her and wiggled his eyebrows.
“What makes you think you changed things?” He teased.
She flushed, embarrassed. What had made her assume that?
“Come on,” he said, getting to his feet and holding out his hand to her. He knew he could apologize for making her squirm, but that might cause more awkwardness. This was better.
She eyed him skeptically.
“Where are we going?” she asked, her eyes narrowed.
“Not far,” he said, gesturing again for her to take his hand. “Trust me,” he persuaded.
Finally she sighed and took his hand. He didn’t let go when he started to walk away from their perching spot of the last five hours. It relaxed her, and by the time they reached the dock where the fireworks had been set off, she was completely at ease again.
“Now what?” she asked when he came to a stop.
“Listen.”
She did, but all she could hear was the soft lapping of water against the shore and the legs of the dock.
“There’s nothing,” she said. “I don’t hear anything but the water.
He turned her so she was facing the shore and pointed to some of the shining pebbles that sprinkled in the water.
“See those pebbles?” She nodded. “Be real still, and wait.”
She was quiet as she could be, so much so that she was starting to get leg cramps and was about to give it all up when there was suddenly movement. Her eyes were pinned to the pebbles and her jaw dropped in awe as they floated to the top of the water and floated out past the dock. When Jared and Melanie had to move slightly to follow them, little heads popped out followed by feet.
“Oh my god,” Melanie whispered, awestruck. “Baby turtles.”
Jared shook his head. “Too small to be regular baby turtles.”
“Then?”
“They’re called neenyas. Midget silver turtles that only come out at night. All day long they sleep in the sand. Easily squashed as I’m sure you can imagine from when people come running into the water, but somehow they’ve never died out.”
“They’re so cute,” she squealed and instantly the neenyas mere feet away from them, curled up and looking like pebbles floating on the water once more.
Jared smiled but put a finger over his mouth to shush her. She pursed her lips together slightly, and slowly the mini-turtles popped out of their shells and paddled farther out into the lake, looking like nothing more than shiny specks the farther away they went.
“Amazing,” she breathed. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“They’re only native to Lakeland Valley as far as I know. I haven’t seen even a similar description of them in any textbook, at any zoo, or in any documentary.”
She looked up at him and smiled softly.
“A special breed.”
He nodded. “Indeed.”
“Much like you, Mister I-can-do-everything-but-dance.”
He chuckled. “I’m sure are things you can’t do too,” he deadpanned.
She laughed, oblivious to the neenyas floating far away now.
“Oh yes, lots of things. In fact, education is about the only thing I can do.”
“Your uncle says you were quite the climber of trees in your younger days.”
“Notice the use of the word ‘were’. As you know from recent experience…that skill has long since gone away.”
He got very serious suddenly and talked quietly when he did speak.
“That scared the hell out of me.”
She swallowed. “Me falling?”
He nodded. “I didn’t really like you, or I didn’t know what to make of you yet at least, but even the thought of you falling from so high up…you might have broken something, or worse. It just…” he shook his head. “Scared the hell out of me.”
“I won’t do it again.”
He turned to look at her. “I know you won’t. Because I’m going to make you a treehouse,” he declared.
She could barely find her voice, and when she did, she laughed again.
“A what?”
“A treehouse.”
“I know you didn’t have one as a kid because there isn’t any remnant of one here and you lived in the city, so there couldn’t possibly be one there. Am I wrong?”
“B-b-but,” she sputtered. “You have so much work to do. You’re already teaching me to ride a bike and drive a car. There’s the house and…wait, did Uncle Jeb put you up to this? Is this more Project Melanie crap?”
He chuckled. “Actually, I came up with this all on my own. And don’t worry, I’m sure your Uncle will have no problem with me taking it on.”
She shook her head smiling, but didn’t make any more arguments. After awhile, they sat on the dock and waited for the sun to rise.
“We made it,” she yawned at precisely 5:30am.
He made some smacking noises with his mouth and nodded.
“We did,” he agreed.
“Jared. Howe. Are you sleeping on me? What happened to not tiring easily?”
“What happened to you being so energizing?”
She laughed and shared a smile with him. The sun came up over the distant trees just as the neenyas paddled back to their sandy nests beneath the water on the shore. Birds that looked like a cross between a dove and a seagull that were surprisingly beautiful with the one blue stripe across their wings and the purple patch beneath their beak – called Starlets and also native to Lakeland Valley, called Starlets – flew across the lake.
“Such a beautiful morning. I’m glad we stayed up for it.”
“Me too,” he said, slightly more energized but not really.
“Thank-you, Jared,” she said. “You didn’t have to do this, but it means a lot to me that you did. The last few days have been incredible. I just…I feel so lucky to have met you. This is going to be a great summer.” She smiled slightly. “I can feel it.”
He just looked at her for awhile, appearing to be battling with a decision. Then, a few moments later, he reached out and cupped her chin in his hand. He ran his thumb just under her lower lip and she shivered, her eyes closing for a moment at the intimate contact. She could hear her heart beating in her ears, louder than thunder.
When she opened her eyes he was staring at her with an intensity that should’ve frightened her but only enthralled her. There was a hunger there she would never let him deny, because she felt it as strongly in her own.
He started to lean towards her, his eyes on her lips, his breathing a little ragged as he inched closer. Melanie realized this was the moment she’d been waiting for all her life. She could almost taste him, and his fingers on her face was life-threatening in the most glorious way.
“Ah! You pushed me!”
Both Jared and Melanie’s eyes flashed open and they turned towards the sound. Two children playing at the next dock, a mother figure close behind them as they attempted to dunk each other while in regular clothes. The mother looked disapproving but made no move to stop it.
When Jared and Melanie looked back at each other, there was an awkwardness that had not been there before. Jared inched slightly away and cleared his throat.
“Shall I take you home?” he asked, just as Melanie had been about to propose breakfast at the 24-hour diner in the center of town.
Instead she nodded and tried to squash the pain that had tightened her chest.
“Sure. Yeah. I should get some sleep.”
He stood to his feet and held out his hand to her, but this time she refused it, saying something about being able to handle it on her own. After gathering up their coffee supplies and ambling back to his truck, they were on their way back to the Stryder farm, a tension between them that they both decided to blame on lack of sleep. Because really, what else could it be?
Jared turned back to look at Kyle, who was staring incredulously at his best friend waving off Sunny and Melanie as they exited the apartment. Jeb had been surprisingly generous in letting Jared keep Melanie out past the previous curfew of 1am and giving Jared the day off. But apparently he was just eager to make sure had a fun summer and thrilled that his handyman/roofer had taken on “Project Melanie” with such fervor. He hadn’t had any suspicions whatsoever.
Not that he needed to have any, Jared reminded himself. Because there was nothing going on.
“What are you talking about?” he asked, determined to look as innocent as possible.
“You know what I’m talking about,” Kyle said, roughly brushing past him to shut the door the girls had just walked out of. He turned around to see Jared looked dumbfounded and confused. “Yes, you do,” he said slowly, as if to a child. “And don’t pretend like you don’t.” He pointed his finger at him accusingly. “Your innocent act doesn’t work on me; and frankly, you suck at it.”
“Are you talking about Melanie?” Jared asked.
Kyle stared at him in disbelief. “No shit.”
“What about her?” Jared asked, folding his arms across his chest.
Kyle gawked, then turned around and headed into the kitchen. He grabbed a beer from the fridge and downed half of it.
“Slow down there, cowboy,” Jared said, coming to stand across from him on the tile floor. “You probably shouldn’t go to the fair drunk.” His smirk easily turned into a grin.
“My shift’s not till 5,” Kyle said. “It’s only 11 am.”
Jared raised his eyebrows, amused. “All the more reason.”
Kyle set the glass bottle on the table and fixed Jared with a look that vacillated between attempted intimidation and the air of wisdom.
“Just answer me this. What happened?”
“Huh?” Jared’s brows furrowed in genuine confusion now.
“What happened? What changed? I know what didn’t change. You’re still into her. Still falling for her faster than a brick into water.” Jared opened his mouth to interject, but Kyle kept going. “But you’re not brooding anymore like you were the other day. You’re all googly-eyed now, and Melanie has definitely got stars in her eyes. So, something had to have happened. What was it?”
“If you’re asking…” Jared began carefully, “why I’m not,” he paused, trying to think of the right word. “Moody anymore, it’s because I apologized and she decided to give me the benefit of the doubt.”
Kyle stared at his friend, trying to decide if he was lying.
“Huh.” He thought that over. “Still doesn’t explain the googly eyes—”
Jared rolled his eyes. “I do not have googly—”
“Or her starry eyes.”
Jared started to form words, but suddenly hesitated. Whatever feelings he was trying to muddle through, he didn’t have the slightest idea about Melanie’s.
“Jeb wants Melanie to have a fun summer,” he explained. Even as he said it he knew what the implications might be. Kyle’s raised eyebrows and cheeky smirk said his thoughts better than any words ever could.
“Is that right?” Kyle asked, practically giddy. Jared glared at him. “And…” he cleared his throat, trying not to laugh. “He trusts you to show his niece a good time then?”
“Don’t,” Jared warned. “It’s not like that.”
“No?” Kyle laughed, lifting his beer to take another sip. “Why don’t you tell me what it’s like then,” he suggested, thoroughly enjoying himself now.
“It’s like,” Jared said slowly, as if to a child, “there was an old bike and car in the shed behind Jeb’s house, and he wants me to fix them up and show his niece how to use them.”
“Show her how to—” Kyle stopped, momentarily confused. “Didn’t you say she was seventeen?”
Jared nodded, bracing himself for the multiple revelations that were about to hit his best friend.
“But…wouldn’t that mean she already has her driver’s license? She definitely has to know how to ride a bike. You learn how to do that when you’re a kid.” He smirked. “Sounds like good old Jebediah is trying to set you up with…” His voice trailed off and his smile faded when he saw Jared seriously shaking his head. “He doesn’t want you to be set up with…?”
“No,” Jared snapped. “Melanie doesn’t know how to drive a car or ride a bike. She’s lived in a big city her whole life, even when she studied abroad. There’s no need for those skills there. You take a cab or the subway or you walk.”
Kyle just stared at him for a long time, letting that information sink in. Then, without warning, he burst out laughing. It was not a gradual thing. The laughter was immediately loud and obnoxious. None of Jared’s scolding or yelling made it stop. It was completely out of control, and Kyle made no attempt to tame it.
Finally, Jared just slapped him, effectively silencing him into shock.
“Don’t disrespect her like that,” he said. “She lives in a different part of the country, a different state, a different environment. Not every place is like Lakeland Valley, you know.”
Kyle recovered and took another swallow of his beer.
“Thank god for that,” he muttered, rubbing his cheek. He moved his beer from his lips to the side of his face. Jared said nothing about how the slap didn’t warrant a cold cure and Kyle didn’t defend himself for using one.
“Look,” he said, serious now. “Just so you know, I wasn’t poking fun at Melanie. I was laughing at you.”
“Me,” Jared repeated neutrally.
“Yeah,” Kyle laughed. “You.”
His eyebrows narrowed. “What about me?”
“Oh come on, don’t tell me you don’t see it,” Kyle said, exasperated.
Jared saw it, but he was not going to admit it.
“Okay.” Kyle put out his hand and ticked off the list on his fingers. “She’s from the city – which, really, is your biggest issue. Then there’s the age thing, which also should be giving you flashbacks. And now you’re being put in a situation where you have to interact with her one-on-one for your job.”
Jared wasn’t connecting the dots, but he was getting annoyed.
“Don’t make it sound like a chore,” he barked. “It’s not.”
“It wasn’t last time either.”
The dots were realigning.
“Kyle,” he warned.
“The only reason you like Melanie Stryder is because she reminds of Ellie Carlson and everything that happened with her. Only this time it’s reversed. This time you’re ten years older, not the young and naïve self the sixteen-year-old you were, who fell for a line.” Jared’s hands clenched into fists at his sides. “Look man, I get it,” Kyle continued, either oblivious or feeling the need to finish his argument. “The past can be messy, especially yours. Who wouldn’t want to recreate a mistake by creating an opportunity where they rewrite the ending? But guess what? You can’t. And if you insist on trying, you are going to break Melanie Stryder’s heart. It’s not fair. To either of you.”
Jared was not usually the violent type, but he had never wanted to punch something as much as he wanted to punch Kyle’s right now. He made myself count to ten slowly before he opened his mouth to speak.
“There’s just one problem with your theory, Kyle.”
“Yeah? And what is that?” he asked casually, clearly not feeling threatened in the least.
“I’m not into Melanie,” he replied for what felt like the thousandth time. This time though, he actually sounded convincing. “Not as an Ellie replacement, who, by the way, I am not secretly hung up on still. What happened with her happened ten years ago. To be honest, I haven’t thought about her in years, even if the girls since then have shared some similarities.
And I don’t like Melanie for herself either. Not in the way you’ve been implying. And it’s really insulting that you have the nerve to compare her to probably the biggest mistake of my life. Melanie and Ellie have a few things in common with the circumstances they were in and how they got involved with me, but that’s it. Melanie is nothing like Ellie.”
“I didn’t say she was,” Kyle said, looking like he’d discovered some big treasure he was cautious to reveal. “Out of curiosity though, what is she like?”
“Why should I tell you?” Jared asked, oddly defensive. “You’ll just use it to prove I’m in love with her. Which I’m not. Ask Sunny if you want to know about Mel. Or talk to Melanie yourself. Find out what she’s like.” He sighed, frustrated. Too frustrated to correct the little nickname he’d subconsciously given Melanie. “I don’t know why you feel like you have to grill me over this anyway. Even if I did have feelings for her – which I don’t – I wouldn’t act on them. She’s leaving at the end of summer. Three months from now, none of this will matter.”
Kyle stared at him for a long time, not saying anything.
“I’m pushing you,” he said, “because you’re in denial. You will not be able to save yourself or Melanie from whatever is bound to happen between the two of you if you can’t at least admit to yourself that there’s something there. You have to take action while you still have a somewhat clear head. Once you’ve fallen for her completely, logic will have no meaning.”
Jared sighed and went into the living room, collapsing onto a big chair. He put his hand to head, preparing for the pounding headache he was sure Kyle’s pestering would induce. He couldn’t believe how far south this conversation had gone. He had expected some teasing similar to earlier in the week, especially given that Kyle had finally picked up that Melanie was exactly his type. But he never dreamed he would connect that to Ellie. Probably because he himself hadn’t made the connection. He’d buried his memories of her so far back that all he had were his feelings of bitterness and a predilection for certain characteristics.
Thinking of it now, he could see how Kyle’s sudden assumption made logical sense. But he’d been completely honest when he said his past with Ellie had nothing whatsoever for what he might or might not feel for Melanie Stryder. The two women were polar opposites. If Melanie had acted in any way like Ellie, even at her deceptive finest, he wouldn’t have delivered an apology to her so quickly. He wouldn’t have been intrigued by her or even found her amusing. It would have been too hard to look past the similarities.
But he couldn’t tell Kyle any of that without him announcing once again that he had feelings for Melanie.
Which he didn’t.
“The way you talk about Melanie…” he shook his head wonderingly. “It’s like you’re convinced we’re inevitable. What makes you think that? Just from the way I look at her?”
Kyle lazily sauntered into the living room and sunk into a chair across from Jared, cradling his nearly empty bottle of beer in his lap.
“That’s part of it,” he admitted after awhile.
“And why is that significant?” Jared asked on a sigh. “How can you tell?” He hoped he sounded borderline sarcastic, not curious. He suspected he was failing.
“It’s the same way I looked at Jodi,” he said quietly.
Silence descended. Jared felt a heavy burden of guilt settling over him due to the unintended pain he’d brought onto his friend just now.
Jodi. The girl his best friend had met on the night he turned nineteen. He said he was in love with her within the week. She was still in high school then and he was attempting to maintain a C-average in the community college one town over. Two years later she was freshman at his school. He’d worked hard to raise his grade when he heard she was considering going there. They hadn’t spoken since the summer they first met, but he was convinced he was going to marry her. Two days after he graduated, he proposed and she said yes. A week before their rehearsal dinner, Jodi went messing. She was never found.
In the last three years, Kyle had gone back and forth between hoping she’d come back and going on meaningless dates that always ended badly. He either would up talking about Jodi and how much he missed her or he got drunk first and became obnoxious.
Jodi was Kyle’s “one”. Jared felt an unexpected excitement and warmth at the knowledge that his best friend was comparing his relationship to Jodi to his own feelings for Melanie. Then, the contradiction dawned on him.
“Wait.” He paused, thinking through his question before asking. “So…first you compare my impending relationship with Mel to Ellie, the woman who ruined my life, saying I could never really love Mel for herself and that I’d only be in it as an opportunity to heal myself or unknowingly take revenge on Ellie by replacing a bad memory with a good one. Then you compare how I must feel about Melanie to how you feel about Jodi, the love of your life, your soulmate, the person you shared, from what I’ve seen, the purest love you’ve ever known.” He stopped again, letting his observations sink in. “There are two opposite comparisons,” he informed him. “You can’t really think both.” His heart twisted, intensely worried what Kyle’s next answer would be, and for the time being ignoring the danger alone in the fact that he was that worried, or worried at all.
After a long moment of contemplation, Jared asked, “Which one do you really think?”
Kyle’s sullen, sad face slowly vanished to be replaced by a sneaky smirk which in no time at all became a full-fledged grin. Jared felt the dread whisper across his senses, though it was different from the feeling swallowing him whole only moments earlier. He knew before he opened his mouth what Kyle was going to say. He told himself he couldn’t have fallen into that trap. He couldn’t have.
But he had.
“I’m guessing…” Kyle began cheekily, “the one you’re desperately wishing I do. The one that made you so unexpectedly warm and fuzzy inside.”
Jared jumped out of his seat, grabbing Kyle’s beer bottle and stalking to the kitchen. He tried to ignore his friend’s second fit of laughter that had occurred since he arrived.
He failed.
Lifting the bottle to his lips, only to find all the liquor drained from it, he asked himself how he could have been so stupid. The assumptions were undeniable now. Kyle had pushed him to the point of admitting feelings he’d tried to ignore by not really making him admit to them at all. And if there was any doubt as to how he felt, it was squashed immediately when he saw Melanie and Sunny sitting, eating lunch across the street at an outdoor café. And his heart raced.
Damn, he thought, setting the glass bottle on the kitchen table, his eyes not turning away. The clink of the glass briefly blocked out the echoes of Kyle’s laughter one room away, but it did not quiet the sound of his heart beating loudly in his ears.
His eyes widened with defiance, and his lips broke into a silly grin.
“Do you want to see Sunny again or not?” he asked in a voice similar to a parent giving an ultimatum.
She pouted and crossed her arms across her chest.
“I am not a child,” she said.
He raised an eyebrow and said nothing. There was no need. She was acting like one.
She rolled her eyes.
“Why?” she demanded.
He closed the gap between them and laid his hands on her shoulders.
“Because I know you’d like to see Sunny again.” He rubbed his fingers in circles over the curves, watching how they moved. “You guys hit it off. I can’t drive you into town every day, and it’s going to take a lot longer to fix up the car than it did the bike.”
She sighed, finally allowing him to steer her towards the bike propped up against the mailbox.
“So, just give it a try,” he encouraged.
She eyes it as if it was a poisonous snake.
He lowered his lips to her ear and whispered, “It won’t bite you. I promise.”
As if he had read my mind, she thought.
“Looks like a kid’s bike with that horn you put on the front,” she grumbled.
He easily yanked it off and tossed it across the yard, neither agreeing nor denying how it managed to land on the handlebars.
“I’ll fall,” she insisted, grasping at straws.
He laid his hands on her shoulders from behind.
“I won’t let go until you say so,” he insisted. She turned her head to look at him. “I promise,” he assured her. She turned back around to look at the offending two-wheeler.
“There should be training wheels at least… Shouldn’t there?” she asked as she reluctantly let him pull her over to the bike. He patted the seat and she paled, swallowing hard. “I mean, shouldn’t—”
“Melanie,” he deadpanned, torn between frustration and the very strong urge to laugh.
“How am I even supposed to stay on when it’s all gravel and dirt here?” she asked, gesturing to the area around them. “Even the grass is lumpy. The road isn’t even paved till at least two miles down. That’s probably ten minutes. By car.”
“You won’t fall,” he said calmly, “because I will be holding onto the back of the seat and the middle of the handlebars. All you have to do is sit tight. You don’t even have to pedal right away if you don’t want to.”
She let the information sink and finally nodded.
“Okay.”
Hesitantly she walked over to the bike. He followed and ran soothing circles over her back when she stopped, encouraging her and reminding her of his presence. Finally, she swung one leg over the seat – which was difficult given her size. She was so focused she didn’t realize that Jared was holding her up. The bike started to tip and she whimpered, scared.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” he said. “I’ve got you.”
She looked down abruptly, and realized to her astonishment, that he did have her. Entirely. In mid-air above the bike. The bike itself was trapped between her dangling legs and did not tip any farther.
“Do you trust me?” he asked after a few seconds.
She couldn’t seem to speak, still in shock, but she nodded and slowly he lowered her to the seat. He held tightly to her right side and pinned his hip to the left so the bike stayed straight.
“You okay?” he asked.
She took a deep breath.
“I…I think so.”
“Put your hands on the handlebars,” he instructed. They were already there, but she gripped the bars more firmly. “And your feet on the pedals,” he said next. She fumbled a bit with her feet but managed it.
He lowered his lips to her ear again and whispered, “Now sit tall, face ahead, and just trust me.”
She swallowed, looked up and took a deep breath. One hand firmly on the back of the seat and the other gripping the center of the handle bars, Jared guided the bike out onto the empty dirt road. Melanie was tense and a little shaky, but she didn’t say anything. Of her own volition, she began to pedal.
“Don’t let go, okay?” she said when they were about a third of a smile down the road. “Not today. Just…hold on. Okay? Promise you’ll hold on.”
“I promise,” he said softly. “I won’t let go till you say.”
……………
Jared headed back to his truck, Melanie beside him, their hands brushing against each other as they walked.
“Are we going to do this every day?” she asked as casually as she could manage.
“Every day until you can do it on your own.” He nodded and then smiled. “Then I’ll get started on the car.”
Her lips twisted ruefully.
“I probably should’ve been able to pedal on my own today.”
“Nah.” He brushed it off instantly. “It was your first time. You didn’t want to fall.”
The excuses sound even worse out loud, she thought.
“No excuse,” she said stubbornly. “I’ve seen the movies, heard the stories… The parents hold for about five minutes and then their kid is riding on their own with no assistance whatsoever.”
“And then the kid is on the ground ten seconds later because he lost his balance and fell with his bike,” Jared remarked. She shrugged it off again.
“So he gets a few scrapes, maybe some minor bleeding. They put on a band-aid and he’s at it again. Within the half hour he’s on his bike again, no help required, and if he does start to fall he can catch himself.” She paused, thinking about it. “Most of the time.”
He turned to face her when they reached his truck.
“Are you always this hard on yourself?” he asked, looking both concerned and amused somehow.
“We were practicing for an hour, Jared,” she deadpanned. He sighed.
“Look, earlier you complained about not having training wheels when we started, right?” She nodded. “Well, chances are most of those kids we’ve been referring to had training wheels before their parents pulled a fast one on them and let go likely seconds after the kid started to pedal.
“The training wheels however, were not so dishonest. They didn’t let go until they were physically taken off.” She considered that. “So, think of me as your training wheels. I won’t let go until you give me the green light, and I won’t judge you if it takes all summer.”
She shook her head at him in wonder and disbelief.
“What?” he asked, a small smile playing on his lips.
“I just can’t believe you’re the same guy I met two days ago. Where’s the guy that treated me like he was the king of the jungle and I was the ant lucky not to be squashed beneath his feat?” She meant to play it off as a joke, but shadows filled his eyes anyway.
“I hope you never have to see that guy again,” he said quietly, sounding so stern and tortured she wanted to reassure him. She laid a hand gently on his forearm.
“I’m sure I won’t,” she said softly. Then her mind switched gears back to the problem at hand. “I am still worried about the bike thing, though.”
He frowned. “Why’s that?”
She dropped her hand.
“I just…” She blew out a puff of air, preparing to explain herself. “Sunny said the fair goes till the end of the week, and that there are fireworks Saturday night. Even if I do conquer the bike thing before then, it takes at least twenty minutes to get into town by car. I’d have to be really energized and really confident. Plus, riding home in the dark…” She shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut, irritated already that she’d voiced her fears. What kind of girl was afraid of biking home in the dark?
“I know it sounds ridiculous…” she muttered.
He held her arms still and stroked his thumbs along them soothingly. Finally she stopped shaking her head and opened her eyes.
“Hey, no. You’re fine. I wouldn’t want to bike home in the dark either, no matter how safe the neighborhood is.”
She looked up at him, her eyes searching.
“Look, on Saturday we’ll leave right after dinner and go to the fair in my truck, take a break from our projects for a night. I’m sure Kyle will be working the bar again. He can direct you to Sunny and when you guys are done, I’ll take you home.”
Her lips parted, hesitating again.
“What is it?” he asked, this time with some laughter in his voice.
She bit her lip.
“I kind of wanted to stay to see the sunrise…” she said slowly, then let the idea sink in and came alive. “Wouldn’t that be cool?” she asked excitedly, her eyes aglow.
His smiled because she was infectious.
“It would,” he agreed. “However…” His lips twisted ruefully. “If Sunny consumes any alcohol – which she probably will – I doubt she’ll last long enough to see it.” Melanie frowned. “It just isn’t the same seeing it by yourself.”
“You could see it with me!” she blurted without thinking. Her eyes widened in horror at her lack of discretion, so she almost missed the heat she could have sworn sparked in his eyes at the suggestion.
“I could,” he said, a beat later than she would have liked.
“You don’t have to.” She swallowed hard, trying to gauge all the reactions to everything they were saying to each other. “I don’t have to even. You can just take me home right after—”
“Melanie,” he quieted her, closing the distance between them. “I want to see the sunrise with you.” He waited till she looked up at him. “Ok?”
She nodded, and then smiled a little.
“See you tomorrow?” she asked hopefully – did that sound desperate?
He relieved her fears instantly with a smile and a wink.
“You bet.” He stepped away from her and rounded the vehicle, sliding inside and lowering the window.
“Goodnight, Melanie,” he said.
“Goodnight,” she said, smiling softly.
She waved to him as he drove away and watched the truck until it turned the bed in the road. Then she sighed dreamily to herself.
“Oh, Jared…” she murmured. “It would be very easy to fall in love with you.”
After awhile, she shook herself from the reverie and headed back inside the house.
The light of the sun warmed the side of her face. Swirling around it was a gentle breeze and the sound of happily chirping birds outside the window.
Not a hammer pounding on nails.
She opened one eye and then the other. She reached across the bedside table – throwing her headband and earrings to the floor in the process – and pulled her plugged-in phone to her. (It might not get service for calls, but it still told the correct time.)
11 AM.
She snapped up in bed. 11 AM?!
Without thinking, Melanie tossed aside her blankets, made a mad dash for the door, opened it and ran down the stairs, as if the hounds of hell were racing behind her. She didn’t slow down until she reached the kitchen, where she immediately stopped to discover an eerily familiar scene before her. The difference this time was Jared was sitting at the table drinking coffee – she assumed – out of a mug instead of slurping water straight from the kitchen sink. Jeb was with him at the table, reading a newspaper. Maggie, as before – forever the consistent one – was cooking something at the stove. It smelled like eggs.
Jared looked up at her when she came in and smiled. It gave her both butterflies and extreme wariness.
Hadn’t he hurt her? Wasn’t she still mad at him? Why would he smile at her if she was still mad at him? Had something happened last night? Oh god…had something happened last night? Had she said something? Had they…done something? Oh god, oh god, oh god. She couldn’t remember anything.
Jared continued to smile at her over the rim of his coffee cup.
“Good morning, Melanie,” Jeb said, snapping her out of her horrifying thoughts. She shifted her gaze to his and forced herself to at least appear relaxed.
“Good morning, Uncle Jeb,” she said as pleasantly as she could muster. Reluctantly she sat next to Jared, since the chairs had been moved around and it was more or less the easiest option to get to.
“More like afternoon,” Maggie muttered at the stove. Jeb ignored her.
“Is there something you’d like to tell us?” Jeb asked Melanie, immersing himself back in his newspaper but keeping his ears wide open.
Melanie went pale. Her eyes widened. Suddenly it was hard to breathe. Her mind was a blank slate. She couldn’t remember any words whatsoever, let alone form coherent sentences.
Did he know something she didn’t? Was it bad?
Breaking through her panic was the feel of another hand over hers under the table. It made her jump a little because her emotions were going haywire. Her eyes snapped to Jared’s, since distance-wise he was the only one that was likely touching her. His eyes were already glued to hers, and she realized they were the deepest eyes she’d ever seen. She could get lost in eyes that deep and stay lost for entirely inappropriate amount of time.
He shook his head once and she blinked, comprehending his meaning a beat later. Nothing had happened. She visibly relaxed, then redirected her focus on Jeb.
“Not that I know of,” she said, sounding half-innocent and also genuinely perplexed.
“Then what was with the stampede coming down the stairs a few minutes ago?” Maggie demanded as she plopped the pans of food and their hot pads onto the table from the stove.
Melanie all but gave a huge sigh of relief. She was more relaxed now that she’d been since before she woke up from her unexpectedly long, pleasant sleep. Jared was smiling again. This time it gave her all sorts of warm and fuzzy feelings, not wary ones. His fingers slid between hers beneath the table, and she felt shivers erupt all over her body. Everything was going to be okay. She only hoped she wasn’t blushing.
“I…” She started to smile and realized she couldn’t stop. She even gave a quiet laugh, making Jared’s smile switch to one of amusement. “I just couldn’t believe I’d slept this long.”
Maggie snorted as she began to pile eggs onto everybody’s plates.
“Neither could I,” she muttered. “You have Jared to thank for that, by the way. Boy refused to start work until you’d woken up.” She shook her head in disappointment, oblivious to Melanie suddenly turning to Jared stricken with shock.
“Did he?” she asked, sounding nearly breathless.
“Yep,” she continued bitterly. “I couldn’t believe it myself. He always likes to get an early start. One of the things I like about him. Would’ve been even easier this time since he spent the whole night on the couch given how late the two of you got back.” She lifted her eyes briefly to glare at her niece, then sighed testily when she realized she no longer had her attention.
Melanie could not stop staring at Jared. For his part, he appeared equally incapable of looking away.
“Jared,” Jeb said, breaking the trance. Immediately the two released each other’s hands and Jared turned to address the elder Stryder.
“Yeah?” he asked.
“You plan on working on the roof when you’re finished here?”
Jared nodded. “That’s the plan.”
“And…” he hesitated, aware of the other individuals in the room. “…about that other project we discussed?”
Maggie frowned, freezing her fork full of eggs halfway to her mouth.
“What other project?” she asked, confused.
“I’m going to stay late for that tonight,” Jared said, maintaining Jeb’s eye contact.
“You didn’t talk to me about any other job,” Maggie scolded her brother, but he ignored her.
“Is that what you plan to do every day?” Jeb asked.
Jared hesitated. “Maybe…I’m not sure. I’ll have to see how today goes.”
Jeb nodded, satisfied for the time being. “Alright.”
“Jebediah Stryder,” Maggie said roughly. She set down her fork with a loud clang.
As calmly as can be, Jeb turned to face her.
“Yes, Magnolia?” he inquired, as if it was the first time he’d heard her.
Maggie’s jaw dropped and Melanie couldn’t help but smile, amazed as ever when her aunt actually stood up and stalked out of the kitchen. Now her jaw dropped.
“Melanie, would you mind—”
“Doing the dishes?” she finished, humor in her voice and laughter in her eyes as she turned back from her aunt’s dramatic exit. “I would love to,” she burst into a quiet laughter as her expression mirrored itself onto both Jared and Jeb’s faces at the table.
“And I will help,” Jared volunteered cheerfully.
Jeb nodded, still smiling a little as he left the table to leave them to their post-breakfast chore. He set his dishes in the sink on his way out.
“Thank you, Jared,” Melanie said softly, her laughter finally simmering down. When he met her gaze with his own, she nearly lost herself in his eyes again.
“My pleasure, Melanie,” he said just as softly.
Her shivers erupted again.
…………
“I come bearing treats!” Melanie’s voice came singing out from her bedroom window.
Jared stopped hammering in mid-air, wondering if he’d heard wrong. He turned to look in the direction the sound had come and found Melanie hanging halfway out her window, one hand gripping the windowsill for balance and the other holding out a tray of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. He smiled wide.
“I have lemonade too,” she sang, and he laughed. He crossed the expanse of roof between them till they were face to face.
“Better late than never,” he said, still smiling. He reached for a cookie and took a bite out of it, moaning appreciatively. “Did you make these?” he asked with his mouth full. Instead of rolling her eyes or looking annoyed at his bad manners, Melanie kept smiling.
“I did, indeed,” she assured him.
“You could tell me if you didn’t, you know,” he said, winking at her. “I’d be happy to pass on my thanks to your aunt later.”
She smacked him lightly before he could take another bite and he laughed. She set the tray of cookies back inside her room and folded her arms across her chest.
“Hey!” he complained. “I only had one!”
“For your information,” she said succinctly. “I made all these cookies. From scratch even. Apparently my lovely relatives don’t believe in baking mixes any more than they believe in air conditioning.”
“Well,” he contemplated, chewing the last bit of his sole cookie, “Assuming you did make these yourself, and from scratch at that, you did an excellent job.”
She beamed. “Thank-you.”
“Does that get me another cookie?” he asked hopefully, smiling shamelessly.
She scoffed and rolled her eyes but grabbed a larger cookie from the tray and handed it to him. He pouted a bit, so she rolled her eyes again and handed him another. She glared at him when he held his hand out for still another. She reached for one but changed her mind at the last second and picked up the large pitcher of lemonade with both hands.
“You know, I can either pour you a glass of this or dump it on your head.”
He cracked a grin. “I can move fast. You won’t touch me.”
“Not that fast. You’re on a slanted roof. I will hit some of you.”
He sighed and held up his hands in mock defeat.
“I surrender. No more demands for cookies.” He paused and then held up a finger. “Although, may I point out that you made them for me? Withholding them is really just doing yourself a disservice,” he said very seriously.
For a very long second, he thought she was going to explode or dump the lemonade on him like she promised. Instead she looked philosophical when she said, “So, you admit I made them.”
He laughed. “I am unworthy to call them anyone but yours.” He bowed down as far as he could without losing his balance and then looked up at her all smiles. “Am I saved from the wrath of the lemonade?”
She hesitated and then clutched the pitcher closer, her arms wrapped around it. She was quiet and very serious when she spoke next.
“The cookies are not the issue here.”
He frowned, wondering how her mood had shifted so quickly, and why.
“No?” he asked. “Starving me won’t keep lemonade from being dumped on my head?” He tried to make it playful again. “What will?”
“An explanation.”
His smile dropped from his face.
“Of what?”
Melanie swallowed, then turned around, set the pitcher down on the table and came back to the window. She looked at him, her heart out on her sleeve, her eyes drinking him in.
“I want to know what changed,” she said, desperation eating at her.
His face paled and his lips parted but she kept talking.
“I want to know why one day you’re judging me and the next you’re going out of your way to make me feel wanted, needed, like you really want me to enjoy myself while I’m here.” She shut her eyes tightly and clenched her jaw. “Maybe that’s not what you’re intending to do, but you are. And I want to know why.” She opened her eyes. “Do you feel guilty? Is that it? Because the last thing I want to be is something to make you feel better because you feel like an ass.”
“Mel—Melanie, no. That’s not it. Don’t—no.”
Her brows were still narrowed. “Then what?”
He sighed. “Look, you’re right. I did change very quickly. I can’t explain how it happened so fast or why. All I know if that you were right about everything and I didn’t expect you to know, I guess. When you spelled it all out for me, I did feel bad, and I wanted to fix it. Not just so my conscience could be clear.” He held his hand up to stop her when she tried to speak again. “I wanted to stop hurting you, to take back the hurt if I could.”
“You can’t take hurt back,” she barked.
He nodded. “I know. I’m just…I’m so sorry. I was being an ass. All I can say is that when you called me out on it, I started seeing you without the blinders I always keep on with anyone that fits the requirements of the stereotypes in my head. And now…”
“What?” she spat. “You want to be friends?”
More than that.
Shock lanced through him when he couldn’t stop that thought from coming through. He couldn’t believe it. He was arguing for having them on civil terms at the very least, and his mind had gone…there. First.
“Yeah,” he said, then sighed. “I’ll do whatever it takes, Melanie. Just please…give me the chance I didn’t give you.”
She glared at him for a long time, and just when he thought she was going to stalk off, refusing to even answer him, the intensity of her anger lessened and she slumped into the chair by the window. He heard her sigh.
“I don’t want to spend the summer angry at anyone, even you,” she said, sounding exhausted. He nodded along, not saying a word. “And I really have loved our little moments today.” She smiled a little. “Your comfort, your encouragement, the little touches, the playful joking…” She turned to look at him. “Your smile.”
He let himself smile just a little when he looked at her.
“So.” She stood to her feet, then walked to the lemonade, poured some into a glass and handed it to him, along with another cookie. “I am not going to just give in and pretend you didn’t write me off as a typical city girl who doesn’t deserve respect because she still has ‘teen’ in her age…” He cringed, hating the fact even more when she said it again out loud. “But you’re clearly a decent guy deep down, so I won’t hold it against you.” He looked at her with all the hope in his eyes. “You’ll just have to work a little harder if you want me to trust you fully.”
He nodded once. “Understood.”
She let herself smile a little more.
“Thank you for this morning especially,” she said softly. He let himself just stare at her. She looked behind him where the hammer lay on the slanted roof. “Happy hammering,” she chirped, then left the window and her bedroom to whatever she planned to do that day.
A huge weight lifted from his chest. There was a still a fairly large boulder looming over his shoulders – metaphorically speaking – but it was a challenge he was willing to take on.
He spotted her walking past the house where he was working on the roof.
“Friends then?” he called out to her.
She turned around, not looking startled in the least, and smiled up at him.
“Friends.”
Her eyes sparkled and then she headed off into the backyard.
He smiled to himself, downed the lemonade, and continued with his roof work.
……………
After dinner, Jared brought Melanie to the large old shed in the backyard and stopped.
“Have you been in here before?” he asked her.
She shook her head. “No. Have you?”
“Once. Last night.”
She turned to him, eyes widened in surprise.
“Last night,” she repeated.
He nodded once. “Yep. Your uncle brought me.”
“W-Why?” she stammered, completely flabbergasted.
He unlatched the lock on the door and lifted it till the creaky sound stopped when it was reeled to the top.
“To show me this.”
Melanie gasped
“Wow.”
“Uh-huh.”
“And…for what reason?” she asked, hesitantly.
He sighed, and then it came tumbling out. “Don’t take this the wrong way but…”
“What?”
“He wants me to teach you.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Teach me what.”
“How to ride and drive.”
Her eyes widened. “What?”
He pulled keys out of his pocket, grabbed her hand and put them inside, closing her fingers over them.
“This summer, Melanie Stryder, you are going to get your driver’s license.” Her jaw dropped again. “And for back-up, you will learn how to ride a bike.”
Too shocked to speak, she watched silently as Jared pulled the shed’s door back down, fastened the latch again and walked past her to the house.
By the time Melanie made it back to Jared’s jeep, it was past midnight and the two drinks Sunny had forced her to drink at Kyle’s bar were finally beginning to take effect. Sunny was worse, though, because she had offered to drive her home when she clearly couldn’t even walk straight. She put up a little bit of a fight, but Kyle had thankfully finished his shift and maneuvered her into his own vehicle before things got too out of hand. Apparently she had a tendency to start yelling obscenities and hit on strangers when drunk. Kyle strongly believed this was the reason she had gone through so many boyfriends.
“Do you feel like you’re going to throw up?” Jared asked.
Melanie wondered if he was more concerned about her or the interior of his truck. Probably the truck, she assured herself. Guys had a thing about their cars and trucks. The treated them like human beings and called them ‘baby’ or any manner of sweetheart nicknames.
“I think I’m just a little disoriented is all,” she said, losing her grip on the roof of the car as she said it and nearly tumbling to the ground before Jared caught her in the nick of time.
“Caught me again,” she laughed, her rippling giggles the only proof of the two drinks she’d had.
Wordlessly, Jared picked her up and set her on the passenger seat. Then he shut the door, rounded the vehicle and got into the driver’s seat. He turned the key in the ignition and started to drive.
“Are we going to see Kyle again?” Melanie slurred, her voice muffled by both the alcohol’s effect and the fact that she had her face plastered to the side window.
“No,” he said, his eyes pinned firmly to the road in front of him. “Not tonight at least,” he amended.
“Then where are we going?” she yawned.
“The long way,” he said simply, giving no other explanation as to why they were passing blocks filled with more buildings instead of less, hinting the opposite direction of the way home. Melanie was fading so fast she made no more demands. Mere minutes later, she murmured something indistinguishable and then swayed away from the window so her head landed abruptly on Jared’s shoulder. Promptly she began to snore.
Jared started a little at the sudden weight but then he relaxed and smiled at the snoring noise that had somehow transformed itself into a purr. A warmth spread through him when he felt her snuggle closer. He had this crazy urge to just pull the truck over and hold her. Miraculously, he resisted.
Forty-five minutes later, at exactly 1 AM, Jared pulled into the drive leading to the Stryder farm. There was no sound except the gravel beneath his tires, and no light but what shone down from the crescent moon in the sky.
He slowed to a stop, turned off the engine and just sat there for awhile, not wanting to wake her. As time continued however, he realized he couldn’t just keep her here forever. He opened his door, went around the front and took her body in his arms, one hand wrapping behind her thighs and the other around her back. She moaned a little but didn’t wake up. Unknowingly she turned her head into his chest and snuggled, slipping into a deeper sleep.
Jared tried to ignore the feelings exploding inside him. He focused instead on getting her into the house. When he got to the bottom step at the front porch, he discovered Jeb was standing at the front door, holding it open.
“Second door on the left,” he whispered. Jared nodded and made his way inside and up the stairs.
When he got to her room, he nudged the door lightly with his knee and stepped inside. He carried her further to the bed and laid her down on it, carefully easing the white headband off her head so it wouldn’t bother her while she slept. He worried briefly that the earrings would be a problem, since they were large hoops and they dangled. As carefully as he could, he felt around behind her ears and discovered to his relief that there were latches instead of studs. He undid them and set all the items on her bedside table.
Before leaving, he found a light blanket on the wicker chair in the corner of the room. He grabbed it and laid it carefully over her, slipping her sandals off just before stepping away from the bed.
He stood there for a while, just looking down at her, thinking how beautiful she was and wondering how he hadn’t noticed before. He shook his head, deciding not to analyze it anymore tonight and left the room, closing the door quietly behind him and heading downstairs.
Jared discovered Jeb sitting in a chair on the front porch drinking coffee when he stepped outside the house. He wanted to comment on the downfalls of coffee at one in the morning, but he stopped himself. Who was he to judge the appropriate time for downing liquid caffeine?
“How’d everything go?” Jeb asked, taking a sip of his drink and then turning to look at Jared.
“Fine,” Jared said, walking the short distance to the other chair propped on the porch. “You were right about Sunny – Kyle’s sister,” he explained when Jeb looked confused. “She and Mel hit it off right away; bonded over a love of shopping, I believe.”
Jared did not mention how he only knew this because he’d first eavesdropped at Kyle’s apartment and then ‘accidentally’ almost ran into Melanie and Sunny when he spotted them gushing over antique items at a store downtown.
Jeb chuckled, pulling Jared from his thoughts.
“Well, that’s good,” he said finally, all smiles. “Heck, that’s great.” He sighed then, sobered suddenly. “It’s a shame I can’t give her a day like that every day.” He shook his head ruefully. “I know Maggie was even more pleasant today knowing there was no one on her land that wasn’t doing work at least part of the time.”
“Her land?” Jared asked, amused.
Jeb shrugged. “I let her have her little victories,” he said, giving no further explanation.
Jared laughed, and Jeb sighed, sinking back into his woeful thoughts.
“Jared…neither you or I can afford to let you just stop working. The house has got to get fixed and you’ve got to get paid.” Jared opened his mouth to speak, but Jeb raised his hand to silence him.
“I was thinking today, though,” he continued, “that maybe you can divide some of your days in half. Work on the roof till noon, take a break for lunch, and then work on a new project I have for you.”
Jared was about to say how he was planning on not working mornings and just staying later, so Melanie wouldn’t get woken up so early by his hammer, but the words new project got his attention.
“What new project?” he asked, both curious and wary.
Jeb smiled mischievously, which made Jared even more nervous.
“Let’s call it…Project Melanie.” He framed the words with his hands.
Jared blinked and then paled, rendered speechless.
“Come on,” Jeb said, standing and not waiting for Jared before he started walking down the front porch steps. “I want to show you something.”
Reluctantly, Jared followed him around the house and into the backyard until they came to the old shed that to Jared’s knowledge had not been opened in at least a year.
“Jeb?” he asked, definitely wary now.
As quietly as he could manage, Jeb flipped the latch and slowly opened the creaky door to reveal two items that Jared probably should have considered but didn’t.
“How old are these?” he asked, swiping dust off of one of them.
“Old,” Jeb said, nodding. “But I think they can be put to use again.”
Jared’s head swiveled toward Jeb and his eyes widened.
“Wait, you don’t mean—”
Jeb nodded once.
“Yep. Clean them, repair them, and teach Melanie how to use them.”
Jared almost laughed.
“That will take a long time, Jeb.”
Jeb turned to look at him and started smiling again.
“Good thing you’ve got all summer.”
Jared’s jaw dropped, but before he could comment further Jeb was closing the shed door and sliding the latch back into place.
“Come on,” he gripped his shoulder and started walking back in the direction they’d come. “It’s late and you’ve got a lot to do tomorrow. If you just sleep on the couch here, Maggie will make you something extra special for breakfast. I guarantee it.”
Flabbergasted, it took Jared an extra few seconds to wrap his head around what had just been asked – and expected – of him. He was trying to form arguments in his head when it occurred to him that this might be a blessing in disguise. Or a curse.
You. Are. Into. Her.
Kyle’s words haunted him.
He kept walking, accepting the inevitable.
More time with Melanie was better than less, he admitted to himself. Time alone with Melanie is fantastic, he thought, but he stopped himself there because his heart was beating faster and butterflies were beating their wings hard against his insides. And that was very, very dangerous.
